HeyJaredThe Fictional Aether
Fiction inspired by science and academia. I'd call it "science fiction", but some rascals already took that name. (Also, inevitably, non-fiction.)
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 26, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 4, 2026
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The Vice Chancellor. Part 2. (opens the original)
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[Part 1.]I want to reassure you: this episode does not end with a terrifying cliffhanger. That’s not until Part 3.I believe this is called “managing expectations”. I was also hoping to build up enough suspense that you’re willing to sit through the back-story, which is as follows.It all started with my father, who burned with shame over his poor education. He vowed that one day—Ok, maybe not quite that much backstory?If you’ve forgotten what happened in my earlier dispatch, Prof. Ha
The Vice Chancellor. Part 1. (opens the original)
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I thought I would hate Prof. Hanson, and not in a healthy, invigorating, score-settling, revenge-seeking way. He was the most widely respected and accomplished member of our department, and there was nothing I could do about it. I know what happens whenever I encounter a preening success-story like him. The righteous envy stirs up a nasty cocktail of stomach juices that can really mess up my digestion. It’s part of the same personal care regimen that has me attend only one out of every four facu
Laughter, amidst mortality (opens the original)
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This week I am unable to compete in the genre of academic satire, so I will give the floor to a true satiric genius, and with a far wider comic horizon. I would like to tell you about Mr John Clarke1.Clarke was born in 1948 in New Zealand, in Palmerston North, of all places, but left the country in 1977. I was three years old at the time, and once he was gone, I had every excuse to never hear of him. But everyone had heard of his first creation: Fred Dagg. Fred was a farmer in a <a href="http://
Adventures in empathy (opens the original)
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My therapist told me that I’m a snob. Yeah, right. Exactly what you’d expect from someone without a PhD in a real science.I explained why at least 97% of humanity is inferior to me, and indeed downright repulsive, in the simplest possible terms. I got nowhere. It was like one of those conversations with a child, where you try to explain why the adults are in charge.Every time I made a point — an entirely valid point! — the response was, “The evidence against you only gets stronger.”Maybe I shoul
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