Where'd You Come Up With That?! Wednesdays~ Murder of the Future

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Do life-like robots creep you out? I have to admit, I find them creepy, but also sort of fascinating. I wanted to write a sci-fi, speculative fiction story about AI, so I searched for some information about them. That's when I can across uncanny valley. If you've never heard of it Google it! 

Uncanny valley is when a human-like robot or even a computer generated human makes a  person feel uncomfortable or uneasy. This was the jumping off point for my story, "Murder of the Future." 

Instead of being revolted by them, what if most of society embraced these human-like specimens? How far could these robots evolve if humans allowed them to be part of ordinary everyday life? The AIs in my story have rights and laws. They are treated as equal to humans and most have embraced these robots as human.

So, if robots have rights, this means it would be against the law to harm them or treat them harshly. In this story, Henry Radcliff was a lonely man who decided to turn to an AI family for companionship, until he met a real woman to love. He decided to take these robots apart and store them in a box in his basement. 

Because the AIs have become a regular part of everyday life, neighbors had come to know Henry's AI family and alerted police when the AIs went missing. This leads police to the "body parts" in Henry's basement and he is put on trial for murder.

Henry's defense if that you can't murder a robot, but in the future, these life-like robots have evolved considerably, and they have rights. Society at this point is caught between acceptance of AIs and uncanny valley. 

You can read Murder of the Future to go through Henry's trial and see if he's indeed convicted of murder. 

You can also read this and four other short stories in Flashes of Fiction: Volume 4 on Kindle.

Murder of the Future: Artificial intelligence has evolved, and Henry is on trial for the murder of an
AI.
Yesterday's Children: Richard discovers he's only as old as he feels.
Azure: Dr. Stanton and Dr. Kline's patient seems crazy until he leaves the hospital in a
beam of light
Inside His Mind: A wife is given the opportunity to go inside her husband's mind and do some rewiring.
Reflections of the Past: Tina's parents were killed in a house fire, but that doesn't stop them from sharing her special day





Happy Reading!

Where'd You Come Up With That?! Wednesdays~ The Guardian

The Guardian started out as a short story for a contest on Writing.com. It didn't win, but it gave me a starting point to create a new story. I wrote it several years ago, so I don't remember what words were part of the prompt for the story. 

The story is about a young man who steps in to save a little boy during a robbery, and he gets the bullet instead. He wakes up in a strange place and quickly realizes, he's no longer alive. He is greeted by an angel who sends him on a mission which he carries out without question. 

In reality, he's being duped by a shady character that we've all heard of at some point in our lives. And how is he so easily tricked into doing this "angel's" dirty work? He's just following the crowd and the beliefs of those around him--again without question. 

Religious beliefs vary and most often times these beliefs are handed down through generations with little or no question to their validity. Personally, I believe people should question their beliefs, especially if they don't make sense or are not in line with how they feel. Just because something is believed by a majority, it doesn't make correct. 

Just something to think about while you read. 

And, this story and other stories I've written do not reflect my own religious beliefs. When I write, I explore different ideas. I believe each person's relationship with God should be an intimate journey. 

 Also, you'll always find a little humor sprinkled into my work. 

You can read The Guardian and other stories by visiting my Hubpages account. 

Happy Reading!

Hello! It's Been A Long Time

Wow! It's been a while since I've visited and updated my own blog. Well, I'm back. (I think hehe)

I've had some recent publications on the Short Humour Site. You can read them here.

I've also been busy writing and submitting some short stories, so fingers crossed that there is more publication news in my future.

I am planning a new Where'd You'd Come Up With That Wednesday on the 9th. I'll be writing about how I come up with my short story "The Guardian" You can read it by visiting my stories on Letterpile. 

I'd like to keep Classic Movie Mondays. I do love old movies and DVR them and watch them when I get time, so for now, I'll probably only do one post a month.

Flashes of Fiction volumes 1 through 5 are still available on Kindle. I do believe there will only be five because I'm moving on to other projects. I do plan to combine them all into one paperback book by the end of the year.

Feel free to stop by the Short Humour Site and Letterpile to read some of my stories. Leave a comment if you like. And come back Wednesday for a new post!

Happy Reading!