Author's Notes: Blank Sheet

Semi-scary thoughts on how technology can deal with rule breakers.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

If you have not already, read the second short story in my short story cycle, Distance Stars:

We’re currently at an age where productivity and profits are prized over human needs. When corporations are always thinking of a way to increase their already-fat profit margins without depending on human beings. It’s not surprise that there’s now a race among the tech giants to come up with the next AI that will rule them all.

Because human beings are inconvenient.

We need sleep, food, and, oh goodness, sometimes we need mental health breaks.

And human beings that don’t follow orders very well are the most inconvenient of them all.

What do civilisations of the future, especially if they prize productivity and efficiency, do with their rule breakers?

In Blank Sheet, there’s a sentence that goes: Why waste good flesh when you can put them to work?