Social: @paulusm@scholar.social

My 2023 book “Transparent Minds in Science Fiction, An Introduction to Alien, AI and Post-Human Consciousness” is available as print or a free download at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0348

#scifi #book #neuroscience #coglit

A soft power that terrified the authorities. Xir follower count was in the order of the 7.4 billion – spread across the system like no other profile.

Xir content, overtly confined to the cityscapes and cultures of diverse locations, had hidden the subtlest dissent.

And now xe would trigger activation. Time to craft the one post needed to unleash the reckoning. Xir posterior lobe pulsed as it composed, xir face still innocent and bland, turned to xir good side.

#microfiction #scifi

prompt courtesy of @ewdocparris@writing.exchange

— Paul M CC BY-SA

The Mewl brothers were born for space. From young kits they had yearned for it. But for too long the Wandering Problem seemed unsurmountable. It was the invention of the Scruff Restrainer™ that had finally enabled the era of feline spaceflight.

Their focus was total as they dropped from orbit around the strange planetoid, paws delicately working the thrust controllers.

They broke through the clouds. Small figures on a dusty plain, scampering away. Their whiskers twitched in anticipation and their pink tongues shot out to lick their lips.

#microfiction #scifi

prompt courtesy of @ewdocparris@writing.exchange

— Paul M CC BY-SA

Its early life had been darkness and the press of the growth substrate. It had fed and communicated through the organic tube attached at the back of its neck. Sometimes the substate grew damp and clammy, sometimes if dry cracks opened, letting in a faint patchy light from above.

Then, it is tossed to the surface, blinking under a bright sky, naked and awkward under the gaze of the military general. The general snorts disdainfully.

“Look lively lad, you're a Sontaran now”

#microfiction #scifi

prompt courtesy of @ewdocparris@writing.exchange

— Paul M CC BY-SA