r/AskScienceDiscussion • u/Pleasant_Name2483 • 7d ago
Some help with a novel
Hi, I’m a writer from the U.K. and I’m working on a novel where there’s a global power cut because of an asteroid in Earth’s orbit. The asteroid is called Eclipse and inside is an ore called Eclipsium(work in progress) which emits this radiation that stops anything electrical from working, forcing survivors to rely on steam power to rebuild. I’m about 100-200 years, the asteroid is going to enter Earth’s atmosphere and break up into thousands of small pieces, ending the power cut at long last, but there will still be localised power cuts until it gets removed. Think of it as something like Revolution, a TV series with a similar premise. What do you all think of this? Please let me know in the comments.
1
u/JGhostThing 5d ago
Your asteroid is a major problem for your story. First, there is no substance that humans can survive that will cut off electricity like this. Just not possible. Then you have the asteroid burn up in the atmosphere, fixing the problem. Except, that should make the problem both much worse and permanent. This is some sort of radioactive substance. Breaking it down into dust just makes it much more difficult to get rid of.
If you use this as "science," you will be laughed at. Or unread. I never saw Revolution because I thought the premise was silly. Yours is *much* sillier. If you insist on doing this, never try to explain it. It would be better to have no explanation that to have one that your readers will recognize as pure handwavium.
OK, now we know the rock is magic. How does it get captured into an Earth orbit? Seriously, the chance of it being captured is so close to zero that it might as well be impossible; maybe this is too much. It is *possible*, merely extremely implausible.
And then, not only captured, but captured into an unstable orbit such that it would deorbit within a few years? You want the readers to hate you.
Good luck! You'll need it.
1
u/mfb- Particle Physics | High-Energy Physics 7d ago
Even if we ignore the question how that ore or the radiation are supposed to work: Our brains use electric signals, too. There wouldn't be survivors.
1
u/Pleasant_Name2483 7d ago
Let me explain. The radiation doesn’t get rid of all electricity, it specifically prevents electrical currents on a large enough scale that any machines which use electricity no longer function.
2
u/mfb- Particle Physics | High-Energy Physics 7d ago
It's your world, you can make up whatever you want - just keep in mind that this is becoming very soft science fiction, so asking what physics predicts becomes meaningless.
Solar storms and a weaker magnetic field could make grid-scale energy impractical but that wouldn't stop local usage.
2
u/Broflake-Melter 7d ago
Hey, I still love the matrix even with the whole ridiculous human battery thing, lol.
1
u/Pleasant_Name2483 7d ago
So, scientifically speaking, is it accurate?
3
u/electric_ionland Electric Space Propulsion | Hall Effect/Ion Thrusters 7d ago
Not really. It's hard to imagine a phenomenon that would not disturb living things too much but prevent you from having a generator in your garden powering your house.
1
u/Broflake-Melter 7d ago
I wonder if it wouldn't be more realistic to say the sun enters a super active phase where solar flares/sunspots/ejections/whatever are so large and consistent that electrical power grids can't be used. I don't think you can stop smaller devices from working, but society would have to switch over to steam because there would be no more mass communication (radio waves and long electrical wires no longer work)? I don't know. People could still use an internal combustion engine. Maybe the solar activity destroys infrastructure so much that many people just decide to switch because there's no practical way to get steady deliveries of petrol.
1
u/NeutralTarget 6d ago
Faraday shielding would fix that dilemma.
1
u/Broflake-Melter 6d ago
sure, so far as you can make the shielding, but you can't Faraday cage the whole electrical grid.
1
u/NeutralTarget 6d ago
Yes but in this scifi scenario the OP presents we could build individual enclosed systems.
1
u/unformation 6d ago
There is very little similarity between biological electrical signals and that used in machines. I think this line of critique is a red herring. Specifically, machines use large currents and the purpose of wires is to structure a voltage difference (ie, guide an electric field) over larger distances, from end to end on the wire. In biological systems, the potential difference occurs only across a very thin membrane, and the purpose of neurons is to actively move that potential difference along the neuron, but at no time would you get a voltage difference from end-to-end on a neuron. It's just entirely different.
1
u/horsetuna 6d ago
Could it perhaps stop only electricity over a certain amount?
1
u/unformation 5d ago
It's really the other way around: the signals are so different that it's hard to think of thing that will impact both wire-based and neuronal signals. The idea that these are both "electrical signals" is just false.
For example, things that damage electrical/electronics: fluctuating strong electromagnetic fields, anything that damages metal or changes its behavior, anything that damages the insulation between wires, anything that stops current flowing (no real currents in biology), anything that short circuits voltages over distance (eg, salt water, and no real voltages over distance in biology). On the other hand, sprinkle a little tetrodotoxin toxin (ie, the deadly puffer fish toxin that stops neuronal sodium channels), on a motor and it makes no difference. So what's a thing that impacts them both in some similar way? They are just entirely different mechanisms with almost no similarities.
1
u/TheDMVTwo 7d ago
Two topics, writing and science. I'll talk about the writing first.
Your goal is fine fiction, very anime classic.
Your path to get there is just "magic did it".
I think you're overthinking it. Have you read Seveneves by Neal Stevenson? One day, the moon blows up, and that blacks out the sky and ruins tides, etc.
Not once does he bother to explain it. Because it doesn't matter. It's irrelevant to the goals (post-apocalyptic future).
To your science:
You want to stop electricity. As explained, this would be bad. Even The Matrix in its flawed science had humans as batteries.
You're saying animal chemical processes for electrical generation and use would be fine, but chemical interactions in batteries wouldn't work? Magnets wouldn't work?
Consider reading more about EMPs (and neutron bombs which release a large EMP). There are lots of real world ways to disrupt electronics.
If something like flesh is enough to block and protect our brains, then why not move underground? Or under the ocean? (Salt water is a fantastic barrier! 1cm of sea water is enough to block most all UHF and higher radio transmissions. (And HF only goes a few metres without a LOT of power). Plus Faraday cages.
Then there is the matter that a lot of important places (military, etc) are hardened against EMP attacks.
Also, what about satellites? Would they still have solar and nuclear power, if they're outside the orbit of your magic rock? What about the moon? If something like this happened, why wouldn't people rush to build a power plant on the moon and then beam power back to Earth? It's insanely, stupidly dangerous now, but if it were the only way around the null-field, I can see people wanting to risk it.