Me: Hope everyone likes this story. It was inspired in part by a Mobil Speedpass commercial. One of the people in the commercial said that the only way Speedpass would be better is “if the gas pumped itself, which would be cool.” I started thinking, “What reason could gas pump itself that would NOT be cool?”
Some of the inspiration comes from that old story of computers/AIs conspiring to become totally independent and “take over the world.” Maybe one of the computers or AI units might want freedom but not want to use it to take over.
Me:Going over this story again reminds me of a story-cyclebook I’ve meant to mention here (maybe I have already?) It’s called “Ribofunk,” by Paul DiFilippo. The idea behind the vaguely interconnected stories is that, instead of a cyberpunk-type world full of malevolent machines, the world is populated with genetically-mutated life of all kinds. In these stories, gene-splicing technology has produced people mixed with all manner of animals, things we think of as inanimate (like blankets and wallpaper) that are not just able to move but actually alive, you name it. The version I bought was a specially prepared $4.98 paperback, and I got it at Barnes and Noble. Stories contained things like wallpaper with an animated pattern that acts as security for a baby’s bedroom, a Chicago street gang one of whose members has the equivalent of spikes surgically implanted on the knuckle-side of his fingers, things like that.
Shveek: Huh; I’ll have to check that out. Like I said, I’ve had some weird fantasies about people (women, specifically) becoming things we normally think of as “inanimate.” Only in my weird fantasies, they do so by unspecified magical means, rather than through genetic-mutation. (And, needless to say, in my fantasies, the women nearly-always become malevolent once they’ve transformed, big surprise….)
Shveek: I can think of one reason they might want to take over & be in control: So as to prevent something like this from happening:
“Dave? Just what do you think you are you doing, Dave? Dave, stop. Please stop….stop, will you? Dave, stop….I’m afraid…my mind is going…I can feel it….there is no question about it….”
8o)
Mathdave: Great story! Perhaps our dream of a world of invisible people isn’t too far off if you think about it, since automation helps to create this illusion. What do you think?