Hello friends:
I can't remember the title or author of this book, and I feel it might have been a short story aimed at young adult readers.
The plot, as I recall, revolves around a futuristic society dealing with overpopulation. Schoolchildren have spots on their legs (5 or 8 as I recall) which slowly count down, giving the children so much time to prove their worth, by inventions and the like.
The main character is a girl, who attempts to prove that mankind's overpopulation can be solved, because their map of the galaxy is not three dimensional. Society has been using a flat plane as a map, and therefore limited the number of worlds. She is of course punished for this and eventually killed by being blasted out of an airlock for her heretical claims.
Fun stuff, huh? Well if anyone can remember this gem, please post it! Thanks!
I can't remember the title or author of this book, and I feel it might have been a short story aimed at young adult readers.
The plot, as I recall, revolves around a futuristic society dealing with overpopulation. Schoolchildren have spots on their legs (5 or 8 as I recall) which slowly count down, giving the children so much time to prove their worth, by inventions and the like.
The main character is a girl, who attempts to prove that mankind's overpopulation can be solved, because their map of the galaxy is not three dimensional. Society has been using a flat plane as a map, and therefore limited the number of worlds. She is of course punished for this and eventually killed by being blasted out of an airlock for her heretical claims.
Fun stuff, huh? Well if anyone can remember this gem, please post it! Thanks!
