Though originally published in the late nineteenth century, this remarkably prescient tale from famed author Edward Bellamy will resonate with today's readers. A man taking a long journey by train finds himself overcome by motion sickness and thus unable to pass the time by reading. Fortuitously, a salesman hawking futuristic listening gadgets comes along, allowing the nauseous passenger to listen to a book. Though he is initially impressed with the ingenuity of the technology...

"Then, instead of leaving me to infer the time from the arbitrary symbolism of three strokes on a bell, the same voice which had before electrified me informed me, in tones which would have lent a charm to the driest of statistical details, what the hour was. I had never before been impressed with any particular interest attaching to the hour of three in the morning, but as I heard it announced in those low, rich, thrilling contralto tones, it appeared fairly to coruscate with previously latent suggestions of romance aud poetry, which, if somewhat vague, were very pleasing."