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Twelve Tomorrows
Twelve visions of the future—by turns hilarious, frightening, and relevant—from new and established voices in science fiction.In this book, new and established voices in science fiction come together to offer original stories of the future. Ken Liu writes about a virtual currency that hijacks our empathy; Elizabeth Bear shows us a smart home tricked into kidnapping its owner; Clifford V. Johnson presents, in a graphic novella, the story of a computer scientist seeing a new side of the AIs she has invented; and J. M. Ledgard describes a 28,000-year-old AI who meditates on the nature of loneliness. We encounter metal-melting viruses, vegetable-based heart transplants, search-and-rescue drones, and semi-automated sailing ships. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening, and always relevant, Twelve Tomorrows offers compelling visions of potential futures.
Originally launched in 2011 by MIT Technology Review, the Twelve Tomorrows series explores the future implications of emerging technologies through the lens of fiction. Featuring a diverse collection of authors, characters, and stories rooted in contemporary real-world science, each volume in the series offers conceivable and inclusive stories of the future, celebrating and continuing the genre of “hard” science fiction pioneered by authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein. Twelve Tomorrows is the first volume of the series to be published in partnership with the MIT Press.
ContributorsElizabeth Bear, SL Huang, Clifford V. Johnson, J. M. Ledgard, Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Nnedi Okorafor, Malka Older, Sarah Pinsker, Alastair Reynolds
Originally launched in 2011 by MIT Technology Review, the Twelve Tomorrows series explores the future implications of emerging technologies through the lens of fiction. Featuring a diverse collection of authors, characters, and stories rooted in contemporary real-world science, each volume in the series offers conceivable and inclusive stories of the future, celebrating and continuing the genre of “hard” science fiction pioneered by authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein. Twelve Tomorrows is the first volume of the series to be published in partnership with the MIT Press.
ContributorsElizabeth Bear, SL Huang, Clifford V. Johnson, J. M. Ledgard, Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Nnedi Okorafor, Malka Older, Sarah Pinsker, Alastair Reynolds
313 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 28, 2018
75 people are currently reading
403 people want to read
About the author
Wade Roush
10 books6 followersWade Roush is a freelance science and technology writer, columnist at Scientific American, and host and producer of the tech-and-culture podcast Soonish. His work has appeared in Science, Xconomy, and MIT Technology Review. He is the editor of the science fiction anthology Twelve Tomorrows (MIT Press).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
December 9, 2022
A really solid collection - as hinted by the names on the cover, but as usual it's all down to personal taste, and luckily this one jibed well with me.
Standouts for me:
Fields of Gold, Escape from Caring Seasons (Sarah Pinsker really has mastered the art of the short), and Different Seas. Stunning stories.
No real disasters, but there were some in there I wasn't as fond of. Those ones I liked though, were absolutely brilliant.
Standouts for me:
Fields of Gold, Escape from Caring Seasons (Sarah Pinsker really has mastered the art of the short), and Different Seas. Stunning stories.
No real disasters, but there were some in there I wasn't as fond of. Those ones I liked though, were absolutely brilliant.
June 26, 2018
For several years, the MIT Technology Review has published the Twelve Tomorrows series as a magazine, but this year it has been handed over to the MIT Press as a big, grown up book. The idea is to have stories that really make you think about the implications of a technology - something that exists to some degree now, but that is extrapolated into a future where it may be far advanced from its current form.
There is a danger with this kind of story that it can be more than a little po-faced and can work over-hard at educating the reader about the technology at the cost of losing an effective narrative. Thankfully, most of the authors avoid this trap and present genuinely intriguing stories. Ken Liu's Byzantine Empathy is the story that comes closest to falling into this mode in its attempts to explain blockchains (not very well, sadly) - but is entirely forgiven by presenting what is one of the most powerful storylines in the book, using the idea of a blockchain mechanism for getting an empathy response from followers as a way of deciding how to allocate aid funds. The story really digs into the whole head vs heart balance on charity and aid - and the outcome is not the idealistic, black and white one you might expect.
That was probably my second favourite story, being pipped to the post by the opener, The Woman Who Destroyed Us by S L Huang which explores the ethics of using direct brain stimulation to alter personality in order to deal with mental problems... or just to 'improve' an individual. To begin with, the narrative felt a little predictable to me, but by the end it had won me over. I was very impressed and had changed my own opinion on the topic.
Inevitably not every story hit the mark. I felt Chine Life by the best-known author in the book, Paul McAuley, seemed rather forced and I found the last story in the collection, Vespers by J. M. Ledgard unreadable. I also doubly resented the graphic novel-style story Resolution by Clifford V. Johnson. The comic book images did nothing for the story, which was almost entirely a conversation - it would have been far easier to read as a short short story that was straight text (it's a shame as this was, effectively, the only short short, which is one of my favourite SF story forms). The pictures just got in the way. The other half of the resentment is that having the comic book layout forced the overall book to be in an uncomfortably large format, making it physically feel more like reading a textbook than a collection of stories.
While not all in the garden was rosy, though, at least half the stories were excellent and this is a collection that is well worth looking out, especially if MIT don't spoil things by pricing in like an academic book. (Postscript: sadly, they have. And why is there no Kindle version?) (PPS It's now cheaper than when I first looked, but still more than I'd expect to pay for a paperback of short stories.)
There is a danger with this kind of story that it can be more than a little po-faced and can work over-hard at educating the reader about the technology at the cost of losing an effective narrative. Thankfully, most of the authors avoid this trap and present genuinely intriguing stories. Ken Liu's Byzantine Empathy is the story that comes closest to falling into this mode in its attempts to explain blockchains (not very well, sadly) - but is entirely forgiven by presenting what is one of the most powerful storylines in the book, using the idea of a blockchain mechanism for getting an empathy response from followers as a way of deciding how to allocate aid funds. The story really digs into the whole head vs heart balance on charity and aid - and the outcome is not the idealistic, black and white one you might expect.
