"Improving the Neighbourhood" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by English writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was first published in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' on 4 November 1999 and was the first piece of science fiction ''Nature'' ever published. It is also the last story included in ''

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke ''The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke'', first published in 2001, is a collection of almost all science fiction short stories written by Arthur C. Clarke. It includes 114 stories, arranged in order of publication, from " Travel by Wire ...

'', where it is dedicated to Dr. Pons and Dr. Fleischmann.

Plot summary

The story is written as a

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

and tells of the development of a civilization and a disaster which destroys them when they are on the verge of abandoning their "clumsy chemically fuelled bodies and thus achieve multiple connectivity."Quotes and information from ''The Collected stories of Arthur C. Clarke''

References

External links

* * 1999 short stories Short stories by Arthur C. Clarke Works originally published in Nature (journal) {{1990s-sf-story-stub