The animated Russian version: [1] (1984)
There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
411–420 of 469 posts
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#4122026 seemed impossibly far away when I first read this c. 1980. How time flies
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electric kettles have done this for decades. The tech is also in sous vide machines.
Yes and both those things aren't what I cook pasta in.
You can bring the water to a boil and dial back the heat when you add the pasta. Will still cook, but no boiling over. Saves a bit of electricity as well.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#414reminded me of this joke Tech enthusiasts: "Everything in my house is wired to the internet of things. I control it from my smartphone. My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I give it voice commands via Alexa, I love the future!" vs Programmers/Engineers: "I work in IT so my house has mechanical locks, mechanical windows, routers using OpenWRT, no smart home crap, no Alexa/Google assistants, no internet connected t…
You forgot the punchline: "the smartest thing in my house is a printer, and I keep a gun next to it in case it makes a funny noise."
yeah lol !
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
The parent comment is getting dunked on because it feels rich for the majority racial group to claim aggrieved status. But I agree that adding the whiteness status of the men doesn't add to the story. The distinguishing characteristics of the men were they were rich and powerful. There are many people in the United States who despite their whiteness, suffer injustice, lived in poverty, and are oppressed by powerful i…
It is curious that the people threatening to destroy the world are always old white men, though, don't you think? I wonder if there's a reason for it.
Are you claiming that China, India, and Pakistan do not possess nuclear weapons, do not assert they will retaliate with those weapons, or are led by old white men?
There are many Indians and Pakistanis who do consider themselves white. I'm unaware of a prominent white identity movement within China, but I don't have total certainty.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. The past year has substantially nudged things in the other direction.
I'd say it's tough to say. On the one hand, one of the major nuclear powers is embroiled in a war in Europe. Which is extremely bad news and clearly makes the probability of nuclear war increase. On the other hand, we're getting better and better at targeting, which means much smaller warheads can get the job done. We have little use for 50MT behemoths any more (excepting doomsday weapons).
If Annie Jacobsens research is at all accurate, she mentions that since the 60s they've run simulations constantly to project how a nuclear conflict would escalate, and in that time there's never been a simulation that resulted in an outcome other than complete and total global nuclear exchange. Even from a small scale tactical deployment, simulations always show it escalating to a full cataclysm.
I personally don't have the here-nor-there to say otherwise, but it does seem likely that the type of device doesn't really change the outcome.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#417It seems quaint now, but it’s astonishing how much the fear of war (especially nuclear annihilation) affected mid-century fiction. In addition to "There Will Come Soft Rains" we have short stories like Stephen Vincent Benét’s "By the Waters of Babylon." In that story, society has been bombed back to the stone age. Even religion is a stone age recreation. Something like hot and cold running water seems like it must co…
Oak Ridge huh? What other small town would be a target?
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#418Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#419Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is curious that the people threatening to destroy the world are always old white men, though, don't you think? I wonder if there's a reason for it.
Are you claiming that China, India, and Pakistan do not possess nuclear weapons, do not assert they will retaliate with those weapons, or are led by old white men? There are many Indians and Pakistanis who do consider themselves white. I'm unaware of a prominent white identity movement within China, but I don't have total certainty.
Which one of those currently has their finger on the "start a global thermonuclear war" button?
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#420I read this story in 4th grade. It felt like the future. Now, it feels like most of the technology is within reach - at least, it could be built. The automated stove being the main exception. But the most unrealistic part of this story is how all the IoT automation continues to work in the absence of the Internet.
> In the living room the voice-clock sang, Connecting to Brand(tm) servers... Connecting to Brand(tm) servers... Connecting to Brand(tm) servers...
"Bluetooth device connected"
"Bluetooth device connected"
"Bluetooth device connected"