That was probably my second favourite story, being pipped to the post by the opener, The Woman Who Destroyed Us by S L Huang which explores the ethics of using direct brain stimulation to alter personality in order to deal with mental problems... or just to 'improve' an individual. To begin with, the narrative felt a little predictable to me, but by the end it had won me over. I was very impressed and had changed my own opinion on the topic.
Inevitably not every story hit the mark. I felt Chine Life by the best-known author in the book, Paul McAuley, seemed rather forced and I found the last story in the collection, Vespers by J. M. Ledgard unreadable. I also doubly resented the graphic novel-style story Resolution by Clifford V. Johnson. The comic book images did nothing for the story, which was almost entirely a conversation - it would have been far easier to read as a short short story that was straight text (it's a shame as this was, effectively, the only short short, which is one of my favourite SF story forms). The pictures just got in the way. The other half of the resentment is that having the comic book layout forced the overall book to be in an uncomfortably large format, making it physically feel more like reading a textbook than a collection of stories.
While not all in the garden was rosy, though, at least half the stories were excellent and this is a collection that is well worth looking out, especially if MIT don't spoil things by pricing in like an academic book. (Postscript: sadly, they have. And why is there no Kindle version?) (PPS It's now cheaper than when I first looked, but still more than I'd expect to pay for a paperback of short stories.)
December 1, 2022
Image Friendly Version
Fields of Gold by Liu Cixin ★★★★★★
"Are the stars very far?"
"They’re getting closer."
Six stars. Jaw droppingly good. I gasped!
Byzantine Empathy by Ken Liu ★★★★★
That was absolutely fascinating. The blockchain charity seems a good idea but I prefer GiveDirectly. Listening to Jianwen and Sophia argue is like listening to college me vs. the-world-complicated adult me.
Escape From Caring Seasons by Sarah Pinsker ★★★★½
Scary stuff! A.I. and corporate greed takeover a retirement community. Who listens to old people when computers and doctors are keeping them confined for their own good?
The Woman Who Destroyed Us by SL Huang ★★★★☆
As Deep Brain Stimulation and implants become normalized some fight back against its troubling elective uses. The story follows one would-be terrorist who could not reconnect with her formerly disabled son.
Chine Life by Paul McAuley ★★★★☆
I love any story that reminds me of Who Do You Love? by Kathleen Ann Goonan and Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. The reef is a hive mind and may, or may not, be humanity’s last chance.
Resolution by Clifford V. Johnson ★★★★☆
I disagree entirely with the main characters unilateral declaration of war. It was so Angry American - freedom regardless of absolutely everything (no voting needed - just rash action). Still, a neat little comic strip.
The Heart of the Matter by Nnedi Okorafor ★★★★☆
"Backward thinking will lead us all forward."
-Corrupt Nigerian General
This was a look at a better future for Nigeria - yet always one greedy coup away from a leap backward.
Different Seas by Alastair Reynolds ★★★½☆
Telepresence allows us to work from home, or farther, and aid each other over great distances.
Disasters Tourism by Malka Older ★★★☆☆
Between drones and the internet areas isolated by natural, or biologically engineered, disasters can be accessed like a video game.
Okay, Glory by Elizabeth Bear ★★★☆☆
Ok story about a tech billionaire who gets trapped in his own fortress of solitude.
Vespers by J.M. Ledgard ★★☆☆☆
"On its journey back, it amassed so much knowledge, it achieved consciousness itself. It became a living thing."
JAMES T. KIRK
A lot of effort went into this, so hat doff’d, but I did not enjoy it. This story was the ramblings of V’GER from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I read all the stories for an average of 3.9 stars happily rounded all the way up to five. The best collection I have read in years and I will remember Fields of Gold as the best story of my year.
Fields of Gold by Liu Cixin ★★★★★★
"Are the stars very far?"
"They’re getting closer."
Six stars. Jaw droppingly good. I gasped!
Byzantine Empathy by Ken Liu ★★★★★
That was absolutely fascinating. The blockchain charity seems a good idea but I prefer GiveDirectly. Listening to Jianwen and Sophia argue is like listening to college me vs. the-world-complicated adult me.
Escape From Caring Seasons by Sarah Pinsker ★★★★½
Scary stuff! A.I. and corporate greed takeover a retirement community. Who listens to old people when computers and doctors are keeping them confined for their own good?
The Woman Who Destroyed Us by SL Huang ★★★★☆
As Deep Brain Stimulation and implants become normalized some fight back against its troubling elective uses. The story follows one would-be terrorist who could not reconnect with her formerly disabled son.
Chine Life by Paul McAuley ★★★★☆
I love any story that reminds me of Who Do You Love? by Kathleen Ann Goonan and Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. The reef is a hive mind and may, or may not, be humanity’s last chance.
Resolution by Clifford V. Johnson ★★★★☆
I disagree entirely with the main characters unilateral declaration of war. It was so Angry American - freedom regardless of absolutely everything (no voting needed - just rash action). Still, a neat little comic strip.
The Heart of the Matter by Nnedi Okorafor ★★★★☆
"Backward thinking will lead us all forward."
-Corrupt Nigerian General
This was a look at a better future for Nigeria - yet always one greedy coup away from a leap backward.
Different Seas by Alastair Reynolds ★★★½☆
Telepresence allows us to work from home, or farther, and aid each other over great distances.
Disasters Tourism by Malka Older ★★★☆☆
Between drones and the internet areas isolated by natural, or biologically engineered, disasters can be accessed like a video game.
Okay, Glory by Elizabeth Bear ★★★☆☆
Ok story about a tech billionaire who gets trapped in his own fortress of solitude.
Vespers by J.M. Ledgard ★★☆☆☆
"On its journey back, it amassed so much knowledge, it achieved consciousness itself. It became a living thing."
JAMES T. KIRK
A lot of effort went into this, so hat doff’d, but I did not enjoy it. This story was the ramblings of V’GER from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I read all the stories for an average of 3.9 stars happily rounded all the way up to five. The best collection I have read in years and I will remember Fields of Gold as the best story of my year.
