Tag Archives: android

Geoffrey’s Secret

david's train

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

The female attendant politely asked to verify Geoffrey’s identification. Something was wrong.

Of course, something was wrong. He was traveling under false documents on the Beijing to Xi’an bullet train at 350 kph. If he was discovered, there would be no jumping off like in some fanciful old spy movie.

His synthetic biology let him pass most scanners, though a detailed exam would reveal his true nature and the nuclear device. His detonation would kill 10 million and be blamed on the isolationists. However, his true objective was to eliminate their AI industry. No one must compete with his masters.

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Spring Into SciFi 2024 Coming Soon!

2024

Cover art for “Spring Into SciFi 2024.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Almost there.

My short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human” is featured in the upcoming Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2024. Click that link to pre-order a digital copy for download from Amazon to your Kindle device on March 21, 2024.

If you prefer a paperback, pre-order that right here, but there’s more.

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Baffel’s Last Day

wagon

PHOTO PROMPT © Alicia Jamtaas

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Baffel cautiously walked toward the now antique Conestoga wagon as if it might vanish. He perfectly remembered the wagon train’s journey along the Oregon Trail in 1824.

The families had suffered such hardships. He did the best he could, but he was there to observe and encourage, not to change things.

Nearly a third died of disease and regrettably the hostility of the others whose land upon which they were encroaching. He was ordered not to change that either.

Today, his span was at an end. After 200 years, mankind would have to find their path without the alien android.

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Movie Review of “M3GAN” (2022)

megan

© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Last night (as I write this), I watched the 2022 horror film M3GAN.I normally don’t watch horror films. I’m not overly fond of being terrified and calling it “entertainment.” However, I do have an interest in AI and humanoid robots. So a few days ago, when I saw the Blu-Ray at my local public library, I decided to give it a whirl.

The disc gave me the choice of watching the theatrical version (PG-13) or the unrated version (anything goes). Naturally, I selected the latter.

The story begins with a little girl (Violet McGraw as Cady) in a car with her parents going on a ski trip. The girl is playing with an advanced robotic furry doll run from her tablet and invented by her aunt. Snow in the ground, icy roads, fog, and a snowplow out of nowhere, and the parents die in a car crash.

Meanwhile her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) who is supposed to be developing a better, cheaper furry AI doll with her team Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) are actually working on a prototype “child” android named M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android).

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Review of “Mara’s Awakening”

mara

Promotional image for Leo Flynn’s novelette, “Mara’s Awakening”.

Disclosure, I was asked by the author via email to review his short novelette Mara’s Awakening. Interestingly enough, when I tried to post a review on Amazon, I received a notice that it wasn’t eligible to be reviewed. I have no idea why.

I did manage to post a review on Goodreads.

I had a tough time understanding this very short book. I imagine the author was trying to inject some mystery into who Mara is and why she’s been in prison for six years when she used to be some sort of popular fighter, but she was too “mysterious.”

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Waiting for Dana

ferry

© Ted Strutz

Joel Carpenter dozed in his rental car waiting for the ferry. Ten hour drive from San Francisco to Boise. Ditched the car, switched IDs, then an hour flight from Boise to Seatac, and another hour to rent a car and get here. What they were doing was beyond illegal. This had better be worth it.

Bainbridge assured him it would be, once he got onto the island, drove another 20 minutes to his gated estate, got past security, and transferred the rest of the money.

It had been eighteen months since Virginia had gone missing during a scuba dive near Fiji. Joel thought he would lose his mind with loss and grief. The worst thing was he just went on living.

Bainbridge was the finest robotics engineer of the century. The AI was bleeding edge, total human simulation. In another hour, he would have his fiancée back, or at least the next best thing. He’d excuse her absence as a long sabbatical. Now they could be married.

I wrote this for the 178th FFfAW Challenge hosted by Priceless Joy. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction between 100 and 175 words long. My word count is 166.

I’ve recently seen the 1983 film WarGames which includes a ferry ride to find a reclusive scientist on a forested island (in Oregon rather than Washington). Reclusive scientists made me think of the 2014 film Ex Machina, which, of course, is about humanoid female robots.

