After Dinner Conversation

Would you look into and/or change the memories of your significant other to save their life? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Carson’s girlfriend Alice has been kidnapped. However, in this future, the technology exists to remotely extract the data from her mind, place it into the cloud, then download to a synthetic body. This renders the prior body totally valueless to the kidnappers, and will save Alice’s life. There is only one problem, there was a manufacturing defect in the new body’s memory storage capacity. Carson is given a choice, allow AI to delete a year’s worth of memories from Alice, or go in himself to choose which memories to view and delete. Carson decides to do the work himself, and finds out Alice has been having an affair with his brother and they have established a deep emotional connection. Carson is forced to make a hard choice about what (or who) he is going to purge from Alice’s memories.

Do what extent are we responsible for improving the world? To what extent are those that do evil in the world responsible for their actions? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Roz is a retired lawyer who is assigned as a volunteer case work for Deshaun, a trouble teenager who has been in and out of foster homes his whole life and was recently released for juvenile detention for getting into a serious fight. Roz attempts to help Deshaun, but he seems unwilling to trust anyone, and views Roz only as a resource to be exploited. Deshaun runs away from his group home while on detention and is at risk of being in violation of his probation. Roz contacts him and he asks her to pick him up. She feeds him and takes him to her place to sleep for the night. The next morning he is gone, along with her family Menorah. Some time later he contacts her, now in prison for other crimes, they meet and he apologizes for not accepting her offers of help.

Does life have the right to force its continued existence, even at the expense of other life? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, a pilot has been tasked with making the long journey, over the vastness of space, and over an unthinkable amount of time, to find a specific plant and spread panspermia capsules on the planet, ending the potential natural evolution of the planet, and seeding it for the eventual evolution of his own species. However, now that the moment of truth has arrived, the pilot has doubts. Does he have the right to potentially end the natural evolution of other species? Is it fair to be push life into being knowing that there is the risk of horrible pain and misery? In the final moments, he betrays his mission, and chooses not to drop the capsules on the unsuspecting planet.

Can incorrect actions (done in ignorance) still be honorable? To what extent do you have an obligation to meet and access evil, before vilifying it? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Sir Timult has committed himself to killing all the dragons remaining in the world. In fact, he has already killed several and is ready to kill the greatest of them all, “Deathwing.” However, upon entering Deathwing’s chamber he is invited by the dragon to first sit and talk. Sir Timult agrees, and learns that dragons frequently transform into humans and live among them. In fact, Sir Timult learns, some of the greatest healers, poets, and thinkers of his time were slayed by his own hands while they were in dragon form. Deathwing, in human form, is Lawrence the Weaver, a kind old man renowed for his weaving ability. In fact, Sir Timult has one of his weavings in his very own house! While some dragons have killed some people, these “evil” dragons have never killed anyone. Sir Timult is struck with grief, and takes his own life.

What does it mean to be an “all natural” food? To what degree should we determine a food additive is safe before using it mass produced products? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Dr. Loriah Harp works for Natural Light Foods and is the creator of acetylsterolstearate, a food additive that makes Natural Light Mayonnaise possible. She loves the product she helps create and feeds it frequently to her family at meals. Her life was perfect until her son Alex, started having health issues. New results in mice are showing that her additive, and her product, are causing health issues. Loriah wants the product pulled, Jeff, the Natural Light Foods’ CEO does not. Loriah decides to go public with the new information, ending her professional career.

How much does the truth matter when the accusation is enough to ruin lives? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Neil Daniels was a school counselor, two of the students at his school are Jesmyn and Melissa; they are inseparable. After they are discovered doing cocaine in the locker room Jesmyn is brought to Neil’s office. As part of a plan, Jesmyn quickly gets out of her seat, plunges her head into Neil’s lap, just as Melissa opened the door and snaps a photo. This photo is enough to end Neil’s marriage, cost him his reputation and job, and force him to spend his remaining days teaching ESL in Mexico.

When horrible war crimes have been committed by both sides, is a lasting peace more important than seeking justice against those who committed the crimes? In this work of war ethics short story fiction, two Inspectors, Seronian and a Bassweldan are put together to work on a criminal case. The case is of a Seronian and a Bassweldan who brutally murdered each other in a fit of rage. It seems they were both not using the “glanding” chemicals the entire population is required to use, to prevent old hatred from stirring up. The two inspectors’ investigation leads them to interview a “naturalist” group who believes the day will come when people will no longer have to inhibit their emotions by “glanding.” The story ends by the narrator finding out he had been set up to kill his fellow inspector in the name of vigilante justice for former war crimes. In fact, the narrator has more reasons to kill her than most as it was his family, that she had personally ordered murdered in the war.

