# ID this (old) Sci-fi short story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776 "2005-03-22T21:21:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/1 "2005-03-22T21:21:50Z")
Can anyone help me ID an old sci-fi story that I believe I read in one of those Best Of 19xx books while wasting time in a library years ago? I’d love to see if the book is still in print, since I recall enjoying many of the stories. One that stands out was about a young man living in a future world where people bought life-insurance readily from computers on the street. Only he learns that out of everyone in the world, he’s un-insurable. Another story I believe was in the same book involved a historian using a time machine to bring modern medicine to the Romans. Fast forward back to the “present” and Earth is hugely overpopulated, oceans drained to make space, etc. The story ends with… another historian going back in time with a gun to kill the first historian before he can pass along the medical knowledge. I’m hoping with at least one title I can track down the book. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/2 "2005-03-22T21:52:54Z")
> [@dasgupta](#): > > Only he learns that out of everyone in the world, he’s un-insurable. The last line of such a story I read is, “When I die, the world ends.” I cannot remember the title or author ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/3 "2005-03-22T21:59:41Z")
Yes, that certainly sounds like it! Googling on that line and “uninsurable” gets me [this](http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0743435370/0743435370__21.htm) which is how I remember it. Looks like it’s _Prototaph_ by Keith Laumer. Now to see if that gets me anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/4 "2005-03-22T22:04:40Z")
> [@dasgupta](#): > > Another story I believe was in the same book involved a historian using a time machine to bring modern medicine to the Romans. Fast forward back to the “present” and Earth is hugely overpopulated, oceans drained to make space, etc. The story ends with… > > another historian going back in time with a gun to kill the first historian before he can pass along the medical knowledge. I’ve read the story, but I forget what it’s called. It was written as a parody of “Lest Darkness Fall”. ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/5 "2005-03-22T22:10:06Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > I’ve read the story, but I forget what it’s called. It was written as a parody of “Lest Darkness Fall”. Based on **carnivorousplant’s** line, I was able to track down all the anthologies that story was published in, and I belive the modern medicine story is _The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass_ by Frederik Pohl. The only book those stories were in together is **100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories** editted by Asimov and others. Thanks, teeming millions! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/6 "2005-03-23T02:11:50Z")
Cool. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/7 "2005-03-23T03:56:35Z")
You know, L. Sprague de Camp (author of he classic **Lest Darkness Fall** wrote his _own_ dystopian take on the situation. If you can find it, read his short story **A Gun for Aristotle**. Harry Turtledove wrote an affectionate take on LDF. I forget what it was called, but it as published together with LDF in a single volume, and the story is about a Roman woman in Republican or Imperial Rome who travels backwards in time to the days of the founding of Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/8 "2005-03-23T12:04:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Harry Turtledove wrote an affectionate take on LDF. I forget what it was called, but it as published together with LDF in a single volume. I think you may mean _To Bring the Light_ by **David Drake**. The two stories were published together with an introduction by **Turtledove** **Turtledove** and **DeCamp** did appear together in _Down in the Bottomlands_ - 2 stories by HT and _Wheels of If_ by **DeCamp** ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-sci-fi-short-story/295776/9 "2005-03-23T14:13:50Z")
> [@dasgupta](#): > > Based on **carnivorousplant’s** line, I was able to track down all the anthologies that story was published in, and I belive the modern medicine story is _The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass_ by Frederik Pohl. > > The only book those stories were in together is **100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories** editted by Asimov and others. > > Thanks, teeming millions! Cool. I thought, based on those definitions, that I remembered them being in a collection based on the theme of ‘short short stories’, but I couldn’t remember the exact title of the collection or any of the stories you names, so was hesitant to speak up. (makes note of title to look up the book himself.)