Short story about an infectious indestructible metal bar?
About 15-20 years ago I read a short story (I believe as part of a collection) which as its main plot line featured a metal bar that appeared one day. A guy picked it up and threw it in the recycling. The bar itself was indestructable and unworkable, and any metal that it touched was "infected" to have the same properties after some amount of time. So it damaged the machine that tried to process it for recycling, and turned the metal recycling machine into the same type of metal. And it spread from there.
IIRC this didn't go very well for civilization. I think one of the characters calculated how this might spread rapidly along railways, etc. and committed suicide at the end...maybe?
story-identification
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Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
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About 15-20 years ago I read a short story (I believe as part of a collection) which as its main plot line featured a metal bar that appeared one day. A guy picked it up and threw it in the recycling. The bar itself was indestructable and unworkable, and any metal that it touched was "infected" to have the same properties after some amount of time. So it damaged the machine that tried to process it for recycling, and turned the metal recycling machine into the same type of metal. And it spread from there.
IIRC this didn't go very well for civilization. I think one of the characters calculated how this might spread rapidly along railways, etc. and committed suicide at the end...maybe?
story-identification
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
About 15-20 years ago I read a short story (I believe as part of a collection) which as its main plot line featured a metal bar that appeared one day. A guy picked it up and threw it in the recycling. The bar itself was indestructable and unworkable, and any metal that it touched was "infected" to have the same properties after some amount of time. So it damaged the machine that tried to process it for recycling, and turned the metal recycling machine into the same type of metal. And it spread from there.
IIRC this didn't go very well for civilization. I think one of the characters calculated how this might spread rapidly along railways, etc. and committed suicide at the end...maybe?
story-identification
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
About 15-20 years ago I read a short story (I believe as part of a collection) which as its main plot line featured a metal bar that appeared one day. A guy picked it up and threw it in the recycling. The bar itself was indestructable and unworkable, and any metal that it touched was "infected" to have the same properties after some amount of time. So it damaged the machine that tried to process it for recycling, and turned the metal recycling machine into the same type of metal. And it spread from there.
IIRC this didn't go very well for civilization. I think one of the characters calculated how this might spread rapidly along railways, etc. and committed suicide at the end...maybe?
story-identification
story-identification
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
asked 2 mins ago
Aaron AxvigAaron Axvig
101
101
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Aaron Axvig is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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