Nature Future Conditional

The story behind the story: Failsafes

This week, Futures finds itself plunged into a post-apocalyptic world courtesy of Stewart C. Baker’s latest story, Failsafes. Regular readers will remember that Stewart has previously introduced us to the delights of the quantum disambiguator and the role of relativity in the course of true love. Here, he reveals the disaster-related origins of his latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Failsafes

In Failsafes, a scavenger in a post-apocalyptic future finds a hidden cache with long-lost technology that just might be the key to making people’s lives better — starting with her own.

I’ve long been interested in the idea of longevity and decay. Stories about long-dead civilizations and what comes after appeal to me, as do those about the vast reaches between stars and galaxy-scale civilizations. Think N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle stories, James Tiptree Jr’s The Man Who Walked Home or Asimov’s Foundation novels.

Of course, as a librarian, I have a professional interest in failsafes like the ones in my story. That’s because those section headers — with a little tweaking — actually come from a presentation about decentralized data preservation I attended at a library conference. In the presentation, given by Danielle Robinson of Code for Science and Society, there are ways to provide better and longer-term access to information with Open Science, Open Access and other cool librarian-things like that. I think they make a pretty useful list to limit the inevitable post-apocalypse, as well!

Long before I was a science-fiction writer or a librarian, I was fascinated by the Long Now Foundation, a non-profit organization established, per their website, to “provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common”. Among their initiatives? Adding a 0 in front of the calendar year, so that 1996, the year of their founding, becomes 01996. Building a clock that will tell the time in centuries, and last 10,000 years, with a cuckoo springing out once a millennium. Creating a modern-day Rosetta Stone.

Although their mission seems quixotic, it’s one that appeals to me. Partly that’s just my reptilian hind-brain speaking, I’m sure. Feeding me little whispers: “The things you do matter.” “Nothing you do will be lost.” Behind that, though, is a serious question: what would civilization be like today if people hundreds — or thousands — of years ago had been more responsible? What will civilization be like in the future if we aren’t more responsible ourselves?

As Danny Hillis, inventor of the 10,000 year clock, puts it: “I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story that starts long before I can remember and continues long beyond when anyone will remember me.”

I like to think that in Failsafes, too, the real lesson is not: “Make technology last so we can rebuild civilization if it fails!” but: “Care. Never stop caring.”

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