The Origin of Milton Dirth

Milton Dirth is one of the most important characters in All the Birds in the Sky, even though we don’t see that much of him for most of the book. He was in earlier drafts of the book way more. He’s a tech billionaire who has a very pessimistic view of the future of humanity. He believes in the Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter and the Drake Equation, and basically thinks that civilizations that get too advanced tend to wipe themselves out before they can get to other planets.

I wrote a whole origin story for Milton Dirth, which was in the book until pretty late in the revisions. Here it is!

Milton was at a tech conference in Barzolo, when that earthquake happened. And while Barzolo was in disarray and mostly without electricity, some of the Barzolan military launched a coup, leading to a civil war.

Milton and the other tech leaders holed up in their luxury resort for weeks, with the fighting right outside. Slowly, their support staff melted away and their status changed from “neutral guests” to “possible hostages.”

At last, the other techies built a tunneling machine out of bits of kitchen and groundskeeper equipment – and they wouldn’t listen when Milton warned them the hotel was already structurally compromised after the earthquake.

He sneaked out, just as they turned on the machine and the building came down on everyone else’s head. Milton had to disguise himself as a peasant and walk a few dozen miles, witnessing every atrocity you could imagine many times over. By the time he reached the embassy, he knew firsthand that all systems collapse – and that when they do, people will be at their worst.

Top image: UWI Seismic Research Centre