Aphelion

An excellently crafted story . . . I really liked the author's use of the present tense, and the prose is full of beauty and grace.

To me, this story just felt comfortable to read; it has a very nice overall rhythm. Besides, the resolution bears somewhat of a comforting message, as well.

Maybe a little reminiscent of Ray Bradbury. I like it a lot.

Nice poignant story coupling time-travel with the domestic life of an elderly women.

My grandmother would have blasted Eric away with an old double-barrel shotgun if he
would have materialized in her kitchen. She was good hearted, kind and very friendly, but
her best friend was the old shotgun---a twelve gauge---when it came to strangers. To this day
I still remember it leaning against the side of the ice-box---and I mean a real old time ice-box with ice in the bottom. But she did get a refrigerator when I was six.

The writing was good and the story held my attention from beginning to end. At no time
was I lost searching for unity. The intro was Okay, but I think that I would have added more
action to get a ‘grabbing’ effect that I like with my stories.

The content was excellent. A man coming back from a million years in the future, but his real
purpose was to save mankind in that future.

A good one

Points to ponder (with apologies to Reader's Digest):

A bottlenose dolphin (like Flipper) has a larger brain than a human. However, it also has considerably more body mass (and presumably some specialized areas dedicated to echolocation), so this may not translate into higher intelligence. (Of course, it would be difficult to define, let alone compare, intelligence in a creature that does not make or use tools -- but that navigates freely over thousands of miles in a three-dimensional environment with human intelligence.

It may not be so much the size of the brain as the relative size of the neocortex (the outer layers, most recently developed in evolutionary terms) and/or the degree to which it is convoluted (wrinkled) that determines intelligence. (A more convoluted surface means more surface area within the same volume.)

It is possible that brains ARE shrinking -- or certain areas are shrinking while others are increasing in complexity (see convoluted surface, above) as "modern" man becomes less physically active, but becomes accustomed to processing more information (or mis- or dis-information, if they watch Fox News and listen to a lot of talk radio).

Human evolution per se may have stalled when "civilization" first made physical strength and agility less important, and later made it possible to survive with relatively low intelligence as well. viz. Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth's classic novel, "The Marching Morons", or the movie "Idiocracy" for a pessimistic view of where this could lead.

RM

In 3 hours others will be able to read the greatest story ever written in this universe or any other.

Yeah -- mine!