Ramnath R Iyer's "The Forgotten Future" (short story, virtual reality, free)

This one is only for those with a taste for stories where all characters are entities inside a computer simulation.

I keep getting puzzled why some Indian authors are shy of using characters with Indian names. John & Sue in this story could as well have been Kumar & Sarita!

Story summery.

Couple of hundred years down the line, humanity has generally shut itself in a VR world by directly hooking the brains into the networked simulation & shutting down much of the body processes.

Usual dystopia results. Until someone figures it's the way to extinction - since everyone will eventually die out, & no one is having children in real world. So we have a hero & heroine now charged with getting the humanity back to real world.

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, sometime in 2006.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

J Ramanand's "Dropping Off" (short story, free): Since few of us use our head, why not let out the spare capacity?

This could have been hilarious satire, but that's left as an exercise for another author. Author takes the idea literally.

Story summary.

Idea is: since most of us are supposed to waste most of the potential of our brains, why not rent out the spare processing capacity? So a machine plugs into the brain & does an externally programmed job, while the owner of the brain sleeps! The story is of a man employed by a company that does brain rentals, & his later disenchantment with the job.

Two key ideas of the story - brain renting & memory retention by unconscious thinking - have both been used before, but it was still a good read.

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, 1 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Fiction about computers.

Narendra Desirazu's "Noah's Ark" (short story, global warming, free): Containing the floods resulting from glacial melting

This is two stories, deftly weaved into one: search for some sort of bacterial life form among the buried ice deposits on Mars, & a solution to the problem of depleting glaciers on earth.

Story summary.

Sometime in 2064, the first Martian bacteria are found. But they behave in a weird way. They normally hibernate just below the freezing point of water, but the moment temperature rises enough to melt water, they get into frantic activity to multiply & soak up this energy - resulting in refreezing!

Problem is: how to safely introduce them into controlled regions on earth where glaciers are desired - but without contaminating rest of earth & without freezing more water than required? Much text is devoted to this.

Happy ending, after a lot of misery.

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, 11 December 2008.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's website.

Aditya Sudarshan's "Live and exclusive" (short story, idea of consciousness, free): Burglar-proofing a house

There are familiar stories about aware planets - like Asimov's "Nemesis" & one of his Foundation Trilogy sequels that features a world-entity called Gaia. This amusing story is a very beautiful twist on that idea, applied to a very mundane problem.

A note for readers unfamiliar with Hindi: Story uses the word "bhoot" a couple of times. It's sound is Hindi for "ghost".

Story summary.

Vir Saxena, a TV journalist, is sensing a story in what appears to be a haunted house - a recent 3 story construction in a prosperous Delhi neighborhood where 2 burglars have recently died in mysterious & unexplainable circumstances.

House practically invites burglars. There is no visible security. Mohan Achrekar, the lone occupant, is 60 year old & frail. But what the burglars, & cops investigating their death, haven't counted on is - security need not be visible!

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, 24 December 2008.
Rating: A.
Download full text.
Related: Stories that feature an intelligent house.
Added to my best of the year 2008 list.

Anita Murthy's "Call of the Running Tide" (short story, baby care, free): Robotic nannies aren't enough!

A future where natural birth among humans is unknown. You hand over the egg & sperm to a company that will fertilize the egg, grow the embryo in an artificial womb, & finally "deliver" the baby! What is more, the package normally includes The Nanny, a robotic one - so parents don't have to waste time raising the babies!

This is the story of Ria & Mihir, & their little one (Cookie) who is absolutely unhappy with the Nanny. Ria will slowly discover what it means to touch & comfort her child.

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, sometime in 2007.
Rating: A.
Download full text.
Related: Stories of technology assisted baby making & care.

Rinku Dutta's "Aski's Choice" (short story, free): Someone is not happy in this utopian society

Familiar tropes with modern twist. I liked it in spite of minor flaws like a lot of jargon, & unnecessary & illogical astronomical references.

Story summary.

In this twenty-fourth century society, ubiquitous brain implants record every thought in a personal electronic journal, these journals are publicly shared, software can identify potentially subversive thoughts, & software can analyze your thought processes for rationality (it got the impression it's more like conformity to social mores).

While the worn gadgets give options of not sharing all thoughts or even recording them, doing so will make you a social outcast.

Now Aski is discovering the usefulness of recording only some thoughts that tell an interesting story, or even recording false thoughts (fiction)...

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, 23 November 2008.
Rating: A
Download full text.

Rahul Jaisheel's "21 Minutes" (short story, time travel, free)

A shorter & less drastic variation on Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Vintage Season". Very well executed, but I'm puzzled why the author, a fellow Mumbaikar, felt shy of using Indian names for characters?

Last 2 paragraphs are needless. Author probably didn't realize when the story was over.

Story summary.

Eric Goldberg reluctantly admitted the stranger named Phillip Kantor who wanted to talk to him about an old paper of Eric's at this late hour. Resulting academic discussion was very interesting, until Eric realized the ominous implications...

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, 23 November 2008.
Rating: A
Download full text.
Added to my best of the year 2008 list.