Review of “Toy Shop” (1962)
Harry Harrison (writer).
Read in 2025.
An inventor trusts in curious people to discover that an implausible, truly novel machine actually works.
This piece of flash fiction ends with a spirited defence of the intersection between the scientific method, childlike curiosity, consternation, deceit, and profit. If you read between the lines, this makes the story a metaphor for science fiction itself.
References here: The pulping of Delta Green, “With No Strings Attached” (1963).