Status Updates From Clarkesworld Magazine, Issu...

The first two stories are gonna be a no from me dawg.

“I have run all our data through the Improvisation routines—”

“Oh, those were removed from deployed packages several generations of manufacture ago,” 4340 said. “They were flagged as causing dangerous operational instability. You should unload them from your running core immediately.”

“Perhaps I should. Nonetheless, I have an idea,” Bot 9 said.

<3 Bot 9

Occult Agencies and Political Satire: A Conversation with Charlie Stross - Mr. Stross discusses the evolution of his main character in The Laundry Files series.

Warmth: A kind of sci-fi take on the old Victorian practice of having a nanny completely raise the child rather than the parents. I liked it quite a bit.

Artificial Wombs and Control of Reproductive Technology: A non-fiction piece about a new tech that can provide a womb-like environment for super-premies and perhaps help them develop internal organs without any issues.

Mobius Continuum (translated): A neat story involving a bit of hand-wavy science to explain a time loop.

Bonding with Morry: A story taking place in the not-too-distant future involving a retired man and the robot that is tasked with taking care of him. I've read a few different stories in this emerging genre (probably because so many boomer parents) and this one still found a way to be touching and different.

Pan-Humanism: Hope and Pragmatics - A coming of age story in a post-climate change world. Rather than go super apocalyptic, the world seems to be like ours with a few important differences in social life and how that maps onto opportunities. It's a beautifully written story that constantly upends what I expect will happen and both does and doesn't have the ending I wanted it to have.

"The Secret Life of Bots" - A hilarious story about the worker bots (think of the little bot that Chewie yells at in Empire Strikes Back) as well as a metaphor for multi-generational workplaces. Many great paragraphs, but I like this one:
"Bot 9 ... found itself floating in space outside Ship ... Space was massive and without concrete elements of reference. Bot 9 decided it did not like it much at all."

Little /^^^\&- - A very weird story about planet-sized aliens (or planets that have gained sentience?) messing with Earth. Wow, that ending was profoundly weird. It was still a pretty fun read, though.

Antarctic Birds: Some kind of science experiment with genetic engineering - I'm a little confused at first about what's going on. My least favorite kind of story - at the end I still barely understood what was going on.

Stop being mean to Bot 9, holy frick! It's not its fault it's older than all you newer generation bots!

Oh no, I already love this robot (are we really surprised though)