Discussion thread related to SUNBURN story

Rather than make any more of a hash in that thread, I'll use this to run plot and story ideas past the hive mind here.

First is the notion of an "Omo" (Oh mo)
slang for "odd man out"
in this future universe, small bands have survived. Owing to the groups being small, 'graybeards' perform gene mapping - that is, tracking relationships.

Once they have determined that an individual is too closely related to the rest of their general age group (cohort) they are tagged as an Omo - odd man out. That is to say very actively discouraged from having children, by banishment if needed.

This is how we met Ric, follow his early life in condensed form and see him chose to work as a Ranger. This will be in two more chapters. We have Hurricane Lucy coming up as chapter 4 and Storm as chapter 5. These are working titles, subject to change going forward.

Will this play for you?

 

May well reach OMO point in genetics soon. If we can check a persons genetic makeup and they have a gene for say sickle cell disease, should they be allowed to pass it on? Picked that one on purpose as it strikes all our hot spots, but what about , cancer, etc? That would open a big can of worms.

Big question is what are the desired ends? Do you wish to use selective breading to establish a perfect human as they do in pure bred animal lines and rigidly prune any deviations, some royal families have tried that approach, or do you wish to breed for maximum diversity which will give you hybrid mutts with both winners and losers, but will maximize the variations in the gene pool? At what point in a shrinking gene pool will you be able to choose? 10,000 people from Iceland would be less diverse than 1,000 from all of New York City, but the 10,000 come from a group with several hundred years of experience in minimizing genetic problems. They still exist so they must have figured out something that works.

Excellent time for us Monkeys who love to read, have 3 excellent stories in progress at this time, different folks, different stroke, but all very much appreciated and well worth following. All very thought provoking as well. I never thought 8 weeks ago when all the news was about the impeachment, that I would be forced to stay in my house and watch the economy crash around me. Truth can throw more curves at you than fiction, and it can also bite in real time. Hang in there and we will all try, God willing, to pull thru this madness. I really am thankful for you writers that let me escape from reality for a few hours.

 

In this case, it more like having kids with your cousin.... I'm using early Indian tribes/clans of the West as a model.

In one of the sections I'm working over has a part where an "Omo spills a young'n" The other youth are forced to view the dead, disfigured infant before it is laid to rest with the others in the "Garden of the babies". A graphic lesson to perhaps encourage voluntary compliance. At any rate, it works with Ric.

Despite some advanced medical knowledge, high infant mortality is a real thing. (14/1000 in the mid-1970s here in AK) I can only imagine the situation would be worse 200+ years after the fall of civilization.

 

Another fun one

https://phys.org/news/2020-03-modern-science-reveals-ancient-secret.html

"It is the oldest Japanese astronomical record of a 'red sign,'" said Ryuho Kataoka, a researcher with the Department of Polar Science in the School of Multidisciplinary Sciences at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the National Institute of Polar Research. "It could be a red aurora produced during magnetic storms. However, convincing reasons have not been provided, although the description has been very famous among Japanese people for a long time."

The problem with the aurora hypothesis, according to Kataoka, is that auroras do not look like pheasant tails. Instead, they are ribbon-esque, waving across the sky. It could have been a comet, some researchers speculated, but comets do not often appear red.

To better understand the phenomenon, Kataoka and his team adjusted their view—literally. The magnetic latitude of Japan was 33 degrees in 620, compared to 25 degrees today. The pheasant tail appeared to be about 10 degrees long, placing it well within the area that would be affected by a strong magnetic storm.

 

Down that rabbit hole again, we all know of the northern and southern lights, now starting to think that the electrons involved and their interactions to cause plasma discharges, may not only be present, but at certain conditions some form of wave interactions can occur and even intensify things. Given that until about 1920, we really didn't know or care, and that for some reason the earths magnetic field seems to be playing games, the next 100 years may be an interesting learning experience. While I expect some form of life could evolve if the radiation from the sun increases several times, it would not be a good thing for civilization and humans. I am always thoughtful of the trilobites , which were at times the major sea dweller for 250 million years and then faded out to nothing. Niche still exists for a life form, but they don't fill it. While we could exist with no electronics, and did until recently, the transition would be very bad and the dominate civilization could end up being based on some remote African tribe or Latin American group. There is enough background information to make the chance at least equal to that of Yellowstone. Looking forward to how you develop it, very good foundation being set.
Given the rigidity of government, home schooling questions etc, do you wish to create a tribe with strong tribal leaders as the template for your civilization, seems to be the way you are headed, complete with clans for genetic diversity. Has worked in real life in many cases.

