Synopsis
Artificial intelligence. Virtual reality. Genetic engineering. These and other technologies are changing the way we live—and the way we work. What will our jobs be like in a future marked by such radical change? In Working Futures, science fiction authors share possible answers to that question. From surveillance auditors to AI chaperones to high-tech trash collectors, the workers found in these speculative stories provide a glimpse of what our future might look like— perhaps sooner than we think. With stories by Keyan Bowes, Katharine Dow, Timothy Geigner, Liam Hogan, Christopher Alex Hooton, Andrew Dana Hudson, Randy Lubin, Mike Masnick, Ross Pruden, N. R. M. Roshak, Holly Schofield, and James Yu.
From the Author
This anthology is the product of a unique experiment, and it's been a long time in the making. I've spent over 20 years writing about how technology changes our world, and one of the most pressing (and fascinating!) questions has always been how it impacts the way we work: how we do our jobs, and what jobs there are to be done. Recent developments, especially in artificial intelligence, have brought this question back to the forefront, and a lot of people are wondering what the future of work will look like.
To help explore that question, the team at Techdirt decided to get help from people with lots of experience extrapolating current trends into future settings: science fiction writers. But first we wanted to lay some real-world groundwork, so we held a special event that brought together experts in several fields and people from a variety of backgrounds. Using a custom deck of cards to help map out various technological, political, economic and social trends, we played a scenario-planning game to brainstorm a series of possible futures shaped by these driving forces. We then packaged up these scenarios as one-page summaries and sent them out to sci-fi authors, both experienced and amateur, to serve as settings for their stories, or just as loose inspiration. The result was a bigger and better deluge of amazing story submissions than we anticipated - so much so that it was tough to decide on the final cut - and now I'm incredibly excited to share the Working Futures anthology with you.
I also decided to try my hand at writing my own stories for the anthology. One, the Nole Edge Economy, is about a world in which the DIY nature of people helping others do/build/fix stuff (a la today's YouTube) might advance in a future world where the internet has become more distributed. The other, Prime of Life, raises a question about how much people might be willing to turn over their lives to certain internet companies... especially when they might compete to offer you a better life. These and the other stories in the book are an attempt to explore various ways in which the nature of work might change in the future. They are presented as neither "optimistic" nor "pessimistic" scenarios, but complicated ones, in which future worlds have both opportunities and challenges.
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