DEAD ZONES
                          Doctor Jerold Stratton, Ph.D. Psychology


Dead Zones are mysterious regions where technology fails. There are 
known Dead Zones in the Anzo-Borrego near San Diego, and one north of 
Denver.

Dead Zones are known to change size at irregular intervals. One rumor is 
that they wax and wane with the phase and visibility of the moon. 
Another is that they grow as a natural check against the human 
population -- as populations in nearby cities grow, so will any Dead 
Zones nearby.(1)

When nearing a Dead Zone, computers stop working (and may lose volatile 
memory), and cyberwear starts acting up. This 'warning zone' can vary in 
size from a meter to a kilometer. Once within a Dead Zone, nothing 
electronic works, and it seems that sub-atomic processes stop as well.

Because of the effects, it's very hard to determine how a Dead Zone 
affects technology in the way that it does. Some magicians claim that 
within a Dead Zone, the laws of nature revert to their natural state -- 
that devised by the Greek philosophers and naturalists. Matter becomes 
homogeneous, composed of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.(2) Unfortunately, 
we can't just go in and check this out -- Electron Microscopes don't 
work, of course, in a Dead Zone. Everything visible seems to remain the 
same, but electricity stops flowing and radiation stops (or is blocked) 
within the zones.(3)

One of the most intriguing theories surrounding the Dead Zones is that 
the Awakening hasn't yet finished. Eventually, the Dead Zones will grow 
to cover the world. Most of the theorists believe that such will only 
occur after hundreds of years, but the implications are staggering.

Much of our knowledge about humanity comes from inference based on 
techno assumptions. Carbon (radioactive) dating is a prime example. If, 
throughout half of our history, radioactive breakdown has not been 
occurring, then everything over five-ten thousand years old is up to 
twice as old as we thought it was.

And what will happen to our civilization when technology fails 
completely? Satellites will fall and undersea villages will suffocate. 
But is it possible that this has happened before? There are many strange 
legends that crackpots of the last century have attempted to explain via 
an alien race or technologically advanced forebears. Could it have been 
an earlier Awakening that drove Atlantis into the sea? Might astronauts 
have visited us in unknown times, only to be stranded here (or 
elsewhere) when the magic came and the technology went?

(1)Urban Legends of the Awakening, Adam Cecil, Harcourt, Fuji,
   Jovanovich, 2049.
(2)A Theory of Quantum and Zonal Atechnology, Science, Ariadne and
   Phillips, March 15, 2043.
(3)Two well-received experiments have backed this up. The first
   (Wiedrich and Fries), reported in New Research, February, 2050,
   showed that X-Ray sources do not leave a mark on photographic plates
   within a zone. The second (Larasia), reported in Scientific
   Republican, January, 2050, showed that rats exposed to highly
   radioactive uranium within a zone were unharmed after weeks of
   exposure, while their control group counterparts contracted severe
   cases of cancer in days.