 

Graybeards, part of the council of Elders.

If it has worked in the past no reason to think it wont work in the future

 

Rigid cultures are very good and stable right up until you need flexibility, and then things crash hard, could a small minority of ruthless men taken over Russia in 1917 if the Royalty and its bureaucrats hadn't screwed things up so badly. Lenin overthrew a democratic government that had been elected and had a working if ineffective legislative body. A council of elders works if some system exists to promote the qualified, not the heirs of the previous members of the council. Don't know the quote, but power corrupts and total power corrupts totally as well as who watches the watchers.

 

True, that.

However, for the first 4 or 5 generations post-catastrophe, one would have be very lucky indeed to live long enough to have gray hair.

If we look at preindustral revolution Europe, the life expectancy was short - under 40.
(IN THE AMERICA OF 1787, BIG FAMILIES ARE THE NORM AND LIFE EXPECTANCY IS 38)

So, families get started much earlier than to day - under 20, with large families as the norm owing to a high infant/child mortality rate.

The model I'm using assumes women bond and start having children at 'about' 20 y/o, the men seek partners for a family a bit later, about 25.

So, using the rubric of 'five generations" - the story is set 125 years after the Haven group has left The Keep. This Haven group leaves owing to carry load pressures, not enough farmland. They have a destination, (Haven) one identified by the Grandfather of All, with some items cached-in-place.
The split from The Keep is also 5 generations on after The Burn. .

the main character, Ric is a 18-20 Y/O male and is barred for having children with any of the village women. There are widows he could mate with, but rather than assume some one else's family, he chose to go walkabout (RANGER) - he might get lucky and find another group....

In raw numbers, Ric goes walkabout some 200 hundred years after civilization falls with the attendant population drop.

The Seed refuges are scattered around NA and in SA, mostly Peru and the Amazon. These other Seeds are mentioned in passing and allow for future stories - say a Shamus looking to explore a post-Burn UK. I've left breadcrumbs to allow something in the Pacific - sea-based.

On those ages.
A man isn't going to have any luck in attracting a mate without owing a producing farm that can feed a family. Love may be strange, but it isn't something to starve over - at least going in.
This family may also have a loom to make cloth, work metal and so on, - on the side.

I've parked several of these Seeds on or near known coal reserves. It does no good to cut all the trees down for heat, the wood is too important a resource.

Yes, much of the Earth's vegetation is lost to extreme UV levels which moderate after a few years. And the decade without a summer...
.
Main theme - Man vs Nature, later, Man vs Man.

Much is this is a variation of post-atomic war without the bother of lethally radioactive rubble. There are some massive differences, and that is what the tale hangs upon.
.

 

Any ideas on a source for an all metal wheelbarrow? Newly made?



These are nice

right up to the point the wheels rot off.

it seems all metal cultivators are sill made



and som e are still made in the USA



These will appear in the story
How to Downsize a Transport Network: The Chinese Wheelbarrow

for hauling loads of salt.

 

I've made some character changes which you will see going forward, I may or may not go back and edit the posted text.

Robert Deo is now Kyle Deo
Lucy is still Lucy, but now her mother has a name - Olivia

Thier kiddos
Kiki Marie Deo
Edward 'Buster' Deo - I'm still thinking about the name combo on this one.....

Finally I had used "Four years...in the future" and am considering making that "Two children and a lifetime later" to remove an apparent plot issue - that or later reveal Lucy was pregnant who she hooked up with Kyle.
Feedback? Or did anyone even notice the maths were off for Buster?

 

Glad to see you are back at it and looking forward to more.

Whynot#2

 

Interesting but it made it a bit hard to follow.

