Stephen S. Shahan

Summary Driving through the desert, Nish stops at a shuttered gas station to charge her car. Waiting for the 3-hour charge, she visits the nearby Black Museum, which is full of strange exhibits of murder, violence, and other gruesome oddities. There are no other visitors since she got there before tours began, so it’s just…

Summary Lacie lives in a future society where people rate other’s online content and face-to-face interactions from 1 to 5 stars on a social media platform. Everyone sees each other’s ratings via smart contact lenses fed content by their phones. Ratings drop after negative occurrences and are boosted by positive interactions — especially those with…

Summary Marie’s toddler daughter, Sara, wanders off while at the park. Thankfully, Sara is found with help from the community. The incident leads to Marie getting Sara an Arkangel implant, which is paired with a tablet app and relays Sara’s location, vitals, and video feed of what she sees. The implant can censor stressful things…

Summary Waldo is an animated bear on a late night show segment, with speech and expressions controlled by Jaimie. The character becomes popular enough that producers spin him off in a “campaign” against parliamentary candidate Liam Monroe. Waldo attends interviews Monroe is doing and provokes him from a van with a screen on the side,…

Summary Yorkie and Kelly — polar opposites — are aging women in separate retirement homes in a future society. They visit each other once a week and develop a romantic relationship during transcendental “preview” visits to the afterlife, a place called San Junipero. These visits are initiated with a button press, facilitated by technology involving…

Summary Rideshare driver Chris kidnaps Smithereen intern Jaden at gunpoint, with an objective to speak with the social media giant’s CEO/founder Billy Bauer. Chris threatens Jaden’s life while speaking on the phone with Smithereen management, who scramble to take action, quickly gathering a comprehensive file on Chris before London police do. Bauer is on a…

Summary An implantable technology, the Willow Grain, is prevalent in society. The rice grain-sized device, implanted behind the ear, records audio and video of users’ interactions from a first-person perspective. Recordings can be mirrored to screens for playback, or users can view them inside their eyes. Users control playback with a thumb-sized remote. Grain’s recordings…

Summary Ash and Martha have just begun living together in Ash’s childhood home. Unfortunately, Ash dies on the way to return their moving van. A grieving Martha is introduced to a technology that recreates Ash’s presence based on his digital footprint — for instance, his social media posts. Initially, the technology involves software that allows…