Published: "The Seed"
At least partially because I was planning my previous post on God, Spirtuality, and the Singularity, I decided to dust off an old short story I had laying around and submit it to HardSF.net. They accepted it pretty quickly and it is already up on their website.
Why that particular story? It is basically my long answer to the questions in the Speculist survey I mentioned in the other blog post. I originally wrote the story more than fifteen years ago, and updated it earlier this year in order to submit it to a couple of markets (where it did exactly as well as it did fifteen years ago). However, given the subject at hand, I thought it better to put the story up somewhere where it could be read now, than continue down through my list of more illustrious markets.
The story is called "The Seed". It tackles the question of faith and the Singularity head on, from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't understand what is really happening. It uses a somewhat problematic mixed present time/flashback structure to tell a complicated tale of a father and his prodigal son. It uses a lot of symbolism, both overt and cryptic. It assumes the reader understands the Singularity, nanotechnology, genetics, cloning, neurology, intelligence enhancement, and many other advanced technologies because it uses them without explanation (and often without even naming them). It isn't the best thing I have ever written, but it is one of my favorites.
If I haven't scared you off yet, you can read "The Seed" here. If you do read it, please comment here or on the HardSF.net forums...
Why that particular story? It is basically my long answer to the questions in the Speculist survey I mentioned in the other blog post. I originally wrote the story more than fifteen years ago, and updated it earlier this year in order to submit it to a couple of markets (where it did exactly as well as it did fifteen years ago). However, given the subject at hand, I thought it better to put the story up somewhere where it could be read now, than continue down through my list of more illustrious markets.
The story is called "The Seed". It tackles the question of faith and the Singularity head on, from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't understand what is really happening. It uses a somewhat problematic mixed present time/flashback structure to tell a complicated tale of a father and his prodigal son. It uses a lot of symbolism, both overt and cryptic. It assumes the reader understands the Singularity, nanotechnology, genetics, cloning, neurology, intelligence enhancement, and many other advanced technologies because it uses them without explanation (and often without even naming them). It isn't the best thing I have ever written, but it is one of my favorites.
If I haven't scared you off yet, you can read "The Seed" here. If you do read it, please comment here or on the HardSF.net forums...