Paper Hearts

by Justina Robson

What do Robots dream of?
Four leading science fiction authors explore this question in four stand-alone novellas.

ROBOT DREAMS

Are humans to be trusted with the important things: the structure of society, governing their own lives, meting out justice, etc, or would an AI be better suited to the job?

Despite the best of intentions, could such intervention ever work? After all, we humans are flawed, limited by our vision and by the dictates of the society that helped shape us, and an AI is limited by its programming, which is carried out by humans... At the end of the day, are any of us - human or AI - truly free?

Genres: Science Fiction, Novella

92 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2020

About the author

Justina is from Leeds, a city in Yorkshire in the north of England. She always wanted to write and always did. Other things sometimes got in the way and sometimes still do...but not too much.

Reviews

[Cliff McNish]

What a superb novella this is: Imagine we put an AI globally in charge of our happiness and welfare. Are human beings so contrary and suspicious of outside control that many would then immediately want to undermine its success? Even as it frees us up to be happier, safer and more fulfilled, would we resent it? Feel less free? Would we prefer to have our violence and unpredictability? And if the AI knew us well enough psychologically to know all of this, what would its strategy become? All these questions and many more are raised in a tale that is sleek and sophisticated and ultimately very moving.

[Peter Tillman]

2020 novella, available to KU subscribers at no extra charge. $4 Kindle otherwise.
Author's intro: http://justinarobson.co.uk/393-2/

Short novella, didn't work for me. An AI takes over the world! Or part of it. Very confusing and nonsensical story. Waste of my $4, I'm very sorry to say. I've had good luck with previous Robson novels and stories. I tried this one twice, doing a second skim-read. I guess I could go to 2.5 stars? But definitely rounded down. The AI didn't work at all, and the humans weren't convincing either. Sort of a cartoon-world. Bah. Waste of time and money. Fortunately, it's short. Avoid, is my advice.

[Jonathan Lupa]

I absolutely adored this book, which is ultimately a small exploration of AI, and I lump in a bit with Asher's work technically, though this is so much more artistically rendered.

I wish I knew I could have gotten it on Kindle- at the time I ordered it, I could only find it in the UK, so I had it bought and shipped based on a recommendation. Easily worth it, and the paper version is great, but in retrospect I would have loved to devour this quicker.

Regardless, great read.