Project Gutenberg 2021-04-18 Public domain in the USA. 122 Holden, Fox B. 1923 The Builders Produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy February 1951 Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "The Builders" by Fox B. Holden is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, it explores themes of technological restoration and the consequences of human innovation. The narrative follows a group of builders in a society that values the reconstruction of lost machinery and technology from the ruins of old Earth, ultimately questioning the limits of human achievement and understanding. In the story, we follow Markten and his young aide as they scavenge through the remnants of once-great cities, searching for plans to recreate lost technology. Their quest leads them to discover four significant books, one of which contains blueprints for constructing new chemical automatons. Excited by their potential, they begin building, only to find that the automatons develop a life of their own. As the creations escape into the wild, Markten reflects on their lack of control over their inventions, highlighting the tension between human ambition and the unforeseen consequences of their actions. The novella culminates in a contemplation of whether these newly built automatons could pose future threats, leaving readers to ponder the ethical implications of technological advancement. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 73.8 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Apocalyptic fiction PS Text Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 48046 2025-07-26T04:04:42.489113 text/html 24605 2024-10-18T13:11:11 text/html 437335 2025-07-26T04:04:44.483146 application/epub+zip 436180 2025-07-26T04:04:43.107123 application/epub+zip 85461 2025-07-26T04:04:42.768100 application/epub+zip 471970 2025-07-26T04:04:45.705110 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 464413 2025-07-26T04:04:44.263122 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 113938 2022-09-29T10:06:10.589880 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 41909 2025-07-26T04:04:42.331089 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 22148 2024-10-18T13:11:11 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16051 2025-07-26T04:04:45.847073 application/rdf+xml 25470 2025-07-26T04:04:42.947116 image/jpeg 4324 2025-07-26T04:04:42.865131 image/jpeg 961770 2025-07-26T04:04:42.505088 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog