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"Retire? Yeah, I want to die with my head in the typewriter. That's my idea of retirement."
- Alfred Bester
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| Timebroker | ||
| A person who traded in the commodity of other people's time. |
In the near future Earth of this short story, Cedric Swann is a timebroker. His job is a byproduct of the a-soms, anti-somnolence drugs that eliminated the need for sleep. Finally, humanity had broken free of the time standard created by their planet's rotation. There were no longer hours that were especially more desirable for work, or for leisure, or entertainment.
| A timebroker mediated between individuals and institutions, citizens and the government. Individuals registered their shifting schedules hour by hour with a timebroker of their choice. During such and such hours, they would be willing to work; during other hours, they were interested in attending a concert, a ball game, a university class, a gym. Contrarily, institutions registered their needs. The symphony wants a thousand listeners at four a.m. on Sunday. Can you provide them?
Institutions paid the timebrokers large fees for delivering guaranteed numbers of people - customers or workers or jury pools. Citiziens received discounts on the face value of ickets or tuition, or bonuses from employers, or tax breaks from the state and federal governments, for being willing to commit blocks of time via their timebrokers. |
| Technovelgy from Shuteye for the Timebroker,
by Paul Di Filippo. Published by Penguin in 2006 Additional resources -
|
Very cool meditation on the fungibility of time in a 24/7 society.
From the excellent anthology of original stories Futureshocks, edited by Lou Anders.
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
