Ray Bradbury's "August 2026 There Will Come Soft Rains" is an excellent example of how fiction and fact overlap when the writer asks the simple question—what if?
Writers inspire technology as much as they take inspiration from the devices and processes that terrify them.
Star Trek and cell phones might come to mind. Some would argue that Kirk and the crew were the first humans to use a flip phone.
"Beam me up, Scottie!"
There's a wealth of ideas for dystopian sci-fi between reality and imagination.
And, as sci-fi writers, we don't have to travel the galaxy to expound on one of our favorite themes—
Humanity's ability to create and destroy.
Spoiler Alert! Why not read this 5-page short story before I ruin it for you? There's a link at the top of this article.
Ray Bradbury: 1950 Science Fiction
Bradbury wrote "August 2026 There Will Come Soft Rains" in 1950, over a decade before Star Trek and long before we could ask a virtual assistant like Alexa to turn on the lights.
Imagination and research fueled the writer's take on a scenario placing technology and nature at odds with one another—without human intervention.
“Fantasies are things that can't happen, and science fiction is about things that can happen.” ~ Ray Bradbury
In Bradbury's story, a strikingly familiar system (think smart home) continues to operate even after the people who invented and used it disappear.
Back then, the world feared the atomic bomb and a nuclear holocaust.
As all great sci-fi writers do, Bradbury asked, what if?
What if a nuclear event occurred later after significant technological advances? He imagined the results of humanity's creativity and ingenuity with devices yet to come.
And he goes further, commenting on one of our greatest gifts—the ability to advance society or destroy it.
Bradbury's story uses the setting to describe the theme in which humanity has destroyed itself. His visual language appeals to the senses and brings the scene to life in this dystopian sci-fi tale.
An abandoned home becomes a character, taking on a life of its own through a series of futuristic technologies. Devices inside the house run on automatic until a fallen tree sets off a fatal chain of events.
The house is a protagonist illustrating the power of technology. Nature is the antagonist, demonstrating that technology is limited.
Characters Don't Have to Be People
Technological devices within the house become supporting characters working together to move the plot forward. Mother nature seeks to destroy humankind's footprint through rain, wind, and, finally, fire.
Symbolically, it's as if the earth is cleansing itself and entering a time of rebirth.
Bradbury begins his tale at the dawn of a new day, establishing the rising action immediately with a "voice clock" singing in the living room, "Tik-Tock, seven o'clock, time to get up … as if it were afraid nobody would."
The clock sets the pace, marking the moments of the house's last day.
It's the first day of August. The house is empty, "no doors slam."
The weather box sings, "Rain, rain, go away." This simple, familiar children's rhyme foreshadows the house’s impending death.
Throughout the day, the house carries on with technology that runs everything from wake-up calls and making breakfast to setting off the sprinklers and letting the family dog inside.
At "Twelve noon," the house recognizes and opens the door for the dog. Pancakes cook with "the rich odor and the scent of maple syrup," —a stark contrast to a starving pet.
The poor dog "runs wildly in circles, biting at its tail" before it finally dies on the kitchen floor. Despite its attempts, technology could not save the pet. However, the electronic house mice did manage to dispose of it in the incinerator.
Time Marches On
We understand that time is limited in this world as traces of the past disappear, hour by hour.
Nevertheless, the location is alive and relentlessly continues its daily routine— the clock marking time— moving the action forward until the fateful hour when a tree blown over in the storm breaks the kitchen window and knocks over flammable cleaners that catch fire.
"The solvent spread on the linoleum, licking, eating, under the kitchen door," and the technology sounded the alarm, "Fire, fire, fire." The house and its automated occupants lose its battle as "The fire rushed back into every closet…The house shuddered, oak bone on bone…."
Its destruction marks the end of an era.
Nature wins again.
Who is your favorite author of dystopian fiction?