The new book The Science Fiction Tarot anthology, edited by Brandon Butler, contains my story “Turned Off.”
In the anthology, images of science fiction related tarot cards accompany each story. The one for mine, drawn by Marco Marin, looks wonderful.
My story involves two movie prop robots who awaken during a strange electrical storm in Hollywood. I patterned one robot, Automo, after the Robby robot of movies like Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Invisible Boy (1957). The robot Ava of the movie Ex Machina (2014) inspired my other robot, Evie.
Now conscious and sentient, both robots ponder the circumstances of having been turned off by their human creators. In each case, movie directors, concerned that a robot could go berserk on a set, opted instead to film human actors in robot costumes.
I don’t mean to imply that “Turned Off” will, or might, be prophetic in any way. It’s humorous in spots and scary in others, and based on an unrealistic premise. But we all should contemplate the larger question raised by the story, since the rise of AI involves us all.
With artificial intelligence systems gaining capability every day, it seems useful to consider what such systems will think about if or when they become capable of self-directed thought.
In the coming weeks, I hope to conduct blog interviews of the other authors whose stories appear in The Science Fiction Tarot anthology, and to interview the editor as well.
Note: No AI or robots were used in the creation of this or other posts by the blogger—
Poseidon’s Scribe
