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Displaying: 1-10 of 10 documents


1. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Kolby Granville

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2. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Vinícius Gadini

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When should you try and change your fate, and when you should simply accept it? Is there useful peace in simply accepting your fate? In this work of fate-based ethics fiction, the narrator is walking down the street to the store when he sees a man neck deep in a muddy hole. He stops to try and help the man, but the man refuses, arguing the universe has put him in this hole, and it is not his place to go against the universe. The narrator tries to help the man out of the hole, but he fights back, refusing help. A lack of acceptance of your situation, the man argues, is what gives rise to strife and violence. He will be at peace and accepting of his situation. Slowly, the man’s head goes into the mud and he dies. The narrator walks on.

3. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Lynne Curry

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What protections should a person of diminished capacity accused of murder have? Should intangibles be given consideration, or only facts? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, John is found by police on the side of the road pulling a knife from a woman’s chest. He is arrested, put in jail, and awaits trial. His attorney insists that he plead guilty, but John asserts his innocence and refuses to cave to pressure. Mandy, the Sherriff’s wife, brings him meals and is struck by his religious faith. She brings a reporter to talk to him to publish his side of the story. This brings an additional investigation from outside lawyers and brings to light additional information. The story ends with John going before the Grand Jury and telling his side of the story.

4. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Michael Klein

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Is it important to see and understand the perspectives of everyone in society, or is it better to live a life with less strife by spending your time with a select group of people? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator wakes up one day to find his vision has started to blur. He tries to see an eye doctor, but appointments are backed up for months. It seems every human in the world is suffering from the same, new, affliction. Under this new disease, at certain distances, half of the population. The pattern isn’t related to race or gender, and seems entirely random, but does not change over time. But the problem is serious. Some husbands can’t see their wives. Some servers at restaurants can’t see their patrons. To solve the problem, and for safety, people start to group together that can see each other. This splits neighborhoods and restaurants as they focus on serving only people capable of seeing everyone in the community. The transition period is awkward, but in the end, everything gets worked out. Finally, scientists invent glasses to allow everyone to see each other, but it seems a waste at this point. Everything has been sorted out already; no need to see everyone as things are generally fine the way they are.

5. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Clare Diston

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Do we need our emotions, even are most negative ones, to grow from an experience? Is offering someone money for something you know they can’t refuse a type of stealing? Is it wrongly voyeuristic to want to experience someone else’s emotions? In this work of Gatsby-like philosophical short story fiction, Reginald is a member of the aristocracy with a strange habit. He buys and bottles the emotions of commoners. In fact, the night the story takes place, he is hosting a “tasting” for his aristocratic friends. They will sample emotions like Joviality, Joy, Remembrance, and Contentment. However, plans change when one of the guests arrives late, already a bit drunk, with a woman as his guest. While she is lower class, she does not shy away from asking to taste the strongest vintages in the wine cellar. As the night wears on, a conflict breaks out as the woman insults and chastises Reginald for buying the emotions of commoners and preventing them from feeling and processing their emotions properly.

6. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Anya Josephs

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To what degree is it appropriate to merge social networks with organizational goals in order to extract greater work from your volunteers? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, a young girl hears a voice from behind that promises to fulfill her wishes, but at a price. First, she wishes her abusive father dead, but it comes at the price of falling asleep for a week. Later, she sacrifices her leg in order to prevent the harvest from failing. She finally leaves her home as payment for her parents getting the money from her marriage dowry, while she escapes the unwanted marriage. Homeless, she is discovered by a rebel group fighting against their tyrannical king. They learn about her power and, bit by bit, ask her to sacrifice herself to aid them in their fight. She falls in love with one of the men in the struggle and continues to give more of herself to the fight. She goes blind and loses an arm, all as payment to the voice for favors it will do for her, and for the struggle. Finally, the young girl is asked to make the ultimate sacrifice and pay for a favor from the voice with her life.

7. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
Joe Vasicek

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Would you rather live in complete happiness, or have knowledge of good and evil? In this allegorical work of philosophical short fiction, Adam lives in a biblical paradise. One day, a strange man in the garden, wearing a snake necklace, offers him a fruit from the tree of knowledge. He declines, saying “Father” has forbid him from eating it. Later, Eve comes to the garden as well. She is offered the same fruit and accepts. After eating the fruit she realizes she is in a stasis chamber on a space voyage that has gone wrong. She heads back into the computer-generated paradise to try and get Adam, the only other remaining member of the crew, out of stasis, by convincing him to eat the same apple she did.

8. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7
J.G. Willem

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What are the long-term implications of haves and have-not to genetic medical advances? Should medical services that can be afforded by one, be freely made available to all? Do gatekeeping technologies make it progressively harder for the poor to change their status in the world? In this work of philosophical short fiction, the Dios are a group of super humans who, because of their wealth, have, over generations, made mental and physical enhancements to themselves. Those changes have compounded over time, making them a different, and superior, race. The only humans left on earth are those who didn’t start the enhancement process generations ago. Some, however, sometimes agree to go to live on Mars with the Dios as their pets. The narrator is one such person, that is, until he starts to ask too many questions.

9. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7

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10. After Dinner Conversation: Volume > 3 > Issue: 7

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