Life In the Future — Part One
By Alex Shvartsman
Happy New Story Sunday, Daily Tomorrow readers! This week, we have a story with the most boring name ever! What is this, a science fiction magazine used as a prop in the background of a TV show for one shot? But I think you’ll find that this fable by the prolific Alex Shvartsman has a lot more to say than, “spaceships, probably.” In previous weeks, this is where I would make a bad pun on the title, but I just don’t have enough to work with here. I guess those days are behind us. —The Editor
Life In the Future
By Alex Shvartsman
Peter was eight hours into a ten-hour drive, fueled in equal parts by coffee, greasy roadside diner food, and ambition. The job interview was scheduled for the following morning; he’d get a decent night’s rest once he arrived in Dayton, aced the interview, and got the job at one of the most prestigious engineering firms in the country. He’d finally have enough money and job security to propose to Yuriko. And then … he caught his mind wandering and knew it was time for a rest stop. He couldn’t make his dreams come true if he won a game of chicken against an eighteen-wheeler.
Peter pulled off the highway and into a quaint little town, drove down a Main Street that looked like every small-town Main Street in America, and parked next to an equally quaint coffee shop. He emerged with a paper cup a few minutes later, about to get back into his car, when he saw the used books sign across the street.
He glanced at his watch and decided that he’d been making good enough time to spare a few minutes. He couldn’t resist the siren’s call of a book store, and who knew what treasures might await him undiscovered in a place like this?
The store was packed floor to ceiling with old books, but the pickings were slim. Either the owners had discovered eBay, or another serious bibliophile had come through recently. He was ready to admit defeat when his gaze was drawn to a bin of old magazines. He rifled through it and plucked out two issues of Astounding Stories and a dog-eared Galaxy from 1952 with the first printing of Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man in it.
Satisfied, Peter was about to head for the register when an unfamiliar title caught his eye. An issue of Colossal Fiction was buried near the bottom of the bin. Black-and-white cover and a list of unfamiliar contributors suggested this to have been a regional magazine of minor importance. Still, Peter liked to think of himself as an expert on sci-fi pulps, so he grabbed the obscure title out of sheer curiosity—at a buck per magazine he couldn’t go wrong.
Peter arrived in Dayton by ten in the evening, grabbed a quick meal, and checked into his hotel. He stretched out on the bed and began skimming through Colossal Fiction. As he suspected, the stories were just okay.
They would’ve been rejected by the major zines of the day back then, let alone today. He was ready to set it aside when he came across a column titled “Life in the Future.”
Futurist Clint Lippert imagines what everyday living will be like in fifty years’ time, declared the subtitle. Peter read on. This issue’s column focused on education in the 21st century. Lippert described the life of a college student and was spot on about many things; he predicted online college courses, e-books, and the fall of the Soviet Union. But the real surprise was the name of the hypothetical engineering student in the essay: Peter Wilson. His name.
Alex Shvartsman is a writer, translator, and anthologist from Brooklyn, NY. He’s the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Over 120 of his short stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and many other venues. His website is www.alexshvartsman.com.
Copyright © 2025 Alex Shvartsman