Page 111 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

Manna 2.0

create a proteinaceous substance as metabolic by-product. These
biochemists and microbiologists have taken themselves, their
families and their laboratory equipment to an abandoned lodge
beside a high mountain lake. They have gathered a supply of food
each had hoarded in anticipation of their unannounced and
secretive evacuation from a devastated university town. A single
road leads to their hideout, passing over a high river gorge on a
bridge they dynamite after completing their crossing. This is the last
redoubt of mankind’s survival as an enlightened species.”
“I envisage this crisis coming to a head in several ways: their
canned food could run out; the fuel for their generator could run
out; their joint sanity could run out, leading to destructive internal
strife. Or some of the family members, lacking dedication, steal
food and head for the only known trail out of the mountains—it is
the middle of the winter, of course—and others, including crucial
scientists, have to decide whether or not to go after them. Or one
of those cannibal gangs, after their leader remembers the old lodge
and its larder, sets out to find it. In any event, given a truly nasty
situation, I would ratchet up the tension even more before I resolve
it. I know: I have to make the basic decision about triumph or
failure. But even that could depend on coming up with a ripping
yarn. Any inspiration here—or just repulsion?”
“Wait a minute,” objected Bad Razeberry. “Supposing they do
get this stuff miraculously to generate piles of food out of thin air
and thick clouds of pollution—and even to be palatable: what then?
How do they get it back out into the world? When those
approaching cannibals show up the next day famished, would they
not prefer to bite the hand that feeds them something that may
look like seething Styrofoam? The unworldly scientists need to have
some weapons at their disposal. Maybe a siege: the invaders are on
the verge of overrunning the compound when the defenders set out
bowls of—what?—manna, miraculous loaves, nectar of the gods—
at night beyond the gates, and hope the fiends will give them a taste
test next morning. All that followed by much rejoicing, forgiveness
and the formation of a joint team to take the good news down the
mountain to the benighted remnants of our once-proud nation.”

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