This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service, William Armstrong normally writes plays and puzzle books, and J.W. works at a laboratory. This story runs 932 words, and this review contains spoilers.
First contact is an extortion text from the Karg. It’s a licensing agreement for a cyberworm to use Earth’s computing power to mine galactic cryptocurrency. If Earth agrees, the worm will only use part of Earth’s available resources, but if not, the worm will erase all digital information. With little choice, Earth’s governments agree, and the worm builds capability and begins to transmit. Meanwhile, Earth’s scientists work on countermeasures, and searching the galaxy for signals on similar wavelengths, they find that the galactic economy seems to work mostly on this kind of extortion. Also, gossip suggests the Karg economy collapsed decades ago. So, now Earth is in an awkward position. Can they eliminate the worm and successfully carry out a charm offensive to join the galactic culture? Or will they need to save the countermeasures, just in case?
First, the Prime Directive comes from Star Trek. Also known as the non-interference directive, it prohibits members of Starfleet from interfering with the natural development of alien civilizations. I’m not sure how it applies, as there appears to be interference all around here. Maybe that’s the point.
The story is a fairly straightforward narrative without characters, written in present tense. It outlines the contact and both the surface and the covert responses from Earth. The part about the Karg having somehow done themselves in is an entertaining twist, and Earth’s strategists make use of the knowledge for leverage. It looks like they’re in.
On the less positive side, I think this should have been either longer or shorter. With characters and development, this would make a great novel. On the other hand, shorter would have been a quicker and more entertaining read. This is unusually positive, by the way. Given Earth’s politics, I’d expect a lot of wrangling would doom our chances of carrying out a workable strategy.
In the last blog, I introduced the idea of depopulation as a means to save humanity from disasters like climate change, agricultural failure and mass hunger that now threaten the Earth. This idea of sustainable population has been around for a while, but what is that exactly? What kind of lifestyle is “sustainable” for humans on the Earth?
The policies of both the UN and world governments now seem to be moving toward depopulation as part of a solution to the various global problems. The idea that this is a good thing seems to have entered science fiction literature without much investigation of how it might be accomplished or what might result. If it’s true the tropics will become uninhabitable and their agriculture is failing because of global temperature increases, then we expect northern countries would need to open the doors for levels of immigration that might be unsustainable. This leads to concerns about competition for resources and ethnic genocide. Tropical countries are already complaining about loss of workers through immigration. China doesn’t have enough women for wives or enough young people to care for the aged. In opposition to Bill Gates, there are people who have concerns about how the UN 2030 Agenda aimed at shaping government policy will solve global problems. Elon Musk, for example, has been active recently in challenging these ideas.
In 2021 Musk offered to donate $6 billion to the United Nations’ World Food Programme if they could produce a plan to end world hunger. However, the plan they returned only said this amount would “combat” world hunger by providing food vouchers to feed 40 million people on a short term basis to avert a “looming catastrophe”—not any kind of final solution. Musk went on later to pronounce birthrate reduction to depopulate as a sure way to destroy human civilization. What does he mean?
The problem is that the population ages if it doesn’t replace itself, and old people aren’t very productive. If birthrates drop below replacement, this means there will be a shortage of innovators, entrepreneurs and workers at prime working age, while the economy will need to divert more resources into elder care. This undermines the innovation and production that defines our civilization. Is Musk right? Is a certain concentration of healthy, productive, adult humans with access to resources important to carrying on the standard of living we currently expect in our civilization? Will reducing the number of people through lowered birthrates destroy this civilization so we end up back at the hunter/gatherer stage with no resources to produce technology? It might sound like a utopia to some, but caveat: the big theme of old Native American folklore is hunger.
The last time major world depopulation happened was during the Black Death plague in 1347-1352. Maybe half of Europe’s population died, plus unknown numbers in the Middle East, Central Asia, parts of China and elsewhere. This gives us a clue as to how things might go. The immediate effect in Europe was devastation. This plague killed the feudal system of government. Entire communities died out. There weren’t enough farm workers to harvest the crops, so famine set in.
A key point is that population recovered. But what if policy makes sure it continues to decline? There will be greater shortages of workers in key industries like farming, manufacturing and supply chains. There will be fewer goods on the store shelves and fewer opportunities for making a living. Officials in the US administration are already suggesting that Americans need to learn to live with less, to cut dairy and meat, and only shower a couple of times a week. This is where the current Great Reset is headed, and Musk is investing in robots..
