It seems disingenuous to say ‘the systems we rely on are more fragile than they appear’ in the year 2026, after a decade that included two Trump presidencies, a global pandemic, extreme weather events, and a few major wars. We all know systems are less resilient than they appear. The unexpected fragility of things we thought permanent shouldn’t be surprising anymore, yet I’ve recently found myself shocked by two pieces of news in the speculative fiction space.