Book: Future Tense Fiction

NoCoPilot wrote:

Future Tense Fiction. A compilation of sci-fi shorts set in the future. Only one of the 14 authors have I ever heard of.

Just read one of the stories; it was about a robot drone designed to look somewhat like an anthropomorphized bird.  It flew among human populations scanning for disease outbreaks. The robot befriends a crow, learns enough crow language to communicate a little.  When it detects a disease outbreak in a homeless encampment, the drone needs to enlist the crow to help find other outbreaks.

Quote :

When 3cry arrived in the morning, Robot has to strain against the boundaries of its vocabulary to make itself understood. "Need group. Find near-death enemy."

"Enemy?" 3cry scratched her head.

"Enemy for humans," Robot admitted. But then it had an idea. "Enemy causes human death. Dead humans mean less food."

Janelle had a surprised look on her face. "Will this crow really help you find the outbreaks?"

"Yes. The crow thinks humans are idiots, but they appreciate your garbage."

Eerily plausible.

I am noticing the design of this book. It has a colored binding as if it’s a traditional book binding, but in fact it’s a solid smooth surface. And there is no printing on the cover, no title , no author. When did book design take such a bizarre turn?

Meant to send a pic

The one story by the author I recognized, Paolo Bacigalupi -- who wrote "The Windup Girl" -- was very haunting.

It's called "Mika Model" and it's about a line of realistic AI-enhanced sex dolls called "Mikas."  Each Mika is designed to appeal to the male ego, with coquettish flirtation, a stunning body, and fawning attention to the owner. They can do household chores and simple tasks, as well as providing interactive conversation and, of course, sex.  They're networked to HQ, so when one Mika learns a new skill or a successful strategy, they all get a download with the update. They're always learning, always improving.

The story starts when a Mika walks into a detective's office and says she needs a lawyer.  The detective, who's never seen a real Mika in person, is fascinated at how beautiful and seductive it is.  He tells it he's not even sure a lawyer could represent a Mika, and what does she need a lawyer for anyway?

She reaches into her bag and pulls out a man's head.  "I've been bad."

The detective is taken aback, of course, but eventually gets the story out of the Mika.  Her owner locked her in a basement sex dungeon and did unpleasant things to her.  When she complained, he told her to shut up because she wasn't real.

So, she decided to show him she's real.  By decapitating him.

The detective isn't sure a robot can be charged with murder, like a person.  Even an autonomous robot.  Maybe the company that built her would be liable?  Just as he's about to call a lawyer friend to find out, a representative from the manufacturer walks into his office.  She says the GPS inside the Mika led her to it, and she knew it had done something terrible.

She sits down next to the Mika, reaches into her bag, pulls out a screwdriver, and jams it into the Mika's eye.  The Mika screams, writhes on the floor, there's blood everywhere, the detective is now about to call the police for the murder he's just witnessed.  The factory representative explains that Mikas are just software, not real people, and what she did was "hardware deactivation" not murder.  There is no law about deactivating a malfunctioning Mika.

She tells the detective she'll have somebody come clean up the mess, and the next software download will include a prohibition against attacking their owner.

Unspoken in the story:
That means "sex dolls," even autonomous AI-enhanced realistic sex dolls, have no bodily autonomy.  Their owners can abuse and torture and mistreat them with impunity.  Such behavior is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged... if you're rich enough to own a Mika.

Creepy.  Unsettling.  Haunting.

Turns out though there was another author in the bunch that I'd read before, Maureen McHugh, though it's been five years so I didn't recognize her name 'til I was reading the author bios at the end of the book. Her short story. "The Starfish Girl," is equally haunting.  In the near future people with serious injuries can get stem-cell injections and some kind of targeted electroshock which sets the stem cells to repairing the damage.

Even a gymnast who was paralyzed from a bad dismount.  Her spinal cord is regenerated using stem cells from a starfish (which are able to regenerate arms after one is severed).  The athlete has to literally start over. After a several years of rigorous rehabilitation, taking her from quadraplegic to walking with assistance to walking with a limp to walking and running to training in gymnastics again to becoming Olympic competition-level...

After all that, the IOC rejects her participation because they're not sure if she fits the definition of "enhanced" or not.

Heartbreaking.  And eerily plausible.