Mark Pepe’s ETEC 540 Course Site

“Literature makes us work so much harder because readers need to construct everything about the fictional world in their imagination” (Dunne & Raby, 2013, p. 75).

I tried very hard to craft two short stories for this assignment, but since this was my first attempt at creative writing, it didn’t go so well. Maybe one day I’ll write my “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” For this task, I will start with my inspirations for the stories that are tied to the module, I’ll give a brief synopsis of both stories, and then at the bottom I will have my world building notes.

In Yuval Harari’s book Homo Deus, he gives the reader a potential look into the future of personal AI assistants. Using Microsoft’s Cortana he writes how peoples personal assistants could communicate by scheduling meetings and times to socialize. Also, if one wears a device like an Apple Watch or FitBit, those devices can monitor one’s vital statistics and may advise the user to delay a meeting due to stress by reading a high heart rate. We are getting close to this. A personal story here, I once had a job where my commute was one hour and a half in heavy traffic. At the time I was wearing a Fit Bit and I noticed that my heart rate was significantly higher while commuting home. It was one of the main deciding factors in leaving that position for one that was closer to home. Harari’s (2017b) quote, “we will probably have an AI family doctor on our smartphone” (p. 325) is almost here!

Shannon Vallor talks about the task-specific AI that helps us with our everyday lives, and she makes a distinction with Artificial General Intelligence. This is the theoretical, and fictional, intelligence that is at the level of the human mind. We use these task-specific AI’s to help choose a movie to watch, predict our text, they can add events to our calendars.

Harari’s look into the future and Vallor’s discussion of AI is what inspired me with these utopian and dystopian narratives. Either one can be a what-if scenario to the other, and to the future in general. Since Vallor’s definition of an AGI is too far away I attempted write how a task-specific AI would impact a story. We have two main characters – see the character profiles below: Amanda Brenner, and Paris Masterson. For their faces I used an AI face generation website This Person Does Not Exist. 15 years from now, in 2037, both of these characters are are high school seniors, independent, intelligent, and are high achievers. They use their AI assistants to help plan their day, do research, and communicate. The narratives involve the two characters on the same day, that involves a bridge building competition and a scholarship for their tuition to a high level university.

Utopian

The day starts with Amanda waking up on time, journalling with pen and paper, and spending breakfast with her family. It’s the day before their bridge building competition, Amanda’s AI assistant helped her create the bridge, by providing calculations and helping research the design. She needs the scholarship money because her parents can only help her so much to pay the tuition. The AI assistant also helps her with her busy schedule by chunking out time for studies and reminders for commitments such as a lessons and practices. During the school day, Amanda encounters Paris Masterson, her academic and athletic rival. Paris just always seems to win and she makes sure that Amanda knows it. That evening, Amanda fulfils all her commitments, and puts the finishing touches on the bridge. The next day she has a successful competition with her bridge holding the most weight and winning a scholarship to put towards her tuition.

Dystopian

The day starts with Amanda’s alarm going off late, only leaving her enough time to grab her school bag and she barely gets out the door on time to catch the bus. She wonders why her alarm didn’t go off, and asks her AI assistant why it didn’t go off, the AI replies that Amanda set it for 8am, but Amanda was sure it was set for 7am. As the day progresses, her AI assistant, just gives her wrong information, such as a wrong definition of a word in English class, and continues to give her the wrong schedule. Amanda was sure that her AI assistant schedule was correct as of a few days before. She’s also not receiving messages from friends. An encounter with Paris was strange when Paris asked how her day was going, or is she heard from a mutual friend. Which is strange, because Paris never asks Amanda anything. That night when Amanda is giving the finishing touches to her bridge she had second thoughts to what her AI assistant was suggesting. The next day, Amanda’s bridge collapses under a light weight, and Paris wins the competition and scholarship. Amanda goes home disappointed and doesn’t know that Paris’ AI assistant has been sabotaging her.

References

• Dunne, A. & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Retrieved August 30, 2019, from Project MUSE database.
• Harari, Y. N. (2017a). Homo deus: A brief history of tomorrow (First U.S. ed.). Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
• Hariri, Y. N. (2017b). Reboot for the AI revolution. Nature International Weekly Journal of Science, 550(7676), 324-327.
• Santa Clara University. (2018, November 6). Lessons from the AI Mirror Shannon Vallor. YouTube.

