# Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 7, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417 "2008-09-07T00:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 97
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1921 "2025-12-04T22:27:57Z")
Arguably the end of AI, too. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1922 "2025-12-05T00:14:34Z")
Stories about self-reproducing machines (or systems of machines; i.e., “clanking replicator”) undergoing evolution go back at least as far as Philip K. Dick’s “Second Variety” and “Autofac”. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1923 "2025-12-05T02:14:38Z")
This was either a short story or a single story comic book from the 80s/90s. Post-apocalypse after nuclear World War 3, humanity is just a bunch of wandering scavengers. Random guy finds a bunch of medical grade morphine in a building that was being manufactured for the war effort. He manages to use this to basically create a weird kingdom for himself around this drug cache full of survivors who are now all fully addicted to the morphine and are basically living blissfully unaware of the outside world. Guy doesnt use it though because he doesn’t trust being able to rule over while being addicted to it. I remember the ending a lot though, he has a girlfriend and they rule over their civilization like a King and Queen. One day he asks her if the heroin didn’t exist if she’d still love him, she says yes but he can see the desperation behind her eyes for the heroin and how he’s completely disposable in her eyes. I forget the exact ending but he either burns the heroin and kills himself to destroy this kingdom he’s created, or he decides to just OD on it himself. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1924 "2025-12-05T12:01:09Z")
That doesn’t ring a bell (other than a thematically similar but otherwise quite different “Painkillers” by Joseph Delaney. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1925 "2025-12-06T17:22:35Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Stories about self-reproducing machines (or systems of machines; i.e., “clanking replicator”) undergoing evolution go back at least as far as Philip K. Dick’s “Second Variety” and “Autofac”. “Robots building other robots. Now, that’s just _stupid._” - Det. Dale Spooner, Chicago Police Department, _I, Robot_ ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1926 "2025-12-09T16:39:24Z")
Girlfriend remembers (slightly) a SF movie/TV/something where people have android copies of themselves–the only thing she’s sure about is a couple who are sitting in their comfy chairs while their replicas are out doing stuff. (I’ll give this 2 minutes…:)) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1927 "2025-12-09T16:43:24Z")
Android copies, you say… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JyADWAsDoAc/hqdefault.jpg "Family Guy - A depressing 1970s sci-fi movie starring a guy in a turtleneck") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyADWAsDoAc) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1928 "2025-12-09T16:43:42Z")
> **[Surrogates (2009) ⭐ 6.3 | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/)** > > 1h 29m | PG-13 Bruce Willis Surrogates, 4 minutes ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1929 "2025-12-09T17:07:23Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Girlfriend remembers (slightly) a SF movie/TV/something where people have android copies of themselves This is also the main idea in _Kiln People_ by David Brin. > [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > the only thing she’s sure about is a couple who are sitting in their comfy chairs while their replicas are out doing stuff. That part was not in the book, at least not the couple in chairs. The androids out doing stuff for people was in the book. I got tired of all the lame portmanteaus and gave up on it about halfway through. It was not that interesting a book to continue despite them. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1930 "2025-12-09T19:13:35Z")
A fairly recent [this millennium!] novel about a city of stilts and bridges built over water, with an underclass of boat people essentially living underneath, and something nasty living IN the water… ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1931 "2025-12-09T19:40:46Z")
[_Blackfish City_](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068768-blackfish-city) by Sam J. Miller has a floating city modeled after an oil platform with bridges and stilts, and class differences between the haves and have-nots are a big part of it. There’s a part where an orca drags someone into the sea, but it doesn’t exactly fit with “something nasty living in the water.” ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1932 "2025-12-09T19:46:05Z")
Dang it, this is fun. Four minutes? Bummer, dude. I was hoping for 2 minutes. I’m sure there’s a sexual remark to be made here, but I’m not finding it (almost said “it’s not coming to me”) at the moment. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1933 "2025-12-09T19:51:44Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Bummer, dude. I was hoping for 2 minutes. Well, it all depends on when I’m checking posts! I’ve missed identifying a few just because someone else checked two minute before me! ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1934 "2025-12-09T20:00:24Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > [_Blackfish City_](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068768-blackfish-city) by Sam J. Miller has a floating city modeled after an oil platform with bridges and stilts Thanks for interesting addition to the TBR seamount, but that’s not it… ETA: I’ve been reading almost solely on a Kindle for 10 years or so, and I’m realizing that I have gotten MUCH worse at connecting titles with stories after I’ve read them, never mind missing the cover art and back blurbs… let’s not even discuss the half-asleep ritual groping on the nightstand for a piece of paper to mark my place then staring dumbly at the gray screen in front of me. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1935 "2025-12-09T21:48:50Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > ETA: I’ve been reading almost solely on a Kindle for 10 years or so, and I’m realizing that I have gotten MUCH worse at connecting titles with stories after I’ve read them Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1936 "2025-12-10T02:02:48Z")
I just wanted to say I follow this thread and even though I don’t think I’ve read many of the stories mentioned, I love hearing about all the cool science fiction ideas people have dreamed up over the years. Thanks everyone who keeps it going. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1937 "2025-12-18T22:08:30Z")
Hear, hear! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1938 "2026-01-14T13:41:39Z")
From another thread: > [@What science fiction story is this?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-story-is-this/1026682/1): > > I read a science fiction short story online years ago. It was about a young boy that randomly gained the ability to transmute things and he accidentally transmutes his family and does the same to the different authorities that come to his house to apprehend him. > > Does anyone know what story I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1939 "2026-01-14T14:37:31Z")
“Prince Midas”? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1940 "2026-01-14T14:53:28Z")
Need a bit more detail - what kimds of things did he transform folks into? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=96) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=98)