What makes you, you? Why does your mind inhabit your body, instead of that of someone else? In this work of philosophical short story fiction about the mind, and ideas of self, Zach goes to visit his sister, Daphne, who has been incarcerated in a mental hospital. Her mental break came from her obsession with trying to solve the answer to her question, “Why am I, I?” She is obsessed with solving this problem and it has caused her to lose her grip on reality. Zach, her brother, is struggling at work, drinking too much, and also getting confused about the shifting world around him. Drunk, he gets angry at his family members of mental health patients support group and is picked up by the police. While sitting in the jail cell, sobering up, he shares a cell, and a conversation with a philosopher, who is particularly sympathetic to his/ Daphne’s questions about identity and self. It is only during their conversation that Zach begins to suspect he is Daphanie, and that he isn’t in a jail cell at all, but the mental hospital.

How do you forgive yourself for the horrible mistakes you made in your past? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Jimmy is the night shelf stocker at a grocery store. The narrator is working a summer job to pick up extra cash before heading to law school. One night while stacking dry goods, Jimmy confesses to the narrator he is tormented by something that happened when he was younger. He, along with some of his friends, stole a car, took the elderly family dog, and repeatedly pushed it out of a moving car until it died. Years later, Jimmy continues to be truly tortured by what he took part in. He can’t sleep, he is on medication, and tried going to a therapist. The narrator listens, and suggests he goes back to the therapist. Years later the narrator gets a visit from Jimmy’s wife who says Jimmy is tortured, distracted, and barely knows his own children. She begs the narrator to come and help. He refuses. Thirty years later, at the end of the story, the narrator is contacted by a long-term care mental health facility. Jimmy has been a patient for decades. They ask the narrator to visit and he does. Jimmy is unable to speak, but shows the narrator the scar on his hand from where he drove a nail through it.

What is the essence of parenting? Can a company, or the state, ever fulfill this essence and be a good parent to children? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Araminta Fox and her twin sister, Anastasia Fox, were conceived and brought into the world by Fox Television. They are the property of Fox and, while they have surrogates, they are not the legal parents of the children, the Fox entity is. The children are raised by a casting director, Beth, who receives direction and funding from the Fox board of directors. Araminta and Anastasia continue to work and grow in television and movies. Araminta enjoys the work, her sister does not. They are both emancipated at eighteen years old. Araminta continues to work in theatre while her sister goes to school, meets a boy, and gets married. Eventually, Fox reaches out to Araminta for a new TV show and asks her to be the “mother” to a new group of twins they are ready to birth and raise within the Hollywood system. Araminta is thrilled to do until she reads a clause in the contract stating that the caretaker for the twins will be rotated every five years; these twins will not have a “Beth” of their own.

Can machine learning and AI truly evaluate a person and determine if they are suited for a potential position? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Cindy is a recent college graduate struggling to find her first job. She has been sending her resume out for months without any luck when her brother, Jordan, explains to her that her resume is missing important buzz words that initial computer screening programs look for. She edits her resume and she starts to get job interests. Her first interview, however, is not with a person, but is a video call with a humanoid AI program. She doesn’t think the interview went well. Jordan expresses his frustration the how technology is changing and decides, in retaliation, to write a job application bot to send out resumes and counter the job hiring bots that are screening applicants.

How do you weigh the rights of the individual against the needs of the general population? In this work of philosophical short fiction, a zombie virus has ravaged the planet for over 30 years. While generations have been wiped out. Dr. Vivian Totter has developed a vaccine for the zombie infection and is being escorted to a nearby compound to accept an award for her world changing work. She is taken in an miliary vehicle across opens lands still infested with zombies. Their first overnight stop is in a city that causes her to find out that her mother was mentally disabled, raped, and later killed by zombies. With this revelation fresh in her mind she heads to her final destination, only to be confronted by members of the general population who assert the vaccination is killing a percentage of all those being forced to take it.

How important is it to forget the past? If you could trade a year at the end of your life for a day in your past would you do it? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Misha is working the family store (Shop of Yesterdays) by herself for the first time. The store she works at is a memory retrieval facility. All the memories of humanity are stored at the facility and accessible for reexperience. The price, however, for each day relieved is a death one year earlier. On this fateful day a man comes in with less than a year left and asks to sell his remaining day to relieve his “last good day.” After additional inquiry the man tells Misha this was the last day in his life before he “learned something he wasn’t ready for” and he was unable to let go of the information he had learned. It changed, and ruined, his life after that, forever.

Should it be socially acceptable for generally healthy senior citizens who are a burden to society and their family to commit suicide? In this elder care ethics short story fiction, Benjamin is getting into his sixties and the government has put ratios on the pain medication they will subsidize for his aging body. His wife has already passed, and his daughter only comes to visit him every month or two, and often just to quickly drop off groceries. Benjamin’s pharmacy suggests he consider enrolled in a government program to end his life so as not to “be a burden to family or society.” They also suggest that he not talk to his daughter about what he is doing as it will only put her in the awkward situation of feeling guilty unless she tries to talk him out of it. In the end, Benjamin goes forward with the government program. He leaves a goodbye letter for his daughter, and the government plants a tree in his honor.