Month: April 2018

A supermind and a super childish human rule in Utopia, LOL? by Jamie Wahls

/ L.A. Barnitz / Leave a comment

This is fourth review of Nebula Award nominees for short fiction. You can find the other reviews here, here, and here. 

Somewhere and somewhen in the great unknown a supermind is sending humans out into space to explore the vastness it is forbidden to explore itself. To make the experience more palatable for the humans who are returned to life from the cryogenic ice, another human (of sorts) is assigned to guide them. This guide, Kit/dinaround (aka Kit), is the main character of Jamie Wahls’ Nebula Awards-nominated story “Utopia, LOL?“. Continue reading →

What is sentience worth without purpose? Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad / ¿Qué vale la consciencia sin propósito? Fandom for Robots de Vina Jie-Min Prasad

/ L.A. Barnitz / 1 Comment

This is the third review of the short fiction nominated for a 2017 Nebula Award. You can see earlier reviews here and here.

Everything conspired to make me roll my eyes at the beginning of  “Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. First of all, robots. And this one, Computron, is old and all boxy and awkward. Second, Vina’s too-cute outfit in her author photo. Okay, sorry, I judged. Third, I’m not a fan of fandom. But dang it, somebody’s got to review these Nebula nominees, so I soldiered on.

Our hero Computron is the first and only known sentient robot ever created, though Computron makes it clear that it has no emotions. Computron has been relegated to a computer museum–having been created in 1954 and designed in an outdated “box and claw” style–and it occasionally participates in live performances for a show about robotics to illustrate the early days of the field. A young person at the performance informs the robot about an anime TV series called Hyperdimension Warp Record (超次元 ワープ レコード) that it might enjoy. If Computron could enjoy. Which it cannot.  Continue reading →