The Story:
A collection of 16 short funny, interesting or scary stories that revolve around the outsourcing of our human functions to technology which will be coming out on paperback in Feb or March 2025:
Quality ControlMORAL
System Support
Confused: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Personal Satisfaction Not Guaranteed
System Life Support: Love Without Daylight
Yesterday's Memories: Shadows of the Heart/Yesterday
Personal Satisfaction Not Guaranteed
The Body Swap Shop
Perfector
Love Beyond Measure
Yesterday's Heartbeats of Love (previously called Romantic Retrievals)
The Metallic Heart of Me
Artificial Life Support
Reconcile: Hurdles of Love
Heart Care Comfort Apps
Yesterday's Memories: Shadows of the Heart
A dying man who is terminally ill and on his deathbed enlists the help of an AI assistant via the Last Hope comfort program to help him travel back through time via his memories in order to correct some of his past misdeeds and mistakes in an attempt to reconcile his past deeds with the present and his own mind and heart with those he wronged in life and to make peace with the past as he attempts to straighten up his affairs (in the short story already) and put his history on the right side of life. Since some shadows of Kian's own misdeeds still hang over his heart and mind as his departure from life draws near, he starts to follow his memory trail of wrongs, misdeeds and mistakes from his life history via the AI program and his memories in an attempt to change his life history which he feels will perhaps provide him with some form of self-forgiveness due to an internal conflict of guilt that still lives inside of him. Through Kian's attempts to correct some of the wrongs that he has committed against others, he hopes to change not just his history of wrongs which he fears may leave a footprint of error behind him that may be engraved into people's hearts and minds but also that his corrective actions will finally dispel the shadows in his heart which may just finally allow his mind and heart to find some internal peace. Written by Jill Thrussell
Perfector
When a woman in need, Jade enlists the help of an AI program bot called 'Perfector' who claims to be able to resolve any kind of human problem, things start to take a humorous turn as the AI Life Perfector begins to eliminate the human garbage from her life which includes a parasitical, toxic womanizer. The closer her life comes to perfection however, the wider the chasm of loneliness within her heart seems to grow and so she starts to wonder and question if perhaps 'Perfector' might be able to offer her a solution to human heartbreak.
Fortunately for Jade, the AI bot turns out to be the creation of a consultant technician Darius that comes to the veterinary practice to do systems work that has liked her for a while but was too scared to ask her out because she was heavily involved with a total scumbag. In his guise as an AI program bot however, he finally has the chance to speak to freely which helps him to approach Jade in real life however, as he deliberates as to whether he should divulge his identity to her as Perfector because behind every app/AI program there is a human brain and on this occasion it was his brain, there is one final imperfection which neither of them can solve. Unfortunately, Darius thinks that animals belong in zoos and Jade is a nature and animal lover and so they have to try and find a compromise and solution that is perfect for them both together. Written by Jill Thrussell
Confused: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
When Liam faces an overwhelming number of choices in life he turns to Alexa, a tech consultant and work colleague, who recommends an AI assistant and app to help him with decision making. However, little does Liam know that Alexa has control of the AI assistant and app since she created it which now influences his choices and decisions and that she still holds a grudge against him and is going to utilize it to enact revenge against him for ruining her potential promotion several years ago. Written by Jill Thrussell
Reconcile: Hurdles of Love
When a woman is given a diagnosis for a terminal condition which means she only has three months to live, she must reconcile her affairs and relationships with others to put them in order which includes repairing some damaged relationships with her relatives due to an abusive ex and mending fences in broken relationships as well as testing other relationships to see if they are sincere and sound. In order to assist, her consultant offers her a AI program assistant (RECONCILE) to help her and as they begin a journey of exploration, they make some memory stop offs from her past and revisit her youth and the tale of her first love so that she can relive that joy before her departure from life as they attempt to ascertain who should be included in her will and who shouldn't. However, as the three attempt to ascertain each person's sincerity from her past, try to repair the damage that her abusive ex caused, attempt to ascertain whether those individuals should be left anything in her will and try to find a strand of love among those who remain, each relationship and situation is put under a microscopic lens of honesty and transparency as the search for answers takes them deeper into the past which resurfaces in the present in very unexpected ways. Written by Jill Thrussell (Short version of Next of Kin: Hurdles of Love)
Heart Care Comfort App: a man creates a therapy app and AI assistant to help those going through break-ups and grief to help people steer their way through heartbreak, pain and loss but when things start to go wrong, he has to figure out where the errors and how to correct them before too much damage is done and his app breaks the hearts even further that it was created to heal and save. Written by Jill Thrussell
Artificial Life Support: when a man with that suffers quadriplegia is given an artificial life support system through AI which helps him navigate the world, loses his life, an AI enquiry begins where the root cause of failure is cross examined and both the AI and human creator are questioned and put on trial as a criminal investigator tries to ascertain liability for manslaughter. Written by Jill Thrussell
Short Story Collection: The short stories in this short story collection will involve storylines that visit genres like romance, comedy, romantic comedy, drama and thrillers and will feature protagonists of various ages but will follow the main theme of the collection which is the technological outsourcing of human functions.