- No one described any system of govern-
ment in this way. But nor did they talk about
the Grand Experiment either.
- The worst storm and hurricane season
recorded in human history culminated
in millions of deaths and dozens of sub-
merged islands.
- It was no longer possible to deny that
weather patterns, altered decades before,
had become erratic to the point of being
unpredictable, not to mention extremely
violent.
- Almost every media outlet and leader
continued to deny that anything abnormal
was happening, but different groups of spe-
cialists and influential people began to meet
in secret to devise a solution.
- The solution should leave intact privi-
leges enjoyed by businessmen, politicians,
and other important persons.
- The solution should not disturb any
faith or tribal conviction of any country,
including those growing out of religious or
magical thinking and that denied the valid-
ity of science.
- A great mass extinction of species took
place all over the planet.
- Large portions of the Amazon and other
jungle areas dried up.
- Large plains in Asia, Europe, Africa,
Oceania, and America were devastated by
tornadoes.
- Large numbers of people, imprisoned
between frontiers they were unable to cross
and regions to which they could not return,
attempted to subsist in subhuman condi-
tions: they either rebelled or were victims of
attacks from all sides.
- The various working groups, always in
secret so as not to disturb populations or
dignitaries, all concluded that there was
no solution.
- They were comforted by the idea that
the time to resolve the problematic trends at
the time had passed several decades earlier.
- If work had only been done then to less-
en the destructive effects of human action,
they said.
- If work had only been done then to alle-
viate inequality, the preservation of which
(it was now clear) had contributed to such
an extent to general instability.
- If they had only sought and supported
decisively—during the time of the parents
and grandparents of those who spoke—
other sources of energy.
- Obviously, those parents and grandpar-
ents would never have attempted anything
like that. But nobody mentioned it.
- All this happened during the years when
food began to be less abundant, even in the
most favored regions.
- The challenge now was to leave the
past behind, many said, and consider the
problem in another way, to find a different
solution.
- It no longer made sense to ask if the
Earth could be saved, or restored to a state
better than it was.
- The question should now be this: how to
continue with the Grand Experiment.
- When formulating the question, nobody
explicitly mentioned the Grand Experiment.
- It was posed, rather, in this way: how
to saves the lives of the largest possible
number of people living in the distressing
and regrettable circumstances that every-
one acknowledged.
- When the time came to select whom
to help first, every possible consideration
was given to politics, public life, and social
stratification.
- The opinion of the owners of the large
technology companies was also taken into
account.
- The great minds that, for so many
years, had been devoted to mitigating the
effects of the concentration of wealth while
moving the world forward and, naturally,
creating even more wealth, for themselves
and their shareholders.
- The World Wide Web, which by then
was already highly compartmentalized, cen-
sored, and monitored, was closed entirely to
The solution should
not disturb any faith or
tribal conviction of any
country, including those
growing out of religious
or magical thinking and
that denied the validity
of science.
WORLDLIT.ORG 55
