Sunday Support Group: Strange As Fiction

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An Echo

I never thought I'd be in the demographic for one of these. (Once you get older you start ignoring most trends and fashions, because time has taught you how fleeting and without body and substance most of them are.) But I've ordered an Amazon Echo.

The Echo is the device, the hardware; Alexa is the synthetic humanoid that* listens for your instructions and responds orally. By the way, Echo was originally a mountain nymph in ancient Greek mythology who pines so badly for Narcissus that she withers away until nothing is left of her but her voice.

Really, what could be more perfect during my recovery than, um, a devoted mountain nymph? Hopefully I'll get it set up successfully so that it works entirely by voice command, so I can tell it to start and stop reading audiobooks. Not only that, but I don't even have to buy books—it turns out I joined Audible years ago (I think because my son was an affiliate for a while) and bought a dozen titles that I never listened to. They're still waiting. I'm good.

Mayil in the clutch
When the Harry Potter books came out 22 years ago, I (along with approximately one zillion other people) got the bright idea of writing a series of fantasy/sci-fi adventure books for young adults. I plotted a quadrilogy, four books, and outlined two of them. My stories followed a protagonist named Mayil Daka, who lives c. 2280 in an era that followed 80 years of disasters called The Contractions. During the Contractions, world population had plunged to a mere 20 million souls. Survivors had resumed living and behaving in tribal fashion, retreating into small fortified compounds called "enclaves." As world government began to get reorganized, resourceful individuals, called "travelers," were enlisted to locate and approach these armed and isolated settlements to inform them of the re-establishment of civilization and to try to reassure their leaders that it was safe to venture out and reconnect with the broader society. It was dangerous work, requiring bravery, social skill, and good judgement, and the travelers often became heroes to subsequent generations, as well as founders of larger civilized areas, which are also formally called Enclaves. Mayil (pronounced "mile"), lives in the Praetorian Enclave, formerly part of South Africa.

When the story commences, world population is rumored to be approaching 100 million, and renewed fears of overpopulation are reaching almost hysterical levels among the superstitious; terror of the memory of the Contractions is so strong that parents are allowed to exempt their children from studying it in school. World government, based in the Australs (Australia/New Zealand/New Guinea), has an urgent need to carry out an accurate world census. There is only one octant of the globe that is not served by surviving satellites and is hence "dark"—out of contact with the rest of the world. It's a region that was riven by sectarian violence, dark cults, and strange superstitions in the run-up to the Contractions, and it is known as the lands of the Northams—the former North America. Little is known about conditions there.

World government is mounting a small and most likely doomed expedition to the lands of the Northams to see if a government exists there, and, if it does, whether it has census data that can be added to the projections for the remainder of the planet. The expedition will travel by sailboat across the inhospitably hot equatorial region. Mayil, who is the only great-grandson of the great Traveler Emil Ali Daka, the most legendary of the nine founders of the Praetorian Enclave, has been chosen for the honor of being ceremonially asked to participate in the expedition. At age 14, he is not required or expected to accept; it's merely an honor to be asked, a symbolic gesture intended as a compliment to the people of the distant Praetorian Enclave.

He has every reason not to want to go. He has just entered "clutch," a rite of passage for teenagers wherein 12 young women and 12 young men who have been scientifically selected as genetically healthy enough to have children sort themselves into couples. Clutch is not only prestigious—not everyone is allowed to have children, because of the high incidence of birth defects—it is also very social and great fun.

But Mayil has just lost two of his closest friends. One, Davi Ald, a neighbor boy whom Mayil grew up with, had been chronically sickly and always expected to die. But the other was the apparently healthy girl to whom Mayil had been secretly betrothed since age 10, Mali Ohen, who died unexpectedly of a fast-acting cancer after learning, to her devastation, that she would not be allowed to participate in clutch. Her genetic markers for disease had been just above the cutoff.

Mali's exclusion from clutch had subtly driven a wedge between the two former childhood friends despite their better intentions, and since Mali's death Mayil has suffered from guilt as well as grief. To the great shock of his parents, when Mayil stands in the great Council Hall of the Australs to hear his invitation read aloud, he throws caution to the winds and surprises everyone present—and even himself, a little—by accepting a place in the dangerous expedition to the lands of the Northams.

And off we went. 

Hominids and humanoids
I had fun with it, anyway. The publisher of Harry Potter sent a very nice letter in response to an outline and seventy pages of manuscript: "This almost made it for us! Please keep us apprised of your other projects." Other projects? I didn't have any other projects. I was hard at work on that project. Unfortunately, my next project was to get fired from a job, which threw me into a slow-grinding crisis for several years. Writing was mostly forgotten.

