The Day Joy Hurt: Sci-Fi Short Story

The Day Joy Hurt

Theo had everything he could ask for. A quiet home in the clouds, weekly check-ins with his emotion dietist, and an endless supply of synthetic feelings. Red for joy, purple for calm, brown for confidence.

Ever since the Emotion Regulation Act passed a generation ago, unfiltered emotions were labeled dangerous as they are too unpredictable and too disruptive to social order. To maintain productivity and safety, especially among the elite, society turned to synthetic injections to regulate feelings.

Each morning, Theo pressed a vial into his neck and watched a smile stretch across his face. He grinned at breakfast and nodded politely at meetings. But inside, it was just hollow. At night, silence settled like fog in his apartment. His mind kept racing but his heart never responded.

Chicago 7: When Protest Went on Trial

A Nation in Turmoil

In 1968, the United States felt like a nation at war with itself. The Vietnam War was escalating, the civil rights movement was still fighting for equality, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had left the country in shock.

That summer, the Democratic National Convention was set to take place in Chicago, a city determined to maintain control under Mayor Richard Daley. Daley promised order, which in practice meant a heavy police presence and a willingness to use force.

Eighty Years After Hiroshima

The Morning of August 6, 1945

The morning of August 6, 1945, began like any other. In Hiroshima, children walked to school holding lunch boxes their mothers had packed. Some people were sweeping their doorsteps; others were already at work.

Then, in a blinding flash, the sky itself seemed to explode.

In that instant, everything changed. Buildings crumbled as if they were made of paper. The air turned into fire, and the streets were filled with cries, some loud, some fading too quickly. People wandered through the ruins, their clothes tattered, their skin burned, holding the hands of children who could no longer speak.

Hours later, as the fires still burned, the sky darkened again. From the clouds above, thick drops began to fall. Black rain, heavy with ash and soot. Some were desperate with thirst, thought it was clean water and drank. It ran down faces and clothes, into wounds, carrying a silent poison no one yet understood.

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 3: Stag Hunt - Why the Safe Option Isn’t Always the Smart One

Play Smarter with Game Theory
Level 3: Stag Hunt - Why the Safe Option Isn’t Always the Smart One

Two hunters in a forest can either work together to hunt a stag, which will feed them both for days, or they can each hunt rabbits alone. Rabbits are easy to catch but a stag is worth more. A stag can only be caught if both hunters commit. If one decides at the last minute to chase a rabbit instead, the other goes home empty-handed.

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 2: Prisoner's Dilemma - Why We Sometimes Betray the People We Should Trust

Play Smarter with Game Theory
Level 2: Prisoner's Dilemma - Why We Sometimes Betray the People We Should Trust

Imagine this: you and a friend are caught doing something you probably shouldn’t have been doing (we’ll assume it’s mildly illegal, for story purposes). The police separate you in different rooms. They make each of you the same offer:

• If you both stay silent, you each get a light fine.

• If you betray your friend and they stay silent, you go free and they get a big penalty.

• If they betray you and you stay silent, they go free and you get the big penalty.

• If you both betray each other, you both get a medium penalty.

You can’t talk to each other. You have to decide whether to trust them and keep quiet or to blame them.

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 1: Why Everyone Is Playing Games (All the Time)

Play Smarter with Game Theory

Level 1: Why Everyone Is Playing Games (All the Time)

This morning, you probably played at least three games before you even finished breakfast.

You just didn’t notice. Maybe you made a decision on whether to hit snooze or wake up right away. Maybe you negotiated bathroom time with your sibling or roommate. Maybe you thought about whether to reply to that message right now or save it for later. None of these involved a dice or spinning wheel, but they were games. Not in the “fun” sense, but in the game theory sense: strategic decision-making in situations where other people’s choices affect yours, and yours affect theirs.

The Cost of Thinking: A Play Inspired by the Life of Alan Turing

Today is Alan Turing’s birthday, and I’m sharing something special to honor him. Turing was a mathematician, a codebreaker, and a pioneer of computer science. His ideas changed the world, but the world struggled to accept him.

The Cost of Thinking is my tribute to both his mind and his humanity. In the final scene, Joan asks: “Can we? Can we think beyond fear, beyond prejudice?” That’s the question this play leaves with you.

The Cost of Thinking: A Play Inspired by the Life of Alan Turing

Characters:

 

Alan Turing: British mathematician and cryptanalyst

 

Christopher Morcom: Turing’s close friend in school

 

Joan Clarke: Fellow cryptanalyst and close friend

 

 

 

Scene 1

 

Setting: A quiet school hallway. 1920s.

 

 

(Alan sits in a corner, sketching in his notebook. Christopher enters.)

 

CHRISTOPHER: You’re always hiding in here.

 

YOUNG ALAN: (without looking up) I’m not hiding. I’m thinking.

 

CHRISTOPHER: (sitting beside him) Thinking about what?

 

YOUNG ALAN: Patterns. How everything in nature follows one. The turning of seasons, the drift of stars, bees building perfect hexagons. Everything except for people. They act without logic.

 

CHRISTOPHER: (laughs) That’s because people have feelings, Alan. Feelings don’t make sense. That’s kind of the point. People are unpredictable. Messy. Infuriating sometimes. But also impossible not to care about.

 

YOUNG ALAN: That’s what makes them exhausting.

 

(A pause. Alan draws a circle, then a box. Still not looking up.)

 

YOUNG ALAN: Sometimes I wonder... what if I could build something that thinks properly? A machine that thinks faster than humans, and sees the truth in all the noise. It wouldn’t have fear or bias. Its thinking would follow a pattern, not feelings.