June 14, 2025
Profile: Samuel R. Delany - Mark Pontin and Jason Pontin
An interesting profile that doesn't shy away from his pornographic works and provides a fair evaluation of his him and his work.
The Woman Who Destroyed Us - S.L. Huang
A woman has deep concerns about deep brain stimulation. Her son underwent the procedure and she believes it killed his soul, metaphorically speaking. She becomes obsessed and seeks revenge.
Ok
Okay, Glory - Elizabeth Bear
This is a "I'm trapped in my smarthome" story. If this were just a bit better I'd rate it more highly.
Ok
Byzantine Empathy - Ken Liu
2nd read (continued after thoughts)
This is a story in two parts. The first part is a technical discussion of cryptocurrency in general alongside the specifics of the fictional crypto central to the narrative. The second part is a philosophical dialogue between frenemies. I enjoyed the latter part more, but I also enjoyed the former. The former is the kind that becomes less useful the more that stories use it, or less relevant if they don't. Unfortunately for me this is one of the few stories I've read that makes use of the blockchain aside from brief mentions as a payment method. I understand why that it is, but it's still disappointing. As the title implies, the philosophical argument is about empathy. All of this makes it the kind of story where everything I enjoy about it can be cited as the reasons why they dislike it, and that's entirely understandable.
This is the second time I've read the story, the first time being in Liu's The Hidden Girl collection in 2020. At the time I put up some notes from a discussion, which I later deleted, rather than writing my thoughts. I copypaste what I've written before if I come across the story again, whether or not I read it again. If I felt differently enough I'd include the original and then my new thoughts. Looking back at my notes, some has changed in 5 years since then, both in what I thought about who was right in the philosophical arguments and the judgment that time has passed on crypto. For the arguments, I've moved to a more centrist position, which is an ideological luxury. The idealism of crypto has almost entirely faded away and even though that was inevitable, it remains lamentable.
Highly Enjoyable
Chine Life - Paul McAuley
The last of hope of humanity is pleading with a group of (ma)Chines that aren't hostile to save them from those that are.
Meh
Fields of Gold - Liu Cixin
The single passenger spaceship Fields of Gold goes into space, then malfunctions. The entire world comes together to do whatever it takes to rescue her.
Despite being an improbable and ridiculous story that usually I would dislike for being allegorical, it somehow worked well enough for me to enjoy it more much than I expected. This is easily the story I've most liked of Liu's short fiction, though that's a rather low bar for me.
Enjoyable
Resolution - Clifford V. Johnson
This is a graphic novella rather than prose. I didn't like the story and the art is worse.
Blah
Escape from Caring Seasons - Sarah Pinsker
Zora, an 82 year old woman, lives in an assisted care community with her wife, Anya, who's currently in the hospital. The medical AI has ruled that Anya will not be allowed to leave. Despite her pleading to the one human at the hospital, the ruling stands. Zora decides it's time to take matters into her own hands.
Enjoyable
The Heart of the Matter - Nnedi Okorafor
The Nigerian president, who truly has been the greatest leader Nigeria has ever had, needs a heart transplant. The protagonist is a surgeon familiar with the xyborg process, a term for those who have hybrid transplants made from both their own cells and plant life. The disgraced former Minister of Defense sees this as the perfect time for a coup.
This was certainly different to everything else (6 short fiction, a few longer works) I've read from Okorafor as far as I can remember.
Ok
Different Seas - Alastair Reynolds
A solar weather event messes up a ship crewed by a single woman. Now she and a telepresence humanoid proxy have to fix it.
Ok
Disaster Tourism - Malka Older
A group of drone operators survey a disaster-stricken area until their drones are mysteriously destroyed. What happened?
This somewhat reminded me of being a like a spiritual prequel to Roadside Picnic, though I don't think that was the intention or the guiding metaphor.
Ok
Vespers - J. M. Ledgard
A machine on a ~100,000 year journey through space muses in a literary fashion on philosophy, religion, metaphysics, technical matters, history, mythology and much more.
That's something that I can enjoy, and often do, but it wasn't the case this time.
Meh
An interesting profile that doesn't shy away from his pornographic works and provides a fair evaluation of his him and his work.
The Woman Who Destroyed Us - S.L. Huang
A woman has deep concerns about deep brain stimulation. Her son underwent the procedure and she believes it killed his soul, metaphorically speaking. She becomes obsessed and seeks revenge.
Ok
Okay, Glory - Elizabeth Bear
This is a "I'm trapped in my smarthome" story. If this were just a bit better I'd rate it more highly.
Ok
Byzantine Empathy - Ken Liu
2nd read (continued after thoughts)
This is a story in two parts. The first part is a technical discussion of cryptocurrency in general alongside the specifics of the fictional crypto central to the narrative. The second part is a philosophical dialogue between frenemies. I enjoyed the latter part more, but I also enjoyed the former. The former is the kind that becomes less useful the more that stories use it, or less relevant if they don't. Unfortunately for me this is one of the few stories I've read that makes use of the blockchain aside from brief mentions as a payment method. I understand why that it is, but it's still disappointing. As the title implies, the philosophical argument is about empathy. All of this makes it the kind of story where everything I enjoy about it can be cited as the reasons why they dislike it, and that's entirely understandable.
This is the second time I've read the story, the first time being in Liu's The Hidden Girl collection in 2020. At the time I put up some notes from a discussion, which I later deleted, rather than writing my thoughts. I copypaste what I've written before if I come across the story again, whether or not I read it again. If I felt differently enough I'd include the original and then my new thoughts. Looking back at my notes, some has changed in 5 years since then, both in what I thought about who was right in the philosophical arguments and the judgment that time has passed on crypto. For the arguments, I've moved to a more centrist position, which is an ideological luxury. The idealism of crypto has almost entirely faded away and even though that was inevitable, it remains lamentable.
