The Cold Equations


"The Cold Equations" is a science fiction short story by American writer Tom Godwin, first published in Astounding Magazine in August 1954. In 1970, the Science Fiction Writers of America selected it as one of the best science-fiction short stories published before 1965, and it was therefore included in The [Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964]. It has been widely anthologized and dramatized.

Plot summary

In the year 2178, a small Emergency Dispatch Ship is launched from the interstellar cruiser Stardust to deliver desperately needed medicine to the frontier planet Woden. The EDS pilot, Barton, soon discovers a stowaway: 18-year-old Marilyn Lee Cross.
By law, all EDS stowaways are to be jettisoned because an EDS carries only enough fuel to complete its mission with the pilot as sole occupant; any excess mass jeopardizes the mission and pilot. Marilyn wanted merely to visit her brother Gerry on the remote planet and was unaware of the law. When she saw the "UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT!" sign while she was sneaking onboard, she thought that at most she would have to pay a fine if caught.
Barton sadly explains to her that her additional weight would make it impossible to land safely; they would crash on the planet, killing both them and the colonists needing the medicine. After recovering from her shock and horror, and contacting Gerry, Marilyn willingly climbs into the airlock and is ejected into space.

Development

The story was shaped by Astounding Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell, who sent "Cold Equations" back to Godwin three times before he got the version he wanted because "Godwin kept coming up with ingenious ways to save the girl!"
Campbell's biographer Alec Nevala-Lee noted in 2016 that the story was published at a time when Campbell had embraced contrarianism on the basis that there was "no viewpoint that has zero validity—though some have very small validity, or very limited application."
Nevala-Lee also revealed that Campbell described the story as a "gimmick on the proposition human sacrifice is absolutely unacceptable. So we deliberately, knowingly and painfully sacrifice a young, pretty girl... and make the reader accept that it is valid!"

Reception

Richard Harter wrote a detailed analysis of the story in 1977, with special attention to the possible negligence of those who designed the situation in which dilemmas like this could occur, and how this paralleled similar concerns involving industrial safety legislation.
Writer Don Sakers' short story "The Cold Solution" deconstructs the premise. In 1992 it was awarded "the readers' favorite" Analog short story of 1991.
In 1996, critic and engineer Gary Westfahl wrote that because the story's premise is based on systems that were built without adequate margin for error, the story is "good physics", but "lousy engineering", and that it frustrated him so much he decided it had been "not worth time".
In 2014, writer Cory Doctorow made a similar argument: he sees the situation presented in the story as an example of a "moral hazard". Doctorow notes that the constraints under which the characters operate are decided by the writers, and not "the inescapable laws of physics". He argues that the decision of the writer to give the vessel no margin of safety and a critical supply of fuel, and to focus readers' attention onto the necessity of tough decisions at a time of crisis rather than mulling over the responsibility for proper planning from the outset, is intellectually dishonest and that this and other stories "about how we can't afford to hew to our values in time of crisis are a handy addition to every authoritarian's playbook". Five years later, as part of a wider essay criticizing Campbell's views, Doctorow condemned him for "lean hard" on Godwin to turn the story "into a parable about the foolishness of women and the role of men in guiding them to accept the cold, hard facts of life".
Adam Roberts, in the 2016 edition of The History of Science Fiction, finds the story to be inherently right-wing on similar grounds. In Roberts's view, both the decision to present the sacrifice as the only possible outcome and the decision to portray it as "a tragic necessity occasioned by physics, as opposed to the moral delinquency of the company that built a spaceship without extra supplies of fuel or other fail-safe device" are ideologically charged. Roberts concludes that "The trolley-problem of 'The Cold Equations' is a shibboleth, in the strict sense that it serves to call forth a specific, ideological-tribal reaction."

Precursors

There was a similar concept in a number of earlier stories:
The [Encyclopedia of Science Fiction] points to A Plunge into Space as having a subplot very similar to "The Cold Equations". "A Weighty Decision" and the story "Precedent" also have been cited as potential inspirations. In all three, as in "The Cold Equations", a stowaway must be ejected from a spaceship because the fuel aboard is only sufficient for the planned mission mass.
David Drake stated "The plot is lifted directly from 'A Weighty Decision,' a story in the May–June, 1952, issue of the EC comic Weird Science. I don't believe that coincidence could have created plots so similar in detail" and ends with "The plot is such an obvious steal from the comic that I think Godwin would have concealed it better if he hadn't intended to use a completely different ending. I can also imagine that Godwin wouldn't have expressed his qualms at changing the ending to Campbell, who wouldn't have winked at direct plagiarism. "

Dramatic adaptations

Radio plays

Tied for 9th place in Astounding/Analog magazine's 1971 All-Time Poll short fiction category.
Placed 8th in the 1999 Locus Awards for best novelette.

Publication history

Original publication:
The following anthologies have included "The Cold Equations":