Dinosaurs (short story)

"Dinosaurs" is a science fiction story by Walter Jon Williams. It was first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in June 1987 and subsequently republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988), The 1988 Annual World's Best SF (1988), Best New SF 2 (1988), Facets (1991), Isaac Asimov's Aliens (1991), ZomerSFeer (Dutch language, 1996), Future on Ice (1998), The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventures to the Far Future (2000), and Exploring the Horizons: Explorers, and The Furthest Horizon (2000).[1]

First independent publication (Pulphouse)

Publishers Weekly has called it "bio-punk".[2]

Williams has stated that the story is essentially about a fear of senility and senescence, applied to humanity as a whole rather than to an individual.[3] He originally wrote the story in 1985, for a science fiction magazine which was to have been published by L. Ron Hubbard; however, Hubbard died shortly after having accepted the story, and the magazine was cancelled.[3]

Synopsis

Millions of years in the future, after humanity has taken on multiple specialized forms, Ambassador Drill attempts to defuse an incipient conflict between humanity and the Shar.

Reception

"Dinosaurs" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette,[4] the Locus Award for Best Novelette,[5] and the Theodore Sturgeon Award.[6]

gollark: You can probably kill the programs or reboot in safe mode, but this sort of behaviour is more "malware" than just "programs you don't want", so reinstalling is probably better. At least run an antivirus or something. It might help. Maybe.
gollark: Well, you could try randomly deleting the files the programs own.
gollark: So remove them, using the normal thing to remove programs, which is in control panel or something.
gollark: If you don't have malware but just undesirable programs, remove them from control panel or whatever.
gollark: If you have malware, you should just entirely wipe the computer and reinstall from scratch.

References
  1. Bibliography: Dinosaurs, at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database; retrieved July 18, 2014
  2. FACETS, by Walter Jon Williams, in Publishers Weekly, published 1990; archived at FantasyLiterature.com; retrieved July 18, 2014
  3. Dinosaurs, by Walter Jon Williams, at WalterJonWilliams.net; published April 18, 2014; retrieved July 18, 2014
  4. 1988 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved July 18, 2014
  5. The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1988 Locus Awards Archived 2012-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, at Locus; retrieved July 18, 2014
  6. The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1988 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Archived 2015-06-22 at the Wayback Machine, at Locus; retrieved July 18, 2014
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