The Gun Counter

NBC has a new post apocalyptic tv show, that has a somewhat similar concept to "Dies the fire" - no more electricity. So we instant revert to peasantry, warlords, etc, etc..

I watched for 10 minutes and turned it off in disgust.

I could have offered up a better idea - the LHC causes all silicon on earth to loose it's semiconductor properties, with it slowly reverting to it's original state(you could make it any where from a century on, the idea is to go back to preindustry, eventually building back up to a 1940s tech base.

Think about the implications for that..

I watched it.

meh.

doubt I'll watch much more.

Yeah, I saw it, and was underwhelmed. Amazing how after fifteen years without technology, Revlon still manages to come out with skin and hair products for the female lead.

doc Russia wrote:Yeah, I saw it, and was underwhelmed. Amazing how after fifteen years without technology, Revlon still manages to come out with skin and hair products for the female lead.

And yet from what I have heard no one has figured out how to kludge together an AK.

What I liked was how the Militia kept the new peasantry down "Possessing a gun's a hanging offense!"

Oh wait, this is set in the Chicago 'burbs. So it's semi realistic.

Kommander wrote:

doc Russia wrote:Yeah, I saw it, and was underwhelmed. Amazing how after fifteen years without technology, Revlon still manages to come out with skin and hair products for the female lead.

And yet from what I have heard no one has figured out how to kludge together an AK.

Or even a black powder revolver

I saw a trailer for it that seemed to involve some kid being some kind of ninja. I remember people on Fark crapping themselves with rage because if electricity suddenly fails to work, then pretty much everything fails to work. Even something as simple as salt. "Seriously, I can't stress how dumb this concept is; if electricity just up and says 'I quit!' everyone dies, the end." That sort of thing.

On a semi-related note, I just saw Tooth and Nail which I wound up enjoying despite how ridiculous it was. The big thing here was a surprise oil crash. The protagonists were a group of survivors who found themselves facing a pack of cannibals. The story was frankly stupid, and if you've seen more than one horror movie, you instantly know who's going to die. Kind of entertaining, though.

What I wanted to know was why the "good guys" could only scrape together a bolt-action rifle, a bow, and a revolver between the seven or so of them, while the apparently human-killing-only cannibals not only made furs for themselves, but apparently knew how to forge a battle ax. Took place in Pennsylvania, IIRC.

OK, I watched the pilot then took a little side trip over to the official website. Geez, according to whoever wrote this series, if electricity dies, the world dies with it. All production stops. It would be the second dark ages. Just a couple of points I take issue with.

1) OK, electricity died and went away. You don't think we could keep factories running with steam? Steam trains, steam cars, etc? It would be every steampunk fan's fantasy world.

2) The growth of the militia? It just wouldn't work. Even in such a place as Illinois. Supposedly, it's only been 15 years since the lights went out. That's not even one generation. The military and police, even with the occasional despot, would still be around. Law and order would still be the order of the day. And Once you get into places South or West of Pennsylvania, it would be a great spectator sport trying to watch a militia take over an area that didn't want them. Do you really want to invade the Tennessee hill country? Think you would make it out alive?

3) Just because we lost electricity, the whole world would be plunged into anarchy? The writers don't know just how resilient and resourceful people can be. Also, how damned stubborn they can be when it comes to their freedom. Nope, this scenario just doesn't play out.

This show will be interesting to watch if for no other reason than the glaring errors.

Big Hollywood has a writeup about it and the comments are revealing. I enjoyed the show but don't think I'll keep watching it when Castle returns. Sterling does it much better in his books even though there are problems with his world. Comments mentioned steam, why is there no more ice cream, what happened to all the guns since muzzle loaders seem to work. My biggest problem is the computer in the attic, are those trinkets nuclear generators? Biggest question is going to be why the power died? Was it because someone wanted to reduce the population and help the world recover from the pollution? Or possibly was it a plot for world dominance once power came back. Final point; in this scenario, Third World countries would be much better off than developed countries if something like this ever happened.

Without electricity you can't have atoms, so that's the end of....everything

How do they explain away electricity no longer existing on a macro scale, but not on a micro scale ?
Do they even try ?