Category: Futurist

  • Mr. Hyde’s Letter, a Microfiction

    What happens when a man takes medication to change his personality, but the new personality has his own opinions? Timothy’s constipated mind pushed to slow, thick wakefulness. Only a wail from his bladder stopped him from plummeting back to sleep. He felt his way to the toilet and sat, too groggy to aim. A long…

  • We Need New AI Analogies

    Tomorrow’s AIs are both more embodied than HAL from 2001 and less robotic than Rosie or Data. A better analogy comes from a surprisingly old story. Typically, in science fiction and popular understanding, AIs and robots (or drones) fall into distinct, although overlapping, categories. Robots are autonomous single entities that move through the physical world…

  • Chatting with Chat

    Access to ChatGPT’s new voice interface turned into a long conversation while I walked in the summer sun. The results were mixed. To paraphrase and tweak a famous quote usually attributed to H.L. Mencken, nobody has ever lost money by overestimating the laziness of the human mind. To put it more generously, we humans have a lot…

  • The Ghosts of What Wasn’t

    A recent Economist article about dying small towns inspired me to think about Retro Futures, the failed promise of the hyperloop, and “sideshadows.” Typically, when I’ve written about retro futures, I’ve explored how old science fiction stories illuminate things happening today. This time, I’ll take a different angle. One of the problems with being a futurist…

  • What is Real?

    Generative AI makes it effortless to create photorealistic images (and soon videos), but sometimes the question is more complicated than whether something is fake. I belonged to a fraternity in college. This often surprises folks until they learn that the house in question was a co-ed literary society that fans of the Revenge of the Nerds…

  • The End of Filter Failure?

    How soon will technology start working for users rather than big tech companies when it comes to information overload? Last time, I shared a microfiction (1,000 words or less), a short science fiction story called “Fleeing the Emerald City,” about Calvin, a man who uses advanced filtering technology to lose weight but doesn’t much enjoy…

  • Fleeing the Emerald City, a Microfiction

    What happens when you sign up for a hi-tech digital behavior modification program to get healthy, but you don’t much enjoy the experience? I’ve been experimenting with microfictions, short SF stories (1,000 words or less) that help me explore and illustrate aspects of how our lives might evolve within digital transformation. Here, then, is another microfiction.…

  • 20 Years of Innovation!

    This week, I share a new infographic tracking two decades of transformational companies and products. Plus, “13 Ways of Looking at Las Vegas.” (Issue #101) I had a ball leading StoryTech tours of the show floor at CES in Las Vegas last week. This year’s distinct theme was AI. My favorite exhibit was Timekettle from China: it’s one of…

  • Dueling Intelligences

    How realistic is the idea that flesh and blood actors will soon find themselves performing alongside long-dead movie stars? Image created by DALL-E. Last time, I shared a microfiction (1,000 words or less), a short science fiction story called “The Only Living Boy,” about an actor, Tom, who is the only flesh and blood performer…

  • Filtered, a Microfiction

    If you never had to deal with your partner’s annoying verbal tics because your AI could just edit them out, would you do it? Image created with ChatGPT. Hearing his wife Cynthia say the word “Sweetie” tightened the corners of Phil’s mouth into a sour grimace. He hated it, and it was Cynthia’s chief way…