Outquisiting

[leahbobet]

Cory Doctorow and Alex Steffen coin The Outquisition, an alternate notion of the apocalypse:

I noticed that while there's a whole ton of stories -- and people who emulate them -- about heavily armed survivalists bravely holding off the twilight of civilization after the Big One, there are damned few stories about super-networked post-apocalyptic Peace Corps who respond to the Great Fall by figuring out how to put it all back together. I even came up with a name for it: the Outquisition; the opposite of the Inquisition -- missionaries who come to your town to remind you of how awesome it can all be, leave behind a bunch of rad, life-improving systems and tools, and generally get on with the business of being happy, well-fed and peaceful.

My first impression of this is that their catastrophic apocalypses clearly contain more power generation capacity and a stronger resource base than any of mine. Which is not to say people can't be nice at the apocalypse -- in fact, considering the nature of agriculture these days you'd sorta have to be nice, as you're not going to make it long-term in anything smaller than a small community -- but does this seem a bit pie-in-the-sky to anyone else?

Any ideas on making it practical?

Comments

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but depending on the species of spider, the places one might encounter it might not be places that have 911.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

1. In the commercial, dude was sitting on a couch. Intrepid explorer of secret tropical river basins he was not.

2. I don't know nothing bout iPhones, but if you get cell reception at all, and you're in the US, the chances you're on the 911 system are pretty good. And if you're calling your friend from your couch in, say, Nepal? Then you've woken him up thanks to the time difference, and are still no closer to real medical attention.