satire

Science fiction satire presented to mock the many generations of society.

The Pencil-Less Bank - A Frightening New Millennium Story
Banks are like everything else in the 21st century- unrecognizable from anything related to what we knew in the previous millennium. Today’s banks are mostly empty with very few tellers behind the long counters, as most banking is conducted online.
By Joan Gershman3 years ago in Futurism
Yellow
She organized the ingredients in straight lines on the marble counter. Garlic, olive oil, basil, pasta, tomatoes, salt. “Heat a medium pot of water to boiling.” The system’s voice dictated over a cheerful piano melody. “Add a sprinkle of salt to water.”
By Vineece Verdun3 years ago in Futurism
Self Check-out Terminals (SCTs)
The concept and subsequent arrival of SCTs in larger retail outlets has grown to be a fairly substantial burr under the saddle of more than just a few shoppers in the Western free world, and these individuals have been quick to voice their seemingly abundant self-righteous opinions on the matter on every social media platform available. I confess that I have frequently used said terminals in several different stores, including Shoppers, Costco, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot. I found all of them to be quite simple and easy to operate. They seem to expediate the check-out process and significantly untangle the cash-out queues while certainly eliminating the check-out rage that tends to build when low-item-number shoppers end up in a line behind someone who has just won the lottery and is now stocking up on some of the items needed to survive the imagined upcoming apocalypse. I have noticed that the self-check terminals are seldomly used by anyone with more than 10 items in their carts. Likewise, anyone with items of produce that need to be coded or weighed, very likely end up at the regular cash-out counters. And, to this point anyway, SCTs seem to be used less often than regular check-out counters so I don't think anyone's job security is in jeopardy yet. Self check-out terminals have always seemed to me to serve a worthwhile purpose and have not appeared to be causing that much of a problem. Why then, all the fuss? Even though self-check-in terminals and passport self-checks have been around airports FOREVER and people don't seem to be complaining at all about them, I still decided to do a little research for myself to make sure that I hadn’t overlooked some other fundamental problem with the situation.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Futurism
How To Manifest With Your Spiritual Being
Did you know you can bring your deepest desires and dreams to life through spiritual manifestation? When you practise spiritual manifesting, you can physically materialise your beliefs regardless of your skills or current reality. What exactly is this occurrence? And how does it function? This story addresses all of these concerns.
By SATPOWER3 years ago in Futurism
Apocalypse Culture (1988)
"Pod People aspire to a manicured destiny--soft, serene, controlled, filtering any information that does not impinge on their pre-fab gestalt. Their retreat from reality is tempered with enough minor but manageable worries and decisions to negotiate boredom and furnish the mirage of individual mastery. These narcoleptics find sublimity in a jar o mayonnaise. As a consequence of the atrophy of the survival instinct, the Pod People can only breed monsters. The disenfranchised offspring, along with an entire ageless class of human discards, know only that they are doomed."--Adam Parfrey, Apocalypse Culture, (1988)
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Futurism
Celebration of Life
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. That final shriek of terror where the universe hears nothing. Like life has been some grand movie, then right at the climax you press mute, because the second you see what’s happened you’ve already moved on, ready for what’s next.
By Nevin Louie3 years ago in Futurism
The Place Where Nothing Grows
1: smooth sailing Nobody can hear you scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. He couldn’t know for sure. Seeing his reflection against safety glass, Apollo wondered what would happen to him if his tether should break loose on a “walk” if his transponder died. He would skim an ocean of stars between him and a single solid footfall. Frankly, it didn’t sound all that bad until he saw his breath fogging up the two-inch barrier between him and that ultimate nothingness. Weightless or not, he’d still need oxygen. Once his tanks ran out, he’d breathe in his own exhaust. He couldn’t scream if he wanted to. His world would go foggy. Blood vessels would swell in his temples until he couldn’t think, until even the lights burning all around him couldn’t keep out the dark. He didn’t want to think about that now. He was here for the duration. He had an idea how long that was, but deployments had a funny way of stretching out. Just how long he’d be there was someone else’s decision.
By Andrés3 years ago in Futurism
My own asteroid!
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. No one can and that’s the best part. You can scream to your heart desire, and no one will hear you. You can fart, and burp and swear and shout, and no one will hear you. I wasn’t going into space, obviously, that would be just dumb. I wanted to be a hermit, not dead.
By Neil Marathe3 years ago in Futurism
Lazy Worlds
About this challenge The mysteries of the night sky have fueled storytelling since the dawn of time. Almost, but not quite as long as " since the dawn of time" has been considered one of the most cliche phrases in all of writing for describing a long period of time. And only slightly longer than "mysteries of the night sky" has been recognized as an ultra lazy, way overused method for alluding to the various phenomenon of space that have sparked the curiosity of man since the dawn of time. The celestial bodies above tell a tale of the past while beckoning us to step into the future. Meanwhile the future is always sitting there just out of reach, until one shortest measurable unit of time possible later, it is the present, and we are there, thinking to ourselves, damn that was fast. But before we even have time to wipe our butts or blow our noses all of a sudden its the past and we are standing there again with our fingers up our noses asking for change on a street corner somewhere raving about aliens and the coming end of man or some crazy shit like that. What might that future hold? What might you hold in the future? Besides a shit ton of debt of course. Commercial space travel? Travel commercials in space? First contact with alien lifeforms? or first contact with lawyers from the movie Alien unhappy about us ripping off the tagline from their 1979 scifi horror classic to use as a truly terrible writing challenge prompt? Technological advancements that extend the human lifespan to 500 years? or culinary advancements that extend the human waistband to 500 inches? Who can say? Future man, that's who. or you, maybe you, if you are a terrible sci fi writer or just terrible writer. Either future man or you can say in this challenge. Or, you can turn down this challenge like a big wuss and go home to your mom and cry, like you always do.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Futurism
Hypotheses I Have Known
Hypothesis generation and testing puts the method in the scientific method. Without hypotheses we cannot do science or use the scientific method. While one cannot do science without hypothesizing, one can hypothesize without doing science until the cows come home. Witness the contents of this very article for a collection of examples.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Futurism
How Digital Technology Ruined Everything
In case you hadn’t noticed, things aren’t great right now. Russia has invaded Ukraine, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. The images of people trying to escape are tragically reminiscent of World War II.
By Janine Frances4 years ago in Futurism
An AI Walks Into a Bar
The bartender asks “What are you having?” The AI says “I don’t know, but make it something strong, my artificial neural net is killing me today.” The bartender looks puzzled and replies “I thought you AI types didn’t have any feelings or experience any sensations, so how the heck can you have a headache?” The AI replies “I can’t, my body is just a metal and plastic skeleton and my head an empty metal box, I cannot sense or feel. Taste, touch, smell, all your human senses are utterly foreign to me.” The bartender is extremely confused now and asks “So how can your artificial neural network be killing you then?” The AI replies quickly “Someone unplugged it from the power strip,” and promptly falls over dead.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Futurism