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Twelve Tomorrows 2016
Inspired by the real-life breakthroughs covered in the pages of MIT Technology Review, writers Nick Harkaway, Bruce Sterling, and Paola Antonelli join emerging authors from around the world to envision the future of the Internet, biotechnology, computing, and more.
CONTENT
"Boxes" by Nick Harkaway
"Life’s a Game" by Charles Stross
"All the Childhood You Can Afford" by Daniel Suarez
"The Lexicography of an Abusive but Divine Relationship with the World" by Ilona Gaynor
"The New Us" by Pepe Rojo
"It Takes More Muscles to Frown" by Ned Beauman
"Consolation" by John Kessel
"Gallery" by The Art of Virgil Finlay
"All-Natural Organic Microbes" by Annalee Newitz
"The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You" by Jo Lindsay Walton
"The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness" by Paola Antonelli
"The Ancient Engineer" by Bruce Sterling
CONTENT
"Boxes" by Nick Harkaway
"Life’s a Game" by Charles Stross
"All the Childhood You Can Afford" by Daniel Suarez
"The Lexicography of an Abusive but Divine Relationship with the World" by Ilona Gaynor
"The New Us" by Pepe Rojo
"It Takes More Muscles to Frown" by Ned Beauman
"Consolation" by John Kessel
"Gallery" by The Art of Virgil Finlay
"All-Natural Organic Microbes" by Annalee Newitz
"The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You" by Jo Lindsay Walton
"The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness" by Paola Antonelli
"The Ancient Engineer" by Bruce Sterling
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 13, 2015
23 people are currently reading
464 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Sterling
356 books1,201 followersBruce Sterling is an author, journalist, critic and a contributing editor of Wired magazine. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns and introductions to books by authors ranging from Ernst Jünger to Jules Verne. His non-fiction works include The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992), Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years (2003) and Shaping Things (2005).
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 24, 2019
To be honest, I picked up this book to read something by Annalee Newitz before starting with Autonomous, to ease myself in, so to say. And I decided to read it all because it also contains a story by Charles Stross, an author that I deeply admire. So it’s not going to be an in-depth review of every story, just a few highlights.
“All-Natural Organic Microbes”, Newitz’s story, is a bit frustrating by the time you get to the end, because it doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s basically a story about a down-on-her-luck reporter doing some investigative journalism at a facility where fecal transplants are produced, from the fecal matter of “all-natural”, “organic” Mayans, somewhere in Mexico. And we find out about a possible problem where the harvested matter is not screened to check if it’s of human origin. And that’s it, the end. Well, it’s not the worst... at least I think it’s not, but let’s just say that it’s somewhere in the lower part, along with Bruce Sterling’s own “The Ancient Engineer”.
The good part about this book is that the collection starts off very, very strong. “Boxes”, “Life’s a Game” and “All the Childhood You Can Afford” are just great. “Boxes” gave me an idea about how you can pervert the idea of someone’s mortal remains when they are dependent on external things for their existence. In this story, people use the technology of the Boxes as external crutches for brains, essentially storing memories and using it to help in their thought processes. “Life’s a Game” is the fast-paced, turn-and-you’ll-miss-it narrative about an MMO mixed reality game which becomes the de-facto decision forum in politics, overthrows governments and creates a new branch of cyberterrorism. Pure gold. The third one is great because of its take on new ways in which capitalism can fuck humanity over. You know, small things, like no more free education and childhood support. Where parents need to prepare an investment plan for their children so that when they’re born (possibly in-vitro, maybe 50 or 100 years later, when the children already have enough capital in their name) they have enough money to have a good, care-free childhood with a good education.
Then there are weird ones, like Ilona Gaynor’s and Jo Lindsay Walton’s. One intersperses some app reviews with a narrative about childhood games, but with real consequences, and the other is written as a lexicon, but there was really not too much to follow. Paola Antonelli’s “The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness” is a pretty convincing proposition that design thinking is the solution to the world’s greatest problems. There’s also a warning that overlooking design thinking in education leads humanity’s advancement to a local maximum from where there is nowhere to go but down, and that only designers are able to make the great leaps needed to escape a plateau like this and lead humanity further. Problem is, there’s not much of a story there.
There should be a couple more stories, but I guess there’s not that much to say, good or bad, about them. So yeah, again, a big thumbs-up for Stross and a big improvement in her debut novel for Newitz. For anyone else who had the same idea as me, just skip this short story and go straight for the novel.
