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| The Long Tomorrow; Life after an EMP | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 5 2011, 12:32 AM (869 Views) | |
| Yorick | Sep 5 2011, 12:32 AM Post #1 |
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Adult
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Why didn't I think of this before?! I was watching this Discovery channel show about a possible alien invasion and how the invaders would use an electromagnetic pulse to knock out all our devices and then it hit me: why not write a story set after an EMP sends humanity back 200 years? Let's say this. A gigantic solar storm fries all unprotected electronic equipment. Everybody is physically fine but the clock has been set back over a century. This sets the stage for a story about the good and evil that exists in all of us. Don't understand? Follow me. Some of my favorite books are "The Stand" by Stephen King and "Gone" by Michael Grant. The former is a about a plague that wipes out most of humanity and the survivors is divided into a group representing evil and another representing the forces of good. The latter is about a group of kids that struggle to survive in an adult-less world when a mysterious dome encapsulates their town and are menaced by a supernatural evil. I want to explore the same theme that "Gone" explored which was the nonexistence of anarchy. Eventually someone will rise up to bring about order after total chaos breaks out. It's a question of which person takes the reigns: a tyrannical despot or a benevolent, democratically elected leader? I'd also like to explore what "The Stand" did and show how man had to start over when all their devices couldn't save them and now they all have to rebuild civilization. So which premise do you guys prefer? A. a story following the aftermath of the pulse immediately on a small town or B. we take a look at a town 10 or 20 years after the pulse. And how would the world look like after all the power goes away? Edited by Yorick, Sep 5 2011, 01:07 PM.
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"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger" -The Dark Knight (2008) | |
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| lamna | Sep 5 2011, 02:03 AM Post #2 |
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Well one of my favourite is the Emberverse series, where electricity, explosives, internal combustion engines, and steam power all either stop working or become incredibly inefficient. Basically, almost everyone dies. Almost everything east of the Mississippi is either totally depopulated or contains only savage cannibal bands. It probably would not be as bad if it was just and EMP and not the laws of physics being rewritten, but still you'll have a lot of dead people. Edited by lamna, Sep 5 2011, 02:04 AM.
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Yorick | Sep 9 2011, 01:06 AM Post #3 |
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You have to see this History channel doc I just saw earlier this evening. It's titled "After Armageddon" and it's about society during and after a global pandemic. My story is about an EMP breaking apart civilization but there are many elements in the doc that would and could happen in a different scenario. Along with pacemaker failures and plane crashes, there would also be people dying of cholera, dysentery, famine, food poisoning and infections from the most innocuous of cuts due to a lack of antibiotics. Religious fundamentalism (nothing like the Black Death-era flagellant movement but practices and behavior that are very disturbing), nomadic bandits terrorizing communities, barter coming back to use as well as local currencies beginning to form are all ideas that I'm taking from that doc. Should the villain of the story be A. a local minister-turned-tyrannical Christian fundamentalist or B. a pathetic greeting card writer or used car salesman or something like that seduces the town and declares himself a dictator? |
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"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger" -The Dark Knight (2008) | |
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| Kamidio | Sep 9 2011, 05:54 AM Post #4 |
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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How about you actually write your stories and start posting these ideas and concepts in the Ideas and Concepts thread, m'kay? |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
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| Holben | Sep 9 2011, 06:48 AM Post #5 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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An EMP which destroys all technology on Earth? Sounds improbable. I mean, technology underground, or behind metres on metres of concrete... even solid-state drives should be fine. Traditional batteries will work IIRC. Humanity doesn't depend on electricity as much as is often supposed, agriculture and water would be fine, along with older or diesel vehicles. Management would be impeded, but it could be sorted quickly. Surely there are protocols for this kind of thing, anyway. |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| lamna | Sep 9 2011, 08:15 AM Post #6 |
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Some, but only the world's better militaries are really prepared fro it. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| colddigger | Sep 9 2011, 11:22 AM Post #7 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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Really doesn't sound nasty at all... Just build some new devices. |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| lamna | Sep 9 2011, 03:17 PM Post #8 |
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Just millions of deaths due to hospitals and the supply of food and water being interrupted, and general economic chaos caused by having everything break. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Yorick | Sep 9 2011, 03:28 PM Post #9 |
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Of course there were be some pieces of technology unaffected. I know that Air Force One can stand the EMP of a nuclear blast for instance. But most people and our infrastructure doesn't have EMP-protected devices so it'll get really messy very soon.