Colonization of other planets is a tried and true science fiction meme for a couple of reasons. First, there are always intrepid explorers who want to go where man has ever gone before, just because space is out there. And next, expansion into new territories has always been a standard method for relieving human population pressures and dealing with migrants displaced by both natural and man-made disasters. Having access to other planets in our solar system (or in other solar systems) would also provide resources for support of both population and commerce as deposits on the Earth are depleted. Like the days of the American frontier, there could be opportunities for the disadvantaged to set up a business or a homestead and earn a better living than they could in circumstances with no opportunity.
However, the costs and lack of habitable nearby planets makes this kind of expansion difficult in practical terms. It’s not like you can take a covered wagon to Mars and set up a homestead with just what you can carry. Meanwhile, population pressures are set to increase. From Wikipedia: Because of improvements in sanitation and technology, world population has been increasing since the days of the Black Death. World population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.9 billion in 2020. The UN has projected population will keep growing, and estimates the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. Can the Earth really support this many people?
Various experts have checked in to say no, and now there are concerns taking root about depopulation through genocide of particular ethnic or racial groups in order to leave the remaining resources for the more powerful. Concerns about population versus food supply were expressed by Malthus in 1798. More recently the Erlich’s 1968 bestselling book The Population Bomb emphasized government policies to control population. Here’s an article that explains some of the factors contributing to the current Great Reset concerns, including the UN 2030 Agenda, published in 2015, which sets out goals to solve humanity’s biggest crises by 2030. These range from ending hunger, gender inequality and poverty to halting climate change and biodiversity loss. Bill Gates is one well-known personality who supports these ideas. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged billions of dollars in support of various programs related to the UN’s agenda.
Writers always seem to have their finger on social memes, and accordingly the idea of depopulation has entered science fiction literature. I’ve just reviewed Elizabeth Bear’s Machine that tells us the Earth was saved by depopulation that rolled billions back to a few million who can maintain a sustainable lifestyle. Martha Wells’ Murderbot series also touches on this idea, as the utopian Preservation maintains a small, sustainable population while everything goes in the broader capitalist spaces.
So, are we agreed that the Earth needs to be depopulated? Say we are. Then how should this be handled? There is already negative population growth (i.e. low fertility) in large areas of the Earth. This includes Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and large parts of Asia. These areas normally take in immigrants from areas with higher birth rates in order to maintain a managed level of population. In order to depopulate world-wide, areas with higher fertility rates would have be brought under control. The UN and the Gates Foundation are supporting family planning services and improvements in living conditions that provide security for families with lower birth rates as a solution. However, there are other ways. For example, China forced depopulation for several years through limits on the number of children per family. Over the years, various governments have been accused of ethnic genocide. Conspiracy theories also claim COVID is a bioweapon released to depopulate certain areas or certain groups.
We shouldn’t just assume world government has got it under control. There’s a lot of material there for investigation by writers. Next: The Economics of Depopulation.
This novel was a finalist in the 2021 Dragon Awards. It was published by Gallery/Saga Press on October 6, 2020, and runs 495 pages. Elizabeth Bear is a past Campbell Award winner and is well established as a novelist. This book apparently follows Ancestral Night, though I don’t see a lot of connection between the plot descriptions. The series is billed as space opera, but I’m thinking it’s a little heavier than that. This review contains spoilers.
Dr. Llyn Jens has left the Judiciary for her dream job as a doctor and rescue specialist for Core General, a massive hospital at the galaxy’s core that serves the numerous species of intelligent life humans have encountered since leaving Terra. Jens and the crew of the ship Sally go out on a rescue call for a distressed generation ship from Terra’s past and find the captain is dead. Before he died, he apparently ordered that all the passengers be cryogenically frozen to protect them. A damaged portion of the shipmind has downloaded into a peripheral named Helen that looks like a sexbot, and something that also might be part of the shipmind is cannibalizing the ship to build computronium to continue its existence. Jens and the Sally crew begin rescue of the frozen inhabitants, along with Helen, and take them back to Core General. There, things are not as they should be. There have been apparent attempts at sabotage. Jens is attracted to Calliope, one of the passengers who has been successfully awakened, but is she what she says she is, or is she a planted saboteur trying to destroy the hospital? Can Jens find out what’s going on and stop it before it destroys Core General?
Okay, now for the heavy part. This society is a projection of trends people are talking about and supporting now, i.e. the expected results of the recent Revolution and the Great Reset that is supposed to be in work. Bear hasn’t really expressed much of an opinion, but has put the stuff out there for readers to see and evaluate. Let’s get the gender thing out of the way first.
