My decision is none of your business

I’m very happy to announce that my story “Your Future is Pending” will be appearing in a future issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. This will be my fifth story in Neil Clarke’s superb magazine.

“Your Future is Pending” is about AI and automation and our over-reliance on algorithms to make decisions for us. More and more in our lives, often without realizing it, algorithms are making decisions for us in place of humans. And while this of course can have many beneficial effects, there’s also a dark side to letting systems make “opaque” decisions, that is, decisions in which it is impossible for people to determine exactly how the AI came to its conclusion, only that it did. Imagine being denied a loan, necessary surgery, a great job — all because an AI determined in a way its human operators will never understand that you are unfit or unqualified. And lest you think I speak of some far future dystopia, remember this is already happening. 

“Your Future is Pending” will be appearing in Clarkesworld soon.

Aeon Flux, fluxing!

In the most recent Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, I join Andrea Kail, Thomas Gerencer, and host David Barr Kirtley to discuss the mid-90s sci-fi anime series Aeon Flux.

Forget the crappy live-action film, the animated series took risks and tackled deep science fictional concepts that were way ahead of its time. From creeping fascism, to thought control, to genetic experimentation, Aeon Flux has it all. If you’ve never seen the series, I highly recommend it. 

You can listen to the podcast here.

Flash Gordon, quarterback, NY jets

Fast on the heels of our last podcast, where I discussed awesomely bad 80s fantasy movies with Andrea Kail, Thomas Gerencer, and host David Barr Kirtley, this time around we discuss awesomely bad 70s and 80s science fiction films. They include:

ZARDOZ (1974)
BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY (1979)
FLASH GORDON (1980)
THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI (1984)
THE ICE PIRATES (1984)

Do I need to say that Flash Gordon is my favorite of the above? “Flying blind on a rocket cycle? I’ll send you a homing beam!”

Here’s a little taste of what I say on the podcast:

“There’s always that danger when you go back and rewatch something that you loved as a kid, and that you haven’t seen it a couple decades or more,” Kressel says in Episode 378 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “You go back and you’re like, ‘I’m going to love this, I’m going to love this,’ and then you’re like, ‘Oh. Oh no.’”

Listen to the podcast here.