On his blog, Larry Lambert has published a . . . I don't know whether to call it a short story, or a fictional meditation. It deals with faith and its excesses, and the consequences thereof. I found it very moving. Here's a short excerpt.
The decline began long before the collapse. The signals were faint at first: sperm counts in freefall, ovarian reserves vanishing in women barely out of adolescence. No plagues, no radiation spikes, no mutated pox sweeping through the cities. Just a soft, irreversible silence in the womb of the species.
By the late 21st century, birth rates had collapsed across nearly every industrialized nation. The causes weren’t simple—how could they be?—but the fingerprints were everywhere. Microplastics woven into fat cells, delayed childbirth, synthetic estrogens leached from packaging and drugs, endocrine disruptors in every river system on the planet.
We drank our own demise.
At first, we tried to fix it—hormone therapies, artificial gametes, gene repair clinics—but nothing truly reversed the trend. It wasn’t just biology that failed. It was confidence. People stopped trying. Family shrank, generations collapsed. Governments flirted with natalist policies, but no one wanted children in a world visibly unraveling.
Into that vacuum stepped God.
Or, rather, the men who claimed Him.
If you're a person of faith (any faith), click over to Larry's place to read "Ashes and Orbits". I think you'll like it. If you're not a person of faith, you may yet find it interesting.
Peter
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWow, just wow. That Gentleman has sill with words. Not the false big fancy words to impress but simple for the most part words.
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter for this.
All I can say is "wow!"
ReplyDeleteLarry is a GOOD writer, when he chooses... And knows how to do his research.
ReplyDeleteReally good stuff.
ReplyDeleteNo mentions of the predicate act that set up peace and the ability to expand, then.
ReplyDeleteLarry is probably correct but nobody with the required equipment has developed the commitment to follow through. Another 9/11 event may be enough to trigger that solution.
Rubert Zubin has the vision, and points out the hardware.
DeleteElon Musk has the vision, and is working on the hardware.
I have no idea if SpaceX (or others) will be able to scale up launch-vehicles to "DC-3" levels (reliable, ubiquitous, carry 20 pax or equivalent). But that will be a start. I'm sure there is a point where increasing the cargo capacity exceeds the ability to launch. Better to make two trips than none. "Details".
I haven't asked LL, I got the impression that the co-/author? might be Alexander A. Cooley
ReplyDelete(((They))) have a plan for that. People will be clones, grown in vats and genetically modified to be the borg and units of the singularity, the cloud. Nanobot tech will make us practically immortal, unable to die, the Bible mentions this unfortunate future.
ReplyDeleteTHEN, we'll be SUPER smart and able to make no decisions on our own and we won't be able to escape through death. BUTT HAY, (((They))) say we'll be happy!
Once again, God lover of all creation loves to dish out troubles! Bow to me or perish! Ain't much of a god in my book!
ReplyDelete