The group I had joined was supposed to be considering an exciting topic: the future of construction. Wow—where to start? So many potential breakthroughs: design, materials, methods, techniques. And then there are the new building sites: the oceans, outer space—limitless possibilities in the Digital Age.
几乎没有人想到在那个决定性的日子里，实际上面对我们团队的未来，确实与人类面对面。没有人在考虑如果我们发现自己重返石器时代或以上的数字时代，而不是数字时代。
It had happened before, 65 million years ago, when a comet from space collided with the earth, killing off the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all other species. Experts used to say that the chance of repetition was one in a hundred million years.
赔率是赔率，但不太可能发生的事情确实发生了，加利福尼亚沿海的另一场碰撞产生了力量，在几秒钟内将彗星的核从固态材料转化为蒸气。地球表面的大量材料也蒸发，形成在燃烧羽流中混合和膨胀的气体。
一些蒸发的材料无害地冲入外太空，但大多数材料并没有逃脱地球的重力。迅速支付的蒸气颗粒迅速凝结成微小的固体小球，重新进入大气，并散发出热量，并且（不可思想但恐怖）将几乎在整个地球上燃烧在火焰中，并在其他地区激起了巨大的海啸。不可避免的结果是几乎完全破坏了文明社会。
我们的小组，在南非东海岸的一次会议巡游的工程师，该地区被称为夸祖鲁·纳塔尔（Kwazulu-Natal），发现自己位于距离潜在救赎领域的少数几个地区之一。未来派建筑的梦想必须延迟我们的直接需求：寻找淡水和食物来源。我们还必须找到或创建基本庇护所。具有讽刺意味的是，该小组用来建造巨大的塔楼。
When we eventually landed on a beach, the only building materials available within a practical distance, aside from a bit of driftwood, were grasses, shrubs, bamboo, and short, slim trees. As modern construction engineers we wondered how best to use such flimsy materials.
That problem, at least, was solved soon enough when we encountered other survivors, a group of Zulus, skilled at using native materials to build dwellings. One by one, using a number of pliable sapling trunks or branches stuck in the ground and fastened together at the top to form a dome, they created their traditional structures known as indlu. They covered these with woven grass mats and then added thatch.
We watched as they showed us how to use grass roping to bind the structure together. Using delicate boughs and natural threads, they made solid and utilitarian structures.
虽然构建IDLU的概念似乎很简单，但我们的小组对这些主要建筑商的技术感到惊讶。
Now it was our turn. With their help we tackled the floors, which are traditionally made from crushed termite soil or anthill material mixed with clay and cow dung. Our group made do with sand and pounded dirt, and most felt that this was just as well. Later on, however, some of the more adventurous young people in our group discovered that floors made of a cow-dung paste dry to a hard, smooth surface, not at all malodorous or unpleasant. The early Boers learned this technique from the Zulus and also adopted the use of thatch for roofing. For walls, however, they used mud bricks baked hard in the sun.
最终，我们的团队渴望进入现代时代，现在有些成员在窑炉里制造砖块，并用拐角处建造了更多传统的房屋。
There is iron ore nearby, and plans for smelting have been developed. Limestone and clay are also on hand, so cement will soon be available and soon followed by mortar and concrete mixes. Production of glass is in the works.
Even so, some members of the group led by an eminent Vietnamese agricultural engineer, have persisted in using natural-growing plants such as bamboo, which is abundant in this region, as construction material. Some are even experimenting with seeds and seedlings. We are told that since bamboo can be propagated by dividing root clumps or by planting certain segments of the shoots, as well as by sowing seeds and planting seedlings, prospects are excellent for this versatile and serviceable material. Some species grow quickly, as much as one foot per day, and achieve heights of up to one hundred and thirty feet. The stems, lashed together with grasses, provide a good structural material. The largest stems can be cut into planks for buildings and rafts, or used to make buckets and pipes, fishing poles and much more. The architects in our group are particularly interested in using bamboo to make furniture.
因此，尽管宇宙灾难使我们重新回到了一个古老的世界中，并挫败了我们对未来的梦想，但我们还是试图尽力而为。
我们小组的一些宗教成员提到了《巴别塔》的圣经故事，并想知道我们是否因建造足够高的塔楼而受到惩罚，以达到天堂。
But engineers have always looked for a challenge, and here we have certainly found it. While we physically have been thrown back to another time, we also have thousands of years of learning and experience to build on. Of course, we won't be building enormous towers or space stations any time soon. But the adversity shows signs of becoming a source of renewed determination and creativity.
（这个故事的一部分改编自Florman的2001年小说《后果：生存小说》。）
要查看所有建筑科幻故事，click here.