Highly Enjoyable
Chine Life - Paul McAuley
The last of hope of humanity is pleading with a group of (ma)Chines that aren't hostile to save them from those that are.
Meh
Fields of Gold - Liu Cixin
The single passenger spaceship Fields of Gold goes into space, then malfunctions. The entire world comes together to do whatever it takes to rescue her.
Despite being an improbable and ridiculous story that usually I would dislike for being allegorical, it somehow worked well enough for me to enjoy it more much than I expected. This is easily the story I've most liked of Liu's short fiction, though that's a rather low bar for me.
Enjoyable
Resolution - Clifford V. Johnson
This is a graphic novella rather than prose. I didn't like the story and the art is worse.
Blah
Escape from Caring Seasons - Sarah Pinsker
Zora, an 82 year old woman, lives in an assisted care community with her wife, Anya, who's currently in the hospital. The medical AI has ruled that Anya will not be allowed to leave. Despite her pleading to the one human at the hospital, the ruling stands. Zora decides it's time to take matters into her own hands.
Enjoyable
The Heart of the Matter - Nnedi Okorafor
The Nigerian president, who truly has been the greatest leader Nigeria has ever had, needs a heart transplant. The protagonist is a surgeon familiar with the xyborg process, a term for those who have hybrid transplants made from both their own cells and plant life. The disgraced former Minister of Defense sees this as the perfect time for a coup.
This was certainly different to everything else (6 short fiction, a few longer works) I've read from Okorafor as far as I can remember.
Ok
Different Seas - Alastair Reynolds
A solar weather event messes up a ship crewed by a single woman. Now she and a telepresence humanoid proxy have to fix it.
Ok
Disaster Tourism - Malka Older
A group of drone operators survey a disaster-stricken area until their drones are mysteriously destroyed. What happened?
This somewhat reminded me of being a like a spiritual prequel to Roadside Picnic, though I don't think that was the intention or the guiding metaphor.
Ok
Vespers - J. M. Ledgard
A machine on a ~100,000 year journey through space muses in a literary fashion on philosophy, religion, metaphysics, technical matters, history, mythology and much more.
That's something that I can enjoy, and often do, but it wasn't the case this time.
Meh
November 1, 2022
An interesting anthology of stories about possible tomorrows. It starts with a profile of Samuel R. Delany, by Mark Pontin and Jason Pontin. Interesting stories include those by SL Huang, Ken Liu, Liu Cixin, Clifford V. Johnson, Sarah Pinsker and Alastair Reynolds.
- "The Woman Who Destroyed Us" by SL Huang: in a future where deep brain stimulation (DBS) is prevalent, a mother seeks against a DBS researcher who she believes altered her problematic son and made him unrecognizable to her. But when she puts her plan into motion by befriending the researcher's companion, she begins to learn uncomfortable facts about DBS and the ethics of the researcher she was targeting that would lead her to question her own motives and, perhaps, lead to reconciliation with her DBS altered son.
- "Okay, Glory" by Elizabeth Bear: the CEO of a company suddenly finds himself trapped inside the isolated smart home he designed when hackers convince the AI in charge of the house that there has been an apocalypse, forcing the house to 'protect' him by not letting him out. As the days pass and his efforts to leave gets more desperate, he finally realizes that the only way to escape may be to make the house intelligent enough to realize what is actually happening.
- "Byzantine Empathy" by Ken Liu: in a future where the blockchain (the technology that ensures transactions like cryptocurrencies are recorded and distributed) is ubiquitous, one person attempts to sidestep non-profit charities by directly ensuring cryptocurrency payments go directly to refugees and other recipients. But that turns out only to be the first part of her plan to draw attention towards a conflict at the border of Myanmar that the rest of the world would rather forget about, as too much attention could cause a wider conflict.
- "Chine Life" by Paul McAuley: in a future where artificial life (the chine) has taken over much of the earth, one of the last remaining refuges of humanity sends a patrol to a rendezvous point to negotiate with it. What the patrol discover would rewrite what actually happened to the earth when the artificial life took over, and what hope remains for humanity.
- "Fields Of Gold" by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu: a malfunctioning rocket sends one astronaut on a one way journey out of the solar system. The desire and race to rescue her, as transmitted via remote presence videos from the rocket, would eventually end when a rescue mission arrives and makes an unexpected discovery.
- "Resolution" by Clifford V. Johnson: a story told in graphic form of a secret meeting attended by an AI researcher, who discovers that the AI technological utopia she helped to bring about may not be what she expects. And she now leads an effort to change the world based on what she now knows to be the truth.
- "Escape From Caring Seasons" by Sarah Pinsker: a resident at an elderly care centre begins to suspect that the AI in charge of the place has been altered to 'optimize' caring for the elderly inhabitants to the point of restricting their freedom of movement. She decides to 'escape' to make contact with the outside world about their plight. But she would need the help of a sympathetic person, looking to get gamer points from the search for her, to get the attention she desires.
- "The Heart Of The Matter" by Nnedi Okorafor: the Nigerian President needs a new heart, and one made of organic material arrives. But the operation to replace his heart would be full of drama as a group of people, ousted by the President's move to clean up corruption, try to violently seize the moment in a coup.
- "Different Seas" by Alastair Reynolds: a clipper ship at sea encounters difficulties after a global event causes its electronics to malfunction. A telepresence operator works with the ship's captain to fix the problem. During the subsequent conversation, the captain discovers the operator also has problems of her own that are not so easy to fix.
- "Disaster Tourism" by Malka Older: a telepresence pilot on a disaster mission runs into an unexpected problem when her drones disintegrate, but not before finding evidence that some people has survived the disaster. But helping them would turn out to be a problem when it turns out the contamination that destroyed the drones may have been released during the disaster from an experimental lab. In the debate between helping or isolating the survivors, the pilot may have to make some decisions on her own.
- "Vespers" by J. M. Ledgard: the musings of an intelligence on a ship bound on a many thousand years trip to another star.
