Addender

Even worse, to ghosts, because they will have died long ago, $43,500 will be a lot of money, whereas that will be affordable if a significan expense for the contemporary traveler.

Addendum

Unfortunately for them, by then we'll have the technology to detect ghosts and subsequently demand fares.

Futurestition

When we go to space, will we have to wait for new ghosts to populate the haunted places, or will some grab rides alongside the living passengers? That's aside from the ghosts of long-dead species, whose menaces we will be incapable of comprehending or even noticing.

Visions of Future Anarchy

The first cruel robber asked travelers for the time. When they looked at their watches, he grabbed their feet and swung them against a tree. Knowing that, the hero approached him.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you know what time it is?"
"No, but you can look at my watch. I wear it around my ankle."
"Eh?"
Pow! The hero kicked the bandit against the tree and killed him.
The second cruel robber invited travelers to rest in a cottage. When polite visitors removed their shoes and stepped inside, the treacherous floor dropped them into a boiling cauldron. Knowing that, the hero approached him.
"Excuse me, sir. You look like someone who needs a break."
"Thank you. I'll just take off my boots."
"Eh?"
Entranced by the valuable watch, studded with gems but nevertheless tasteful, the robber failed to resist in time and was thrown into his own trap. Splash!
The third cruel robber gave travelers a remote control and suggested they watch their favorite program on his gigantic television set. Too bad for them, the remote was a bomb. Knowing that, the hero approached him.
"Excuse me, sir. Why not sit down on this couch and watch your favorite program?"
"It isn't on yet. Here, check this watch."
"And a fine watch that is. I bet it could bring . . . eh?"
Smash! The hero brought the TV down on the robber's head. With that, the road was safe at last.
Finis

Dragon Fashion

More dragons should dress up all fancy. I'm sure some do, in some books, but it should be widespread. Entire countries should be compelled to knit nice dragon hats.

Addendum

We won't be able to ask them to rate poets, though. Any intelligent species capable of navigating the well-starred plain will have long since ditched poetry.

Reasons to Strive for Peaceful Relations With Aliens

1. Lack of annihilation
2. Technology exchange
3. Alliance against meaner aliens
4. Asking them which decade has the best music
5. Trade
6. Collaborative planetary development

Appropriate Cast Size for a Novel

It was 108 centuries ago, and that was just the heroes.* Aren't you ashamed if you have fewer than 1,080 today?



*Or "heroes," if you prefer.

Addendum

And if they have a thousand distinct terms like terrestrial conveyances do, all the better. Quick, which one's a brougham? That's an easier one, as you can tell because I remembered the name.

Fantasy Spaceships

Often they're based on sailing ships, but likening space to the oceans is a more recent thing. Fantasy spaceships should be reminiscent of chariots, wagons, and carriages.

Neglected Repairs

It was a five-camera job: Two for dynamic footage of the howling protesters kept outside by barriers and bored security personnel, two on the site (ground-level and aerial), and the last for the interview itself.
"Surely we aren't to believe there isn't something disgraceful about having this place reduced to a single purchase?"
"I can't say what you are or aren't, but I think it's amazing that we've reached the point in human prosperity where someone like me can buy all of Great Britain. With all the space stations and the extraterrestrial colonies and the virtual realms, I don't think of this island as reduced at all. We've all gotten big because of technological progress, we're more prosperous than ever, and I'm going to fix this place up the way bureaucrats never got around to doing. Starting right here."
As he gestured, the segment producer switched to one of the site drones in case anyone missed the connection. Perhaps someone who started watching late.
"Yes, about that. What do you have to say to the people who insist, with tradition behind them I might add, to say nothing of sensibility and delicacy, that this place does not in fact need to be 'fixed?' That it is in further fact an outrage, what you're proposing to do here today?"
"I'm not proposing, I'm doing. That's number one. Number two is, look at it, of course it's broke. Ready over there? All right, start."
At the owner of Great Britain's command, great machines began to lay precision-cut stones so as to perfect the composition of Stonehenge, heedless of the protesters who managed against expected human capacity to shout even louder. When they finished, less than an hour later, thunder boomed on that cloudless day, and in the center of the great menhirs, a fog arose from the ground that reached to the sky. From it a man emerged, clad in robes and wisdom, who strode forward to deliver this address.
"Because of your actions flow again the powers of magic, charms, and sorcery long denied to man but never forgotten. Well done. Of my disciples in this generation, you shall be the first and greatest."
"Well I'm glad to hear it," Great Britain's owner said.
Finis

The Backwards Literary industry

Not before publishers get with it and add chapters for a book's tenth anniversary will the written word be able to compete with other media.

Addendum

And the upper crust will live outside the main superstructure too so it's harder to visit them, they get better views, and their debauchery is harder to interrupt? Unbelievable. The future really is something.

Ship Trip

In the future, when people are living on huge spaceships making circuits among all the galaxy's best places, do you think they'll hold the races inside or on the outside? What's that you say? On a track away from the hull but still attached to it so it's easier to see by the picnickers sitting on the hull? You're no ordinary speculator.