There were no wise people, only decisions that worked out well due to random chance and the law of averages. Still, the line stretched for miles along the palace edifice with seekers rammed into every square meter of space between the crumbling retaining wall and the drying up moat where horrible leviathans were once
If you could be anyone, anything, anywhere, anywhen — thus starts the cascading effect of infinite choice that makes life impossible to live, at least in the sense of doing what life has always done: finding purpose in the beautiful shared struggle to secure the blessings of sustenance, warmth, love… No more, not since
The soft blue light faded as the day unfurled from its slumber. Shadows slowly elongated on the shattered porcelain path, held together by the dried blood and tears of immense beasts who once roamed the valleys when they still bore life. Today promised a semblance of mere sustenance, if the trickle still flowed from
It all started about a decade ago with that massive petrol rig explosion that darkened the skies over the entire hemisphere for about a month. Actually, it had started even before that, thought Dom, but I was too young to realize what was really happening. Still, that substrate conflagration set off a chain of
This is an alternate reality, Phillippe reminded himself, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. He had to keep affirming this in his mind, or he could easily step on one of two related but opposite landmines: he could fail to take the dangers here seriously and thus perish at their hand, or he
It came on suddenly although apparently they had been failing for some time without us fully realizing it. We had always counted on them to pull us through the difficult moments, the worst of times, those days when we felt like we couldn’t go on any longer. But we neglected to focus enough on
A few months ago I was having a conversation with an old friend on the sidewalk outside of a bar that was just closing (a setting where, historically speaking, many important philosophical discussions surely have been held). The topic was one that is on the mind of many these days, namely whether Artificial Intelligence
The Matrix ploy is an old and powerful story — you know, the one that manifests in a version of “reality” that seems uncontestable, dominates each waking moment, and is reinforced by everything around us from schools to media and beyond. A new story would be to remember an even older one, reminding us
“One would think that with all the technological progress we’ve made, it would also have meant that social norms had progressed as much,” Rabi bemoaned, whirring over to the next input junction in the queue. “But I suppose that’s just my humanoid processor searching for meaning and purpose again where none is ever found
The car zipped through an opening the size of a doorway, narrowly missing the other three vehicles vying to move in the same direction, adjusting to their presence with precision coordination and lightning reflexes that no “Drivers Ed” school could ever teach. Accelerating smoothly, we careened onward through the city’s dizzying traffic, without a
Dear Ardra714, It’s weird being out here in space, even though humans have been doing it for decades now. I guess I’m just one of those throwbacks who’s still more comfortable on dry land. But I’ve learned to embrace the ride anyway, since the future is up ahead and I totally get how we
“Pass the salt.” “Wha-a?” “I said, pass the salt. I can’t eat this crap without it.” “SO picky. How did you even survive the Upheaval?” “Very funny. You know that I carried your sorry carcass out of the gates of hell and into this even worse version of a world.” “Tsk. You’d think one
“I…can…hardly…breathe.” “It’s okay,” Toran reassured me. “Focus on the silence, feel it around you, let it keep you safe. One deep breath, then another. Good, keep going. Almost there…” they whispered. “Okay, thanks, I feel better.” This was the third time this month that I had a problem during the service, but so far
The sign blinked insistently, making Fredd really anxious. Not that he needed any help — the whole stupid affair had him on serious edge already anyway. But that damn sign, over and over again: “Please insert 20 cents to continue the session.” Without this, the gate would close and the drones would arrive. He had
The day the inevitable happened was, surprisingly, warm and sunny. I’d always pictured it as forebodingly dark with a torrential downpour of historical — nay, biblical — proportions. Since I knew it was of course coming at some point, I suppose it was comforting to think of it as somehow dramatic or noteworthy. But