AfterHistory

Synopsis of Game Play:
1. Prepare for End of Civilization
2. Survive End of Civilization
3. Rebuild Civilization. Try to do it Right this time!

Details:
There is a class of strategy game involved with the development of Civilization, including research, resource gathering, exploration, growth, and, of course, conflict. There are a lot of imitators of the original "Civilization" game (including its own sequels). I am suggesting here a VERY significant variation of that theme.

Our present REAL Civilization is in trouble. Population keeps growing faster than resource-production. Intolerance of the ways of others causes civil strife in many places, and threatens many more. Resources themselves are frequently limited in quantity (like petroleum), and are inexoribly being used up. Any place that suffers an extended breakdown of flow-of-resources (power blackout) is a place only a few days away from famine and epidemic. Greed has factions squabbling over pieces of the existing pie, rather than working together to create all-new pies (fusion power). Wimps in political office lack the backbone to end the squabbling; their own advisors are often chiefs among the greedy squabblers. If this goes on...then WE will be History.

But as each chapter of History closes, another opens. We are so widespread that there will probably almost always be survivors. Can a giant meteor really make humanity extinct? The dinosaurs didn't have nuclear-fission power, greenhouses, and artificial lighting. WE can grow food even if the Sun is blocked by atmospheric dust for five years. Not enough food for everyone, of course, but enough to ensure that some will survive.

In this proposed Game, a large number of End Of Civilization scenarios are possible. World War III, terrorist-spread Ebola, magnitude-10 earthquakes all around the Pacific Rim Ring of Fire (sometime you should look up the percentage of Gross World Product that originates there), planetary icecaps melting, supervolcano, Ice Age, etc. Each offers only a few clues to the Player, who has the initial goal of preparing to survive that particular End. Then, of course, arrives the challenge of actually surviving the End, with epidemics, bands of marauders, rogue generals with tactical nukes, and lots of other possibilities. Finally, the REAL test comes along: Picking Up The Pieces.

This Game is actually intended to be educational as well as challenging. The more people who play it, the more who will know something about the mess we are currently in, and who might ACT to prevent any of those End-Scenarios. Should an actual End occur, the more people there will be, who have prepared and will survive and who know what to do afterwards.

For example, are there currently any psychological tests designed to determine "degree of trustworthiness"? The Game can have them, and by the time an End occurs, we may actually have them. Survivors who save such Tests will have a better chance than those who don't. Then there is "hoarding", which in bad times is a bad thing to do, but in good times it is called "being prepared". To what degree can either a Game player or a real-life survivalist properly prepare for an extended time of turmoil? Knowing what to stock-up is critical for success at either. And little things are likely to be overlooked in the collecting of everybody-knows-you-need-that like bullets; what will you be using for toilet paper after a year or three? Can you get a new (or old!) factory running in that time? What about soap?

When the Game settles down for the long haul, you have the problem of many things to do and not many hands to do it. Your success may depend on how many marauders you can peacefully get on your side! You also are confronted with one of the biggest dilemmas of all, that current Civilization faces: mined-out mines, empty oil and gas wells, denuded forests, multiply-decimated fisheries, etc. And there will be new problems like cities full of diseased corpses....

It's not hopeless. We have learned enough to know that with sufficient Energy to play with, and Matter to manipulate, anything that has been built can be re-built. Did your preparations include saving that knowledge? The needed Matter is distributed across the landscape in the form of dead automobiles and empty buildings (steel, copper, aluminum, etc). The needed Energy is something you definitely have to prepare in advance for. Small-scale hydropower, windmills, banks of solar cells, for example. Note that only a week or two ago as I write this, the U.S. Dept. of Energy has decided to do another formal investigation into Cold Fusion, because sufficient evidence HAS accumulated that something really is going on in those experiments. By the time the End comes along, the Game can certainly let you include some Cold Fusion power cells in your preparations. And maybe we will have them for real, too. But the point to that is, the AfterHistory must have SOME kind of steady minimal power, so that it can bootstrap itself to greater things.

The social structure in the Game is of course also something that can be started afresh, athough to find out how such things might really work out will probably require a Massive MultiPlayer On Line version of the game. For example, you could choose Benevolent Dictatorship, known Historically to be among the best governments for the common people, except for the problems of ensuring the benevolence of the Dictator, and assassination attempts by would-be non-benevolent dictators. You could choose Golden Rule Anarchy, where you can do anything you want, and the price is to suffer anything you dish out to others. You could choose Nudism1984, where NOBODY has ANY secrets from anybody else. You can even experiment with ways to ensure that any Authority is held Responsible for its actions -- because if you have that, then you might not need anything else for good government. Feel free to make suggestions in the annotations!

So, have fun! Learn! Involve others! Be prepared! And just maybe it all can be prevented. Future History is Science Fiction, and SF is good at the job of providing advance warning of "If This Goes On..." trends, so that such trends of Reality have in the past been kept from going as far as has been described in Fiction.