“All-Natural Organic Microbes”, Newitz’s story, is a bit frustrating by the time you get to the end, because it doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s basically a story about a down-on-her-luck reporter doing some investigative journalism at a facility where fecal transplants are produced, from the fecal matter of “all-natural”, “organic” Mayans, somewhere in Mexico. And we find out about a possible problem where the harvested matter is not screened to check if it’s of human origin. And that’s it, the end. Well, it’s not the worst... at least I think it’s not, but let’s just say that it’s somewhere in the lower part, along with Bruce Sterling’s own “The Ancient Engineer”.
The good part about this book is that the collection starts off very, very strong. “Boxes”, “Life’s a Game” and “All the Childhood You Can Afford” are just great. “Boxes” gave me an idea about how you can pervert the idea of someone’s mortal remains when they are dependent on external things for their existence. In this story, people use the technology of the Boxes as external crutches for brains, essentially storing memories and using it to help in their thought processes. “Life’s a Game” is the fast-paced, turn-and-you’ll-miss-it narrative about an MMO mixed reality game which becomes the de-facto decision forum in politics, overthrows governments and creates a new branch of cyberterrorism. Pure gold. The third one is great because of its take on new ways in which capitalism can fuck humanity over. You know, small things, like no more free education and childhood support. Where parents need to prepare an investment plan for their children so that when they’re born (possibly in-vitro, maybe 50 or 100 years later, when the children already have enough capital in their name) they have enough money to have a good, care-free childhood with a good education.
Then there are weird ones, like Ilona Gaynor’s and Jo Lindsay Walton’s. One intersperses some app reviews with a narrative about childhood games, but with real consequences, and the other is written as a lexicon, but there was really not too much to follow. Paola Antonelli’s “The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness” is a pretty convincing proposition that design thinking is the solution to the world’s greatest problems. There’s also a warning that overlooking design thinking in education leads humanity’s advancement to a local maximum from where there is nowhere to go but down, and that only designers are able to make the great leaps needed to escape a plateau like this and lead humanity further. Problem is, there’s not much of a story there.
There should be a couple more stories, but I guess there’s not that much to say, good or bad, about them. So yeah, again, a big thumbs-up for Stross and a big improvement in her debut novel for Newitz. For anyone else who had the same idea as me, just skip this short story and go straight for the novel.
December 22, 2015
Maybe it's all the classic scifi I've been reading, or maybe it's just me, but the 2016 Twelve Tomorrows feels a bit weaker than the last installment. The crazy idea is still there (Bruce Sterling and MIT team up on near-future SF), but the stories aren't up to the same caliber, and some of the invited amateurs fall flat entirely.
The themes this year are apps, children, violence, and the messy intersection of all of these things in the gamification of crime, education, commerce, whatever else you have. Charles Stross, Jo Lindsey Walton, and Ned Beauman deliver the standouts that'll stick with me. Still worth it, but overall, I had a better time with the last issue of Clarkesworld.
The themes this year are apps, children, violence, and the messy intersection of all of these things in the gamification of crime, education, commerce, whatever else you have. Charles Stross, Jo Lindsey Walton, and Ned Beauman deliver the standouts that'll stick with me. Still worth it, but overall, I had a better time with the last issue of Clarkesworld.
June 10, 2025
I very nearly gave this one star, but it's not that bad. The 4 that are Ok are at the lower end of that, and the other 7 are Meh or Blah. I barely didn't feel strongly enough to give it a 1.
Boxes - Nick Harkaway
To prolong brain function people rely on wirelessly connected boxes stored at home that contain cultivated brain tissue that takes the load off their own brain. Her husband has just died and she's not ready to let go of him, so she does what she has to remain with him.
Ok
Life's a Game - Charles Stross
This was probably inspired by Gamergate and the contemporary political and cultural context. The narrative is presented through a one-sided dialogue. A game designer who either has near zero self-awareness and is oblivious to all things, or is trying hard as possible to play dumb, is being interrogated about The Movement. It's too serious to be funny, but also too much of a caricature to be taken seriously. Stross should've leaned into the humor a lot more.
