The Sword and Laser discussion
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Wool: Question about the Apocalypse--possible spoilers
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If you want to maintain total control of the populace, it's much easier if they're kept contained. Everything about the way the silos are set up is to keep people in their place. Why else would the cheapest form of communication between levels be couriers with handwritten notes? Why else would they have to use stairs to travel between levels? Isolation and hierarchy are huge themes in this novel. The people who are ostensibly in power live at the top. The grunts live at the bottom. IT is at the center of the world both literally and figuratively. If you let people out into the big world, you lose control of that structure.
So, are you saying that the intention is that people never leave the silos?
Yes. Think about it. The whole system is set up to keep them in. There is no contingency for a time when they can leave.
I hadn't thought of that. I always assumed that the plan was that eventually they would leave the silos and repopulate the earth. Well, that sucks. Hope they find a way to get out of there. Guess I'll have to read the other books.
I think it's a combination of what both of you said. The silos are the way they are to keep the people controlled until they can go out and repopulate the earth. What Solo said about storing grain seemed like foreshadowing to an epilogue of some kind when Howey finished it all but I could be wrong.
Yes, I'd forgotten what Solo said too. That makes sense. What's the point of storing grain or seed if you're not going to eat it or plant it at some point. Interesting. I wonder if Shift sheds any light on this.
I got the impression that the silos were built to last a really long time, maybe thousands of years. They need that length of time to fully condition the population of the silos to the particular culture/psyche the designers wanted, "to bring about their vision" as Bernard told Lukas. If the outside world became inhabitable too soon, all of the old standards, human foibles etc wouldn't have had time to be bred out of the populace. Also, they were worried that there might still be pockets of resistance somewhere in the world. I may be wrong, but I certainly got the impression that the plan was to exit the silos at some point. Or certainly, this was Bernard's point of view as he discussed with Lukas.
I was sure I read that they use computers. I think for extremely private communications couriers are necessary. Similar to our world where you sometimes need to have something on paper.
@sandi. But even though the control appears to be at the top The real power is the bottom.
Chris wrote: "@sandi. But even though the control appears to be at the top The real power is the bottom."Actually, the power is with IT which is somewhere in the middle. The people at the top are the figureheads. They have the appearance of power, but it's not real.
I already returned my book so I can't find it but I remember a part where they talk about the seeds. Seeds eventually rot, so really what are they there for? I felt like part of the reason to limit communication was to have it take more time. If everyone is focusing on climbing stairs, they can't spend energy on feeling hopeless.
@jenny. Yeah that quote was from solo and he was talking about people being seeds for the world and the longer they stayed in the dark that they would rot and they would be useless when they returned to the surface
Chris wrote: "I was sure I read that they use computers. I think for extremely private communications couriers are necessary. Similar to our world where you sometimes need to have something on paper."I can't remember where but at some point they talk about "wires" being far more expensive than couriers.
And Sandi, IT is in the thirties which is up top, not in the mids.
Thoughts?