Some days it feels like we’re living through one of those hard SF thrillers that just piles on the big ideas, each of which would deserve a novel of its own. Each link below is to something that’s actually happening now, folks.
To wit:
As a comet lights the sky, an invincible drug-resistant cold virus begins killing its way through broad swaths of humanity. TEOTWAWKI ensues, etc.
But wait! In humanity’s last hour, heroic Japanese researchers gather those few humans who have been infected but survived, and clone them all, using their proven technique to clone successive generations of mammals with no degradation.
Thus, for generations to come, the majority of humanity will be clones of a small group of pioneers, each generation cloning its successors while the genetic pool slowly expands through natural reproduction. Trapped on an island of technological wonders but with decaying, malfunctioning infrastructure, what will this new society be like?
Hey, I’d read it.
Sounds like one of Philip K. Dick’s dystopian settings.