Beth Cato makes a welcome return to Futures this week with her new story Powers of observation. Regular readers will remember that Beth has previously introduced us to the Canopy of skulls, had a chat with a sidewalk, made some bread, rummaged through a food diary and been late to feed a cat. You can find out more about Beth’s writing and her series of books at her website or by following her on Twitter. Here, she reveals the inspiration behind her latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Powers of Observation

Some stories require a lengthy gestation period as I wait for the elements of the plot to come together in just the right way … and sometimes, a quick deadline provides the necessary motivation to finally get those words on the page.

In the case of this story, the popularity of the Pokemon Go app caused me to ponder how such applications might have a genuine scientific use during an emergency like, say, the end of the world. The idea struck me as fascinating, but I had no idea how to utilize it in a story.

Several months passed. I was taking part in a contest on Codex Writers, a fantastic forum for neo-pro authors. The contest asked us to create works of flash fiction in the span of a weekend, and provided various prompts as our springboards. During this particular bout, one of the prompts was ‘a new kind of technology’.

I remembered that old dead-end idea … and suddenly, I realized my protagonist needed to be a very unreliable child narrator, brilliant in some ways and oblivious in others. Perhaps even more importantly, I discovered the character of his mother, a woman willing to do anything to enable her child to escape the cataclysm to come.

As many times as I’ve read over this story, the very end of it still brings me to tears.

This week’s Futures story is eLiza and it marks a welcome return for Aaron Moskalik. Last time, Aaron introduced us to the Ghosts in the machine. This time, he’s tackling a more sales-oriented issue. You can find out more about Aaron’s work at his website. Here he reveals what inspired his latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing eLiza

My wife, Val, and I share an Amazon and an Apple account. One side effect of this is I can tell what she is interested in buying just by looking at the ads appearing next to my online e-mail account.

“I see you were shopping for portable power stations today.”

“We might need something to keep us going if the grid goes down.” Val is ever the practical one.

 My mind tends to stray towards the bigger picture. “Isn’t it odd that search data from one account seem to appear in other places. It’s almost as if there is just one Big Data out there.”

Val made a face. “That’s a bit creepy.”

“But Big Data doesn’t really get us, does it? I mean, it can’t even tell we are two different people.”

“Yeah, so? Most door-to-door salesmen just read a script. The good ones have tricks to get you to yes, but they don’t really know anything about us personally.”

“What if they did, though? What if you combined the face-to-face of door-to-door with the personalized information of Big Data. What if the salesman knew exactly what buttons to push?”

“That might make a good story. You should write that.”

I filed this thought away. A few days later I awoke from a dream. As the cobwebs faded, I was left with a sense of deep loneliness. I couldn’t connect the feeling with anything real, so my mind went back to idea of the Big Data-aware salesman. What if he could read my feelings and map them back to something real. What might he do with this ability?

Or she. And so, eLiza was born.

This week, Futures is pleased to welcome CB Droege with his fresh take on the end of the world in Those who favour fire. CB is an author and voice actor and you can find out more about his work at his website or by following him on Twitter. Here he reveals what inspired his latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Those who favour fire

I was bicycling across southern Ohio with my father, an activity we both love, and which serves as our primary bonding ritual, when the conversation turned to asteroid mining. A technology that is already on the horizon, and may reward our civilization with a previously unknown abundance of metals and minerals. “Someday we’ll run out, though,” he pointed out, and I realized he was right. On a galactic time-scale, humans, if they survive, will eventually use up all the asteroids in the system. It may take a very long time, but it must happen eventually. Then what?

Our conversation moved to other topics, but this idea stuck with me, and later, by myself in my car with my bicycle on the rack in the rear-view mirror, the story started to flesh out. Asteroid mining will look more like demolition than the mining we do on the surface of Earth. Each asteroid will be pulverized, and the minerals extracted from the debris. And when we run out of asteroids, will we use those tools on dwarf planets? Moons? How long before we decide that Mercury would be more useful in little chunks? And when everything else in the Solar System is gone. When every scrap of metal and minerals has been pulled from every planet and moon and rock, will we want the insides of Earth herself?

Living on the surface of a spherical body isn’t a very efficient use of that sphere, and we’re well on our way to making the surface of Earth a poor place for life anyhow, so will anyone care? Will there someday be enough people who were not born on Earth, and who hold no place special in their hearts for the planet, that we’d be willing to exploit it this way? What would that moment look like? These questions led me to Carlos and his team, managing the demolition from a safe distance, and having one last twinkling of doubt and remorse for the home of humanity. When the story was done, I was put in mind of the Robert Frost poem, and I had my title.

This week, Futures is pleased to welcome back Karlo Yeager Rodríguez with his story Iago v2.0. Regular readers, will remember Karlo’s first story for Futures, Choices, in sequential order, which took us on an uncomfortable visit to an alien world. This time, Karlo is exploring the world of AI in a similarly uncomfortable manner. You can find out more about Karlo’s work on his website or by following him on Twitter. Here, he reveals a little more about the inspiration behind his latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Iago v2.0

For Iago 2.0, I wanted to show not only how technology has permeated our lives, but also how the thirst for new content drives less-than-optimal solutions. Just as old series and movies are rebooted because it’s a sound business decision, so does it seem that history’s wheel cycles to a new version of something we’ve seen before. 

Although I love our wired world, I am also wary that technology — by flattening the world so it fits on one screen — can also be used to alienate us from one another. A personalized AI that sincerely wants to please its audience (while also satisfying a media company’s profit motive) is exactly the type of overbearing personality that would kill you with kindness.

Initially, I was going to reference Cyrano de Bergerac in the title of this story, but realized I needed someone more sinister whispering in your ear.