Probably not quite in the right frame of mind to appreciate this book.
I tend to go short stories because I don't need to concentrate or invest as much as when I read an epic series, but this one required more thought and consideration than I felt like giving.
On which note, I did like Brin's Uplift series.

From this, I most liked The Giving Plague and Ambiguity.
Also the final essay on Otherness ( )

Well worth the read, if only for these bits from "Detritus Affected" -

“Physicians swear a Hippocratic Oath whose central vow is ‘do no harm’. I wonder–how many other professions might do well to set that goal above all others?”

Excellent question.

“Look, see this broken plastic wheel? Part of a cheap toy, circa 1970. Giveaway prize in some fast food outlet’s promotional kiddie meal. Seventy grams of carboniferous petroleum cooked under limestone sediments for two hundred million years, only to be sucked up, refined, press-moulded, passed across a counter, squealed over, and then tossed in next week’s trash.” ( )

Over all a good collection of short stories, but the reason I gave it 4 stars was "The Giving Plague." I thought that one was great. ( )

The essays get just a titch political - Brin is opinionated. ?�But he doesn't bombast; he explores what we know to hypothesize what we should consider.
The stories are a lot of fun... but not so much humorous or even ironic (though they show traces of that) as anjoyable & temporarily satisfying, like hamburgers. ?áThought-provoking might be a bit too strong, though, imo--I'd rather save that for those that truly stick with me, or at least will satiate for longer, like pot roast. ?áI've been done with this for a day, and as I write I'm flipping through and having too much trouble recalling each story. ( )

The story was interesting, but I am cutting down on my collection and something has to go out. ( )