Another change I regret not making this time would have been to divide the rating/voting period in two. The first half would only be for reading and c...
The problem is that most people will not interpret the rating that way. The intention was not for it to be a ranking, but rather an evaluation. This i...
@"Christoffer" I think that's actually a great write up, it should probably be official guidance if we use this voting system again. And I don't see w...
But it seems to have been: Agreed, coupled with an analogy between a literal haunting and the way trauma haunts us. I interpreted this as representing...
Details are indeed scant, my interpretation was that this was a European pagan village, or maybe Native American, or otherwise aboriginal, and that he...
I'm afraid this one did not work for me. True, it has the barest of bare bones narratives. Still, it doesn't feel like a story. The larger tragedy of ...
I think this is a reasonable solution. Suppose there is a "global, " higher-dimensional universe, and it has always existed. For whatever reasons, may...
If indeed she had died and this was represented by becoming a tree in this limbo shadowland, it would have been nice for there to be some hint of this...
:rofl: Seriously though, its true. It probably took two sittings tops to push this thing out. No resistance at all reading, which takes real skill. I ...
Thank you @"Amity", for your wonderful contributions in this competition and ones past. Your reviews have been a prize in themselves for the authors, ...
I like this little piece of social criticism. Who can't relate to Jack in some way? Who doesn't recognize at least some of the dissatisfaction we feel...
I am friends with YiRu, she is quite real, and the post is completely her own. She is Taiwanese, not a native English speaker, and she can be intimida...
Intriguing, and well written, but I'm honestly not sure exactly what's going on. I'll come back to this one, after some of the more astute readers her...
Wow, great turnout! Thanks everyone! And thanks for posting the stories so quickly, @"Noble Dust". Voting is great, but the best way to show appreciat...
As 2023 ends in a small satellite-town of London, so does the opportunity to write a story for this competition. Submissions are now officially closed...
I don't think I agree. Making your mark in history doesn't mean leaving a mark on the entropic universe. It means, making a mark on other people. Cons...
I would say, for the purposes of the thought experiment, that it is a reasonable enough facsimile (should the user choose) such that philosophical con...
But waiting until the very end is waiting until the stakes are lowest. What about now? Would you consider even the third option? What if you uncover t...
I discovered a very nice feature of pastebin. If you create an account, you are then able to make edits to your pastebin page up to the deadline if yo...
No, the alternative is not death. The alternative is living out the remainder of your life naturally. You will die in the simulation, when your physic...
It is not incorrect to call a hallucination an "experience". Hallucinations have experiential content. The sort of experience/hallucination proposed i...
The main objection to me, and to some others here, is that you are condemning yourself to live in a solipsistic world. Why wouldn't that bother you? :...
Or is that just an inaccurate, cartoon version? Perhaps every relationship in heaven evolves into its deepest, maximum potential? Everything left unsa...
But Heaven is presumably a real place, importantly populated by other real entities, such as dead loved ones. You get to resume your real relationship...
:up: "No sir, I'm afraid that the technology just won't allow for it." "But sir, might I remind you of our forgetfulness package? We have done studies...
But a lobotomy + morphine can only offer dull, undifferentiated pleasure, whereas the simulation can be of the richest, most vibrant and stimulating w...
This kind of misgiving, while undoubtedly accurate (who wouldn't have such fears?), nevertheless seems to sidestep the larger question. Like you say, ...
The question "Why should I be moral?" presumably means, "Why should I act in accordance with my moral beliefs?" In any epistemic domain, we only ever ...
On the face of it there seems to be multiple reasons: * Our standing with our fellows, with society at large, and with ourselves is elevated by being ...
There would be a difference only if moral facts were discoverable. If they are, then their discovery would motivate people to obey the discovered mora...
This is a very broad view of "inequality". What you call "inequality", I call "perception", and "thought". When your eyes can pick A apart from B, tha...
Time continues it's inexorable march forward. Tick, tock, tick, tock... the clock unwinds its spring, entirely indifferent to entreaty, pleading, comp...
Oof, that would be bad. The only thing worse would be if the plane goes down, and everyone creates their own strained diversions to avoid confronting ...
You need to ensure the delay happens after you get there. Otherwise, yes of course, you will factor it into your arrival time. No no no. What if you c...
For anyone still struggling, I've come upon a foolproof method of finishing a story: book a five hour flight, and show up four hours early. Make sure ...
These are social realities, which is where the line between real and imaginary does indeed seem to blur. Though imaginary at their core, by stable, sh...
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