- "The Woman Who Destroyed Us" by SL Huang: in a future where deep brain stimulation (DBS) is prevalent, a mother seeks against a DBS researcher who she believes altered her problematic son and made him unrecognizable to her. But when she puts her plan into motion by befriending the researcher's companion, she begins to learn uncomfortable facts about DBS and the ethics of the researcher she was targeting that would lead her to question her own motives and, perhaps, lead to reconciliation with her DBS altered son.
- "Okay, Glory" by Elizabeth Bear: the CEO of a company suddenly finds himself trapped inside the isolated smart home he designed when hackers convince the AI in charge of the house that there has been an apocalypse, forcing the house to 'protect' him by not letting him out. As the days pass and his efforts to leave gets more desperate, he finally realizes that the only way to escape may be to make the house intelligent enough to realize what is actually happening.
- "Byzantine Empathy" by Ken Liu: in a future where the blockchain (the technology that ensures transactions like cryptocurrencies are recorded and distributed) is ubiquitous, one person attempts to sidestep non-profit charities by directly ensuring cryptocurrency payments go directly to refugees and other recipients. But that turns out only to be the first part of her plan to draw attention towards a conflict at the border of Myanmar that the rest of the world would rather forget about, as too much attention could cause a wider conflict.
- "Chine Life" by Paul McAuley: in a future where artificial life (the chine) has taken over much of the earth, one of the last remaining refuges of humanity sends a patrol to a rendezvous point to negotiate with it. What the patrol discover would rewrite what actually happened to the earth when the artificial life took over, and what hope remains for humanity.
- "Fields Of Gold" by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu: a malfunctioning rocket sends one astronaut on a one way journey out of the solar system. The desire and race to rescue her, as transmitted via remote presence videos from the rocket, would eventually end when a rescue mission arrives and makes an unexpected discovery.
- "Resolution" by Clifford V. Johnson: a story told in graphic form of a secret meeting attended by an AI researcher, who discovers that the AI technological utopia she helped to bring about may not be what she expects. And she now leads an effort to change the world based on what she now knows to be the truth.
- "Escape From Caring Seasons" by Sarah Pinsker: a resident at an elderly care centre begins to suspect that the AI in charge of the place has been altered to 'optimize' caring for the elderly inhabitants to the point of restricting their freedom of movement. She decides to 'escape' to make contact with the outside world about their plight. But she would need the help of a sympathetic person, looking to get gamer points from the search for her, to get the attention she desires.
- "The Heart Of The Matter" by Nnedi Okorafor: the Nigerian President needs a new heart, and one made of organic material arrives. But the operation to replace his heart would be full of drama as a group of people, ousted by the President's move to clean up corruption, try to violently seize the moment in a coup.
- "Different Seas" by Alastair Reynolds: a clipper ship at sea encounters difficulties after a global event causes its electronics to malfunction. A telepresence operator works with the ship's captain to fix the problem. During the subsequent conversation, the captain discovers the operator also has problems of her own that are not so easy to fix.
- "Disaster Tourism" by Malka Older: a telepresence pilot on a disaster mission runs into an unexpected problem when her drones disintegrate, but not before finding evidence that some people has survived the disaster. But helping them would turn out to be a problem when it turns out the contamination that destroyed the drones may have been released during the disaster from an experimental lab. In the debate between helping or isolating the survivors, the pilot may have to make some decisions on her own.
- "Vespers" by J. M. Ledgard: the musings of an intelligence on a ship bound on a many thousand years trip to another star.
December 18, 2018
Worth reading, worth thinking about, inevitably time-dependent (it's hard to say how useful of a read this will be in 4 years!). It is very hard to choose a top 2-3 stories, which says good things about the collection!
June 24, 2019
You can never go wrong with a short story from Ken Liu.
The debate between Sophia and Jianwen at the end was masterful. Especially how it was shown from both of their POVs.
Extremely thought-provoking, 5 stars easy.
The debate between Sophia and Jianwen at the end was masterful. Especially how it was shown from both of their POVs.
Extremely thought-provoking, 5 stars easy.
July 23, 2018
As usual with these collections, some were good, some were not.
Favourites;
- The woman who destroyed us
- Byzantine empathy
- Fields of gold
Favourites;
- The woman who destroyed us
- Byzantine empathy
- Fields of gold
June 24, 2024
A very good collection of hard SF short stories
Twelve Tomorrows 2018 - anthology pub'd by MIT Press (Technological Review)
11 hard SF short stories + 1 non-fiction "Profile: Samuel R. Delany"
Overall ★ ★ ★ ★ ★:
One 5-star, five 4.5-star, three 4-star, two 3-star, one 2-star
HOWEVER, This book was difficult to read because of the appalling lack of editing. For instance whenever there's an italicized word there's no space between it and the previous word. Also, breaks between paragraphs when POV changed exist in the original works but not in Kindle version. Also, no breaks between sections/chapters of a story.
BUT, this collection was well worth the effort.
My favorites were:
• Profile: Samuel R. Delany by Mark Pontin and Jason Pontin - Good! SRD was ahead of his time, but hampered by being a black gay man. Interestingly "Delany became a science fiction writer without deciding to".
• The Woman Who Destroyed Us by SL Huang - Good! thought piece on if we had the power to insert s/w into our brain to correct defects. Who defines what's a defect. Could it be used for evil. Who defines what's evil. Etc.
• Okay, Glory by Elizabeth Bear - Good! Humorous & smart. Glory is essentially Alexa++, a whole-house AI created by billionaire tech genius Brian. He gets held prisoner in his mountaintop mansion by Glory who's been "ransomwared" by a cracker demanding $150m. After many days of emotional ups & downs because he can't reason with her he decides to make Glory smarter. Seems like this could be a prologue to an AI event horizon storyline.
• Byzantine Empathy by Ken Liu - Wow! Very good, not as a story but a powerful look at both sides of an issue from an idealist and a big-picture realist, both of whom want to alleviate suffering. They each see disaster relief from their own viewpoints. The 2 protagonists were college friends who remained friends of sorts while debating whether tis better to allocate resources to victims based on an empathetic consensus, or to save a select few based on a reasoned case by case big-picture scenario. Also a nice little tutorial on blockchain application (eg Bitcoin).
