APRIL 2026 SCIENCE FICTION MICROSTORY CONTEST (Comments/Critiques Only) > Likes and Comments

Theme: An extinct profession (either now or in the future)

Required element: An absurd tax

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all.

Nice job, Artimis II

And, welcome home. (Brings back memories.)

With all the expense and importance of the Artemis mission, the crew was nonetheless focused on memorializing the dead wife of one of the astronauts by naming a crater after her. If there are advanced alien civilizations observing these activities, they must think us humans might just be an okay species after all.

It was nice to see. Let's just hope we keep funding going and the momentum. Watching the Artemis II I was reminded how any serious travel--even within our solar system--is going to require us to build much larger ships in space.

I was 8 years old when we landed on the moon, watching it on an old black and white TV with a 13 in screen at my grandmother's in Florida. I later met Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and, my favorite, Alex Gross. Alex was the lead designer for the space suit used by the astronauts. When I was at his house in Aspen, Colorado, he rummaged through a bunch of boxes and pulled out an old white shoe box and handed it to me. He had a big grin on his face. I opened the box to find a moon rock and the US flag and NASA logo cut from one of the suits. Each was signed by Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins.

JF---yes! That really struck me too.
Jack--cool '69 moon landing memory! I recall watching that the landing (also on an old b&w television) during a student antiwar protest planning session, and the homeowners' kids, probably also 8 years or so, coming into the room to watch it, people telling them "You'll remember this someday when you're old."

Mine is up. As always, this is a work of fiction and not a political statement of what the future might bring.

Jot, each short scene in the tale moves along very well, except, at times, the viewpoints' language usage seems off--e.g., "the robot cuffed the culprit and held him now from the ground by back part of the harness. [and, very next sentence/paragraph:] With its back turned, a few in the crowd cheered at the sight of another man . . .." Or is this scene intended as the switch from the man/observor's to the enforcer-bot's p.o.v.? And, in general, the tale might work better if it develops more clearly the changing of the p.o.v. characters' relationships.



Jot wrote: "Mine is up. As always, this is a work of fiction and not a political statement of what the future might bring."

Thanks Paula, let me see if I can rework those lines.

Oh good, Jot. Delighted if the comment's helpful to you.

Mines up. Not exactly hard science fiction, but I've been a little distracted this month.

Good one, Chris.

(I suppose it could be called hard science in terms of economic, technological and sociological prediction.)

Tom wrote: "Good one, Chris.

(I suppose it could be called hard science in terms of economic, technological and sociological prediction.)"

Thanks, Tom. Maybe. It was a fairly simple story, but I was able to get it done.

It was great Tom. Loved it!

Justin wrote: "It was great Tom. Loved it!"

Thank you, Justin.

I enjoyed your story. Great imagery and suspense, and great closing joke.

Tom wrote: "Justin wrote: "It was great Tom. Loved it!"

Thank you, Justin.

I enjoyed your story. Great imagery and suspense, and great closing joke."

Thank you sir!

Great Stories, All!

I got caught in a three-way crunch this month: My father passing away, with funeral planning, etc., cleaning out/up the house that is now owned by just my mom and will be going on the market May 1 and preparing for a Mensa Regional Convention which is tomorrow.

I had some interesting ideas, but not the time to turn them into a story.

But I should be back for next month's challenge.

Greg wrote: "Great Stories, All!

I got caught in a three-way crunch this month: My father passing away, with funeral planning, etc., cleaning out/up the house that is now owned by just my mom and will be going..."

My condolences on your loss.

Sorry for your loss, Greg.

Condolences to you and your family, Greg.

So sorry about your dad, Greg. Hope your mom is coping well during what must be such a difficult loss for her.

Prayers for your family, Greg.

Congrats to J.F. Williams, on your sixteenth championship!

Greg wrote: "Great Stories, All!

I got caught in a three-way crunch this month: My father passing away, with funeral planning, etc., cleaning out/up the house that is now owned by just my mom and will be going..."

So sorry for your loss Greg.

Congratulations J.F.! It was a great story!

Congrats J.F.!

Thank you, Jot, Justin, and Chris! A few notes about the story: I began my work career as a proofreader/factchecker so I knew it was a job made obsolete by pre-AI software like spell and grammar checkers, and that it probably needs resurrection to provide more oversight to AI. I used the word "confabulation" instead of the more popular term "hallucination" because experts have argued that the former is closer to describing what AI does. Curiously, the term is borrowed from neurology to describe a symptom of dementia. So does AI just exhibit dementia earlier than humans? If so, why?

The May threads:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You can also view them on the last page of the discussions list. Jot has to work some moderator-level magic to get them to appear on the top page.

J.F. wrote: "Thank you, Jot, Justin, and Chris! A few notes about the story: I began my work career as a proofreader/factchecker so I knew it was a job made obsolete by pre-AI software like spell and grammar ch..."

A very well thought out, provocative and timely concept.

Congratulations.

Thanks, Tom!