You have been up early and are at your desk, your brows are tangled in deep concentration, you squeeze your eyes for a moment, and voila! A dream-breaking thought! You punch the computer keys quickly and catch the thought into your electronic potter's wheel to sculpt it into a work of art.
Do continue. There's still a few more weeks to polish your story before you send it off to TheScian Science Fiction Short Story Contest 2007.
A related note on an interesting book: The World Without Us. Reviews at Salon, Washington Post. I haven't read it. But would certainly like to once I finish Snow Crash which has been many years due.
Perhaps, I and many readers may get to read a short story along these lines, if you, dear writer, indulge us.