• Fields of Gold by Liu Cixin - What?!? Such a good story with such an ... Oh well you really should read this story.
• Escape from Caring Seasons by Sarah Pinsker - Good. 82 yo FMC lives in a planned, closed community for seniors that she helped design. It's been bought, and run remotely, by a foreign company which now controls things by algorithm so tightly that it's a virtual prison.
• Different Seas by Alastair Reynolds - Good! Young woman has hitched a ride on an un-crewed auto-piloted sailing ship which has become disabled. She receives the help she needs from a very unexpected source.
• Disaster Tourism by Malka Older - Good. FMC is a pilot who's part of a disaster relief team controlling drones that encounter airborne stuff that melts down their drones.
Twelve Tomorrows 2018 - anthology pub'd by MIT Press (Technological Review)
11 hard SF short stories + 1 non-fiction "Profile: Samuel R. Delany"
Overall ★ ★ ★ ★ ★:
One 5-star, five 4.5-star, three 4-star, two 3-star, one 2-star
HOWEVER, This book was difficult to read because of the appalling lack of editing. For instance whenever there's an italicized word there's no space between it and the previous word. Also, breaks between paragraphs when POV changed exist in the original works but not in Kindle version. Also, no breaks between sections/chapters of a story.
BUT, this collection was well worth the effort.
My favorites were:
• Profile: Samuel R. Delany by Mark Pontin and Jason Pontin - Good! SRD was ahead of his time, but hampered by being a black gay man. Interestingly "Delany became a science fiction writer without deciding to".
• The Woman Who Destroyed Us by SL Huang - Good! thought piece on if we had the power to insert s/w into our brain to correct defects. Who defines what's a defect. Could it be used for evil. Who defines what's evil. Etc.
• Okay, Glory by Elizabeth Bear - Good! Humorous & smart. Glory is essentially Alexa++, a whole-house AI created by billionaire tech genius Brian. He gets held prisoner in his mountaintop mansion by Glory who's been "ransomwared" by a cracker demanding $150m. After many days of emotional ups & downs because he can't reason with her he decides to make Glory smarter. Seems like this could be a prologue to an AI event horizon storyline.
• Byzantine Empathy by Ken Liu - Wow! Very good, not as a story but a powerful look at both sides of an issue from an idealist and a big-picture realist, both of whom want to alleviate suffering. They each see disaster relief from their own viewpoints. The 2 protagonists were college friends who remained friends of sorts while debating whether tis better to allocate resources to victims based on an empathetic consensus, or to save a select few based on a reasoned case by case big-picture scenario. Also a nice little tutorial on blockchain application (eg Bitcoin).
• Fields of Gold by Liu Cixin - What?!? Such a good story with such an ... Oh well you really should read this story.
• Escape from Caring Seasons by Sarah Pinsker - Good. 82 yo FMC lives in a planned, closed community for seniors that she helped design. It's been bought, and run remotely, by a foreign company which now controls things by algorithm so tightly that it's a virtual prison.
• Different Seas by Alastair Reynolds - Good! Young woman has hitched a ride on an un-crewed auto-piloted sailing ship which has become disabled. She receives the help she needs from a very unexpected source.
• Disaster Tourism by Malka Older - Good. FMC is a pilot who's part of a disaster relief team controlling drones that encounter airborne stuff that melts down their drones.
November 18, 2018
(I interviewed the editor, Wade Roush, for the New Books in Science Fiction podcast and received a free copy of the book to prepare for the conversation. You can hear the interview here: https://robwolf.net/2018/10/18/1275/)
Science fiction is, at its core, about tomorrow—exploring through stories what the universe may look like one or 10 or a million years in the future.
Twelve Tomorrows uses short stories to fit nearly a dozen possible “tomorrows” into a single book. Edited by journalist Wade Roush, the collection features stories by Elizabeth Bear, SL Huang, Clifford V. Johnson, J. M. Ledgard, Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Nnedi Okorafor, Malka Older, Sarah Pinsker, and Alastair Reynolds.
The book is the latest in a series of identically titled books launched in 2011 by MIT Technology Review. The series explores the future implications of emerging technologies through the lens of fiction.
It’s the first time Roush, who hosts the podcast Soonish and specializes in writing about science and technology, has edited fiction. “The mission of Twelve Tomorrows is to highlight stories that are totally plausible from an engineering point of view,” Roush says in our conversation on New Books in Science Fiction.
In “The Heart of the Matter,” Nnedi Okorafur explores how suspicion of new technology can have real life consequences. In this case, plotters against the reformist president of Nigeria try to muster support for a coup by manipulating fears about the president’s new artificial heart, claiming that the organ—which was grown in a Chinese laboratory from plant cells—is powered by witchcraft.
In “The Woman Who Destroyed Us,” SL Huang describes the plight of a mother who wants to exact revenge on a doctor who used deep brain stimulation to treat her son’s behavioral and mental health issues. The changes in her son are so dramatic that the mother feels she’s lost her child, and yet the son is happy with the result, feeling that the treatment has revealed his true self.
If there’s one message Roush hopes readers take from the collection, it’s that people are in the driver’s seat when it comes to building and using new technologies. He hopes the book reminds people “that we do have the power to adopt or shun technology, that we can decide how to bring it into our lives, to what extent we want to use it or not use it. We can even influence the way innovation happens. We can tell scientists and engineers, ‘You know what? This isn’t good enough’ or ‘We’re worried about this. We want you to build in more safeguards.’… We have that power.”
Science fiction is, at its core, about tomorrow—exploring through stories what the universe may look like one or 10 or a million years in the future.
Twelve Tomorrows uses short stories to fit nearly a dozen possible “tomorrows” into a single book. Edited by journalist Wade Roush, the collection features stories by Elizabeth Bear, SL Huang, Clifford V. Johnson, J. M. Ledgard, Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Nnedi Okorafor, Malka Older, Sarah Pinsker, and Alastair Reynolds.
