000 02328cam a22003853u 4500
001 63931
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610134455.0
006 m
007 cr n
008 260607r2020||||utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aLang, Allen Kim,
_d1928-
245 1 0 _aGuest Expert
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2020
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Planet Stories January 1951
500 _aRelease date is 2020-12-01
508 _aProduced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
520 _a"Guest Expert" by Allen K. Lang is a science fiction short story written in the early 1950s. The narrative explores the dark moral dilemmas surrounding overpopulation and the drastic measures proposed to resolve it through the perspective of a Martian visitor. The story examines themes of survival, ethics, and the consequences of human choices. In this chilling tale, Earth faces severe issues due to overpopulation, prompting a Martian visitor to propose a radical solution: culling the human population by half. The protagonist, a Secretary, grapples with the moral implications of this proposal while hearing the Martian's justification based on historical suffering caused by famine, war, and disease. After a vote among his colleagues, the Secretary ultimately consents, leading to a horrifying conclusion where each woman and girl on the planet inexplicably dies, leaving behind a stark reality that starkly contrasts the Martian's promise of survival through sacrifice, effectively addressing the immediate population crisis at an unfathomable cost. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _nOriginal publication data not identified
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
653 _aMartians -- Fiction
653 _aOverpopulation -- Fiction
653 _aEarth (Planet) -- Fiction
700 1 _aOrban, Paul,
_d1896-1974
830 0 _aProduced from Planet Stories January 1951
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63931
999 _c104755
_d104755