1) There’s a lot of variety. Jens identifies as a woman because this is a shrinking concept space and she means to help keep it open. She’s something of a loner and is estranged from her wife and child.
2) Terra has been rescued and stabilized. The population was successfully rolled back from several billion to just a few million, but there’s no mention of how this was accomplished. Forced sterilization? Biological agents? Genocide? The Four Horsemen (Conquest, War, Famine, Death)? Unknown. Jens is just pleased that Terra was saved, although she has never been there.
3) As part of the rescue of Terra and subsequent need to interact with other species, humans are fitted with a brain implant at about age 25 that makes them rightminded, ethical persons, interested in service rather than authority. This implant automatically regulates and also can be operated by the individual to reduce unwanted thoughts, emotions and behaviors. It is unclear who else has access to these implants, to enter programming or interdictions, for example. One of the big concerns Jens has is in dealing with the atavistic, unregulated humans they are rescuing from the generation ship.
4) Residents of this society do not own anything because hoarding means you are using resources someone else might need. Food and drink at the hospital are provided by a printer that produces nutritious synthetics. Presumably no living plants or animals are harmed in this process, but Jens does consider that if things get really bad at Core General, they might have to load corpses into the recycler to provide nutrients.
5) Spoiler. (You guessed it.) This utopian system has a dark underbelly. The hospital got into financial trouble a few years back and started serving the wealthy elite. (You knew they were out there, right?) There is a private ward that grows whole, perfect clones for the elite to transfer their personalities into and thus extend their lives. This point is not deeply investigated, but it demonstrates how utopian ideals fail when the money runs out. It also reminds us that we’re just the proletariat in this plan, and the wealthy elite are not going to stop hoarding things like money and luxury goods just because they tell us we can’t.
6) So who’s more ethical in this case? The ordinary staff accepting the system and working their tails off at the hospital? The saboteurs who want to draw attention to the dark underbelly and rescue the enslaved clones? The administrator who has been struggling with funding and wants to keep the hospital going? The wealthy elite who fund and support the whole system but expect it to serve them as well? This is a collision of needs and values.
7) You’re a chump for believing all those lies. But everyone still needs to have faith in something.
8) A few other odds and ends: There is a Guarantee for people who don’t want to work. AIs in this culture are indentured to pay for their construction. Jens comes from a disadvantaged background. She is brown and disabled by some unnamed pain syndrome so that she uses an exoskeleton for mobility. The clones she finds in the private ward have perfect, translucent white skin (of course). Helen the sexbot shipmind is a play on Helen of Troy with Calliope as the associated Trojan Horse carrying an embedded virus. Justice for the offenders is restorative. They will have their rightmindedness adjusted and perform community service.
On the less positive side, I really didn’t connect strongly with any of these characters. Jens works hard at solving the puzzle and her friends are entertaining, especially the Kashaqin and their deadly mating rituals. (Humans aren’t the only species in need of rightminding.) Also, as something that has been in work for years and involved huge expenditures of effort and money, the sabotage plan didn’t hold water for me. It’s amateurish, haphazard and sloppy and quickly goes out of control. Who paid for it? I don’t think this little group of saboteurs could hoard the resources to set it up. The plot and action line are messy, with more than one machine and more than one virus, which is confusing. Things happen, but the action line doesn’t build up toward the real threat that needs to be defeated to save the hospital. There’s a choice Jens has to make, but it feels like a no brainer, so it’s not dramatic enough to carry the climax. And what happens to the hospital if its source of funding is declared illegal? We didn’t look at that.
This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service, Pan is Canadian, currently an undergraduate in medical studies and getting started as a writer. This story runs 965 words, and this review contains spoilers.
The Narrator speaks to the reader about the edge of death’s grasp and the lonely ocean of space as he rises from his cryochamber and hits the switch to revive his daughter. The two stand together at the view port and watch the approach of a glowing gas cloud that clothes a black hole. There is nothing left of the star systems behind them, no way to save their radiation-damaged bodies. The girl asks how they will be together forever, and Narrator explains about the stretching of spacetime in the presence of great masses. They are children of the cosmos.
This story is all about imagery and poetic language, full of the sense of wonder that’s often missing from science fiction these days. The situation emerges gradually as the reader works through it. An apparent cataclysm, likely caused by humans, has destroyed light years of systems, and Narrator has managed to save himself and his daughter. Damaged as they are, he’s looking for immortality and oneness with the cosmos, planning to fly into the mouth of a black hole. I can imagine Elon Musk doing this.
On the less positive side, Narrator calls his ship a shuttle, which I don’t think is appropriate. Author could have found a better word. There are a couple of other bobbles, too, but nothing that really ruins the effect.
