Story of the Story, Day 9 - "Your Future is Pending"

When automated systems make decisions that affect our lives without our awareness or consent

For my ongoing “Story of the Story” series, I have been discussing the stories in my debut collection, Histories Within Us. Today, we’re talking about my story “Your Future is Pending.”

Your Future is Pending

Martha works as a technician, repairing robots that take care of people as they immerse in VR for weeks at a time, while trying to care for her sick father. Everything she tries to do to get help for her sick father is blocked by automated systems that make decisions that affect her and countless others without human oversight or empathy. Martha’s at her wits end, and the only light in her life is a stray dog that she befriends and feeds in the alley. But everything changes when she discovers a dangerous software bug in one of the caretaking robots.

Have you ever called your medical insurance company, internet or cell phone provider, bank, or company, and been told by the person at the other end, “Well, my system says…” ? Or worse, you only to get some automated system that does its best not to answer your question and prevent you from talking to a real person, so you just scream and give up?

So many aspects of our lives are run by software code that has no consideration for our human needs. Some programmer in some cubicle added a line of code because his boss told him that the company needed to “optimize efficiency” or some bullshit, and then you’re refused healthcare coverage when you’re sick. Or your home loan is denied or your job application is discarded.

Meanwhile, the 1% live lives of easy luxury, blithely unaware of the struggles of everyone else, or they’re aware and just don’t care. “Your Future is Pending” is a story about class, how the rich lead easy, carefree lives, while the working and middle class struggle endlessly for their daily bread, and their lives are filled with, as Thoreau said, “quiet desperation.” And it’s about how relying on automated systems to make decisions without human oversight can lead to cruel and heartless outcomes.

This story was fictional when I wrote it, but unfortunately the near-future events the story depicts seem all too plausible today.

You can read “Your Future is Pending” in my short story collection, Histories Within Us, which is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo and Indie Bound, and elsewhere.