Maxima Library

Music hath charms to soothe… among other things.

A good engineer takes the unexpected in stride…

Crime, like everything else, must adapt to changing times…

“Inheritance” becomes a whole new ballgame when lives are very long—but it doesn’t stop being a problem!

If a society is an organism that evolves, it must also mutate, eat, and eliminate waste.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Trimus was also the setting for “Poles Apart” [Mid-December 1992] and “Network” [February 1994].

How a technology is envisioned and how it’s actually used may be quite different.

This isn’t quite what the phrase “movers and shakers” usually means…

What people need and what they want are two different things—and neither can be ignored.

When you dream of falling, do you die if you hit the ground?

One of the biggest problems of a remote research outpost is equipment maintenance—which means more and requires more imagination than you might think!

When looking for a job, it’s a good idea to stay open to out-of-the-ordinary possibilities…

One thing an explorer must have is adaptability.

Any technology can have commercial applications—but some come with special liabilities…

One culture may see another’s ways as so perverted that it’s hard to imagine one evolving into the other—but sometimes it’s all too easy…

Alien intelligence may be a lot closer than you think…

“Normality” involves comparison to a standard—but how do you judge the standard?

There are those who would reduce everything to simple slogans—but human lives are anything but simple!

Wherein new meaning comes to the phrase “Living Will,” among other things…

“To see ourselves as others see us” is not always a welcome gift—but it may be a beneficial one.

Learning a whole new way of thinking, after a long life of an old one, is hard. But with a big enough nudge…

If you want to study forests, don’t chain your observers to trees…

The right answer could obviously make a very difficult job much easier. Obviously…

There are alternatives to animal experiments…

The greater the potential rewards, the greater the risks—but some risks are just too big. Unless you really need a huge reward…

Civilization can build bridges and barriers at the same time…

Good help may get easier to find, but it won’t be like it used to be…

There are two main ways to deal with an alien environment, and one of them is clearly superior in the long run. But that one comes with a side effect that’s harder to accept…

Vision requires more than good optics…

You probably thought the U.N. had communication problems!

It’s easy to speculate wistfully on what the world might be if just one little thing had gone differently—but much harder to change just one little thing!

Nothing helps you forget your troubles like a bigger trouble. And when the trouble you start with is interstellar war…

Applied science can be fun….

Some good intentions are much harder to put into practice than they sound.

The relationships between generations can change dramatically as time goes on—especially when the generations are very different and time extends to the far future and beyond…

Most people have a vision of what thay consider success—but the real thing may be very different from their preconceived notions!

When placing orders, always word them carefully or you may get exactly what you asked for—and be very surprised!

Attitudes differ from one part of the country to another—maybe even more than you think…

There’s more than one way…

The bigger the adventure, the bigger the risk. But degrees of tragedy aren’t a one-dimensional spectrum, and neither are the ways to cope…

Nobody ever said human evolution, as a species or as an individual, was simple—or linear.

Some inventions people would rather not use—until they have no choice.

The scope of life may be far wider than most humans think—but there’s at least one human trait that’s likely to persist through even the most extreme changes…

Doors don’t always lead where you expect…