The book is the latest in a series of identically titled books launched in 2011 by MIT Technology Review. The series explores the future implications of emerging technologies through the lens of fiction.
It’s the first time Roush, who hosts the podcast Soonish and specializes in writing about science and technology, has edited fiction. “The mission of Twelve Tomorrows is to highlight stories that are totally plausible from an engineering point of view,” Roush says in our conversation on New Books in Science Fiction.
In “The Heart of the Matter,” Nnedi Okorafur explores how suspicion of new technology can have real life consequences. In this case, plotters against the reformist president of Nigeria try to muster support for a coup by manipulating fears about the president’s new artificial heart, claiming that the organ—which was grown in a Chinese laboratory from plant cells—is powered by witchcraft.
In “The Woman Who Destroyed Us,” SL Huang describes the plight of a mother who wants to exact revenge on a doctor who used deep brain stimulation to treat her son’s behavioral and mental health issues. The changes in her son are so dramatic that the mother feels she’s lost her child, and yet the son is happy with the result, feeling that the treatment has revealed his true self.
If there’s one message Roush hopes readers take from the collection, it’s that people are in the driver’s seat when it comes to building and using new technologies. He hopes the book reminds people “that we do have the power to adopt or shun technology, that we can decide how to bring it into our lives, to what extent we want to use it or not use it. We can even influence the way innovation happens. We can tell scientists and engineers, ‘You know what? This isn’t good enough’ or ‘We’re worried about this. We want you to build in more safeguards.’… We have that power.”
July 16, 2024
"Twelve Tomorrows" is a very enjoyable collection of short stories on the theme of AI, or Artificial Intelligence. As with any collection, some stories are better than others. I especially liked Elizabeth Bear’s “OK, Glory,” about man whose AI system traps him in his home, no one in and no one out, until he begins to starve. The most interesting thing about this story is how he reacts to this life-changing event when it’s finally over. I found “Vespers” by J.M. Ledgard to be haunting and very touching. We accompany a fully conscious and very lonely AI speeding into faraway outer space as he ruminates on the humans he has known.
Some well-known writers, I won’t mention names, left me not all that impressed. One story, a graphic novella, was a problem, not because I have anything against graphic novellas, but because I couldn’t read it! It was difficult to see on my e-reader and the text next to impossible to make out. I got out a magnifying glass at one point before I gave up. Yes, I know you can expand but you can’t see the graphic and text at the same time. This work should have been saved for print, or a warning added to indicate it was readable on a tablet or a laptop, but not on the typical e-reader. I’m not sure why there was a biographical essay about Samuel Delaney in this book, and the book has some copy editing problems, too. But over all, it is a good collection of short stories on an interesting theme.
Some well-known writers, I won’t mention names, left me not all that impressed. One story, a graphic novella, was a problem, not because I have anything against graphic novellas, but because I couldn’t read it! It was difficult to see on my e-reader and the text next to impossible to make out. I got out a magnifying glass at one point before I gave up. Yes, I know you can expand but you can’t see the graphic and text at the same time. This work should have been saved for print, or a warning added to indicate it was readable on a tablet or a laptop, but not on the typical e-reader. I’m not sure why there was a biographical essay about Samuel Delaney in this book, and the book has some copy editing problems, too. But over all, it is a good collection of short stories on an interesting theme.
July 22, 2020
Oof. Not terrible, but pretty weak overall. There's a handful of stories I've come across elsewhere, but I read too many anthologies to hold that against it. The Kindle version also has an irritating formatting error where every italicized phrase has its preceding space removed.
This is the second time I've come across Byzantine Empathy, and it might be the worst thing Ken Liu has produced. I feel like most of his recent work has been way below what we got in The Paper Menagerie. Liu Cixin's Fields of Gold gave me mixed feelings, which is normal for everything else from him besides The Three Body Problem. The graphic novella was the worst entry of them all - bad art, nonsense story, and ending in a dumb twitter meme. Hard pass.
Elizabeth Bear's Okay, Glory is the best of them for sure- an interesting look at smart devices and the ways they can betray us. Vespers from J. M. Ledgard was a great read as well. An AI pontificates on memory and incarnation as it travels incredible distances. Not much else in the book was worth mentioning or griping about.
This is the second time I've come across Byzantine Empathy, and it might be the worst thing Ken Liu has produced. I feel like most of his recent work has been way below what we got in The Paper Menagerie. Liu Cixin's Fields of Gold gave me mixed feelings, which is normal for everything else from him besides The Three Body Problem. The graphic novella was the worst entry of them all - bad art, nonsense story, and ending in a dumb twitter meme. Hard pass.
Elizabeth Bear's Okay, Glory is the best of them for sure- an interesting look at smart devices and the ways they can betray us. Vespers from J. M. Ledgard was a great read as well. An AI pontificates on memory and incarnation as it travels incredible distances. Not much else in the book was worth mentioning or griping about.
September 4, 2019
Twelve Tomorrows marketed itself as new and established authors exploring 'the future implications of emerging technologies through the lens of fiction'. You won't find any soft science fiction here, no dystopias or studies of society and self, instead each Hard Sci-Fi tale holds at it's heart a range of emerging technologies that are either at the forefront of social engagement, or scientific experimentation and study. For the most part, the heart of each story is beating strong, quite literally in the case of 'The Heart of the Matter' by Nnedi Okorafor, however there are a few in which that heartbeat is almost non-existent. Many of these read like something out of Black Mirror, in that they are dark and disturbing warnings of what could be, a reflection of these new technologies, and almost all are engaging and enjoyable.
February 13, 2019
I loved this collection. I started in the middle with Sarah Pinsker's story because that's how I found the anthology in the first place, but then I just kept reading. Out of the twelve stories, I really enjoyed 8 of them. As in, REALLY enjoyed.