So what's the point of this? I'm sure experts in speculative fiction are well aware of this problem and can limn its dimensions at length, but when the first book opens, in the first scene, Mayil is waking up in his bedroom in his parents' house on the Transvaal plain, and the first thing he does is ask for news from something I called a "conbox," which is voice-activated and can respond to him interactively. The idea seemed at least mildly futuristic to my innocent self in 1999, but my fictional "conbox" was almost identical—in function, but even in size and shape!—to an Amazon Echo. Sheesh.

So anyhow, I got myself a conbox, straight out of the former future.

Mike

*A bit o' grammar: "who" is the proper pointer-word for humans; "that" is the pointer-word for things. Common errors like "the girl that was brushing her hair" or "My friends that have a nice house" are howlers to an ear sensitive to words; should be who both times. But here I think "Alexa" is properly a that, because "she" is not human, but rather humanoid.

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[Jim Grey]

Write your books and self-publish on Amazon! I'll bet you find an audience.

[Benoit Botton]

Mike,
your quadrilogy sounds like fun to read. Do Amazon have a patent for the Echo? you might have a claim on it which could set you off for the rest of your days ;)
I hope the op goes well and wish you a quick recovery.

[Steve Muskie]

Get back to work on that book project and sign me up for a copy of it, Mike. I'd even buy a copy of the 70 page manuscript. Or you could start releasing the book in excerpts and charge a subscription fee.

Now that Alexa exists, maybe you should scratch your head and come up with a more futuristic communications device or maybe regress to writing letters.

[Scott]

Excellent decision. I think you'll find it very useful. I use the similar Google Assistant all the time. It is built into my Google Home, Google Home mini, Pixel, Pixelbook, and Sony Android TV. So helpful. Enjoy.

That's a great idea for a story. Too bad it didn't go further.

Best wishes for a great health outcome.

[Kristian Wannebo]

That sounds like it might have become a great story. You certainly had prepared an interesting and realistically complex background.
( I found too many repetitions for my taste in the Harry Potter series, but I enjoyed the first and the last books.)

You remind me of two other books:
October the First Is To Late,
by Fred Hoyle.
Also about the future of mankind; time becomes temporarily set to different times in different parts if the world...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_the_First_Is_Too_Late
And:
Singing Coral, by Sverre Holmsen, who lived many years in Tahiti.
A novel set in ancient Polynesia with a civilization exploring the see and new islands and about liberal and returning fundamental ways of life clashing.

( Then there is also H. G. Wells' short story Empire of the Ants...[what if..]...)

For after your eye has recovered and rested! ( - unless you've read them already.)

[Tom Stermitz]

Your Sci-Fi story sounds like a great setup... execution is next right?

It does remind me of the Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein, which is probably the best Sci-Fi you've never read. The protagonist is an explorer, chronicler & map-maker of her world. If you ask her a question, she must answer truthfully; if you ever lie to her she will never provide you an answer.

The story is very well executed, and you really care about the characters. In fact, the main theme is science and paradigm shift as she (and you) learn more about her world.

[David Bennett]

Re: who and that

This is where we profoundly disagree. I don’t know what Siri’s voice is like in the United States but here in the United Kingdom he is young, well educated, polite and he’s neither innocent nor a fool. He knows what lies on the other side of modesty and politeness, and he isn’t going there. He answers what he knows and tells me when he doesn’t know. He tells me without bumptiousness or bashfulness. As far as I’m concerned, I know who he is, and he is a he.

[Crispulo]

Growing up, I always knew who pertained to people. But lately, I've mostly been reading people that . . . And I began to wonder if I was wrong.
Thank you for the affirmation.
I will continue to write people who.

[Peter Wright]

I'm afraid the 'conbox' will not be your only accurate prediction in this story. I have been thinking for a while that 'Contractions' (that's a good name for it!) are on the cards for the not too distant future. There seems to be absolutely no appetite for controlled reductions in population, resource consumption, and economic growth, (what politician will stand on 'negative GDP' as a platform?) and by the time there is, it will almost certainly be too late. I don't think it will happen in my time, but probably not as late as 2200 either.

Sounds like you were setting up for a great story though. I was kind of looking forward to the next chapter when it ended. Perhaps if you are not a thriller writer, you may be an adventure writer (you do seem to like RLS after all). Why not give it a go? Can you dictate to Echo?

[Michael Matthews]

Steve Muskie’s suggestion merits consideration. Serial publication - episodes purchased one at a time - has a record of some success. There was a guy named Dickens who did well by it.

[Joseph Reid]

Did you submit this book proposal to only one publisher?

