December: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
The next poll will pick two books. I'd like to do it that way to keep a strong second place contender from being overlooked, and so I don't have to update the poll so often.
Discuss The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin in the comments below.
Snow Crash was written by Neal Stephenson in 1992. The novel features a bit of a Calexit scenario, and is known for popularizing the term "avatar" (paving the way for James Cameron's true magnum opus). These days, Neal moonlights as Magic Leap's "Chief Futurist". Seems appropriate.
Previously: Announcement post • Mars, Ho! • Foundation
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Thursday December 06 2018, @11:02PM
Well, in my mind, explainable is kind of thin. Suppose everything is wiped out. Need iron? Start by rebuilding the roads, the foundries, the forges and so on. Now think particle colliders, computers, spaceship factories and other more sophisticated enterprises and every start sets the civilization back hundreds or thousands of years, even if the knowledge is retained.
More, in the case of iron and other minerals, the easily extracted ores have already been used and while you can recycle them, they are now dispersed all over. I’m not saying impossible but it seemed a weak point. It would have been more credible to say that the extra influx of ultraviolet radiation, for example, forced them to dehydrate and wait for better times, without destroying everything in the surface.