This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.
1swynn
Reading Seveneves put me in mind of another story about an apocalypse that had humans fleeing into space. In this one, there was a worldwide lottery or maybe competition to select a few hundred humans who would get to escape the apocalypse in rocket ships.
During the story some skeptics were questioning whether the resources existed to send even the small remnant, but since the rockets are being built they assume that someone has figured out the problem. At the end all of the rockets launch but most soon crash back to Earth. It turns out that the skeptics' calculations were correct: the resources existed to save only a handful of people, all of whom were preselected for ability and fitness. The lottery was just an elaborate government-sponsored hoax to manufacture hope and prevent civil disorder.
I don't remember when I read this but it has been several years at least, probably in an anthology, probably dating to the 1970s, maybe 1980s.
During the story some skeptics were questioning whether the resources existed to send even the small remnant, but since the rockets are being built they assume that someone has figured out the problem. At the end all of the rockets launch but most soon crash back to Earth. It turns out that the skeptics' calculations were correct: the resources existed to save only a handful of people, all of whom were preselected for ability and fitness. The lottery was just an elaborate government-sponsored hoax to manufacture hope and prevent civil disorder.
I don't remember when I read this but it has been several years at least, probably in an anthology, probably dating to the 1970s, maybe 1980s.
2DemetriosX
Possibly When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie? It's a novel, rather than a short story, but some of it does seem to match up (to the best of my recollection; it's been decades since I read it).
3swynn
>2 DemetriosX: Not as such, since I haven't read When Worlds Collide. On the other hand, it's possible that I'm remembering the movie, which I did see eight or ten years ago but don't remember well. I'll try to track down a copy of that.
4dukedom_enough
I don't recall the deceptive launches from When Worlds Collide.
5weener
The Simpsons did a Halloween episode segment with this premise for Y2K. I looked it up thinking it would be helpful, and the story it was based on was also When Worlds Collide.
6beichst
I was also thinking of When Worlds Colliide. I just read it along with the sequel. Unlike the movie, the book does have multiple launches.
7swynn
Thanks everyone for the suggestion about When Worlds Collide. I've watched the film, and am sure that's not what I'm remembering, and since I haven't read the novel that can't be it either (although it probably fits the description). I'm pretty sure it was a short story in an old anthology. I'll post an update here if I ever figure it out.
