“Affordances”: a new science fiction story that climbs the terrible technology adoption curve

“Affordances” is my new science fiction story for Slate/ASU’s Future Tense project; it’s a tale exploring my theory of “the shitty technology adoption curve,” in which terrible technological ideas are first imposed on poor and powerless people, and then refined and normalized until they are spread over all the rest of us.

The story makes the point by exploring all the people in a facial recognition ecosystem, from low-waged climate refugees...