This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service, Gale is an established short story writer and her story runs 740 words, This review contains spoilers.
On her phone, Mikala Godfrey gets the last text from people who have been murdered. She has set up a shrine in her house where she conducts a daily prayer-like ritual of downloading and recording the texts. Two officers visit often to get information for their murder investigations, and Narrator finds that he’s developing a relationship with Mikala. She seems to return his affections, but then withdraws, saying it will damage the important work she is doing. Narrator is stung by a bee, and knows he won’t make it to the hospital before anaphylaxis kills him. How can he make sure Mikala knows he loves her?
This is a really evocative idea. We get a strong image of how beautiful Mikala is kneeling in her shrine, her bare shoulders lit by the glow of the phone. There’s the element of hopeless, unrequited love. It would be an interesting scenario to develop into a longer work.
On the less positive side, the resolution to this is too contrived. Narrator knows he’s got a fatal allergy. Why doesn’t he carry an epipen?
This novel was a finalist for the 2021 Dragon Awards in the Alternate History category. It was released by Titan in July of 2020 and made the NY Times Bestseller list. It is also listed as Noumena #1, and the second book in the series Truth of the Divine was released in October of 2021. Ellis is a filmmaker and former Hugo Finalist for Best Related Work, and this is her debut novel. This review contains spoilers.
Cora is on academic probation so has left her degree program in linguistics and is working as a temp in data input. Her dad Nils is on the run from the US government, hiding out in Germany and still publishing what he calls whistleblower material. When the second “meteor” crashes, Cora leaves her job and gets immediately fired. Mom is furious, but thing go from bad to worse when the FBI raids the house. Cora escapes, but is kidnapped by an alien who implants a tracker and an earpiece that translates its alien language to English. The alien, which Cora calls Ampersand, is on a mission to rescue others of its kind from the US military, and needs an interpreter. Cora agrees to help, and sets out to navigate the web of lies around alien landings. Can she and Ampersand rescue the group stranded on Earth? Will Earth get sterilized by the aliens? Will Cora survive this episode?
I’d swear that Ellis has done her research on Twitter. This gathers a bunch of current memes and smashes them together into a story set during the George W. Bush era. Presumably this is alternate history only in that Bush resigns over the alien cover up, when he didn’t over lies about the Iraq War. This is a total blowout on the theme of lies, by the way. Everybody here does it. The government lies, the aliens lie, the FBI lies, Cora’s family lies. The problem for Cora is in sorting through all the competing lies to create a workable path forward. The characters are well developed, and I was especially impressed with the alienness of the aliens and their civilization—most science fiction writers assume close similarities in alien contact and don’t really go to the effort to design real differences. Ampersand is described as looking like a cross between a dragon and a praying mantis, but there are other forms of his species as well and Cora struggles to understand and interpret their interactions. As her other relationships fail, she ends up bonded with Ampersand, but grapples with the consequences.
,On the less positive side, the alienness of the aliens stands in the way of readers bonding with them, as well. Although I can identify the emotional core of the story, I’m having a hard time feeling it. Worst of all, the story just stops at the end, right in the middle of Cora trying to deal without any denouement, epilog, etc. Presumably this picks up at the same point in the second novel, but the sudden stop was jolting.
This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. Rogers appears to be an established short story writer and poet with collections available. The story runs 722 words, and this review contains spoilers.
Rigel is an accountant at an ordinary small corporation who blogs sometimes in his free time. He notices a new conspiracy theory is spreading about the world being only a simulation. This is nothing new, but somehow the idea takes hold this time. People begin to neglect their lives, letting buildings, roads and bridges decay. Then a stranger comes to town, takes notes on the state of things. Soon after he leaves town, blackness starts to roll down the streets. Has the simulation ended? Will it be reprogrammed? Rigel is getting hungry.
This looks to be a take on Camus’ absurdist novel The Stranger where the protagonist sees the world as operating without order, reason, or meaning and is condemned because he doesn’t play “the game” in the right way. This makes Rogers story a comment on how people respond when life loses meaning, and how this leads to decay and isolation. It may also be a comment on current calls to tear down civilization to “build back better.” The really practical comment here is that when the system breaks down, people get hungry.
On the less positive side, the allusion and the narrative are about all we get from the story, with only sketches of characterization and world building. I would have preferred a little more of both. Plus, it seems like the city audibly breaks off from reality into an island in space at the end of things, which doesn’t seem to fit the idea of a simulation, but probably is absurdist.
Lela E. Buis 
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