Exactly. Yes! Somebody uploaded the History channel doc "After Armageddon"! Check it out in parts here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM Edited by Yorick, Sep 9 2011, 03:35 PM.
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"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger" -The Dark Knight (2008) | |
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| colddigger | Sep 9 2011, 03:45 PM Post #10 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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Sounds pretty normal to me. |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| T.Neo | Sep 9 2011, 08:10 PM Post #11 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Ok, a couple of things: 1. Documentaries on Discovery channel or National Geographic or whatever on "alien invasions", are usually utter nonsense. 2. A solar flare won't knock out all of our technology. I don't know where people get this stupid idea. 3. There are actually things on this Earth that are designed to survive an EMP. Also, not everything works off of stuff that can be damaged by EMP. Firearms for example. Many other things are "dumb" enough to survive an EMP and still function- generators, some vehicles, etc. The Emberverse guy had to magically change physics to stop steam and gunpowder from working. How he did so without killing people and/or having the entire Earth fall apart into quarks, I have no idea. Edited by T.Neo, Sep 9 2011, 08:10 PM.
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| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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| Kamidio | Sep 9 2011, 08:53 PM Post #12 |
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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Yeah, whenever someone knocks out a tank with EMP I just grimace with pain. Just because you've knocked out its automatic targeting doesn't mean you've disabled it. It can be manually aimed and fired too. |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
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| Yorick | Sep 9 2011, 11:16 PM Post #13 |
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Don't sun spots cause interference with electronic equipment? A mother ofa solar storm erupts sending an EMP destroying all unprotected electronics.
I ALREADY KNOW THAT! But tell me something is most of our civilization's infrastructure able to withstand an EMP?
I know this too. I want the characters to have functioning weapons. Some things will survive the pulse or be repaired but most of our technology isn't protected and in such an event, people would suffer and die by murderous looters, famines and untreated infections. |
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"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger" -The Dark Knight (2008) | |
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| lamna | Sep 10 2011, 05:49 AM Post #14 |
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Air Force One isn't a plane. Its the call sign of any Air Force plane carrying the president. Similarly, any Coast Guard, Army, Marine Corp or Navy aircraft with the president on-board becomes "Service branch" One, though it's usually the Air Force or Marines transporting the president. The Coast Guard has never done it and the Navy only did it once. The Boeing VC-25 that is usually used as Air Force One does have a pretty impressive electronic warfare suite but I can't find any information about if it has EMP hardening. The Boeing E-4 is designed to basically let the president fight a nuclear war in the air and do have EMP hardening, but they have not been used much since the end of the Cold War. As for generally being able to survive EMPs? I'd look at old Cold War studies and reports. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Kamidio | Sep 10 2011, 03:23 PM Post #15 |
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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Three words for ya. Battery Power Electronics. You see, batteries make power from chemicals as I recall. There's also coal powered trains, the fact that you aren't posting this in the concepts topic, the fact that we can rebuild rather quickly, the fact that you aren't posting this in the concepts topic. Oh, and the fact you should be posting your ideas in the concepts topic. -----Fakey's Advice/Rant/Raising A Valid Point That Will Get Ignored Again----- I'm going to ride your ass about that until you put this in that topic. Why? Because this isn't literature. You're literally just spamming the Cafe with ideas. Wanna know how many stories by you I've read in the entire history of the Cafe? Zero. Zip. None. Nada. Nil. Null. Void. One Minus One. Placeholder Number. Zilch. Double O Nothing. I remember back before the Cafe was deleted and all you did was post ideas. We've never seen the finished products of these little brainstorming sessions. Hell, I'm lazy as fuck but I still pump out at least the first chapter of something like my series of short stories "The Fire Yokai". See, I don't waste time asking for critque on my ideas, because if I do, then I'm not doing what my heart wants. I'm just buying into what people want. Look at all the things I ask for help on. They die. So if I just post it without people ripping the concept a new one before I write it, no one can complain, because it is how I wrote it. You on the other hand do the opposite. You seem to only want to post ideas and never realize them, because I have never ever read anything in the Cafe by you, except for little ideas like this that should be posted in the Ideas and Concepts topic. Or do you not post them there because you're too scared, and think they'll get ignored if people decide to just skip over the massive wall of text that is your post? Basicly, I'm trying to clean up the Cafe before it gets all messy again. So please post things like this in Ideas and Concepts from now on. |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
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9:27 AM Jul 11