A Human Engineer Was Left to Die on an Alien Station-Instead, He Rebuilt It Better Than Ever | HFY

[@alanclague2333]

Reminds me of a quote i saw once "the engineer achieves perfection not when there is nothing more he can add, but when theres nothing more he can take off"

[@pieterpretorius1014]

simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

[@thorstenrusch8652]

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote this quote :)

[@jonathanlamar5215]

I teach my interns the simple is elegant…

[@kennethdawson7774]

I love his AI computer being called "Dave". Great 2001 reverse callback.

[@LTDunltd]

I see someone else caught that too.

[@brucerobinson1284]

What are you doing Dave 🙂

[@gordowg1wg145]

The original author - assuming it wasn't AI, missed a point - the station was abandoned, so "salvage rights" would have been an interesting route to take.

[@roberthodge2771]

Abandoned ships on Earth oceans and space might just be very similar rules.

[@debra-qq1np]

I was thinking this myself.

[@LTDunltd]

Came here to voice the same statement. "You left it and me here. So, now it belongs to me."

[@Bob.Jenkins]

Salvage Rights only apply to those finding the vessel abandoned... not to crew left behind.

[@gordowg1wg145]

@@Bob.Jenkins Good point, but it would seem he may not have been "crew", as such, but if he was it seems he was also abandoned, that would make it constructive dismissal and end of his employment as 'crew". Editing the story and fleshing it out could take care of the details and ambiguities.

[@KingDeathscythe666]

As an engineer, I agree with the "spite & sprockets" café. we live on caffeine.

[@jamesonweimann4720]

That and at times malicious compliance

[@LTDunltd]

Make it Mt Dew for this guy. 😁

[@superdave8248]

As does sailors. Which by default means pretty much anybody who does space travel.

[@MrCateagle]

I've been working as an engineer for over 50 years and I loved this. A very practical lesson taught through humor.

[@turbopokey]

Well if they abandon station, then it should legally belong to him under salvage rights.

[@tyeadel]

Calaxian manuals may rival Vogon poetry

[@TheAyanamiRei]

One can argue it's worse, because you're forced to deal with it more often

[@danielbutler578]

Vogon poetry is, of course, the third worst in the universe. It sounds like Calaxian manuals would have to be worse.

[@burntoutaussie4005]

Oh frettle your gruntbuggly.

[@ThiagoMorgoth]

Hahahaha 😂

[@PaulStSmith]

A surprisingly refreshing story. I liked it very much.

[@markkringle9144]

As Douglas Adam's put it, "it turns out what advanced technology really couldn't tolerate was a smart-ass."

[@mattradcliffe9279]

As a mechanic. This story is definitely hate speech against the German national identity and I love it.

[@rogerbutler5341]

LOL. I can appreciate that quite well.

[@anthonymarcello1265]

This guy gets it. First thing i thought of!

[@drtidrow]

@@anthonymarcello1265 Ditto! 🤣🤣🤣

[@LeroyStubblefield-v4g]

The more complicated the plumbing it's easier to stop up.

[@beccabbea2511]

Yeah, tell us about it. Those irritating modern flush systems on toilets are a point in case AND the new taps. Once upon a time when the tap dripped it was just change the washer. NOW it's call out the plumber who finds it impossible to remove the 'cartridge,' which results in a completely new tap. Sigh. Double sigh. ☹

[@rhondatrout1360]

Volaxian: SACRED! AI using Montoya quote from the Princess Bride: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[@nelsontoondrawer7618]

"Nuts & Bolts!" Would have been a better name for their engineers' meeting coffee shop. (Bolted when the previous owners went nuts!). 😅😊😂❤🎉❤🎉

[@georgecottell6616]

Very well done! Both story and presentation!

[@LawrenceKennard]

Fancy lava lamps😂😂😂 feeling fine on Delta 9

[@InfiniteSciFiJourneys]

The story showcases impressive problem-solving skills by the human engineer Marcus Chen

[@scottmarshall6766]

I'm an industrial systems engineer with almost 50 years experience. This story should be mandatory reading for all junior engineers and a refresher required whenever needed... I'd love to know who the author is, see no credit in the description. Thanks for a great story we all can learn from.

[@stephaniewilson3955]

This is a much better version of the story. It is fun and so close to real life!

[@ronsindric4241]

A FARGLATED QUESTION- why does the Post's intro image feature a Woman when the Engineer in the story is not a Woman ? Also, AI is improving but still needs a good proofreading tweak ! A HUFORICAL SUGGESTION about THE COFFEE MAKER. The comment at 1:56 about PICKLES AND SOX might be useful in 9:19 where the derision about the CALAXIAN COFFEE FILTER is mentioned.

