A review by gengelcox
Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds by Dan Simmons

5.0

A story about guilt and greed, or greed that led to guilt, and strangely enough, captures a lot of what I think of when I tell people that the aim of a corporation is to make money and nothing else. Yes, the individuals in the corporation may be more or less greedy, but the corporation as an entity is an amoral entity because it is set up to make money and that alone. Simmons here says, essentially, yes, but even more so when the individuals involved are also extremely selfish, short-sighted individuals. From a societal standpoint, there are ways to reign in these tendencies, although the US as a society has decided to forego much of that. Which is to say, for a short high-tech horror story, this one has a lot going on, and is worthy of the time and attention you should spend on it.