Speculative Companions - E-book - ePub

This collects all my short stories published in various magazines prior to 2024. I generally write science fiction that adheres to what I imagine will be possible, but without going as technical as hard sci-fi. I am very fond of robots and other technologies that will change how we interact with each other, society and the world. I also have a background in cognitive science with focus on AI, cybernetics, linguistics and philosophy, so I return to these themes often.
To the best of my ability, I've arranged the stories in order of quality--or, perhaps as a proxy for that, in order of how much pride I have in each. By that metric, When the last friend is gone is still my favourite. It tells the story of a miserable old woman and her robot butler. The mind of the robot is just on the cusp of what we might consider conscious, or "alive"--its thoughts and actions are all quite clearly logical and robotic, but in a way that can clearly form the foundations of human emotion and (apparent?) irrationality.
That said, I prefer the second story here, Searching for the brushstroke that captures your soul, for its use of language and metaphor. That story is built on the premise of a piece of technology that generates conscious personalities for whatever one can illustrate. As the topic as art and illustration, I attempted to use more visual language than I usually do. For originality, though, I believe sPerfect stands out.
Would you prefer to have children you like, or children who are successful?Invasive alien species and Megafauna both explore environmental themes from a comedic perspective. I prefer the former for its structured progression built around the famous old nursery rhyme of a woman whose problem-solving ideas got quite out of control. I prefer the latter for its word choice and use of language. I remember the story just pouring out with wonderful ease...
up to a point. Then it ran out and I have never been able to write in that humorous style since. Perhaps it is possible to lose your sense of humour. Imagine a future where coming of age means you have to choose whether you'll be a productive member of society, or a hedonist. That is the setting of A life of toil or leisure. Drunk and divine is the biblically phrased recounting of a drunken computer science post-doc trying to impress his equally intoxicated girlfriend by showing her how the lab computer can generate life.
The weakest story here is Two traitors. That said, I still love the concept of a human and a robot each seeing only the flaws of their own species and the beauty of the other, and each fighting to wipe out their own kind. It does have action and pace, but step carefully to avoid the plot holes. Finally, The infinite cat theorem is just a short, humorous poem. I had been saving it to submit together with a few more poems...
but I've not yet managed to write another poem that's any good, so this is going out on its own. I hope you enjoy them.