How does our limited life span determine our choices and our view on the preciousness of life? How would these views change if we lived forever? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, a traveling salesman sits at the bar after a long day drinking bourbon. He is approached and cleverly pitched a new product he has discovered on a distant rim planet, Life. The product stops the aging process. The first batch is free, and the salesman returns eight years later to get into the distribution business.

Are self-help movements just modern snake oil? In this work philosophical short story fiction, Graham is a self-help junkie, spending $1,000’s per year to attend seminars and buy various self-help books. His motivation peaks and he decides to move to Los Angeles to be a screenwriter. His money quickly runs out, his health declines, and he is forced to return home in shame as a failure. He blames the self-help gurus that told him to pursue his dream and believes they are charlatans selling fake dreams. He attends yet another self-help guru’s event, this time to try and convince those attending the whole thing is a farce. Instead, he meets the guru in the hotel bar who tells him he has already moved past self-help, and he needs to create his own path. He does, and creates a form of yoga called Maneuverism. His program quickly grows into a worldwide phenomenon, until at his height, he walks away from it all, telling his follows to find their own path.

Is the story of life finding meaning in the meaningless? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Randy is a small suburban thief. Just in and out. Grabs a few small things that won’t be missed and locks the door and turns on the alarms as he leaves. On this particular day, he finds someone waiting in the house with a pistol. This stranger person confesses the gun isn’t for Randy, but for himself as, every day around 1pm, he has been dying in an endless loop of the same day. Randy doesn’t believe if, but has sympathy for the man because he lost a loved one to suicide. They talk, until the man raises the gun to kill himself. Randy takes the gun from him, the man stands to attempt to get it back, slips on the flood, hits his head, and dies instantly, right on time.

How do you keep the vitality of youth? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator is an elderly man who lives with his elderly, walker-bound wife. His life takes a turn for the exciting when he accidently realizes he can see in the bathroom of the house across the way. The young man renting has a new girlfriend, and watching her each day awakens in the man a sense of joy in seeing the vitality of youth. The situation changes when the visiting girlfriend goes to Germany for the summer as part of a study abroad. At the end of the summer she returns, and returns to showering in the bathroom across the way. This time, however, as the narrator watches her his wife comes into the garage, catching him staring. Likewise, the woman and her boyfriend across the way simultaneously catch him as well.

Should medical research be driven by money? Should rich donors drive medical research focus? In this philosophical short story fiction, Liz heads to a medical research office with her son Micah. When Micah was born she was paid $1,000 by the research company for them to draw and review his DNA. The payment required a one follow-up appoint. Upon arrival Liz finds out the medical company is attempting to win the Z Prize, a prize funded by wealthy donors to find a treatment for the physical and mental deterioration of age. The researches explain Micah has a gene variation that makes him very likely to get Alzheimer’s later in life. This, however, makes him the perfect candidate for testing the company’s new gene editing treatment. Sure, it’s outside of the bounds of US regulations so it will be have to be done in the Caribbean, but if it works, Micah could prove their drug works, put an end to Alzheimer’s, and keep himself from getting it as well. The medical company would win the Z Prize, and Liz would receive a million dollars as payment for allowing them to test the new treatment on her son. She has 48 hours to decide.

It is okay to steal from a faceless company to save your family? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Joe and Ellie are stuck in a house they can’t sell. They have already bought their new house, but their old house has asbestos, lead paint, and black mold in the basement. Buyers don’t want to touch it and the financial burden of carrying a mortgage on two homes is set to bankrupt them. It is also causing them to put off starting a family. Joe gets an idea, he will hire a long-time friend to burn down their old house, thus allowing them to collect the insurance proceeds. Things go wrong when the friend accidently burns down the wrong house.

How do you stop progress? How do you stop small towns from being developed? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Uncle Jed is an elderly farmer who hoped he would go his whole life with nothing particularly interesting ever happening to him. He served in World War II, and that was enough. He was hoping to farm and eventually die, as part of an uneventful life. However, after his wife Sadie dies he takes greater interest in expressing his frustration with the development happening in his small town. He stalls his tractor in the street, causing traffic jams. He refuses to accept mail at his house. He takes hug jars of change to the bank for processing. The town continues to build tract homes and, it is only in death, that the narrator, his grand-niece, realizes he may have been right all along.

Is a digital copy of a loved as socially valuable as the real person? Is there an advantage if being able to permanently lose the ones we love? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Rachel receives a letter while at University informing her that her Uncle Stewart has passed away. She returns to the small town for the funeral and talks with Grandma Ruth, the local restaurant owner. Grandma Ruth sets Rachel up a date, but things don’t go quite as planned. Rachel confronts Grandma Ruth and finds out that she has slowly been replacing the town citizens with robot copies in order to keeping the dying town’s population from dwindling to zero. The story ends with Grandma Ruth asking Rachel to take over the responsibility of maintaining her families, and the towns, robot population.

Must just punishment be public? In this work philosophical short story fiction, Ms. Warran is the divorced mother of Jason, the star pitcher (and hitter) at the high school in an affluent neighborhood. The season is coming to an end and Jason is leading the team to a State Championship. When Carley, Jason’s girlfriend, comes to the house looking for Jason, Ms. Warren notices she has a black eye and realizes it was Jason that gave it to her. Ms. Warren contacts Carley’s father, who happens to be the assistant coach for the varsity team who says, after the season is over, he will have a stern discussion with Jason. After some reflection, Ms. Warren decides that isn’t good enough and, along with Carley, calls the police on her son.

What does it mean to have all your needs met? Can humans ever be kept at pets? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator is the human pet of Tuva, a member of the super AI machine race that has taken over and run earth. The narrator has everything he could want. A wonderful home, an unlimited supplied of media to consume, and a loving (in their own way) owner. He does, however, get bored as there are rising concerns that humans, left on their own, are incapable of taking care of themselves. One night Tuva takes the narrator to a neighbor AI’s house on a play date to meet their human Annika. They have a wonderful dinner that leads to sexual intercourse. After having sex Annika reveals that the narrator has been “studded out” to her so she could have a child of her own to care for and to love. The narrator is offended when he finds out, because human emotions are to unpredictable” that he will not be given access to his child.

Is it okay to buy decorative plates when people are starving? In this philosophical short story fiction, Rick and Harley are walking through a home decoration store when Harley suggests they should buy decorative deer for the front lawn. This causes Rick to go into a long explanation that, one his death bed, he doesn’t want to sum up in life, in the face of global poverty and oppression that, “at least he bought those decorative plates.” Harley, in response, argues that it is specialization, trade, and commerce that drive humanity forward, as well as choice, and that in a world of free choice, she should be free to choose to buy trivial things. Furthermore, she argues, fake deer in the lawn will make her happy and, at the very least, she has the right to take a break from trying to change the world to make herself happy once in a while.

Would you want to live forever? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator works at a technology company that has created Leviathan, a technology system that allows people, when they die, to have their mind uploaded to a virtual space for a fee. In this virtual space they continue to live their lives as 0’s and 1’s. They watch TV, shop, work, and continue forever. The narrator’s job is to check in on the customers, and make sure they aren’t unhappy, or otherwise breaking their environment by killing their pets, or burning down their own house on purpose. His coworker doesn’t believe in the company’s mission, but works there because it pays better than her last job. Her opinion falters when she is diagnosed with cancer. One day she doesn’t come to work and the narrator is left to wonder if she accepted the employee uploaded benefits package that each of them are offered.