This story originally appeared in The Weight of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures, published by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination. Find the whole collection on the center’s website.
Under the Grid“I have a theory that we could measure cultural sophistication by the occurrence rate of puns,” Trevor texted. “The more concepts and connections in a time-place, the more linguistic opportunities for people to make bad jokes.”
“Uh huh.” Ingrid only half watched the noties, focusing instead on swiping through paperwork: HOA waiver tickets to resolve, memos about algorithmic tweaks in the approval pipeline, timesheets to justify her existence to the Emergency Government and their Chinese/European backers. “Guess that ‘PhoTown’ branding really is an indicator of successful urban renewal then.”
“Mayhap one day we’ll be so complex that every possible combination of words will constitute a pun,” Trevor continued. “This is my singularity.”
Ingrid snorted. “Preach!” she tapped.
Three dates in was usually the sweet spot for banter. Seeing each other naked lowered the conversational stakes. Suddenly people let you... Read more