Meh
All the Childhood You Can Afford - Daniel Suarez
Except for the very wealthy, parents and their children are no longer cotemporal. Gavin couldn't afford to be born for 86 years and even then he had almost nothing to his name. Humans allow robots to run the world and knowledge is very expensive. This isn't about the robots replacing humans, that happened long ago. How does society react when what comes next begins replacing robots?
Ok
The Lexicography of an Abusive but Divine Relationship with the World - Ilona Gaynor
This has an unusual style, though that's all it has going for it and it's not one I can appreciate. The story opens by announcing that the content is uninteresting and that how it's written is what matters. Is it allegorical? Probably. Pretentious? Definitely. This is a woman's stream of consciousness as she goes about her day in Los Angeles while plans for Earth to be abandoned are underway.
Blah
The New US - Pepe Rojo
A woman who has been subjected to many medical experiments trudges through a collapsed Mexico overrun by cartels and the new US. She's nearly unaware of everything going on around or inside her, including an implant constantly pumping her full of testosterone, forcibly transitioning her. I assume it was intended for the effects of testosterone to be similar to becoming a zombie.
Blah
It Takes More Muscles to Frown - Ned Beauman
An American business executive embezzled from a Mexican cartel shell company and was found out. Now he owes a lifelong debt and works as a corporate spy for the cartels. To pass the loyalty tests he's undergone extensive facial surgery to install protheses that control his every microexpression.
Ok
Consolation - John Kessel
The US has collapsed and parts of it have joined Canada. A guy is being interrogated for being an illegal immigrant from Texas. A woman does a terrorism then wonders if it was a bad idea. A man is willing to overlook much for a relationship.
Meh
The Art of Virgil Finlay
As seen on the cover, it's mostly his art from the 1950s. This really isn't a style I prefer.
All-Natural Organic Microbes - Annalee Newitz
A journalist investigates a facility that creates new age alternative medicine DIY fecal transplant material. That is to say, it has locally sourced human feces produced, brought there to be packaged, and then distributed.
Meh
The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You - Jo Lindsay Walton
This was an absolute disaster that I couldn't look away from. So utterly awful that it pained me to read it. Yet for some out there I have no doubt that this would be their peak fiction. Maybe I'm being uncharitable, but this stream of consciousness preteen ramblings about social media derived procedurally generated mental illnesses was too much to take. If you're the sort that enjoys as it says the "SmartSchizularity", then this may be for you.
Blah
The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness - Paola Antonelli
The protagonist wants literally every single human to commit suicide. There is much more that could be said, but I'm not the one to say it.
Blah
The Ancient Engineer - Bruce Sterling
It is the 895 AUC (142 AD) and Julius Glitius Atilius Verus has inherited what would later be called the Antikyrhera mechanism. He thinks it's the greatest invention there has ever been and no one else understands how wonderful it is.
Ok
Boxes - Nick Harkaway
To prolong brain function people rely on wirelessly connected boxes stored at home that contain cultivated brain tissue that takes the load off their own brain. Her husband has just died and she's not ready to let go of him, so she does what she has to remain with him.
Ok
Life's a Game - Charles Stross
This was probably inspired by Gamergate and the contemporary political and cultural context. The narrative is presented through a one-sided dialogue. A game designer who either has near zero self-awareness and is oblivious to all things, or is trying hard as possible to play dumb, is being interrogated about The Movement. It's too serious to be funny, but also too much of a caricature to be taken seriously. Stross should've leaned into the humor a lot more.
Meh
All the Childhood You Can Afford - Daniel Suarez
Except for the very wealthy, parents and their children are no longer cotemporal. Gavin couldn't afford to be born for 86 years and even then he had almost nothing to his name. Humans allow robots to run the world and knowledge is very expensive. This isn't about the robots replacing humans, that happened long ago. How does society react when what comes next begins replacing robots?
Ok
The Lexicography of an Abusive but Divine Relationship with the World - Ilona Gaynor
This has an unusual style, though that's all it has going for it and it's not one I can appreciate. The story opens by announcing that the content is uninteresting and that how it's written is what matters. Is it allegorical? Probably. Pretentious? Definitely. This is a woman's stream of consciousness as she goes about her day in Los Angeles while plans for Earth to be abandoned are underway.
Blah
The New US - Pepe Rojo
A woman who has been subjected to many medical experiments trudges through a collapsed Mexico overrun by cartels and the new US. She's nearly unaware of everything going on around or inside her, including an implant constantly pumping her full of testosterone, forcibly transitioning her. I assume it was intended for the effects of testosterone to be similar to becoming a zombie.
