Microsoft peers into the future with short story collection
Microsoft has pictured a number of possible future worlds dominated by game-changing technologies currently buried within the technology firm’s research laboratories, after inviting nine leading sci-fi authors through its doors.
Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Stories Inspired by Microsoft, is the resulting compendium of short stories which imagines what the world might look like if this future tech ever makes it off the drawing board and into reality.
Embracing philosophical quandaries interspersed with raw computing power the authors tackle topical wickets such as machine learning, quantum computing, real-time translation and the quantified self.
Amongst the books most avid readers are likely to be the scientists themselves who will be seeking insights into the possible societal impacts of their work.
Harry Shum, Microsoft’s executive vice president of technology and research, wrote: “My hope for you as a reader is that you will be inspired by these stories, as I was by the popular science fiction of my time. May they incite you to pursue a new field of study, to chase possibility you think impossible, to let your imagination take you to places you never thought you could go — for we are only limited by our imaginations.”
The nine writers assembled for the enterprise were Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire, and Robert J. Sawyer. Their work is available now on e-reader platforms including Kindle, Kobo and iBooks.