Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeaed in Nature, March 23, 2000. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 6 (2001), edited by David G. Hartwell.

Read the full story for free at Nature.

Here are 100 very short stories on the subject of the future and what it might be like. The authors include scientists, journalists, and many of the most famous SF writers in the world. Futures from Nature includes everything from satires and vignettes to compressed stories and fictional book reviews, science articles, and journalism, in eight-hundred word modules. All of them are entertaining and as a group they are a startling repository of ideas and attitudes about the future.

Appearing in book form fo the first time, these one hundred pieces were originally published in the great science journal, Nature, between 1999 and 2006, as one-page features. That proved very popular with the readers of the journal. This is a unique book, by scientists and writers, of interest to any reader who might like to speculate about the future.

Table of Contents:

• 15 - Introduction: Nostalgia for the Future - essay by Henry Gee
• 25 - Cognitive Ability and the Light Bulb - (2000) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss [as by Brian Aldiss]
• 28 - Don't Imitate - (2006) - short story by Gilles Amon
• 30 - Check Elastic Before Jumping - (2006) - short story by Neal Asher
• 33 - Twenty2 - (2006) - short story by Nate Balding
• 36 - Under Martian Ice - (2005) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• 39 - Party Smart Card - (2006) - short story by Barrington J. Bayley
• 42 - RAM Shift Phase 2 - (2005) - short story by Greg Bear
• 45 - A Life with a Semisent - (2005) - short story by Gregory Benford
• 48 - Damned If You Don't - (2005) - short story by Lucy Bergman
• 51 - The Punishment Fits the Crime - (2006) - short story by David Berreby
• 54 - Toy Planes - (2005) - short story by Tobias S. Buckell
• 57 - A Concrete Example - (2006) - short story by J.-P. Boon and J. Casti and Carl Djerassi and J. Johnson and A. Lovett and T. Norretranders and V. Patera and C. Sommerer and R. Taylor and S. Thurner [as by J. Casti]
• 60 - The Aching of Dion Harper - (2006) - short story by Arthur Chrenkoff
• 63 - Improving the Neighborhood - (1999) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke (variant of Improving the Neighbourhood)
• 65 - Omphalosphere: New York 2057 - (2005) - short story by Jack Cohen
• 68 - Picasso's Cat - (2006) - short story by Ron Collins
• 71 - My Grandfather's River - (2006) - short story by Brenda Cooper
• 74 - Sandcastles: A Dystopia - (2005) - short story by Kathryn Cramer
• 77 - Adam's Hot Dogs at the End of the World - (2006) - short story by Jeff Crook
• 80 - The Party's Over - (2005) - short story by Penelope Kim Crowther
• 83 - Transport of Delight - (2005) - short story by Roland Denison
• 86 - The Perfect Lover - (2006) - short story by Paul Di Filippo
• 89 - Printcrime - (2006) - short story by Cory Doctorow
• 91 - A Brief History of Death Switches - (2006) - short story by David Eagleman
• 93 - Only Connect - (2000) - short story by Greg Egan
• 96 - At the Zoo - (2000) - short story by Warren Ellis
• 99 - The Liquidators - (2006) - short story by Michael Garrett Farrelly
• 102 - In the Days of the Comet - (2000) - short story by John M. Ford
• 104 - Ars Longa, Vita Brevis - (2000) - short story by James Alan Gardner
• 107 - Are We Not Men? - (2005) - short story by Henry Gee
• 110 - It Never Rains in VR - (2005) - short story by John Gilbey
• 113 - Gordy Gave Me Your Name - (2006) - short story by Jim Giles
• 116 - Nostalgia - (2005) - short story by Hiromi Goto
• 119 - Spawn of Satan? - (1999) - short story by Nicola Griffith
• 122 - Take Over - (2006) - short story by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• 125 - Speak, Geek - (2006) - short story by Eileen Gunn
• 128 - Heartwired - (2005) - short story by Joe Haldeman
• 131 - The Forever Kitten - (2005) - short story by Peter F. Hamilton
• 134 - The Road to the Year 3000 - (1999) - short story by Harry Harrison
• 137 - Operation Tesla - (2006) - short story by Jeff Hecht
• 140 - Making the Sale - (2006) - short story by Fredric Heeren