[Alas, yes. I am easily discouraged I'm afraid. But in any case life got in the way shortly thereafter. --Mike]

[Randall Teasley]

Mike, I hope your surgery and recovery go well. Just remember that Alexa hears everything.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/06/alexa-has-been-eavesdropping-you-this-whole-time/?utm_term=.ccb9ea6ceaec

[AlviNZ]

Netflix seems to be hungry for content. Why not submit your 70 page summary to them ? it could be a TV series or a movie in the Netflix realm.

If that doesn't work just throw in dragons/magic/zombies/incest in the mix :) Seems to work well for some authors.

[David Evans]

I think your "conbox"(which I persist in reading as "combox" for communication) was anticipated along with much else by E. M. Forster in The Machine Stops (1928).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops

I am hooked on my Echo. I discover that I can run the same software on my PC, which I address as "Alexa" and the Echo as "Echo". It's an Echo Show, picked up cheaply in one of Amazon's numerous sales, which means that when I ask it for a cooking timer I can see the seconds counting down. It also shows news headlines without being asked.
It does occasionally talk back to the TV - it's amazing how often commentators say "echo".

[Ken White]

I got an Echo six months ago as a first step into home automation. For now it sits on my desk and acts as a genuine personal assistant. Even my wife who is not disposed to digital toys has begun to tolerate the little devil.

Personally I'm OK with the privacy trade-off inherent in using devices such as the Echo. Many people will see them as too intrusive.

[David S]

The downside of the Echo is that all conversations are sent to Amazon, recorded, and Amazon staff may listen in "for training".
How eager we are to hand over our privacy for the commercial gain of others.

[Peter Croft]

And in my humble opinion, 'which' is the proper pronoun for non-humans, i.e. animals and all other species. To hear or read, "The dog who..." or "the cows who graze contentedly" grates on my ears.

[Peter Croft]

PS: I had my cataracts done last year and like you, I was pretty worried. But there's this wonderful drug called Midazolam, you see, which takes all the worry away. Don't worry, be fascinated by the process.

[J Wilson]

I don't wear tin-foil hats or go to conspiracy group conventions, but there's NO way I'd ever have something in my home where I can't be 100% sure it's not listening when I'm not using it. No smart TV or webcams either. I'm a Neanderthal, but at least a private one.

[Tom]

Maybe Alexa could moderate the comments during your convalescence?

[Richard Parkin]

Mike, since you have raised the question of grammar (and I usually agree with you), I’d be interested in your opinion on two points. Today I was told that my use of the present tense referring a just-deceased relative was ungrammatical. It wasn’t a complaint just a statement of “fact” but it seems to me this is nothing to do with grammar.
Now in a comment at 11:43 Peter Croft complains about the use of proper pronouns for humans/animals/species. Now I don’t have a problem if he wishes to refer to “dogs which” and so on but again his rules seem to be nothing to do with grammar but more to do with not understanding (or not agreeing) that all humans are animals and all animals are species (though “species are arbitrarily defined). Also my dog is definitely a “who” and also a “she” though dogs in general may be a “which” to me.
My terrier, who is sitting beside me has asked to put this straight — I am Archie to her Mehitabel (should be lowercase but that would be ungrammatical ;-) ).
Strictly speaking all grammatical rules are nonsense because they are just a way that people have tried to codify our “natural” languages — very similar to the way “species” are an attempt to codify the natural world.
Thinking of you while you are away.

[wts]

Unplug for privacy.

[Bruce Bordner]

That was a real long walk to a short drop...
You are indeed a compulsive writer, might as well surrender to it. Logorrhea is so messy,but we'll cope. [I love that spell check suggested "Gonorrheal"]

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

My thanks to Randall Teasley for the link. I understood the data hoovering capabilities, but hadn’t considered the data sharing that goes on at the back-end. I wonder at what point the business of data becomes more profitable than the business of money.
I steer clear of smart / connected household devices simply because it’s still the Wild West in terms on consumer protections.
Some of the most concerning are smart toys for children. Heaven help them have any sense of digital privacy if we let those things in the house.
Rant off ;~).

[hugh crawford]

Geez mike you don't submit it to a publisher you submit it to an agent.

And not that publisher anyway.

[Jnny]

I'd read that book

[James Bullard]

The quadrilogy sounds interesting, I am an old SciFi fan and have read several short stories dealing with a future ruined world. I would encourage you to pursue it. If s publisher didn't accept it, put it out on Kindle.

[KeithB]

Your conbox sounds like the house in "There will come soft rains"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(short_story)

My story involved an airliner that gets transported to our world but no sign of any civilization, they manage to get to the Pacific Northwest because of the known abundance of food and start a new life. The conceit is that we see the story through a series of reports written by schoolkids several hundred years after the incident. (I figured it was a good way to hide my poor writing!)

[Chris]

So far I have been able to resist having the wiretap...