There Will Come Soft Rains

The story suggests that scientific progress is attended by dangers and has limits that cannot be overcome. In 1950, when vacuum cleaners and home televisions were just beginning to become widespread, the technology portrayed in “There Will Come Soft Rains” would have seemed unimaginably advanced. Every problem in domestic life is solved and automated by the house’s technology, from cooking to cleaning. The house even automates simple pleasures, lighting a cigar and reading a poem at the end of the day. The walls of the children’s nursery display realistic savannah scenes, complete with animals and their sounds. The effect suggested is almost virtual reality; indeed, the animals react in real time when the fire destroys the nursery: “Blue lions roared, purple giraffes bounded off” (255).

Given these domestic technologies, it seems that humans in 2057 have lives of leisure and wonder compared to humans of 1950. Yet, despite the technological advancement of the house, nature wins out. The association between technology and the order-obsessed nature of the house suggests a fundamental trait of technological development: humans create new technologies to impose order or gain control.