The Law of Unintended Consequences

[cmdr_zoom]

On a site I occasionally surf, there's a link to a post-apocalyptic story which begins with a Well-Intentioned Scientist accidentally abolishing electricity and plunging civilization once more into darkness. Each time I see it, I mutter that the story should end seconds later, when every animal on the planet with a nervous system falls over dead.

Talk about your sloppy writing. You can't just point at one part of physics and say "I want THAT bit to stop working." (Unless you're Q, I suppose... but then we're back to invoking deus ex machina, literally.)

Comments

[pjack.livejournal.com]

I think that most geeks have been there. "Electricity doesn't work in Amber? Then how do our brains work?" ;)

Pjack

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Well, Amber explicitly allows for magic and/or alternate sets of physics. So the answer there can be "some other way." :)

electricity?

[deromilly.livejournal.com]

Or, as Sir Percy (alternately, the EvilOverlord, Angel) put it last night... and just after everything with a nervous system falls over dead, the entire world disintegrates because the atoms no longer stick together...

Sorry. Spent the night at the hospital emergency room with a Chrys, and I'm a bit punchy, waiting for the hurricane to hit, doing tech writing, and propping my eyelids up with toothpicks (We were there until 4 a.m.). Everyone's fine. So far. (We're inland.)

Re: electricity?

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Is Chrys okay?

Re: electricity?

[deromilly.livejournal.com]

He's fine. Allergic to caffeine, but fine. ;) And now that the hurricane is gone, we're all fine. I think. I haven't talked to Family this morning. We lost power last night, but it was back by time to go to work. Durn it. ;)