World Building Content

Story Setting

• Wednesday, May 20th, 2037
• Burnaby, British Columbia
• Soccer season is wrapping up, but qualifying for BC Summer Games is approaching
• Provincial track meets are approaching
• Flute recitals, and band festivals are in full swing
• The annual Bridge Building competition is a day away, and scholarships are on the line

Character Bios

Profile Data

• Name: Paris Masterson
• Age: 18
• Born: January 4, 2020
• Daughter of: Samantha (high Profile Lawyer) and Jeffrey Masterson (Successful Entrepreneur)
• Brothers and Sisters: Only child
• Education: 12th grade, Burnaby North Secondary

Physical Description

• Light brown hair; grey/brown eyes
• Height: 5’9”
• Athletic build

Personality

• Studious, takes school very seriously
• Ambitious, wants to get into the top schools
• Competitive, national level track and field, captain of the volleyball and soccer team

Attributes

• Very independent and self-reliant
• Competitive to a fault
• Can always find time to complete tasks

Habits

• Starts every morning with a 3km run at 7am
• Arrives at school early
• Spends weekday evenings at practicing and studying, in bed at 11pm

Manner

• Often comes across as cold, but warms up with time
• Intense during sport, especially during practice before a big game or event
• Easily frustrated while participating in group projects at school

Profile Data

• Name: Amanda Brenner
• Age: 17
• Born: June 12, 2020
• Daughter of: Irene (Stay-at-home mom, former teacher) and Steven (General Contractor, carpenter)
• Brothers and Sisters: Joshua, 15; Samantha, 12
• Education: 12th grade, Burnaby North Secondary

Physical Description

• Dark brown hair; green/brown eyes
• Height: 5’6”
• Athletic build

Personality

• Studious, takes school very seriously
• Ambitious, wants to get into the top schools
• Compassionate, Amanda often considers other

Attributes

• Strong work ethic
• Works well with others
• Very well organized, and a good manager of time

Habits

• Starts every morning with tea and journalling at 7am
• Arrives at school early
• Spends weekday evenings at studying for school, practicing flute, and plays soccer, in bed at 10pm
• Volunteers as a children’s soccer coach

Manner

• Very warm and welcoming
• Works hard during school and during practice for soccer and flute
• Considers her teammates and classmates

First Draft of the Utopian Short Story

At 7am Amanda’s room shined yellow like the sun to wake her up. It was a typical rainy Vancouver day. “I thought May was supposed to be sunny a month” she thought as she looked out her window. Her hot water kettle goes off, pours the water in the tea pot for some earl grey tea, and takes out her Moleskine journal and fountain pen. Not many people her age use pen and paper anymore, but she likes to keep it traditional. After she gets her thoughts in order, she looks to her phone. 

“Hey Siri, what’s on for today?”

“Good morning, Amanda. You have Flex period from 8:40 to 9:10, followed by, Physics, English Literature, Senior Concert Band, and Drama. You’ve submitted your Physics homework on Teams, your English Literature paper is due Friday, so I have scheduled time tonight and tomorrow for you to complete that, nothing for Senior Concert Band, and for Drama, I have sent Shakespeare’s The Tempest to read and listen to on Teams. I have set up Do Not Disturb from 3pm to pm. You have a flute lesson on Zoom from 4pm to 5pm, dinner, then soccer from 7pm to 8pm. I have set up Do Not Disturb from 8:30 to 10:00 to do your homework.”

“Thanks, Siri. Ugh. I’m already tired just thinking about this day.”

Amanda walks down to the kitchen to make her toast with Nutella and sliced strawberries.

“Morning mom, morning dad, morning nerds.”

“Hey! That’s not nice!” said Samantha, her younger sister.

“We’re the nerds?! You’re the one who journals every morning. Dear diary, I am sad…” said Joshua.

“Ok kids, that’s enough, it’s barely 8 o’clock, how about we have a nice start to our day.” Said Amanda’s mom.

“Where’s dad?” Asked Amanda.

“He had to leave for work early today. He’ll be home for dinner. He’s grilling tonight. Quick, get your things ready for school.”

——————

Amanda’s phone flashes at the start of Physics class and the notification said she got 19/20 on her Physics homework. Looking around her class she sees sleepy faces, a group of boys doodling on the white board, and then her phone flashes again.

“Hi class, I’m sick today so my lesson will be sent to your assistants. You all did well on your bridge design homework, though I can tell that some of you have too much help from your assistants. We’re making truss bridges not cable stay bridges people! Have a good day. – Mr. Harvey”

The draft ends here. Thanks for reading!