Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories Paperback – 6 Nov. 2022

A highly enjoyable, brief, yet perfectly whacky, collection of short science fiction stories compiled between 2006 & 2022. It contains seven stories - all very different, some highly entertaining, some a little disturbing, some just thought provoking. It’s like a mash up between Philip K Dick and Douglas Adams. It kicks off with “Lena” which is a more a concept piece rather than a story. It covers the consequence of uploading the first full human consciousness into a computer. The idea is revisited in “Driver”. Next is “If You Are Reading This” which is something to do with a missed opportunity in the SETI program. (The subtleties of this one alluded us.) Then we had “The Frame-by-Frame” tale of multiple sentient AI programs in charge of driving an autonomous vehicle and how they react in the split second before running a man down. (This was actually quite funny.) In “The Difference” a man alone in a room tries to grapple with the nature of his reality when his only communication is via a computer terminal and a series of contacts in an online chat room. “Gorge” sees a highly advanced human civilisation encountering a mysterious planet with a deadly history and disastrous future. I would seriously like to know if anyone at Google ever read the next story “cripes does anyone remember Google People” – a humorous stab at a crazy online social media platform completely run by AI bots. “I don’t Know, Timmy, Being God Is a Big Responsibility” is probably the most mind-blowing piece here featuring two researchers playing with a quantum computer with infinite power. Then we get “A Powerful Culture” which speculates about an invasion of Earth by people from another Earth dimension who have a very low opinion of us. Finally, we get the titular “Valuable Humans in Transit” concerning the end of the world and instant reaction of a super-machine as it attempts to save the human race.Certain themes recur through the stories. The nature and direction of AI computing and social media dominate - making the tales here feel highly contemporary. Nanotech and alternative realities also get a look in. It reflects our worst fears of dystopian tech alongside our deepest wishes for utopian technology. All with a dash of humour. This is tongue in cheek sci fi displaying wit and endless intelligence. The stories are so steeped in advanced technology and science. The author revels in being so clever you feel a little inadequate. Thankfully you will survive although the story structure of “Lena” and “Driver” are more smarty-pants science paper than entertaining story. Still, it makes you think. Some of the finest sci fi out there. Brilliant.

I have this book behind sun visor of car so that any spare safe time I can continue the adventure I bought Fine Structure . Ed .RA . there is no Antimemetics . still not read .A good price for a small print run .

I've loved Qntm's writing since I first encountered it on the SCP Wiki. These are all of the same high quality and many of them just as disturbing. If you've read and enjoyed his other stuff, you'll like this as well. If you haven't read any of this other stuff, get that too while you're here. It's all great!

Scary, prescient and thought provokingexaminations of the dangers of AI and nanotechnology.I've not come across this author before but I'm going off to get the rest of his(?) stuff on the strength of this

Even his mediocre work is worth a read, but these stories are under-premised and underwritten and should have been kept on the shelf to be reworked.