Kaster’s latest anthology, The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8, showcases his picks for 2023’s best short stories and novellas in a subgenre known as hard science fiction. This collection illustrates how modern authors are using AI as both a tool, and a theme in their narratives.
AI Takes Center Stage in Modern Sci-Fi Narratives
One of the standout novellas in the anthology, written by Fiction Science co-host Dominica Phetteplace, features robots guiding a teenage girl toward an otherworldly encounter at an abandoned Mars base.
Another story follows the journey of a machine-learning algorithm searching for alien life long after its human creators have perished. In a third tale the narrator is an AI agent awaiting instructions from Earth while submerged in the seas of Enceladus.
In each of these stories, AI characters often hold more control over events than their human counterparts. Interestingly, the narratives tend to avoid the idea that AI is evil. Instead, they focus on more nuanced and complex portrayals of intelligent machines.
The Feedback Loop Between Sci-Fi and Reality
The evolving depiction of AI in science fiction is not just entertainment. It also contributes to a longstanding feedback loop between fiction and technological innovation.
