📚 Finished reading Cat Pictures Please and Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer.

These are a couple of surprisingly wholesome sci-fi short stories. The former has won plenty of awards, including a Hugo award for best short story in 2016.

In the former, the AI behind a search engine becomes sentient - but doesn’t feel compelled to destroy humanity.

In the latter, a new social media app launches - but doesn’t turn into a destructive hellsite on day one.

So some might say they’re perhaps a little far-fetched. But it’s a refreshing change from the relentless dystopia associated with near-future technology either in fiction or reality. And who knows, maybe it’ll help inspire a bit of IRL thinking about how technology could in fact work for the betterment of our lives.

Reading them also reminded me that short-story magazines exist. Both have been published in “Clarkesworld”, a monthly sci fi and fantasy magazine I’m now tempted to subscribe to.