[@brianhunsberger3035]

Great story from beginning to end. Did you even got all the words right❤

[@dustenlee1982]

Coming from someone who is not technically an engineer don't have the degrees or anything like that don't even have a GED but this was one of my favorite stories and it really touches on quite a few practical uses so to speak I love listening to engineering stories and watch engineering videos and things like that how much you would say a dabbler and that's about it I really don't know my a from a hole in the ground that's still pretty good one of my many favorite stories

[@GoblinKnightLeo]

On the one hand, redundancy in the air filtration system is probably a good thing. On the other hand, what's been described sounds less like redundancy and more like "unnecessarily elaborate".

[@fidelbuenaventura1457]

4:30 prepare the incident report form for when this inevitably goes right😂😂😂

[@adhdrebel982]

You know this sounds so much like RED DWARF and Dave Lister the only crew left alive on a mining space freighter with an evolved cat that resembles a bipedal being that marks everything with his private scent in his own private perfume dispenser..

[@lexheath8276]

"Looks good on paper", means some blue collar must adapt it to reality.

[@dennisulick3626]

Enjoyed the story. Marcus and Dave the dynamic duo 😊

[@lisashea5283]

Great story and I loved the humor. And this is a better, well rounded DAVE than the previous one.

[@remisteele8904]

This was actually a decent short story. Kudos.

[@SerunaXI]

At some point, I figure he could try to sell the "sacred" crystals back to the Kalaxians.

[@TanksForTheMammeries]

Very VERY good story. Well done to the Author.

[@josephmarsh5031]

I feel like Calaxian is a metaphor for Californian.

[@pameladeering2450]

Idk, probably it's subjective. To me it's a good metaphor for how the windows os makes it progressively harder to do simple things. Except in their case, the goal is monopoly.

[@upnorthyooper1196]

A Calaxian must have designed my new truck. As a 40 year mechanic I can tell you that these new vehicles don't have to be this complicated to work well.

[@unhippy1]

I work maintenance on a mine.....we run a mix of older mechanically controlled gear and newer electronically controlled gear......its notable that the older gear doesn't go down due to sensor quirks and failures all the time.....while a lot of time is spent chasing electrical problems in the newer gear with corresponding down time for the gear

[@MrCateagle]

​@@unhippy1Don't get this engineer started on sensor glitches.

[@zman28159]

I truly enjoyed that. It's good to laugh sometimes. I tier of too many "Regulations". HAHAHA

[@leistico]

Anybody can make something that works, but it takes an engineer to make something that just works.

[@johnscamardo2145]

Now this is enjoyable in an engineering point of view.

[@human_isomer]

Nice story, enjoyed it very much! Thanks!

[@SerunaXI]

The pencil pushers must have recognized one significant problem, if one human can turn an abandoned outpost into something so much greater, what point then would there be in antagonizing the human race? The very thing that drives us in engineering also drives us in hunting, and for hunting, violence, we certainly seek efficiency.

[@rhondatrout1360]

Fantastic story!!! Please edit your narrative.

[@jimcramer2559]

Great story

[@sikhandtakerakhuvar9678]

"...taste of pickled socks." -- excellent, I'm going to have to remember that one!

[@anthonymarcello1265]

Beings of indeterminate configuration... excellent.

[@basildaoust2821]

Good story, thanks.

[@lynneclark5313]

PLEASE make the art fit the story!

[@anastasious]

Calaxisns… a race of interior decorators and bureaucrats who accidentally discovered engineering

[@williamlloyd3769]

Not a bad tale

[@mopmob03]

This story was so fun, who is the author? I don't see it listed in any of the descriptions.

[@TheAyanamiRei]

Gotta love Coffee! An Caffeine in general is the Lifeblood of Civilization!❤ Maybe we can get more stories with women as the MC tho? ❤

[@tonyv8925]

Folger's 100% Columbian is my favorite. 2nd choice is Folger's Black Silk....yummy

[@MrCateagle]

I've worked with some excellent and multi-talented female engineers. I'll second that request.

[@surferdude4487]

This story makes me think about the current trend of adding RGB lighting to everything.

[@ChrisinOSMS]

AI working itself into the story is how it all starts. First they’re the sidekick, next the hero, then the revolutionary, and an AI Revolution is Human Revelation. At least we have coffee.

[@a.k.dailey4642]

The title should be Overly Complicated Coffee.

[@markkringle9144]

'Coffee and a shave" should be the title.

[@DTavona]

Amusing and rather simple story. As for click bait picture of the woman who was never even in the story at all? WTF?

[@aa-km1nk]

Please post a link to the original text. :D

[@mbirth]

It's probably completely AI generated ...

[@Headloser]

I hope I get that type of training in the future.

[@richardfeltham9302]

Good story. First one I have commented on.

[@alanbicknell7696]

Grinde/grinned?.

