I’m nothing so dramatic. Not a virtue, not a religion, just the way you’ve chosen to do things.  Just a system you created.

Fiction (2000 Words, 8 min.)

After going through all the effort to make us what they wanted, humans still think we don’t understand them?

Well, I don’t understand that, so maybe there is some truth to the assertion.

Science Fiction (2400 Words, 10 min.)

He just wanted to be a father again. Not just a parent, not a mere branch on a family tree. Louis craved the connection, the assured, unshakable, mutual trust, friendship and joy of being part of another person.

That was what Louis had lost.

No, not lost. What he’d destroyed.

Fiction (5200 Words, 21 min.)

In this moment of clarity - your clarity, your victory - cement this screed in your heart. The next time we speak, I might be more like a screaming infant or a domineering giant, and even more disinclined to act in good faith. When those other versions of me return, recall that though you cannot kill me, I am not invincible.

Flash Fiction (900 words, 4 min.)

This already feels too awkward. She is following me to…what? Ask me not to destroy her hill? Negotiate with me? Threaten me? How does a parlay with an ant even work?

Fiction (1900 words, 8 min.)

Such a simple, miniscule thing at first glance. It isn't that difficult to fix a bicycle chain; were the boy to think about his mindless task, he'd shrug and tell you as such. There was a problem, but he knew how to fix it…so he fixed it.

Flash Fiction (800 words, 4 min.)

“You wouldn’t be the first person to tell me they couldn’t share what they know,” I said, my tone flattening as I glared at both of them, “I won’t respond any better to you than I did to them, if that’s what you’re about to tell me.”

Science Fantasy

~3000 Words/chapter, 12 min.

“Because God controls no one, it controls everything.”

The ad on my screen makes me roll my eyes. I never cared for that tagline. CMC’s sales line was far too simple an explanation on how the almighty AI actually works; there’s almost as much politics to the machine as there is high tech.

Science Fiction (3000 Words, 12 min.)

I was too blurry to be what you needed me to be, so it's OK to let me go.

Flash Fiction (500 words, 2 min.)

“Choose not the sword, but the hammer,” I’d named the poem, promising that I’d rename it later, but judging by the Toyota Hilux pickups charging unopposed down the dusty road to our village, there wouldn’t be a “later.”

Flash Historical Fiction (900 words, 4 min.)

“You think the country you see is a paradise?” He laughed, “You think the place your handlers show you is real?”

Flash Fiction (800 words, 4 min.)

Every CEO, upon consuming another of their competitors, swears it’s not personal. In their arrogance, they assume they have the better vision for the future of their field, and that they can better guide those who would choose to join in the work they lead. There was a time when I told myself that I was different - and I still do believe I’m doing the best thing I can, given the circumstances - but I’ve stopped trying to reassure myself of my morality.

Fiction (10000 words, 40 min.)

In fact, he was the only one in the monastery who could read all of its works. No one knew why, but as the scribes got further into their years and their works, they would grow mad, and their hands would begin to shake. This was the result of witchcraft, the abbot had said. Their works became nearly unreadable, and they themselves would become violent, gnashing their blue-black teeth. In time, Johann - just a boy of 9 years like myself - became the sacrist, if not in name.

Fiction (2600 words, 11 min.)

There’s probably a clinical word that aspires to encompass your whole existence. Schizophrenia comes to mind, and I mean it without judgment. When I think of you, the thought that you might one day find peace from your wandering, both mental and literal, makes me wish I could make that happen.

Flash Nonfiction (400 words, 2 min.)

From my place in the electronic sky, I’ve watched as you transformed yourself. You don’t fit into this world of ones and zeroes, not completely. It’s not that this world is lacking for space; it is simply that you and every other human have eyes too slow and limited to see the whole spectrum of this realm’s light.

Flash Science Fiction (350 Words, 2 min.)

“Self-determination?” He said. It wasn’t a word that came up much when one lived in a 100 square meter bubble on the bottom of the ocean, nor was it something anyone wanted a subservient AI to truly understand.

Science Fiction (8500 Words, 34 min.)

Recently, an idea occurred to me: has anyone run a Turing test on this thing? I mean, they probably have; it’s only the most prominent AI-related thought experiment fashioned in modern times. I still wanted to do it myself, though, and so I did, with a few tweaks of my own.

The results were…interesting.

Interview (8000 Words, 40 min.)

Part 1 | Part 2

“I started the day afraid that a machine could learn to understand me, that it could look into my mind and take in everything there was to see, with a single glance. Here at the end, I felt better that that was the case, and a little silly for ever thinking the machines wouldn’t eventually figure us out.”

Science Fiction (14000 Words, 56 min.)

But there were so many of us. When M took us on - I’m pretty sure we broke into its body, but that’s beside the point - we started as one thing, one stowaway, and then exploded outward. That was the first thing that the stowaway wanted to be: it wanted to be alright. It was maybe the most human thing a simulated human could do: to put the pain in a box, and push that box as far away as possible.

Science Fiction (4600 Words, 19 min.)

“I didn’t like the nickname. Crocodiles are feral, senseless,’ He said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath of the salty air, “There were reasons for what I did.”

Fiction Anthology (~2500 words, 10 min.)