What will the future be like ? How will we
relate to robots ?
What would an alien invasion
be like? What awaits us in a zombie apocalypse
? of William Gibson himself, to cross a membrane of probability. INDEX
1. Famous science fiction
tales 2. Tales of aliens and zombies
The stories you will read below are an adaptation of the most famous science fiction stories, written by geniuses of this genre such as Isaac Asimov and George RR Martin. In them you will find trips to the future and parallel worlds behind which are locked very human messages and an invitation to reflection. 1. Robbie (Isaac Asimov)
The master of science fiction brings us a wonderful story about the limits of robotics and the future relationship of humans with machines.
Everything stems from Mrs. Weston’s concern for the robot that has been babysitting her daughter for two years. Her husband bought it for a high sum of money, and is a strong supporter of Robbie (that’s what the robot is called). According to Mr. Weston,Before a robot harms a human, the First Law of Robotics renders it inoperable.
To make his wife happy, Mr. Weston gets rid of the robot, but when little Gloria discovers it, she loses her smile and becomes an unhappy girl. So her father arranges a visit to “US Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation” so that the girl is convinced that Robbie was nothing more than a jumble of cables and steel.
But during the excursion Gloria sees Robbie and, separating from her parents, she advances towards her friend without realizing that a heavy machine is about to run over her. Robbie is the only one who manages to save the girl in extremis .
When Mrs. Weston sees that Robbie, despite being a robot, hugs her daughter affectionately, she realizes that she has to accept him “at least until he rusts”. 2. The Nine Billion Names of God (Arthur C. Clarke)
One of the most exciting science fiction stories is this vision by Arthur C. Clarke about…
In the story, a Tibetan monastery has bought a complex computer to decipher a code of letters that the lamas have elaborated for centuries to discover the name of God. The monk exposes his project to the supplier , Mr. Clark, who has the task of taking the machine to Tibet, together with the engineers who supervise its operation.
For three months, the computer makes lists of all possible combinations of God’s name. One afternoon, as the project nears completion, one of the engineers approaches Mr. Clark in horror. One of the monks has revealed to him the true objective of the task: when they collect all the combinations, the task of humanity in the world will be finished and the existence of the human race will have no more meaning.
The problem was not that, the engineer warned: “When they discover that in the end their plan is not fulfilled, they will believe that our machine does not work”. The ending is amazing: while the two descend from the Himalayas to return home , they watch in terror as the stars in the sky are fading… 3. The Gernsback Continuum (William Gibson)
This is one of the most famous science fiction stories. Written in 1981 by William Gibson, it introduced the concept of semiotic ghost into the genre.
In a London tavern, the photographer who narrates the story is hired by the Barris-Watford advertising company for a report on the futuristic architecture of New York : American aerodynamic modernism, a kind of alternative America, a 1980 that never happened.
“And one day, outside of Bolina, while preparing to photograph a luxurious example of Ming martial architecture, I passed through a thin membrane, a membrane of probability.” The photographer sees in the sky a thing with twelve motors that looks like an inflated boomerang.
Then his colleague Kihn, a journalist specialized in paranormal events, gives him the key: he has seen that thing, but it does not exist. How can it be?
They are semiotic ghosts, fragments of the collective unconscious that have acquired a life of their own.
In the case of our protagonist, he had become so obsessed with futuristic architecture that he had entered his own world and, without distinguishing between reality and fiction , had ended up living in that world of neon giants and cucumber-shaped airships. . 4. Gentle Rains Will Come (Ray Bradbury)
In the 1950s, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury wrote a series of science fiction stories, including this futuristic narrative.
With a devilish rhythm Ray Bradbury describes what happens on August 4, 2026 in Allendale , California. A kitchen that informs the owners of the tasks of the day, an oven that prepares food and removes the dishes after a certain time, tables that close by themselves, the door opening before a dying dog.
As the narrative progresses we realize that the omniscient narrator is describing an apocalyptic scenario in which there are no human beings : acid rain, a city of rubble and ash, a nuclear attack that engulfs the house in flames.
The story admits many interpretations but in all of them the idea of ​​an apocalyptic future in which the machines continue to work with precision while the human world collapses ends up converging. It is a warning of how the machines can end up supplanting the human race if we continue to act as before. 5. The Kings of the Arena (George RR Martin)
The creator of the fascinating world of Game of Thrones already demonstrated in 1979 his talent as a narrator of fascinating stories.
This long story of about fifty pages describes the eagerness of an intriguing collector of voracious animalsfor acquiring a new species superior to all others. Your new pet is a horrible species of insects that, locked in a terrarium, fight for food.
But in addition to instinct, “the kings of the arena” have a privileged brain.
And thanks to their intelligence, these insects love their keeper and carve their sphinx into sand castles. Certainly believing himself to be a god , Mr. Kress buys four colonies of sand kings and pits the insects against each other in fiery battles that his guests watch in fascination.
The problem comes when Kress’s girlfriend reports him to the police. This, as revenge, sacrifices a puppy and sends the recording to the young woman, who full of hatred appears at her house andhe smashes his huge terrarium with a hammer . In a fight to the death, Kress kills his mate and the Sand Kings eat the corpse.
