# What short sci fi story do i remember?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** books-writing-myths
**Created:** [April 22, 2021, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540 "2021-04-22T15:04:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/1 "2021-04-22T15:04:35Z")
Long after a war that wipes everything out the society in the story worships (?) a huge monolith. Their attempts to open it fail. Part of the monolith opens and a huge round device unfolds. The citizens climb it and examine it but cannot do more as it is so huge. At the end it is revealed a recorded voice is calling out to only press the button if the world is now safe for humans to survive again. Inside the monolith are humans in suspended animation. And that the citizens are ants and cannot hear…
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/2 "2021-04-22T15:11:14Z")
I remember that story. Just not anything useful.
Paging @Andy_L
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/3 "2021-04-22T15:15:43Z")
Sounds like part of Clifford Simak’s _City_ future history. Not from the fix up novel but maybe an earlier short story.
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### Author:  [@TheZenPaperboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheZenPaperboy)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/4 "2021-04-22T15:27:55Z")
The voice from the curious cube by Nelson Bond.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/5 "2021-04-22T15:29:45Z")
It does sound like “Epilogue” the last City story (not included in early versions of the book)
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/6 "2021-04-22T15:33:33Z")
> [@TheZenPaperboy](#):
>
> The voice from the curious cube by Nelson Bond.
[Looks like you got it.](https://forums.firehouse.com/forum/the-off-duty-forums/the-off-duty-forums-aa/43556-the-voice-from-the-cube#post43556)
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### Author:  [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/7 "2021-04-22T15:40:38Z")
[ ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_search.png)
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-short-sci-fi-story-do-i-remember/940540/8 "2021-04-22T15:48:17Z")
In too late-I read that story in Asimov’s Short Short Science Fiction collection.