What does the Post-Apocalyptic genre offer regarding the future of the human race?
In "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury, technology dominates and essentially becomes the only "living" thing remaining. Contrary to how society currently views and associates with technology, the power dynamic between humans and technology in this short story is reversed, where technology worships humans and is not that intelligent because it is unable to detect that there are no longer humans living in the house. The major similarity, though, is the purpose of the technology and how it is designed to make the lives of the people easier. This is reasonable because technology should logically only make our lives easier as time goes on.
Another aspect of Bradbury's depiction of technology worth noting is how technology repeatedly defeats nature. Throughout the novel, the house uses its beneficial technologies for self-preservation against nature, such as keeping the bird out and killing the dog. Bradbury makes the technology out to be almost a force of evil that can't be reckoned with. I don't quite agree with this illustration because no matter how amazing and sufficient technology may seem, it is man-made and I feel like the natural order of the world will always triumph.
"Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler portrays another aspect of this argument that still centers on the idea that the demise and destruction of humans is inevitable. Although there isn't a direct relationship between technology and the state of the human race during which the story takes place, the lack of humanity in this society is still due to a man-made disaster that wipes out all of the unique traits that define us as humans and individuals. Through this short story, Butler makes a point of showing how losing key characteristics that make us human like communication will result in violence and mutual destruction.
The post-apocalyptic genre focuses on narrating societies where humanity is either wiped out or severely impaired and modified, predominantly due to man-made causes. From both of these stories, the overarching idea is essentially that there is no hope for humans in the future because our desire (and possible greed) to experiment and develop new products in the hopes of making society better and life easier will be the ultimate cause of our downfall.
