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"Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen."
- Larry Niven
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| Timebroker | ||
| A person who traded in the commodity of other people's time. |
In the near future Earth of this short story, Cedric Swann is a timebroker. His job is a byproduct of the a-soms, anti-somnolence drugs that eliminated the need for sleep. Finally, humanity had broken free of the time standard created by their planet's rotation. There were no longer hours that were especially more desirable for work, or for leisure, or entertainment.
| A timebroker mediated between individuals and institutions, citizens and the government. Individuals registered their shifting schedules hour by hour with a timebroker of their choice. During such and such hours, they would be willing to work; during other hours, they were interested in attending a concert, a ball game, a university class, a gym. Contrarily, institutions registered their needs. The symphony wants a thousand listeners at four a.m. on Sunday. Can you provide them?
Institutions paid the timebrokers large fees for delivering guaranteed numbers of people - customers or workers or jury pools. Citiziens received discounts on the face value of ickets or tuition, or bonuses from employers, or tax breaks from the state and federal governments, for being willing to commit blocks of time via their timebrokers. |
| Technovelgy from Shuteye for the Timebroker,
by Paul Di Filippo. Published by Penguin in 2006 Additional resources -
|
Very cool meditation on the fungibility of time in a 24/7 society.
From the excellent anthology of original stories Futureshocks, edited by Lou Anders.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
