Glimmers of the Future

Twenty four stories are told here, with most of them set in a future in which artificial intelligence has come to play a major role in human life. Several of the stories are about humanity’s encounters with extraterrestrial life. There are many different heroes and heroines in our futures. But really, they are just us blundering our way through life with human aspirations maintained in the face of staggering technological accomplishments. The accomplishments are accepted without question, after all earth’s future inhabitants will have known nothing else. People remain people and any changes to our basic blueprint will come very slowly and will be as opaque to us today as they were to the people we used to be, all those hundreds and thousands of years ago. Aeroplanes, televisions and computers - does anyone need any more evidence of the fact that our future will be very different from our present. Artificial intelligence and the banishment of pain and suffering will hopefully improve all our lives. Feeding the world is an immediate and obvious goal and population growth will slow naturally on achievement of this goal. The time at our disposal to read and enjoy stories will increase. One past, one present, many futures!