Philosophy Now Forum

There is a reason for the different endings - this piece is more of an existential thought-piece regarding choice (a la Sartre), Godwin's story was an ethical thought-piece. The key difference is that in Godwin's story many lives depended on his safely completing his mission, whereas in this piece t...

Regarding this story: please read "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin, a very famous short story published in 1954 and reprinted hundreds of times since. The similarity between the two stories is somewhat disturbing. Granted, there are some differences: in the original story, the shuttle is...