Skip to main content

story identification - Unpleasant Uses of Replicator/3D Printer


A bank manager gets up, uses his house replicator to make breakfast, then drives to work. he notices that things are wrong, such as damage to the statues on the facade of the bank building. Turns out, the bank is, like society, no longer working - a group of youths are in the bank, and only the janitor is willing to protect him, as long as he opens the vault. Turns out, civilization has collapsed because of replicators - no one works or trades anything except replicated replicators. The banker has a heart attack and dies before he opens the vault, so the janitor feeds his corpse into a replicator and gets a brand new manager, whom he drives home to start the day again. Two lovers among the youths hold each other and drop into a replicator so they can start their life over again, at exactly the same point as the morning since the new bodies are based on a template recorded that morning.


Author and name of story? I keep thinking Disch.



Answer




Your description is very good. The story is Now is Forever by Thomas M Disch.


Some relevant excerpts...


Nothing about breakfast, but Charles Archold is a bank manager.



... he observed peripherally that Commerce had been beheaded...



(Commerce is a statue on the facade)



..."Lester! Are you out there? Throw these juvenile delinquents out of my bank. This minute! Do you understand? Lester!"
"Didja hear the man, Lester? Why don't you answer the bank president?"

"He can open the vault doors. You can make him do it."...



They try to force him to open the vault but he collapses



"It was a heart attack, I guess. He's dead."



The two lovers...



"Jude helped her to sit down at the edge of the hopper, then took a seat beside her. The opening was barely big enough for their two bodies [...] Together, they slid into the machine."




and finally...



Lester shoved Archold's old body into the hopper of the Reprostat. [...] Lester opened the door of the materializer. [...] He laid the drugged body of the bank president on the bed [...] "See you tomorrow," he said to his old boss.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more