"The Next Tenants" is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

by British writer

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

, first published in 1956 and included in several collections of Clarke's writings, including '' Tales from Planet Earth'' and ''

Tales from the White Hart ''Tales from the White Hart'' is a collection of short stories by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, in the "club tales" style. Thirteen of the fifteen stories originally appeared across a number of different publications; some had n ...

''. The story describes the discovery by the protagonist of a "mad scientist" living on a remote Pacific island, preparing for what he feels is humanity's inevitable self-destruction. The scientist decides that

termites Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the sof ...

represent the best chance for a terrestrial species to form a stable civilization, and so is training a colony of termites in the use of technology. While the protagonist believes the scientist to be crazy, he wonders whether he may, after all, be right.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Next Tenants 1957 short stories Short stories by Arthur C. Clarke Tales from the White Hart