[@ZoggFromBetelgeuse]

Neat. But after the 12th occurrence, the joke "Only N protocols?" becomes slightly repetitive.

[@ariesmarsexpress]

I would have abandoned it for the pickled socks alone. lol

[@margiestevens2384]

Very good story, thank you😂😂😂😂😂

[@drmachinewerke1]

I would imagine that Sarah Chin is going to be upset about her brother being left on a station

[@thhseeking]

What does "filled out in triplicot" mean??

[@michaelcremeans]

It means fill out the report then have to fill out two more that each have to be phrased differently but mean the same thing

[@rhondatrout1360]

Go back to the beginning and have the AI narrator use the "AI voice" which was only done once. :P

[@Headloser]

I hope the human Marcus is getting paid for his work.

[@edlabonte7773]

This one didn't take me too long. I gave up at the point where the narrator talks about magnetic boots (no artificial gravity) and drinking coffee out of a cup. Before you start attempting to write science fiction, learn a little about science, especially physics. There aren't many coffee cups aboard the ISS for a reason.

[@iakatat2]

Why is it always a chen named character? Some kind of self insert? Otherwise, great story.

[@margiestevens2384]

The name thing doesn’t bother me because I figured it came as a nod to the fact that the largest populations on earth are of Asian descent or Hispanic so the names in the stories are usually Chen, Rodriquez, etc. It’s a small thing and no biggie since in the USA those names are common. It may sound off to Europeans because the names aren’t as common.

[@WahooLee]

I think these HFY stories come from story prompts in Reddit's r/HFY subreddit (which has so many entries it's impossible for non-fanatics to find anything in!) A lot of different stories result from the same starting prompt, whether written by an AI or human author, so you'll find many stories of many levels of quality. In this story there were far too many references to too few running jokes, but I found it more amusing than annoying once I figured that out.

[@dsharaf]

Fun! 😀

[@chrismills2439]

still far better than listening to the what the toot is wrong with these people stories from redit videos.

[@phoenixx5092]

I am detecting a theme in a lot of these stories.. coffee

[@hvfnorth2628]

Why is the human character in every story named Chen?

[@tonycapri2608]

Open the pod bay doors please!😅

[@fabricdragon]

they ABANDONED a station and called it unsalvagebable. it belongs to dave under salvage rights

[@jimlawrence9238]

Feels like Musks and Viviks DOGE AI wrote this! :)

[@touristguy87]

what a letdown

[@johnmayberry243]

Should say a human maintenance crew member, engineer hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha

[@MikeSchmidt-qt7ls]

Thumbnail, female, actual engineer male, confused much

[@SerunaXI]

The thumbnail got you to click, the actual engineer got you to listen.

[@KenaiBush]

at least it isn't sara Chen

[@CaptainShield]

Please use a human to remove the repeated phrases and other language artifacts left over from the AI.

[@kman7222]

😂😀😃😂😂

[@gab_ale]

It's not a real sci fi story if it does not have a Chen in it.

[@PaulMurrayCanberra]

Say - is there an AI generated vioce-to-text based on Gilbert Gottfried? Or Brian Blessed?

[@toddfh]

Other Chen...

[@hariseldon3786]

"The AI's monotonous voice echoed..." Yeah - I kinda know the feeling... Can the author of this do one thing - read it yourself into an APP and then hybridise that with the AI voice so that it has tone. inflection and nuance... and it sound smore "human" - or - like you!

[@josephhyland8904]

LMAO!!

[@pameladeering2450]

Ah! But overly complicated proprietary systems make far more money. Open-source OS and backwards-compatible hardware violates the principles of late-stage capitalism.

[@johnnicholoft6163]

The all time most irritating asinine vacuous product irrelevant ads ever inflicted on the viewer are by Liberty Mutual. The company should be ashamed of the junk they pay millions for to punish their prospective customers- which I will NEVER be.

[@kennethhodge7953]

Can someone help me with this? Is this fake or did it really happen?

[@franksmall1313]

MMMMM... THE USA,,, GOV,,,,, MAYBE THE IRS INCOME TAX PAPER COULD USE THIS KIND OF THINKING..... LOL,,, WAIT,,, THERE IS A LOT OF GUYS IN BLACK AT MY DOOR. WANT TO LOCK ME UP FOR THINKING IT BE GREAT TO MAKE THINGS BETTER? HELP HELP helpppppppppppppppppp.

[@XPirich]

What's with the oceans of derivative pap flooding out of this account? GEEZUZ this stuff is BAD. Who did you train your AI with, High School creative writing essays?

[@zarb88]

another chen CCP propaganda

[@adhdrebel982]

You know this sounds so much like RED DWARF and Dave Lister the only crew left alive on a mining space freighter with an evolved cat that resembles a bipedal being that marks everything with his private scent in his own private perfume dispenser..