Would you accept a personality replacement? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Stanley is an awkward kid growing up to be an awkward adult. He struggles with depression, ADHD, anxiety, and just generally fitting in. He struggles to make friends in high school, and has only one friend in college, although his anxiety keeps him from spending too much time with him. In short, life, at least from Stanley’s perspective, is a never-ending string of misery. Echo is a new technology marketed as a “personality replacement.” First used to reform criminals, it is now being offered to the public to correct various mental disorders. Much to the frustration of his sister and college friend, Stanley pays to be Echoed, and is reborn a happy, confident, and different, person.

Should we patch our brain for better performance? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Peter Lonsdale is the creator of a Campaign Against Intellectual Discrimination; a worldwide effort to stop discrimination of those with lower mental abilities. As part of his pursuit, he created the company CAID, which focuses on brain patches that rewire the brain for intelligence, patience, focus, and other traits. Peter, as the founder and chief evangelist for patches, has taken more than he can count, probably 100’s. When the press gets a leaked scanned of his brain, showing just how many patches “Pincushion Pete” has taken over the year, it’s a public relations nightmare. Peter is forced to resign as head of the company he founded, and reflect on how to spin the story to allow for a comeback. Whatever course he takes to orchestrate his comeback, he’s going to do it with his patches in place. Nothing is coming out.

At what point should a child be taken away from their parents? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Lydia Lowry has a problem, the government is going to take her child away and put her in foster care. However, they have a reason, Lydia’s trailer is a disaster; it’s practically a biohazard. Lydia goes to visit the narrator, an attorney, in the hopes that she can help her keep her child. The narrator, no fan of child protective services, gets a few friends to agree to head out to Lydia’s house to clean it and get the government off her back. When they arrive, they find a mobile home covered in cat urine and feces, no hot water, and a pile of trash four feet high in the front yard. After several hours of cleaning, the narrator and her friends get dizzy from the toxic fumes. They give up on cleaning, and leave. The narrator is able to convince Lydia the best course of action is to have her daughter move to California and live with their better-off relatives until she turns eighteen. It’s not exactly a classic success story, but the narrator tells herself, not every story is.

Should everyone be a parent, at least for a summer? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator lives in a dystopian future where climate change has made it illegal to have children without government permission. This has given rise to super realistic robot children that can be purchased or, for those that can’t afford to purchase, rented. The narrator has a strong desire to be a mother and has, for the last 10 years, rented the same seven- and five-year-old robot girls each summer to parent. It’s an expensive habit, but she loves her summers taking her “children” to the local swimming pool. She loves reading them stories at bedtime, and tucking them in. As the summer winds down, trauma hits as one of her girls shuts down. She has reached the end of her service cycle. The narrator is devastated by the loss of her child, even though her younger daughter hardly seems to notice the loss at all.

How much science does the government need to change policy? In this philosophical short story fiction, Dr. Robert Flose is a botanist studying plants. For many years now, eating meat has been banned, but Dr. Flose has concerns about plants as well. Finally, he devises a tool that is able to measure levels of thought, feeling, and sentience, in all things. Much to his surprise, he finds plants are a higher life form than both humans and animals. And, unlike animals, they continue to live when separated from their base plant. In fact, the very salad on his plate screams out when it is eaten, if only humans had the tools to hear it. Dr. Flose presents his findings to the President, and is sent to a top-secret base to continue his research. His research confirms his findings again and again as he becomes increasingly more concerned about the daily genocide happening on dinner plates across the world. In the end, the government has him killed.

How do you help an alcoholic? When, if ever, do you leave them? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Raymond and Dorothy are married. They met in a bar after college and moved to the big city for Raymond to start a job and Dorothy to raise their children. Dorothy was never a good cook, but Raymond could always make a good martini. As time passes and the children grow up, stay-at-home Dorothy leans more and more on the bottle. Things come to a head when Raymond comes home from work and finds Dorothy passed on the floor of their bedroom. He wants to help, but doesn’t know how. He decides the best thing to do is to open a local gallery for one of their children to display and sell her art. Dorothy, he thinks, can run the shop and get out of the house. The gallery opening is a success, but Dorothy is busy sneaking a drink in the bathroom. It seems she is not yet ready to get sober.

Are the pious loved by the gods because they are pious, or are they pious because they are loved by the gods?” In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Professor Adamson and the narrator discuss Euthyphro’s dilemma. The narrator is invited by her professor to follow her into the woods and to meet a reclusive revolutionary leader. The professor, and the revolutionary group, want to overthrow the government because voting rights, and other civil rights, have been severely restricted by the government. The legal ability to change the government through voting is a “near impossibility.” On her way to meet the leader, the narrator meets an angel who informs her that the future revolution will fail, and many will be hurt in the process. The angel tells the narrator she must kill her professor to help humanity. The narrator is unsure what to do and, during their walk, discusses the dilemma she is in; a practical application of Euthyphro’s dilemma. The story ends in the final moment, knife in hand, when the narrator is about to decide what she will do.