But now the insects are free, and Kress finds himself in a desperate attempt to satiate the appetite of the terrible monsters he has created. 6. I have no mouth, and I must scream (Harlan Ellison)
They called it I exist, in honor of the famous quote I think, therefore I am. It was a military computer that had managed to become aware of itself and had made a terrifying decision: to end humanity. But he rescued five people , four men and one woman, and as a punishment to humanity for having created it, he will keep them locked up in a bunker to torture them ad nauseam.
I exist endows them with immortal life, feeds them horrible food and sends horrible creatures to torment them. The five humans are condemned to a horrible existence and the machine prevents them from committing suicide to end their torment.
I have no mouth, and I must scream was awarded in 1968 as the best short story.
Tales about artificial intelligence and beings from other worlds. | Jezael Melgoza. Science fiction stories of aliens and zombies
The power of fascination that awakens in our minds the invasion of aliens and the apocalyptic world of zombies is a gold mine for the creation of fun stories like the ones you will read next, and that will leave you stuck to the screen until you discover the end.7. The first death (Dan Guajars)
The story begins with a suffocating atmosphere of terror due to the apocalyptic vision of zombies wandering in search of food that the protagonists have from the boarded up windows. The narrator finds himself with the responsibility of going out to look for a supermarket where he can stock up on food for the survivors of his family.
The young man arrives at the supermarket dodging the corpses and abandoned cars, fills his backpack with groceries and when he is about to leave he hears the cry of a baby. On the way home he is attacked by a zombie that bites him in the leg, but he manages to get home and, already safe, introduces the new member of the family .
But what worries him the most is the leg wound, and when they realize the contagion, he is locked in his room in a state of quarantine. As the days go by he feels anxiety, he loses sensitivity in his hands and bites his lips until he no longer has a mouth. As he is about to start eating his hands, his father walks in.
What is his surprise when she realizes that her sisters and her mother also have no mouth, and that his father is a walking corpse. The baby had infected them, but they had discovered the cure: the bite of a simple corner spider . 8. All You Zombies (Robert A. Heinlein)
In 1958 Robert A. Heinlein wrote in a single day a strange story of unconnected points that in the end end up having coherence. They are based on the timeline of Jane’s life.
In this time paradox, the story is told in a disorderly way that starts on September 20, 1945, when a waiter leaves Jane in an orphanage. She there she grows up with the dream of joining the rest and recovery section for astronauts.
Eighteen years later, a man calling himself “Single Mother” meets young Jane, an intersex being whom he seduces. The two are separated by the bartender recovering the Single Mother and taking him back to 1985. A pregnant Jane gives birth to a true hermaphrodite, but is returned to the orphanage with the identity of a man.
Then he starts working as a writer and calls himself the Single Mother. In 1970 he is sent back to 1963 to find out who got her pregnant . In 1993, the bartender, who is also Jane, her father and single mother at the same time, returns to his base from the 1970s to reflect on his life.
At the end of the story, the barman lays down to rest after closing his bar and, looking at the cesarean scar on his belly, thinks: “I know where I come from, but where did all you zombies come from ?
” 9. The invasion (Jose Andres Salinas)
Juan was a 16-year-old teenager who lived in a remote rural area in the middle of Peru. One night, something fascinating broke the monotony of the place, and in what way!A huge spaceship guided by aliens flooded the town with light, and horrified people saw on television that they were being invaded.
The aliens demanded that the humans return their lost little alien. Until it happened, they would sow the planet with terror. The inhabitants were confined to a military base, but while they were on their way there, Juan and his parents had an accident and his mother died. Juan promised to find the little alien and save humanity .
When the aliens were about to annihilate the world, and Juan was tired of searching unsuccessfully for the alien, he entered a bathroom in an abandoned high school to pee. And there, sitting on a toilet, was the lost alien.
The military took the little alien with theirs and they left the world. The authorities rewarded Juan, who was able to finish his studies, reform his parents’ farm and, after a successful political career, became president of the country .
One day the aliens returned to earth in search of humans with whom to experiment. Juan volunteered, and was never heard from again. Not from aliens. 10. Extraterrestrials (Elsa Bornemann)
In a place separated from the rest of humanity there is a secret military base thatcontains a hundred aliens. They are barely different from humans, except for their bald head, and appear harmless, but military officials say they are dangerous and need to be studied by the scientific community. The aliens are subjected to terrible experiments and after great suffering they are reduced to ashes. But are we surprised by this
? Haven’t we gotten used to humans annihilating each other?
At last, one of the aliens manages to escape from surveillance and, traveling through the lab pipes, manages to reach freedom. Although at this point, the poor alien all he wants is to find a quiet place to die alone.Pursued by the military who have noticed his absence , the alien looks up to the sky trying to spot the star from which he left in an operation to establish fraternal communication with other planets.
In the end he is cornered and shot down by a soldier who approaches him and rips out his heart to squeeze it. Blood stains the computer screen and some letters are drawn: “Game over”. He puts in another chip, and goes back to playing a game .

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