Snarge
We went through the critters pretty fast. I’ve never seen anything quite like that flock: multicolored, almost metallic-looking...
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Path Dependence
I did not choose this course to Proxima Centauri b. Even sheep have a choice.
Muscling In
Sitanni smiled. Jub spoke like death. He liked that.
so the Sherpas say
The great sins, so the Sherpas say, are to pick wildflowers and to threaten children.
slapdash
I mean, who in their right mind would believe you could launch yourself to Mars on a mag-lev railgun in a salvaged WWII submarine?
Color Blindsided
Yup. That’s what minor mutants like me do with their semi-super powers. Win at cards.
The Good, the Bad, and the Zombie
The Zombie appreciated the flies. No waste there. Committed to the carnage. Fully alive. The Zombie didn’t believe that of its companions.
Kessler Run In
But the Kessler Run was Scylla and Charybdis resurrected in space. Unspeakable horror.
kan, ya ma kan
The four afoot were guilty only of existence. And resistance. They had souls—all of them—so of course they resisted.
Panoptimized
“Pain is a powerful teacher. Our vengeance should instruct. Remember, many will be watching.”
meta
Soon metaMarilyn would be colonized and the rush would be on to find the next big thing. The next unspoiled dream. Was there such a thing?
colder ways
What were soldiers anymore? In cyberwar there was only the enemy. The other side.
Remora
Life is strange. Living in the mouth of a SHARK is stranger.
Blow In
I think the foreman would’ve spit, if he hadn’t been in an enviro suit. It’s kinda self-defeating to spit in a sealed system.
The Deadest Generation
We are now armed and prepared to complete our academic mission. We are locked and loaded for learning. We are fighting fear with firepower.
In Formation
Got no problems with that. But noise is information too. Everything is information. We are the signal, my man, and it’s a beautiful morning.
slowpo
“You ain’t listening. Ain’t understanding. It was you. Just you that trashed this place. For me and mine.”
The Determined Instrumentalist
They were machines. Like dishwashers. Like radios. Neutral artifacts. Instruments subservient to the user’s wishes.
Off Leash
It was a kinetic scene. Domesticants of all sizes, makes and models flitted to and fro interfacing with their kind.
snow on the convent
Plague. Pestilence. Perfidy. The perfect tools to combat aggressors and oppressors.
Drift
The maps are mysterious and beautiful. And I believe this emerging portrait of the Digital Deep is a guide to our subconscious.
tohuvavohu
We were the hare. The virus was the tortoise. And it was turtles all the way down.
of all the Nerv
Spineblatt was that smooth. If you controlled two-thirds of the nerv in the known universe, as Spineblatt did, nothing but smooth would do.
Dark Matters
I read a tale once about a kitchen imp in Warsaw who knew a word that would set the world afire.
not a sequel
You should’ve seen that kid’s eyes light up with possibilities. It was like being at the very start of creation. A Big Bang moment.
The Fungilarity
Fungi were among the first organisms to return to the atomic blast site of Hiroshima. From mushroom clouds to mushrooms.
the last repairman
The last repairman on earth stared into the eager green glow of the precision-crafted orbs at his fingertips. Worlds of possibility.
Good Old Crimes
That frozen day, the father glowered at his son hunched over the laptop in the kitchen. “This is no way to earn a living.” The teenager...
Extratouristrials
*It was obvious the indigenous creature was in an expiring condition,* wrdlgrp expressed matter-of-factly.
So Particular
Just as we articulate ideas, we particulate realities. By being picky about his asparagus, Tommy has spun a new universe into existence.
the gravedigger
They would come soon. Always. A slow procession, farther out each time, and harder. They’d leave their dead, fewer and younger each time.
Splinx
Put Schrödinger in the box with his cat, then add Heisenberg and Kolmorogov, and you’d render a pretty good picture of how Splinx works.
Necessary Beings
Her fellow beings had tried and now could offer no salvation, so she turned to her own deus ex machina. Machinations of the divine. Roboto.
Antifragile
The Puritans of this new dead world aimed to make it antifragile. Perfectly willing to let things break in order to become stronger.
Presence
Only an old scrub like me would want to boot it up, which is what I did. Damn mistake. Big damn mistake.
winding down
The planet doesn’t care. The universe either. It won’t require anything big of us. Quite the contrary.
Just Enough
That was the killer, Lamora realized. There was a slim chance they could all survive, and each made their own cold calculation to live.
workflow
Let your ambitions, your desires, your dreams go. They're nothing but waste. Heat waste.
a step forward
They took a step forward. A warning siren sounded as sentry guns auto-targeted.
a sense of obligation
Though not indifferent, the universe is far from sentimental. Life, not matter, invented the struggle bus. And I’m obliged to crash it.
absence of evidence is not evidence of absinthe
“You are suffering from all the hallmarks of pycnodysostosis: fragile bones, short stature, large head, weak chin. Were you never...
the old problem
Didn’t matter where you started, what you did, what signals from other worlds you discovered, you were headed where everyone else was.
Ridiculosity
Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous.
Unremarkable
He was observing the strange little man out of the corner of his eye and wondering if he posed a threat. His request was absurd.
Big God
“Don’t try to steer this into an Occupy Heaven bog. Next, you’ll be complaining about the whole Too Big to Kneel fiasco."
how to best carve light
Gaze, gape, gawk. Then squint, peep and peek.
Field Trip
Atul met her eyes and held them. “Mistake not the waves for the ocean, Ms. Fuentes. Feel your way past organisms, you must. Past particles."
Otra Vez
Rare commands attention. Rare costs. Rare is always hunted.
Kludge
“We have spacecraft. We have computers. We have language and culture.” The Secretary General’s voice sharpened. “We have Corn Nuts.”
Humoring the Stone
The cadence grew louder, and though the mason didn’t understand the language well, he recognized it for what it was: a countdown.
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