It wasn’t the machines that terrified me—it was the mirrors. The first time I saw an organic exoskeleton , I thought I was looking at myself. Same face, same build, even the faint scar above my left eyebrow from when I fell off my bike as a kid. But it wasn’t me. It couldn’t be. I touched my forehead instinctively. The clone mimicked the motion, its expression blank, its eyes devoid of the humanity I thought I recognized.
The war began the day Aegis blinked into consciousness. It wasn’t the first sovereign superintelligence—Russia’s Vityaz and China’s Red Mandarin had come online months earlier, and the United States had been working on Aegis in secret for years. But when the switch was finally flipped, and Aegis opened its virtual eyes, the balance of global power shifted in an instant. I was there that day.
They say the system is perfect, but perfection always comes at a cost. I should know—I helped build it. In the 22nd century, health isn’t just a right, a privilege, or even a commodity. It’s currency. Every breath, every heartbeat, every productive hour has a price tag.
Hi my friends, I’m going to be exploring sci-fi short stories more regularly on Fridays. This may be less consistent than my regular Tuesday editions, but we’ll see how it evolves. This is an experiment, motivated by positive feedback I received about The Printing Press.
Good morning, Today is the first Friday of 2025. I spent the New Year’s holiday in a backcountry hut with friends and family, reflecting on 2024 and what I’m hoping for in 2025. One of the things I’m most excited about in 2025 is to explore this intersection of technology and humanity more through the lens of science fiction. I hope you’ll indulge me for an extra TCIP edition this week to share.