Trying to find a story (YASID)

[DEvens]

I am recalling a short-short, maybe from the 1990s, maybe from an author's blog, maybe Orson Scott Card. Not sure about those details.

The basics: a time traveller pops into an author's study, gives a bunch of predictions, then pops a year later. The predictions all come true. In the year-later conversation, the traveller explains that a nuclear-armed Iran has caused very much horror. He names various events in an on-going war involving nukes and drastic culture clash. The traveller then speaks three words, which we are never told, then pops back where he came from. The author is then left to stew on all the things he has been told, refusing to believe the three words. Of course, the cliff hanger is the hook, inviting speculation on what those three words could be to be so frightening.

I recall that it made some buzz on discussion forums at the time. It was pretty divisive, with opinions clustering at the very good and very bad.

Any info?

 

[DaveC426913]

“The Time Traveler” (also called The Time Traveler’s Tale) by Dan Simmons.

(ChatGPT is very good at finding stories. I just copy-pasted your description verbatim.)

Here is the full story online:
https://www.irfi.org/articles2/articles_2701_2750/The Time Traveler.HTM

 

[berkeman]

What is "YASID"? Google says either a famous car designer, a Bangladeshi youth organization, or a Palestinian town...

 

[DaveC426913]

Apparently, it stands for Yet Another Story/Internet Document.

New to me too. (Another thing ChatGPT solved for me.)

 

[DEvens]

Oh, sorry. Yet another story ID.

DaveC426913 you got it in one. Thanks! It's even the web site I originally read it on.

 

[DaveC426913]

DaveC426913 you got it in one.

I take no credit except for asking ChatGPT. The credit goes to your detailed decription.

(I have a sci-fi story I still can't find, no matter how many times or how many places I ask, because I can't give it enough info.)

 

[Ken Fabian]

YASID - Yet Another Story ID - is common usage on forums dedicated to fiction, sometimes having its own dedicated thread.

 

[DaveC426913]

YASID - Yet Another Story ID - is common usage on forums dedicated to fiction, sometimes having its own dedicated thread.

I would appreciate a nudge toward one of these fora with such a thread.

 

[Ken Fabian]

@DaveC426913 I thought SFFWorld did - a few years since I visited - but when I looked to check I didn't find it. I did visit a couple of others here and there. Now I don't know which forum I saw that. (I didn't make that up, I swear!.)

 

[DEvens]

Here is one sci fi forum. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/ Though on occasion I have had a less than optimal opinion of stackexchange. I have seen YASID posts there. I think the first place I saw it was on usenet, but that seems a tad old fashioned these days.