more ideas help wanted

[webberg]

My latest attempt at writing something is about how society may change if there were a plague but through chance/accident it was found that up to five people could exist in a "unit" and be plague free, but if six people were in the unit, all would catch the disease and die.

So we assume that the plague has reduced the population by perhaps 50% - a reset event - and that all those left are living, working in groups of five or less.

These groups have to maintain a safe distance from others - perhaps 100m - and cannot occupy the same space as another group within an hour.

So a group using for example a communal kitchen cannot do so for at least an hour after an earlier group.

What sort of "norms" would grow and develop in such a society? Would an inability to cooperate in large groups see an end to large scale industry or would it encourage the development of robotics?

What happens if in a group of 5, one person becomes pregnant and so another has to leave the group?

Would we see examples we see in the animal kingdom where spare males are essentially cast out of the group to live alone?

The purpose of the group of five idea is to explore conspiracy theory. The idea is that a cure/treatment has been developed which allows bigger groups to coexist and this is despatched via teams of paramedics to inoculate and "cure" people and to bring communities back together.

The plan is to have these paramedic teams work through the country slowly and allow the idea to grow so that being cured becomes the norm.

Unfortunately before they can make much progress a group with a vested interested in continuing the groups of 5 - perhaps economic, perhaps for baser reasons - starts a theory that the cure does not work, or it makes people susceptible to "control" or prevents babies being conceived or allows "them" to track you or any number of equally unlikely theories.

(You do not have to scratch the internet very deeply to find these ideas - just look at the nonsense around the measles outbreak in Texas which has already claimed lives).

So issues like commuting to work - gone forever or does it mean the end of the 9 to 5? What happens if there's a major fire?

Would people become so used to living in 5's that the prospect of larger groups is terrifying?

Anyway - exploring ideas and all suggestions welcome.

[Iain]

Very interesting ideas to explore, but I find the basic idea difficult to accept. How about asymptomatic illness for a minority with others immune to some strains, very long incubation that leads to unacceptable risk beyond 5, multiple strains of slow mutating disease that can swap genes so 2 interacting likely to lead to death of many. So many smaller will have been wiped out, with some larger groups persisting (with greater power to these lucky ones). Perhaps Govmt previous attempts to reintegrate lead to large deaths due to above and so great suspicion. Difficult to see how new members would be a problem, but most of rest would still apply I think.

[Mike Channin]

Sometimes the premise behind a sci-fi story isn't particularly believable or coherent/explainable, but then, past a point, it doesn't need to be, and especially so in a shorter story. The point is to investigate the consequences of the what-if scenario. and write something interesting that leverages the back-story. IMHO.

Another topical line (in a similar-ish vein) that might be interesting would be what if Covid HAD had significantly higher mortality. Or what if COVID-26 does...

(I did notice some interesting pandemic story parallels that pre-dated Covid, but were strikingly accurate at how some of it actually played out. Mind you, I also found it interesting to compare the 1998 film Deep Impact version of the Twin Towers with the real footage from 2001. Oh, and 'The Day After Tomorrow' was written loosely based on a really far out, conspiracy style book covering disastrous level climate change, among other odd ideas, presented as fact)