@RUTGERS.ARPA:milne@uci-icse (04/26/85)
From: Alastair Milne <milne@uci-icse> Somebody asked about a story where a house ran everything by itself, in the assumption that it was serving the occupants, but the occupants were actually dead. Though I suspect the idea has been used in several places, the place from which I know it is one of Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles". The house was evidently well removed from the centre of the nuclear explosion that devastated the area (since it's still standing, and running pretty well), but still close enough that all that's left of the occupants, who appeared to have been enjoying an afternoon on the front lawn, is shadows burned into the paint. I don't remember the name of the chronicle: something like "The Spring of Silver Showers" (which wouldn't be too surprising from the author of "I Sing the Body Electric"). The date was August 202x, where x may be 6. How did the house keep going? Where did the power come from? I don't recall whether the story says, but I imagine that private generators or batteries may have been brought on-line automatically when regional power failed. It was, after all, that kind of house. Bradbury seldom seems to concern himself with details like that. He seems to prefer mood and coloration, using details only where they contribute to these. Alastair Milne