 

If you would please - what was hard to follow
ranch specifics?
the deo working for the University?
the collapse of the earth's magnetic field and subsequent flare (X++) and related massive CME in an already loaded inter-solar medium?

I really want this to 'work' - that is both understandable and a good story, and if anyone is the least bit confused, then I've not done a good job.


Also, I'm considering a very short chapter "The End" with examples of different cultures take on the massive aurora described at the end...

One piece might be
Malachi, Chapter 4 (King James)
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- also there is the Book of Revelation and one of the 7 plagues would fiit this.

another (Hindu)
When it requires the world or universe to be destroyed, Shiva does it by the Tandava (this deal this iconigraphy via a dance)

Hopi and Navajo mythology speak of a 'Fifth world' entered after this, the current or 'Fourth world' is' destroyed.
Aztec writings indicate the world had already been destroyed by flood, fire and wind. Not that there are any practicing Aztecs around....

Most end-of-the-world stories often mark a new beginning.
In the Hindu tradition, the Earth is destroyed and remade every 4,320,000 years. In the Norse tradition, Ragnarok concludes with the last remaining god, Alfadur creating the world anew. The Book of Revelations ends with a new heaven on Earth.

The question is - would you see an exploration of these EOW stories as a lead in to the future where we are introduced to Ric of the Clan Hansen, his brother Kennik, Rose of the Clan Duerr and others?

The idea is for a bridge that looks at past mythology as being more truth than myth, now that "The End Is Near."


There is of course, this- After the End - TV Tropes
The TV Tropes is an interesting site to visit, if - for no other reason, to confirm your own suspicions....

 

Confusing parts are the large break in the time line and renaming the characters. The premise of the story itself is good and very interesting. I definitely want to see more on how people are reacting to it. Almost need a guide to characters at this point.

 

I covered the name change earlier on this thread. as this is still very much in draft -I'm making changes as I go along, always seeking input to make the story 'better'.

Did you catch all of the Easter eggs? KSAC is a real radio station for example.....

 

@mysterymet about your question

What happened?
Bad Things - actually really, really Bad Things

Earth is lashed with massive radiation storms (X++ class flare, then baked with unfiltered UV (A and B) radiation for 5 more years.

Pretty much kills off everyone not in a shelter.

Think the movie 2012 with no Arks (boats) - then the entire planet laid waster by solar energy..

While this may seems fanciful, or just bizarre, regular readers of the Suspicious 0bservers web site will know this is the exact scenario laid out by Ben that could hit in the next year to 11 years or so....

A weak geomagnetic field + an angry sun = no people left. (or damn few. Hence the A and E foundation - for
Adam and Eve.

Ah, if only I was a billionaire....

Edit to add

Since Hollywood has done the "everyone dies in a disaster' movies, I thought skipping ahead about 200 years and taking a look at what might be...could be fun.

 

A couple paragraphs of back story before chapter 5 would make the story easier to follow. I like where you are going buts it's been some what hard to follow...
Whynot#2

 

I get that a "meanwhile, back at the ranch" bit would help, I'm loath to do that. Ch 5 starts with an intro and eventually you learn that it has been ten generation (~ about 200 years) since the cataclysm.

Since this is a draft, I'm open to going back and adding e prologue - treating this like two books - a Before and an After.. That may help for folks looking for total continuity. since there isn't any (continuity) I can see where the reader might stumble. Hence my posting here....
BTW - suggestions on what you would want to see in the prologue/back story is more than welcome.

In the 50's a meme was "The beginning of the End - followed, of course, by the "The End of the Beginning"
actually clever, for the first couple hundred times...

 

I normally don't use specific / identifiable names - esp businesses - in my stories.

So, why Crescent Dunes? A poster child for why the FedGov should not back loans.

CD was obsolete before it opened, was badly built and operated operated, plagued with leaks and outages.. and is now - yup - bankrupt with taxpayers holding the bag. Again.

Another 'winner' in the Obama energy debacles. Just like Jimmy Carter (also a Dem)


Crescent Dunes Solar Project Disappears Into the Sands

that's OK, just over the border in UT yet another scam-sounding project is getting started
'World's largest' renewable energy storage project coming to Utah - Electrek