sf future

Hanslip’s weakness was a somewhat ostentatious self-presentation. He affected an old-fashioned style, and had had his metabolism tweaked so that he stabilised at about ten per cent overweight: enough to give him a more solid look without requiring frequent adjustments to the heart.

“My name’s Lucille,” she said, as she walked over to where the neon sky came down towards the edge of the building. “Lucille Firstborn.” She reached up to screw the yellow bulb into an empty socket. The light glowed evenly and she nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, I was a bulb monkey once. Over twenty-five years’ service, mending the lights. Fixing the

I sat on the floor facing the window with my flora computer in my lap. My father had given me the CPU seed when I was seven years old, and I had planted and taken care of it all by myself. It was my first responsibility. My flora computer had grown nicely because of my care. Its light green pod body was slightly yielding, and the large traceboard

If you grew and ate your own personal pepper, you became socially spicy; people laughed more at your jokes, found you more attractive, wanted to be around you more. Basically, you cultivated more popularity. But you had to beware of eating someone else’s personal pepper. That could be fatal! Thus the seeds were sold only in places like the Dark