[Rizla]

I read it in an anthology in school (this was in the UK during the late 70's / early 80's). The anthology included a story about the last living human being being preserved in an alien zoo (which I found quite shocking at the time.) I think it was by John Wyndham or Arthur C. Clarke. I have seen it since. Anyway...

The story I am looking for went like this (in fact it didn't have much of a plot): A man at night sees a long procession of people representing the people's of all eras moving past him in a long procession. Towards the end the people become more and more oppressed by technology until there are three or four broken-down people slaving to carry an immense pyramidal shape (a machine they worship, I suppose). Then, at the very end, they are replaced by strange dancing humans with limbs that bend in odd ways. And that was it!

Not much of a plot, I know, but it has always stayed with me and I would very much like to read it again. I wonder if it might be someone like H.G.Wells or Olaf Stapledon, it has that kind of old, visionary quality, but I could be wrong, it could be way more modern than that.

Any ideas? Thanks.