AI and you in the near future
You will need this in order to swim out of the technological riptide
The reason it’s worth reflecting on the future of humanity. Yes, our humanity.
It can be traced back to the original TV series Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, WarGames, Back to the Future, The Terminator, Blade Runner, and Alien. My fascination with the future of humanity began when I was very young. That’s when I saw the original Battlestar Galactica. I was mesmerized by the idea that these humans lived on a gigantic space ship and had to battle robots. Robots that had red swooping lights where we humans have eyes. Apollo and Starbuck were my original space heroes!
I read science fiction and technology magazines. I watched science fiction movies and shows, and I thought a lot about us humans and the future. That did not stop. I was there when the internet, as we know it, began. Yes, I spent way too much time downloading pictures of Mulder and Scully. I was there when we began hearing murmurs of the Singularity and AI and nanobots — that was years and years ago.
Over the last few years I’ve been building a picture of the future. I’ve shared the stories from the near future here in The Cabinet of Curiosities and in my two anthologies:
No End Code [free with KindleUnlimited and $6.99 paperback]
Errante [New! $7.99 paperback]
Two readers shared their reflections after reading Errante.
Stories set in the future have never been my cup of tea, but after receiving a copy of Errante, I couldn't stop reading. The author paints the scenes with both familiarity and a touch of humor that gives a false sense of comfort when, suddenly, something happens in the story that shakes up the reality of the world as we know it. M.K. Weaving's short stories are a reckoning with the future and the impact it will have on us. She lets the characters reflect on their choices made, and I myself begin to fear even more the prison that humanity has already begun building around itself.
—
Errante consists of six short stories “from the near future” in that they pertain to AI, “upload rituals,” “living” in alternative realities while your bio body decays — you get the idea. In my opinion, the author is right to cast this personal futuristic tech in a dark light; the potential cost to us, our emotions, and what makes us human is indeed so great that it’s terrifying to contemplate what could happen if we’re not careful with modern advancements. I found the stories skin-crawlingly entertaining and fun, and like I said, they force you to contemplate, which is more than I can say for most casual fiction these days.
“This is far away in the future. I’m just doing my own thing.”
Hopefully the own thing you’re doing is keeping at least one eye on all the apps and tech you’re required to sign up for in order to live smoothly in this current day to day life.
I think you should read Errante and No End Code. You might soon need to make a decision about your own life or someone near you — regarding something linked to AI and technology. Something that will change what it means to be human. Like most shifts and changes in our world, these things happen slowly until one day when you’re confronted.
It could begin with an online form. It asks you to press a button to permit an AI to become your new doctor. It will lower your medical costs by 80% and the accuracy level of diagnosis have been listed at 90%. You’re behind two months with rent and your car is falling apart, as are your teeth. What do you do?
Or — a family member is having severe cognitive decline and the doctors ask you if you would consider a neural mesh trial. Free of course, since it’s still in the trial phase. You are a health care proxy for this person, so you are required to make a decision. What do you do?
We’re being swept with a technological riptide right now. Do you know how to get out of a riptide? Have you spent enough time in this ocean to recognize the signs of one? Or have you mostly looked at pictures of oceans on the proverbial Instagram, and that makes you an expert? Have you thought about what you will decide about your human body when AI and technology wants to merge with you?
No one knows exactly how the future will play out. So of course the harshest critics will scoff at any attempt to paint a picture of it. Of course it will be filled with inaccuracies and false predictions. But the atmosphere, if and when it happens — I hope I have captured the mood of us humans in the near future.
I think about them often, the humans of the future. Some of them revealed themselves to me and allowed me to share their stories with you. I build my stories on a lifetime of absorbing the sea foam of that uttermost wave that is riding into the future. Out of the salty droplets that splashed onto my face I built these stories.
If you’re reading this and you also want to remain human as long as possible, please read Errante and No End Code. And then, let us know what you see happen in the near future — and if or how you yourself plan to remain human.
Here is the book release post for Errante. It includes all the what, why, how, and when, including promo material. Help me spread news about this book!
Here is the deeper story about Errante.
Thank you for reading! Press the heart button and write a comment!
Please consider dropping a few bucks in the Venmo below. This will help me spend more time writing and sharing with you.
