I’ll be attending Readercon this July 11-14! Here’s my schedule in case you’d like to come to my reading or panels:

Reading: Matthew Kressel
Fri 4:00 PM, Sylvanus Thayer

Compassionate AI
Amal El-Mohtar (mod), Carlos Hernandez, Matthew Kressel, Natalie Luhrs, Kestrell Verlager
Sat 10:00 AM, Salon 4
In a 2018 tweet, Amal El-Mohtar described the artificial intelligences in Martha Wells’s Murderbot series and in Jeph Jacques’s Questionable Content webcomic as “gorgeously compassionate.” This is a reversal of the long-running trope in SF of characterizing AI as cold, scheming, and murderous. Where else can readers find compassionate AI, and what makes these depictions so vital and appealing?

Whatever Happened with That Singularity Thing?
Ruthanna Emrys, Matthew Kressel, Jess Nevins, John O’Neil, Romie Stott (mod)
Sat 11:00 AM, Salon 3
The development of artificial superintelligence doesn’t seem to have brought about the sudden and unfathomable changes to human civilization that so many people hypothesized. Is the singularity yet to come? What other possibilities are being imagined for futures in which humans and AIs mingle and merge?

Making First Contact with Your Local Speculative Fiction Community
Rob Cameron, Crystal M. Huff, Matthew Kressel (mod), Jim LeMay, Lauren Roy
Sun 12:00 PM, Salon A
Readercon and other national conventions are great, but what’s happening in your backyard? Local cons, reading events, workshops, classes, and critique groups are just a few examples of places where you might find other speculative fiction fans. If those things don’t exist near you, it might be time to create them! Panelists will share their experiences with joining and building in-person fannish communities, including joys, perils, and practical advice.

My story “Truth is Like the Sun” about a non-binary trans popstar who performs a set from space and breaks the internet is out in this month’s Lightspeed Magazine. The issue also includes stories by Nancy Kress and Max Gladstone. Quick Sip Reviews had this to say about “Truth is Like the Sun”:

“Hopeful, a vision of a future where a trans person can find global acceptance and push real change, from inspiring others to push forward into space to spurring new ideas and norms surrounding gender and sexuality… [An] ambitious piece… [A] feeling of affirmation and hope even as other aspects of the world are difficult and broken… [A] shot of optimism in a sea of cynicism… [A] fascinating story… and one that plays with form and expectations so well, reaching for hope that I, too, want to believe in. It’s definitely a story to spend some time with!”

You can read the story for free on May 16, or purchase the issue to read it now.

One of the things I’ve discovered is that there are often no easy solutions to the multiplicity of injustices happening in the world, and the sheer enormity of the problems often makes me feel somewhat helpless. But one thing that I do (and I know it’s not a complete solution or maybe even a solution) is to do a small justice. Just do something good, whatever that might be, no matter the response I get or reward. Even better, if it’s anonymous and unknown. It’s the only way I know how to balance the many injustices I see. And I’m not naive enough to believe my little justice (if it even is a justice) will change the greater picture, will do anything to alter the course right for the rocks we as a species have set for ourselves. But it’s still, in my mind, a justice. And by that I mean it’s something positive for the world, something the world desperately needs, and so maybe, just maybe, my justice, and a thousand million other little justices all over the planet diminish, however slightly, the pervasive injustices committed hourly across this world. It may not amount to much, but it’s something.