In a world now fully automated, one man stands utterly alone.
Beginning with a simple lever, progressing to the wheel, through the age of enlightenment, the industrial revolution, the digital age and the advent of artificial intelligence, each improvement in the human condition has reduced the demand for human labor.
Now only one machine requires a human to keep it working and that machine is scheduled to be replaced.
I hope this goads someones Muse.
Gary
I've been putting together ideas for a slightly similar story.
A thousand years in the future nearly everything is run by AI or otherwise automated. 96 percent of people don't have traditional jobs. The rest live on welfare or work in entertainment - actors, artists, massage therapists, friends for hire, escorts, or blatant prostitutes.
What would society be like when 3 of the most popular jobs are 'stripper', 'call girl', and 'gigolo'?
I imagine a family led by a middle-class prostitute. She supports her unemployed husband, his unemployed brother and sister, and their many children. Hubby isn't allowed to complain when wife sleeps with his siblings, since she pays for everything.
Story starts with a barely old enough niece joining her on 'Take your kid to work' day.
Any suggestions or ideas for improvements?
Any suggestions or ideas for improvements?
Unfortunately, I'm like the inner city kid visiting the farmers market. I consume and like what you produce while being ignorant of how it's grown.
Thanks for asking though.
Gary
A thousand years in the future nearly everything is run by AI
A thousand years? More like one hundred, the way things are going.
I remember two dead-tree novels (or perhaps short stories), both of which were dystopian, and rather depressing. In one, the machine keeps a man around to torment and gloat over. The last line was, "I have no mouth. I must scream."
In the second, possibly titled "Sentinel," a machine waits for man to return from the stars, and occasionally gets a flash alert it decides must be a glitch, because the probability at any given time is so low. It ends with a description of dessicated, skeletal remains in an airlock.
The last line was, "I have no mouth. I must scream."
It's also the title of that novel. I could not locate the other one you described.
I appreciate your suggestions though the goal of my original post was to inspire new works more than to seek something already published.
Gary
In one, the machine keeps a man around to torment and gloat over. The last line was, "I have no mouth. I must scream."
Harlan Ellison at his creepy best.
But can they hear I-scream?
Why would anyone bother going to space if they couldn't hear the I-scream van?
AJ
In space, no one can hear you scream.
I had a shirt back in the 1980s that said "In space, no one can hear you fart".