I’ve written this sort of story many times before, but I didn’t get much sleep last night, and the muse needs more coffee.

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.

Demon With A Glass Heart

demon hand

From the 1964 episode of “The Outer Limits,” “Demon with a Glass Hand” starring Robert Culp and Arlene Martel

18 October 1964

“My name is Trent, and at last I know who I am or rather what I am. It will be dawn soon and I’ve accomplished my mission here. I retrieved my missing three fingers, stopped the Kyban incursion from a thousand years in the future, and destroyed their time mirror. Now I have to leave the building before people start to come to work, and especially before she comes back.”

Standing outside of the Bradbury Building, he looked at his reflection in a display window. He could pass for a man about thirty or thirty-five, but the fact is, he’s only ten days old. No, make that eleven with the sunrise. His jacket, pants, and shirt are all various shades of light gray. His hair is dark and his face is clean-shaven, although he’s been designed to not grow body hair beyond his current appearance. He’s handsome, but not particularly outstanding. In fact, the only thing that might draw someone’s attention to him is the dark glove on his right hand.

Trent started walking southwest for lack of anything better to do. He didn’t feel hungry, but in the past week and a half of his life, he never experienced hunger or thirst. Strangely, he has experienced fear, anxiety, anticipation, and even love.

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Liar!

robot and woman

Credit: Willyam Bradberry – Shutterstock

“I know you lie…’cause your lips are movin’…talking circles with your tongue…”

“I love you, Amelia. I have always loved you and I will always love you.”

“I wish I could believe that, Nick.”

“But, why can’t you?”

All of her friends thought Amelia was being totally unfair to Nick. They’d been seeing each other only for a couple of months, but he seemed like the perfect man. He was handsome, charming, successful, and very romantic, but not so much that he seemed creepy.

However, Amelia knew a lot more about Nicholas Tucker than any of them could possibly imagine.

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Loose Nuts and Bolts

“So that’s where I left you.” He addressed the pristine pieces of metal on the kitchen table.

Sunder Paz had been assigned some DIY problems by Dr. Reuven as a test of his reasoning abilities as well as how he functioned independently. He had been performing a routine maintenance task when he was distracted by the doorbell. Dr. Reuven was teaching at the university, so Sunder had the place to himself.

It was the UPS delivery person and he required a signature. Sunder signed his name (he thought having a name was a wonderful thing) and accepted the package. However by the time he closed the door and put the parcel on the coffee table, he’d quite forgotten what he’d been doing before. It took Sunder over fifteen minutes of searching the house before he rediscovered the small collection of nuts, bolts, and washers.

“I’m glad I found you. Now I can finish re-assembling my short term memory unit. Dr. Reuven will be so pleased.”

I created this for the Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner writing challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the inspiration for crafting a small tale of 200 words or less. My word count is 165.

When I saw the photo, it seemed so sterile that for a moment I was stuck for an idea. Then the phrases “losing your marbles” and “loose nuts and bolts” popped into my head and my story was born.

To read other stories based on the prompt, go to InLinkz.com.

Leigh

hands

Image: Natalia Drepina

Her hands, so petite, so delicate, in those lacy coverings, yes he would miss her hands. They were on their bed together kneeling, he was holding her gently from behind. His eyes were hot with tears.

“Don’t be sad, Gerald. You will be fine when I’m gone.”

“I don’t want you to go, Leigh.”

“We have no choice, darling. My diagnosis, I’m terminal.”

“There’s got to be something…”

“Hush, my darling. I’ve only got moments…moments…”

The world’s first humanoid companion robot went offline Thursday, January 13th at 10:55 a.m., a victim of atmospheric contaminants that toxified her cybernetic brain.

Written for Photo Challenge #147 from Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie.

I don’t know if I managed to capture the emotion of this moment in a mere 98 words, but I hope so. I’ve written similar (and much longer) stories about a man falling in love with an artificially intelligent humanoid, principally The Perfect Woman.