Quote:
Originally Posted by hughhowey
You nailed pretty much everything. All I can add is:
Spoiler:
There was another need that the bombs provided (which weren't necessarily dropped, mind you. They could have been ground based). In order for the medication to work, there needs to be a horrific trauma for them to act upon. To seal off memory of the former world, there had to be a cauterizing event that could allow new memories to form while the drugs worked on all that was old. Hence the name changes and everything designed to foster a new existence.
Without this, news of the old world and what took place would persist across generations, which would be tumultuous and cause dissension and uprisings. Donald thinks this to himself toward the end of the book, that the bombs were props and nothing more. The nanos were in the air for years prior to the convention. They were already in everyone's blood.
MEGA SPOILER: Donald may have feared that meeting Thurman in the nanochamber infected him with something. But maybe it *cleaned* him of something worse. And maybe everyone who survived at the convention had a similar meeting with someone, somewhere, before the convention.  |
Thanks Hugh. I wouldn't normally get this caught up in a plot device, but this time it was worth it
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