Reading #machinehood. #FranWilde on #npr says:
“Machinehood takes its rightful place alongside the work of William Gibson, Malka @older, Isaac Asimov, Pat Cadigan, Vandana Singh, and @rudytheelder Rucker as it engages with many of the topics we are wrestling with already, from bodily autonomy and privacy, to 24/7 news, invisible labor, influencer culture, disability, and political and military decisions based on assumptions forged in the past, rather than looking forward.”
Something I noticed in #Machinehood as well: we've got characters have strong disagreements, betray each other, and separate; but that's not the end. Lots of them reconcile, change their mind about things, grow and learn. And that's not just true for lovers, but for friends as well.
It feels... mature, I guess? Being able to see scales of grey, apologize and return. And very hopeful: people /can/ change their minds!
It has great middle-aged female main characters, takes place partly in Chennai, there are nonbinary characters and Neobuddhists as well as private rocketry clubs, married couples talk about their problems and resolve them, and lots of details are just /right/ and made me feel like this is a story that could actually happen.
It's amazing, go read it!
(3/n, n=3)
People heavily augment themselves just to compete on the job market and generally scramble for employment and health care.
We follow two characters in the wake of terrorist attacks by the titular "Machinehood", thought to be an emergent strong AI and later revealed to be quite a different thing.
There's lots of exploration of the economy, the risks people take for employability, and how continuous surveillance and social media presences work.
(2/n)
So, I finished @sbdivya's #Machinehood and I don't think I can say "it's amazing, go read it" loudly enough.
It's amazing, go read it!
#SF set in the late 21st century, with ubiquitous "weak AI" assistants and bots, with independent space stations, nanotechnology for medical and cognitive enhancement and people with heavily modified bodies. It takes place in a gig economy, where almost no one has stable employment, works numerous small jobs and earns tips on social media.
(1/n)
Thought about how dystopian it is that the state requires doctoral monitoring of pill usage when a person gets pregnant in "Machinehood".
Asked myself why they put up with it, given how little social security the state provides.
Realized that that's just normal in the US.
Now I have a "no regulation without paid vacation"
slogan in my head.
How #Machinehood handles one character's pregnancy and resulting abortion ist so good. The character makes a difficult (and arguably wrong) choice of lying to their partner and regrets that - but not the abortion itself, which is somewhat painful but not traumatic. It's something we get to see so seldom, and it's great how everyone comes around to "my body my choice"!
(Nerd me also wonders how birth control with nanotechnology might work...)
So #Machinehood, like #LevelFive, also has its main characters going through marital crises (partly) because of their passion for work!
The important difference: "Machinehood" has them not just divorce and demonize the ex, but talk through it like grown-ups and reconcile, though not without scarring.
These two are so similar in setting and theme, and so very different in how they deal with it. It's amazing to see.
Sean Eric Fagan
Jarkko Sakkinen
Joan Combs Durso
Jules