Read the story here in DreamForge Anvil #11!
Published online on March 12, 2023
In print June 2023
‘Lost in Intuition’ is my first published short story. It’s based on an idea my dad and I always joked about— the GPS that takes you not where you want to go, but where you need to go. He always saw it as a sort of magical realism, possibly set in the 90s when GPS technology was first becoming widespread amidst the public. But for me, it resonated more with the rise of automation and artificial intelligence that we’re seeing in the present. It’s no longer a fantastical thought that a computer might know more about ourselves than we do— ad targeting algorithms are building profiles of us based on everything we do online. And one of the biggest fears around the current surge of AI development is the tech going rogue. But instead of being some uniformly scary thing, what if a system like that could be helpful? What if it could help us reshape our relationships and our lives for the better?
This story is also inspired by the time I spent working with the Robot Locomotion Group at MIT. I was fortunate to spend time with prominent roboticists and engage in very interesting discussions about their visions of the near future. Russ Tedrake, Professor and Director of the Center for Robotics at MIT as well as VP of Robotics Research at the Toyota Research Institute, once told me he believed autonomous vehicles would someday be ubiquitous on our streets, and the next generation’s children might not even have to learn to drive. While I’m a bit less optimistic about how soon autonomous vehicles will become the norm, it’s nice to imagine that in a climate- and community-positive future, a network of fully-autonomous electric vehicles would all but eliminate vehicular deaths, drunk driving, and road pollution.
This story received an honorable mention from the Sapiens Plurum 2022 Awards.
REVIEW:
Tangent Online, by Victoria Silverwolf
Although not humorous, the story has the feeling of a romantic comedy, in which the protagonist heals a broken heart, draws closer to family members, and is about to find true love with an old flame. The AI serves as the wise and sympathetic friend in such a plot. This is not meant to belittle the work, which gracefully succeeds at what it sets out to do. Once again, we have a tale verging on sentimentality from a first-time author who shows great talent.