In the introduction for the short story “The Cold Equations” there was this sentence “the universe is agnostic to life, and that simply through knowledge of physical law, and adherence to it, may life survive”, which I feel summarizes one of the recurring themes through the readings.

In “The Cold Equation”, we see that regardless of the personal opinions of the pilot, Barton, and others on Stardust, Marilyn still had to die. Throughout the story, it was mentioned how there was no other choice. While in most cases that is generally seen as a cop-out, a way to make it seem like the choice was out of their hands, in this situation, it really was true. Short of turning the EDS back to Stardust, there was nothing humanly possible that the pilot could do to save her. In a sense, this reminded me of the trolley dilemma. However, even with that, you have to make an active choice, whether to kill one to save many. In this story, it was something that’s predetermined, so much so that it was the law. Another thing was that every action has a consequence, but those consequence are a lot harsher when you’re in space when compared to earth. Even though Marilyn made a mistake, in most cases such a mistake would not have cost her her life on Earth.

Similarly, in the book “The Martian”, the only way for Watney to survive was through his knowledge and skill. He had to follow the laws of physics and chemistry, and take his environment into account when coming up with a solution to his problems. No matter how impossible it seemed, Watney found a way to not only survive, but get himself rescued. This was a bit different than “The Cold Equations” as the scientists back in NASA didn’t give up on him and consider him a lost cause. They did everything in their power to help in, and considered all possibilities, whereas in “The Cold Equations” there was nothing further to be done.

While reading “Down and Out on Ellfive Prime”, I was kind of reminded of the movie 2012. In the movie, the only people who could get on the arc were the rich and important people. Even the workers who helped build the arc were not guaranteed as spot there, which lead to some people to sneak onto it. This was similar to how the engineers and others helping run Ellfive Prime were not allowed to stay there when they retired but were sent back to Earth, causing some to live like a scam. Even here, we see that a simple accident, such as a sky biker colliding into a rain pipe was enough to have severe consequences. A simple leaky pipe not fixed in time was enough to create a mud slide that led to catastrophic damages.

I feel “Night’s Slow Poison” had a different feel to it than the other readings. While the others were more technical, this, to me, had more of a romantic feel to it. Nevertheless, even in this story we see that there are severe consequences. For example, how if you were ever bitten by a Vonda, you’re expected to cut off that limb. The ending once again brings us to how a mistake can end up being fatal.