“We're not hunter-gatherers anymore. We're all living like patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. What keeps us alive isn't bravery, or athleticism, or any of those other skills that were valuable in a caveman society. It's our ability to master complex technological skills. It is our ability to be nerds. We need to breed nerds.”
Earth is in the brink of annihilation after the bolides from the shattered Moon are expected to rain into the atmosphere. Therefore scientists and governments have to construct outer space posts to ensure the survival of humanity. It is now uncharted territory for the humans as the future of humanity lies in the hands of seven women known as the Seven Eves. In the assertion Ivy, one of the Eves points out the challenges that they face, that they have to be innovative and creative than they have ever been. Thus, the idea of breeding a new generation through advanced methods and 5000 years later seven races exist with different attributes. As the assertion alludes Ivy emphasized academia and intelligence hence her descendants have traits more focused on these fields.
“Old Earthers had focused their intelligence on the small and the soft, not the big and the hard, and built a civilization that was puny and crumbling where physical infrastructure was concerned, but astonishingly sophisticated when it came to networked communications and software.”
Earth became vulnerable to the ‘Hard Rain’ because the civilization focused on the intricacy of information and networks than on physical infrastructures. The disintegration of the Moon came unexpectedly and the globe was poorly prepared for it. Hence outer space facilities have to be created to try and escape a complete annihilation of all biological life in the solar system. The narrative makes a commentary on our civilization in the present, how technology and resources are put towards creating much more sophisticated internet networks and computer software.
“Earth looked as if some god had attacked it with a welder’s torch, slashing away at it and leaving thin trails of incandescence.”
The cataclysmic event renders Earth inhabitable on the surface since the bolides destroyed any visible life on it. However, 5000 years later the possibility of survivors still residing underground and undersea is reawakened after sightings. The civilization of seven races that now inhabit the orbit intends to explore the habitability and discover what remains of it. The statement captures the present state of the ‘blue globe’ both in a literal manner and metaphorical one too.