• 143 - Subpoenaed in Syracuse - (2000) - short story by Tom Holt
• 146 - Men Sell Not Such in Any Town - (2005) - short story by Nalo Hopkinson
• 149 - Total Internal Reflection - (2000) - short story by Gwyneth Jones
• 152 - Ringing Up Baby - (2006) - short story by Ellen Klages
• 155 - Semi-Autonomous - (2006) - short story by Jim Kling
• 158 - Product Development - (2006) - short story by Nancy Kress
• 161 - I Love Liver: A Romance - (2005) - short story by Larissa Lai
• 164 - Avatars in Space - (2000) - short story by Geoffrey A. Landis
• 167 - Comp.Basilisk FAQ - [Blit] - (1999) - short story by David Langford
• 170 - Gathering of the Clans - (2006) - short story by Reinaldo José Lopes
• 173 - Taking Good Care of Myself - (2006) - short story by Ian R. MacLeod
• 176 - Undead Again - (2005) - short story by Ken MacLeod
• 179 - Words, Words, Words - (2000) - short story by Elisabeth Malartre
• 182 - My Morning Glory - (2006) - short story by David Marusek
• 185 - Don't Mention the "F" Word - (2005) - short story by Neil Mathur
• 188 - Meat - (2005) - short story by Paul J. McAuley [as by Paul McAuley]
• 191 - The Candidate - (2006) - short story by Jack McDevitt
• 194 - A Modest Proposal for the Perfection of Nature - (2005) - short story by Vonda N. McIntyre (variant of A Modest Proposal)
• 197 - The Republic of George's Island - (2006) - short story by Donna McMahon
• 200 - The Stars My Incarnation - (2000) - short story by Robert A. Metzger
• 203 - The Computiful Game - (2006) - short story by Paul Steven Miller
• 206 - Oscar Night, 2054 - (2005) - short story by Syne Mitchell
• 209 - The Visible Men - [Jerry Cornelius - 32] - (2006) - short story by Michael Moorcock
• 212 - The Albian Message - (2005) - short story by Oliver Morton
• 215 - Photons Do Not Lie - (2006) - short story by Euan Nisbet
• 218 - Stranger in the Night - (2005) - short story by Salvador Nogueira
• 221 - Tick-Tock Curly-Wurly - (2006) - short story by Gareth Owens
• 224 - Daddy's Slight Miscalculation - (2006) - short story by Ashley Pellegrino
• 227 - Brain Drain - (2000) - short story by Frederik Pohl
• 230 - Great Unreported Discoveries No. 163 - (2006) - short story by Mike Resnick
• 233 - Feeling Rejected - (2005) - short story by Alastair Reynolds
• 236 - The Trial of Jeremy Owens - (2006) - short story by Peter Roberts (1952-)
• 239 - Prometheus Unbound, At Last - (2005) - short story by Kim Stanley Robinson
• 242 - Dreadnought - (2005) - short story by Justina Robson
• 245 - Falling - (2005) - short story by Benjamin Rosenbaum
• 248 - Panpsychism Proved - (2006) - short story by Rudy Rucker
• 251 - The Abdication of Pope Mary III - (2000) - short story by Robert J. Sawyer
• 254 - The Charge-Up Man - (2006) - short story by Catherine H. Shaffer
• 257 - From the Desk of Jarrod Foster - (2006) - short story by Biren Shah
• 260 - Pluto Story - (2000) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• 263 - Madame Bovary, C'est Moi - (2000) - short story by Dan Simmons
• 266 - Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN - (2000) - short story by Joan Slonczewski
• 269 - For He on Honeydew Hath Fed ... - (2006) - short story by Paul Smaglik
• 272 - A Man of the Theater - (2005) - short story by Norman Spinrad (variant of A Man of the Theatre)
• 275 - Ivory Tower - (2005) - short story by Bruce Sterling
• 278 - Play it Again, Psam - (2005) - short story by Ian Stewart
• 281 - MAXO Signals - (2005) - short story by Charles Stross
• 284 - Golden Year - (2006) - short story by Igor Teper
• 287 - Paratext - (2006) - short story by Scarlett Thomas
• 290 - Murphy's Cat - (2000) - short story by Joan D. Vinge
• 293 - Win a Nobel Prize! - (2000) - short story by Vernor Vinge
• 296 - A Leap of Faith - (2000) - short story by Theo von Hohenheim
• 299 - Nadia's Nectar - (2006) - short story by Ian Watson
• 303 - Statler Pulchrifex - (2006) - short story by Matt Weber
• 306 - All Is Not Lost - (2000) - short story by Scott Westerfeld
• 309 - The Key - (2006) - short story by Ian Whates
• 312 - The Godmother Protocols - (2006) - short story by Heather M. Whitney
• 315 - The Great Good-bye - (2000) - short story by Robert Charles Wilson (variant of The Great Goodbye)
• 318 - Pigs on the Wing - (2005) - short story by K. Erik Ziemelis