The ones I didn't finish/read:
Vespers by J.M. Ledgard and Chine Life by Paul McAuley I couldn't really get through because the writing style didn't work for me.
I didn't read the profile of Samuel R. Delany because I don't know who he is.
I am sure that Resolution by Clifford V. Johnson is a wonderful story, but my brain has never been able to appreciate the graphic novel art form.
My absolute favorites:
The Heart of the Matter by Nnedi Okorafor
The Woman Who Destroyed Us by SL Huang
Seriously, go get this book. Just do it.
The ones I didn't finish/read:
Vespers by J.M. Ledgard and Chine Life by Paul McAuley I couldn't really get through because the writing style didn't work for me.
I didn't read the profile of Samuel R. Delany because I don't know who he is.
I am sure that Resolution by Clifford V. Johnson is a wonderful story, but my brain has never been able to appreciate the graphic novel art form.
My absolute favorites:
The Heart of the Matter by Nnedi Okorafor
The Woman Who Destroyed Us by SL Huang
Seriously, go get this book. Just do it.
January 21, 2020
First attempt to track through recent books... Recently completed the last stories of this collection which focusses on tech in it's different forms, and possible worlds. Can't give five stars as there were a few stories which I did not find engaging with others (as with most collections). However this is personal preferences/response and this is a collection well worth tracking down. Excellent stories from authors for the most part I already know. Ken Liu, Liu Cixin, Nnedi Okorafor and others. My highlight would be Ken Liu's tale of the price and value/manipulation of empathy, a reminder of why he is one of my favourite writers of recent years.
August 24, 2022
I must admit I'm not a big fan of collections of short stories (you don't have time to get into one of them that it's already finished, and the next one may be just terrible), and this book didn't make much to change my mind. A couple of stories are good; the one by Cixin Liu is very remarkable; all the rest is cheap sci-fi, either storyless or overwritten, anyway not holding up to the Black-Mirror-like premise of imagining deviations of today's technology.
July 8, 2018
Occasionally you feel like you're holding something special. The stories in Twelve Tomorrows from MIT Technology Review were inspiring, thought provoking and shockingly moving. In particular the pieces from J.M. Ledgard Liu Cixin Ken Liu Nnedi Okorafor Alastair Reynolds and the graphic from Clifford J Johnson
March 17, 2019
One of the better original anthologies of science fiction stories I’ve read in recent years. I thought almost all the stories were first rate. This kind of grounded speculation is a type of sf that really appeals to me.
June 30, 2024
I loved most of the stories in this collection of mostly hard sci-fi. I really wish there were more. I did find some interesting authors to read. There was too much preamble to the book. I personally rather read about the books history at the end. Also the last story was unreadable to me I just skimmed through it. The writing is top tier. Highly recommended for anyone who likes the genre in short story format.
September 26, 2018
Still more proof that KEN LIU has THE STUFF.
February 14, 2019
10k words
oh wow, so creepy lol. Love how daily-diary style and neat but creepy feel, and the slow realization that everything in the house is wired together and there's no way out.
oh wow, so creepy lol. Love how daily-diary style and neat but creepy feel, and the slow realization that everything in the house is wired together and there's no way out.
February 18, 2019
I'm still not sure what actually happened. That's the point, I think. But still. It is vexing.
August 2, 2019
Interesting collection of vastly different stories; Liu Cixin’s “Fields of Gold” was my favorite, it was heartbreakingly wonderful & sad.
October 5, 2022
A mixed bag for me. Some 5 star stories and some 1-2 star slogs, but overall interesting and diverse.
November 18, 2022
I took too long to finish this. But it's an okay read.
May 27, 2024
Rating for Elizabeth Bear - Okay, Glory
December 29, 2025
some stories are more compelling than others, but overall highly recommend for some interesting visions of an almost present future written in excellent prose
February 3, 2019
The latest installment from MIT's Twelve Tomorrows is pretty humdrum and uninspiring. Compared to any of the previous editions, this certainly lacks the insight, thought inspiration or challenging your thinking style to most of the stories.
The opening story by S L Huang is a stand out from the collection and is certainly thought provoking. The rest of the stories just seemed to be too predictable or anchored in near term known reality. Or even worse, predictable and derivative. The price hike compared with previous versions is not justified and while my expectations were not higher given the higher price, the level of disappointment with the collection as a whole is certainly greater.
Let's hope the publishers do a better job next time.
The opening story by S L Huang is a stand out from the collection and is certainly thought provoking. The rest of the stories just seemed to be too predictable or anchored in near term known reality. Or even worse, predictable and derivative. The price hike compared with previous versions is not justified and while my expectations were not higher given the higher price, the level of disappointment with the collection as a whole is certainly greater.
Let's hope the publishers do a better job next time.
December 25, 2019
Moderately satisfying collection that proposes to explore the cutting edge of science via fiction--eleven stories plus a profile of Samuel R. Delany--rather an interesting choice in this regard, given that i don't think the innovation sin his work had as much to do with science per se so much as with style and theme. The range of the other eleven stories is rather more limited than I would have thought. While it's not surprising that computer technology looms large, most of the stories have to do with either artificial intelligence in one way or the other or with some other aspect of computer tech (e.g. the manipulation of cryptocurrency to influence charitable giving; AI being hijacked to trap a guy in his house; AI replacing humans; AI--or at least automated--medical care turning patients into prisoners; a computer simulation that can't be told form the original person; an interstellar ship which is run by an AI that ruminates on its eons-long journey, etc). Even the most innovative story, in a way--Clifford V. Johnson's "Resolution," which is told in comics form--represents a successful alien invasion occurring because the apparently non-material alien entity can invade computers and pass itself off as AI. A bit more range across scientific innovation might have given the volume more of a sense of variety. That said, despite occasional clunky exposition or odd plot holes (e.g. in you're going to lock a guy into his house and extort money from him to effect his release, you really need to make it possible for him to get the money to you), these are generally effective tales, many by well-known figures within the genre.
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June 20, 2018this book is very meh.
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