There will come soft rains

The futuristic story ‘There will come soft rains’ was written in 1950 by Ray Bradbury, and it has much relevance today, with smart houses and the wider uptake of AI—and particularly since the story takes place exactly today, on the 4th and 5th of August 2026!

It seems to be set in a post-nuclear apocalypse winter. At least we’re not there, yet.

Here’s one of my favourite bits:

“Tiny robot mice thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, Kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust. Then, they popped into their burrows. The house was clean.”

Read the full story here:

https://short-stories.co/@raybradbury/there-will-come-soft-rains-6k8vr4xxlnmj

The WWI Sara Teasdale poem by the same name (alternate name ‘War Time’) quoted in the story can also be found here:

https://poets.org/poem/there-will-come-soft-rains

Thanks to Sol Blackwood for bringing the story to my attention on the right day!

Photo by Niklas Jeromin on Pexels.com