Into July… and through the Silo Series by Hugh Howey

Ten days into July.

I did not meet my goal of blogging every day in June, but that’s all right. I’m still here, puttering along. Every victory, no matter how small, still counts.

Small projects are slowly being accomplished. And I am reading again! I feel late to the party on this, but I just finished reading Wool, Shift, and Dust by Hugh Howey.

Inspired to read them by the series now on Apple+ (again thinking to myself, how many great stories would I not know about without having seen them on a screen first? Should I get back to making videos about my own, to expand my audience?), I spent the last week or so devouring them. And I read Howey’s authors’ notes as well… his reflections on how he was a reader before he was a writer, how he lets the narrative unfold for himself as a reader, and how he dealt with the reality that imagining and starting a story is far more difficult than actually following it through — all of these spoke deeply to me.

Another writer whose skills and imagination I envy.

I noticed a few discussions already out in the world, regarding the Silo books, but I didn’t see any just yet that specifically focused on a few key questions that I have been left contemplating:

SPOILERS AHEAD

you have been warned!

Okay.

Ready?

Here we go…

1. The moment of destruction in Silo 1 — based on the events of In the Mountain, and the progress made by the survivors of Silo 18, 17, and the others who have joined them, I wonder whether Donald’s actions actually turned off the killer machines, ending the 500 year countdown. Is that why April and Remy woke up when they did? Because it certainly hasn’t been the whole half-millennium, unless Elise and the rest are now actually incredibly long-lived…
2. Further, the group of survivors in Colorado having to whittle themselves down to 15… I would love so much to know more about that. The Founders of that community ended up in the same position embraced by Thurman, et. al., and had to make impossible, horrific choices painfully quickly… How was it done? Were they open and honest with the population they tried to save? Was a careful accounting made of the health and fertility of the fifteen who had to go on?
3. And then there are the Wildlings encountered by April and Remy on their awakening — what happened to create them? Do they represent the kind of feral humans that some believe to live in the depths of the Appalachians? Are they the result of the 15 left to breed amongst themselves, over and over? I did a quick Google search, and according to various sources, at least 50 people would provide sufficient diversity but 500 would be better to avoid genetic drifting. This is called the 50/500 rule. There is also a mathematical formula for determining levels or rates of inbreeding, and I would love to apply it to this fictional scenario, but I am not a numbers person. Maybe my elder offspring could help me out with it… but the other factor that I could see being significant is that in Howey’s future history, the population chosen to carry on and survive the destruction of humanity seems even more arbitrarily chosen than the ones who funnelled into the silos. Therefore it stands to reason that the 15 chosen to live and reproduce would not likely have been screened for genetic issues. In the Silos, reproduction was tightly controlled, eugenics as policy and the basis of population control computer programs. What happened as the generations passed by in Colorado? How did they ensure that their little group stayed at 15, aside from making the number a mantra? How many generations made it through to the point of _____ (either the end of Silo 1 and its control, or 500 years)?

That’s all I can think of, for the time being. If anyone is able to do the math on the possibilities of the inbreeding issue, please comment below! It’s fascinating and terrible to contemplate. And if you know more about these three questions / issues in the Silo Series, please let me know.

Happy Monday!