What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

By AJ Henderson

Ten brief science fiction stories packed with sardonic wit and futuristic cynicism. Copyright law taken to the extreme...Reality TV in space...A mysterious disappearance of all paper on Earth...Space battles waged for stock market glory...The truth behind the longevity of the Mars rovers...all this and more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AJ Henderson
• Release date: Aug 15, 2013

Book preview

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Aaron J. Henderson

Copyright 2013 Aaron J. Henderson

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Artificial Banality

Hraff

Infringements

Hauler

Lack of Funding

As Long As It Takes

#papergone

Induction

Bingham

Short Position

Artificial Banality

Bob glanced around the virtual conference room at the avatars of the other managers and staff gathered there. Well, based on where we're at from a technology perspective, we can kinda synergize with this Business Plan. So if there isn't any heartburn with regard to having that conversation later on, I think we're good to go.

The other avatars nodded in agreement with what the new manager had said. And with that, the meeting was adjourned. Most of the participants blinked out of the room after some cursory goodbyes, but three remained behind; Emily, the project manager, and the software developers Dan and Henry. This had been one of their first team meetings since their manager, Phil, had been killed in a bizarre boating accident a week before.

That was incredible! How did you guys program him to do that? Emily asked. She was astonished at how the two programmers had managed to create such a lifelike script in such a short amount of time.

Bob? Seriously? Dan absently scoffed as he finished up an email he'd been working on during the meeting. He then turned his full attention to Emily, a courtesy he only afforded to those who'd won his respect. The toughest part was getting the stupid thing to maintain eye contact with other avatars. We just wrote him so neither of us had to lead the meeting.

What about speech recognition, comprehension? You guys created a virtual manager for yourselves and you're acting like it's no big deal.

Henry walked his avatar over to their side of the table. He doesn't 'comprehend' speech so much. He just recognizes when somebody stops talking. You'll notice he doesn't usually say anything unless he's asking a question or being asked a question.

Dan tapped his temple and narrowed his eyes, There's very little actually going on in there.

Emily still wasn't convinced it was so simple. But he assigns tasks; he schedules work and inquires about progress, she