Addendum

The captain's job will of course to be handsome and invite people to dinner. It's not like there will be much else to do in space. "Captain, we had to wake you! Something came up!" Nothing will come up.

The Psychology of Space Travel

In the future when we (and I do mean we, radical-life-extension brothers and sisters) can enjoy leisurely spaceship cruises, will the captain sometimes mess with the temperature because people get all weird when the weather's too constant? No. It will be a separate officer whose job that is.

The Fly's Gratitude

One day the great progenitor came upon the fly in distress. "Help me!" it cried. "I'm on this weed over here but I want to be on that one!"
The great progenitor, wise, with no thought of gain, suggested, "Have you tried flying there?"
The fly did so and was amazed at the success of the plan. "Thank you! Someday I'll come to your aid in return!"
"In what way could you ever aid me?"
"I don't know!"
Ever since then flies have flitted about us, hoping one day to be of use.
Finis

The Impracticality of Space Battle

Given the industrial capacity of interstellar empires, they'll run out of cities after which to name their ships, and then what?

The Impracticality of Space Travel

When people are on their big spaceliners and such, how are they going to get the paper delivered? Hyper-fast delivery boys earning their first Federation credits? Probably, yeah, now that I think about it.

Unbelievable Settings

You might think you're clever, having cats be entirely absent from your world. The problem is that people instinctively reject utopias.

Addendum

If you're wondering what kind of circle of mages would develop such a thing, probably one with access to the internet, to wit, time-travelers. Whether they're traveling forward or backward is beyond me to say.

Practicality vs. Theatricality

I'm not sure a form of magic that involves tinting glass with spells that explode when activated is financially responsible, but the 5-minute animated shorts will be tremendous.

Unicorn Hierarchy

Do you suppose killing the master unicorn will change all the unicorns it turned back into regular horses? I think that might be too optimistic.

Immortal Accommodations

"As for where we go after death and what we do, there is nothing but mystery," the wise man finished.
The listening king thought that over. "We are guilty of an oversight then if we, who have been sure to provide for our living subjects, fail to do the same for our dead. We must set off a park for them alone we will call "heaven" and furnish it. What do the dead like to have?"
Without any pause such as a less thoughtful man might have needed, the wise man said, "Your Majesty, it is universally observed that the corpse grows cold and hard. Unquestionably a warm bath would soothe them handsomely."
"Very good. We will have a warm bath put in and beside it, on tables, bowls of porridge easy in the eating."
All this was done, and soon the dead visited heaven, not only those of the kingdom but from without also. Even when the king imposed a fee on the foreign dead, that did not deter them. The removal of currency worried other rulers with the result that they forbade their dead the journey, but the people revolted over it. In the end they made their own heavens and each land had its own, and later each town as well, funded by its guilds.
Finis