Blah
It Takes More Muscles to Frown - Ned Beauman
An American business executive embezzled from a Mexican cartel shell company and was found out. Now he owes a lifelong debt and works as a corporate spy for the cartels. To pass the loyalty tests he's undergone extensive facial surgery to install protheses that control his every microexpression.
Ok
Consolation - John Kessel
The US has collapsed and parts of it have joined Canada. A guy is being interrogated for being an illegal immigrant from Texas. A woman does a terrorism then wonders if it was a bad idea. A man is willing to overlook much for a relationship.
Meh
The Art of Virgil Finlay
As seen on the cover, it's mostly his art from the 1950s. This really isn't a style I prefer.
All-Natural Organic Microbes - Annalee Newitz
A journalist investigates a facility that creates new age alternative medicine DIY fecal transplant material. That is to say, it has locally sourced human feces produced, brought there to be packaged, and then distributed.
Meh
The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You - Jo Lindsay Walton
This was an absolute disaster that I couldn't look away from. So utterly awful that it pained me to read it. Yet for some out there I have no doubt that this would be their peak fiction. Maybe I'm being uncharitable, but this stream of consciousness preteen ramblings about social media derived procedurally generated mental illnesses was too much to take. If you're the sort that enjoys as it says the "SmartSchizularity", then this may be for you.
Blah
The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness - Paola Antonelli
The protagonist wants literally every single human to commit suicide. There is much more that could be said, but I'm not the one to say it.
Blah
The Ancient Engineer - Bruce Sterling
It is the 895 AUC (142 AD) and Julius Glitius Atilius Verus has inherited what would later be called the Antikyrhera mechanism. He thinks it's the greatest invention there has ever been and no one else understands how wonderful it is.
Ok
October 17, 2015
Gute Sammlung futurologischer Geschichten ohne den totalen Höhepunkt. Highlights aber sind: Die delirierend-dystopische Mexiko-Geschichte 'The New Us' von Pepe Rojo und die Abschluss-Story 'The Ancient Engineer' von Herausgeber Bruce Sterling um eine Art Palöo-Proto-Computer im römischen Reich um 200 A.D.; keine SF im klassischen Sinne, eher vom Modus her, wie Neal Stephenson das für sich definiert. Lesenswerter Band des M.I.T. mal wieder.
January 17, 2016
A good batch this year. My favorite stories were written by Jo Lindsay Walton, Paola Antonelli, and Nick Harkaway - though Bruce Sterling gets an honorable mention for including a very charming story of ancient Rome in a sci-fi digest.
May 17, 2020
A strange collection and a little too accurate in the current climate for my liking, with a predilection towards plagues and their decimation. They don’t all quite hit right, but the focus on extending life through organic and artificial organs was a nice, if unintentional, theme, but Sterlings closing story was definitely the standout. A subtle contrast of science and religion in Ancient Rome.
June 9, 2023
Some good stories, some not so good. The Ancient Engineer is an example of the uneven quality. It starts well incorporating the Antikythera mechanism into the story, but then it goes off the rails at the end. Other stories aren't up to the mark, but still worth a selective look.
April 22, 2020
A very uneven collection. A couple of the stories were frankly ineffable - as much as I tried to eff them. A few were very good.
November 30, 2020
Some stories were good, others were bad, and two were excellent...
March 11, 2023
A collection of interesting futuristic short stories. None were particularly grabbing or memorable.
October 9, 2015
An anthology is a success if I come away prizing at least one piece or one author, and by that measure this is a success. First, a note on the final story in the collection, which does much to dispel the appeal of all that preceded it.
On Bruce Sterling’s story, “The Ancient Engineer”: Possibly an alternative-history piece, it deals with a device much like the Antikythera Mechanism (discovered in 1900, not carefully examined until decades later, it changed notions of ancient technology), but this story is long, discursive, clumsily written, and as far as I could see pointless.
On Jo Lindsay Walton’s story, “The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You”: It’s about a teenaged girl in a London housing project, interspersed with app reviews and comments. It’s allusive, elusive, canny, linguistically spritely (as in the title, and “the pursuit of appiness” re phone apps), sympathetic to the situation of the young and underprivileged and nearly lost. It was hard to believe the knowing narrator was only 12, but the allure of the story outweighed that. Another YA dystopia? Maybe, but not the kind where anyone triumphs in the end. Walton is someone I hope to hear more from.
Some of the other work here is enjoyable in various ways. You can find a longer review—which I half agree with, and which mistakenly includes one story that must be from a different collection—in this Locus post.
On Bruce Sterling’s story, “The Ancient Engineer”: Possibly an alternative-history piece, it deals with a device much like the Antikythera Mechanism (discovered in 1900, not carefully examined until decades later, it changed notions of ancient technology), but this story is long, discursive, clumsily written, and as far as I could see pointless.
On Jo Lindsay Walton’s story, “The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You”: It’s about a teenaged girl in a London housing project, interspersed with app reviews and comments. It’s allusive, elusive, canny, linguistically spritely (as in the title, and “the pursuit of appiness” re phone apps), sympathetic to the situation of the young and underprivileged and nearly lost. It was hard to believe the knowing narrator was only 12, but the allure of the story outweighed that. Another YA dystopia? Maybe, but not the kind where anyone triumphs in the end. Walton is someone I hope to hear more from.
Some of the other work here is enjoyable in various ways. You can find a longer review—which I half agree with, and which mistakenly includes one story that must be from a different collection—in this Locus post.
set-aside
November 15, 2015Finally, this dead tree edition arrived. Tempting list of authors, can't wait to read Sterling, Stross, Harkaway. Just note, that the Walton here is not the one you'd expect.
(stolen from isfdb:)
★★★ • Boxes • short story by Nick Harkaway • review
★★★ • Life's a Game • short story by Charles Stross • review
23 • All the Childhood You Can Afford • novelette by Daniel Suarez
47 • The Lexicography of an Abusive But Divine Relationship with the World • shortstory by Ilona Gaynor
63 • The New Us • shortstory by Pepe Rojo
75 • It Takes More Muscles to Frown • novelette by Ned Beauman
99 • Consolation • shortstory by John Kessel
119 interior artwork by Virgil Finlay
135 • All-Natural Organic Microbes • shortstory by Annalee Newitz
149 • The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You • novelette by Jo L. Walton [as by Jo Lindsay Walton ]
173 • The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness • shortstory by Paola Antonelli
193 • The Ancient Engineer • novelette by Bruce Sterling
(stolen from isfdb:)
★★★ • Boxes • short story by Nick Harkaway • review
★★★ • Life's a Game • short story by Charles Stross • review
23 • All the Childhood You Can Afford • novelette by Daniel Suarez
47 • The Lexicography of an Abusive But Divine Relationship with the World • shortstory by Ilona Gaynor
63 • The New Us • shortstory by Pepe Rojo
75 • It Takes More Muscles to Frown • novelette by Ned Beauman
99 • Consolation • shortstory by John Kessel
119 interior artwork by Virgil Finlay
135 • All-Natural Organic Microbes • shortstory by Annalee Newitz
149 • The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You • novelette by Jo L. Walton [as by Jo Lindsay Walton ]
173 • The Design Doyenne Defeats the Dullness • shortstory by Paola Antonelli
193 • The Ancient Engineer • novelette by Bruce Sterling
January 25, 2016
Favourite idea: “... the Euthanasia Coaster, 'a humane, elegant, and euphoric solution,' in his own words, for those who have chosen to end their lives. ... It featured seven loops, each tighter than the one before, propelling the rider through successive degrees of g-force acceleration until a final, inescapable death. It was designed to give its riders a diverse range of experiences from euphoria to thrill to tunnel vision to loss of consciousness and, eventually, to the end result: death.”
October 23, 2016
What could the future of mankind be like? An interesting series of exponential projections on what our world could evolve into. The perspectives are various despite an almost unanimous skepticism on the ability of technology to solve today's grand challenges without creating unsurmountable political, economic, or existential turmoil. Inspiring on all accounts.
January 7, 2016
Paola Antonelli text is brilliant. Her reflections on designer's role in 2045 are inspiring and relevant.
January 6, 2016
a few good stories (notably the one by Ned Beauman) and a nice section of old pulp magazine art by Virgil Finlay.
December 21, 2016
Mostly forced and poorly imagined stuff. There might've been some things I liked about the contents, but not so memorable that I could pick them out now. Really just a sad collection.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews