Speculative Companions

By Tris Matthews

This collects all my short stories published in various magazines prior to 2024.
I generally write science fiction that adheres to what I imagine will be possible, but without going as technical as hard sci-fi. I am very fond of robots and other technologies that will change how we interact with each other, society and the world. I also have a background in cognitive science with focus on AI, cybernetics, linguistics and philosophy, so I return to these themes often.

To the best of my ability, I've arranged the stories in order of quality--or, perhaps as a proxy for that, in order of how much pride I have in each. By that metric, When the last friend is gone is still my favourite. It tells the story of a miserable old woman and her robot butler. The mind of the robot is just on the cusp of what we might consider conscious, or "alive"--its thoughts and actions are all quite clearly logical and robotic, but in a way that can clearly form the foundations of human emotion and (apparent?) irrationality.

That said, I prefer the second story here, Searching for the brushstroke that captures your soul, for its use of language and metaphor. That story is built on the premise of a piece of technology that generates conscious personalities for whatever one can illustrate. As the topic as art and illustration, I attempted to use more visual language than I usually do.

For originality, though, I believe sPerfect stands out. Would you prefer to have children you like, or children who are successful?

Invasive alien species and Megafauna both explore environmental themes from a comedic perspective. I prefer the former for its structured progression built around the famous old nursery rhyme of a woman whose problem-solving ideas got quite out of control. I prefer the latter for its word choice and use of language. I remember the story just pouring out with wonderful ease... up to a point. Then it ran out and I have never been able to write in that humorous style since. Perhaps it is possible to lose your sense of humour.

Imagine a future where coming of age means you have to choose whether you'll be a productive member of society, or a hedonist. That is the setting of A life of toil or leisure.

Drunk and divine is the biblically phrased recounting of a drunken computer science post-doc trying to impress his equally intoxicated girlfriend by showing her how the lab computer can generate life.

The weakest story here is Two traitors. That said, I still love the concept of a human and a robot each seeing only the flaws of their own species and the beauty of the other, and each fighting to wipe out their own kind. It does have action and pace, but step carefully to avoid the plot holes.

Finally, The infinite cat theorem is just a short, humorous poem. I had been saving it to submit together with a few more poems... but I've not yet managed to write another poem that's any good, so this is going out on its own.

I hope you enjoy them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mr Minion Publishing
• Release date: Feb 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224824526

Tris Matthews

Tris Matthews works in science fact publishing by day, while by night he masquerades as a science fiction writer. Upon arriving in London, he accidented into EFL English teaching, which sowed the seed and nurtured the tree of a love for language, particularly the pernickety bits. See what he's doing and 's done at: trismatthews.com.

Book preview

Introduction

This collects all my short stories published in various magazines prior to 2024.

I generally write science fiction that adheres to what I imagine will be possible, but without going as technical as hard sci-fi. I am very fond of robots and other technologies that will change how we interact with each other, society and the world. I also have a background in cognitive science with focus on AI, cybernetics, linguistics and philosophy, so I return to these themes often.

To the best of my ability, I've arranged the stories in order of quality—or, perhaps as a proxy for that, in order of how much pride I have in each. By that metric, When the last friend is gone is still my favourite. It tells the story of a miserable old woman and her robot butler. The mind of the robot is just on the cusp of what we might consider conscious, or alive—its thoughts and actions are all quite clearly logical and robotic, but in a way that can clearly form the foundations of human emotion and (apparent?) irrationality.

That said, I prefer the second story here, Searching for the brushstroke that captures your soul, for its use of language and metaphor. That story is built on the premise of a piece of technology that generates conscious personalities for whatever one can illustrate. As the topic as art and illustration, I attempted to use more visual language than I usually do.

For originality, though, I believe sPerfect stands out. Would you prefer to have children you like, or children who are successful?

Invasive alien species and Megafauna both explore environmental themes from a comedic perspective. I prefer the former for its structured progression built around the famous old nursery rhyme of a woman whose problem-solving ideas got quite out of control. I prefer the latter for its word choice and use of language. I remember the story just pouring out with wonderful ease... up to a point. Then it ran out and I have never been able to write in that humorous style since. Perhaps it is possible to lose your sense of humour.

Imagine a future where coming of age means you have to choose whether you'll be a productive member of society, or a hedonist. That is the setting of A life of toil or leisure.

Drunk and divine is the biblically phrased recounting of a drunken computer science post-doc trying to impress his equally intoxicated girlfriend by showing her how the lab computer can generate life.

The weakest story here is Two traitors. That said, I still love the concept of a human and a robot each seeing only the flaws of their own species and the beauty of the other, and each fighting to wipe out their own kind. It does have action and pace, but step carefully to avoid the plot holes.

Finally, The infinite cat theorem is just a short, humorous poem. I had been saving it to submit together with a few more poems... but I've not yet managed to write another poem that's any good, so this is going out on its own.

I hope you enjoy them.

Tris, 2024

When the last friend is gone

Butler found Pebbles dead in the morning.

Each day, the moment Butler became active at 6 a.m. sharp, the little old dog’s stumpy legs would carry her over to seat herself royally in front of the enormous and rusty Cadillac-themed refrigerator to watch. Butler would ruffle the flops and folds of skin on the top of her head before serving up her breakfast and then turning to other chores. Today, Pebbles didn’t come. Butler washed her bowl—overly-large, red, ceramic, and with ‘Pebbles’ hand-painted around the edge in florid script—spooned out a tin of moist meat and placed it on the shabby green mat by the back door.

Butler was most efficient when routine was least disrupted. There was no such thing as perfect routine: any day’s unique haze caused variations in illumination; the birds sang a different song; even his own body performed differently depending upon the ambient temperature, and he was already aware his joints were less smooth than a year ago, when he was fresh out of the box. Beatrice also increasingly left things out of place around the house. Butler didn’t know whether this was solely a result of her age, or a gradual acceptance of her reliance on him. The latter was the more satisfying alternative. After all, caring for Beatrice was his purpose.

Butler hummed for a moment, then went to check the living room. There was Pebbles in her grubby sleeping spot on the faded cream carpet, half curled and half sprawled against the radiator. Beatrice didn’t allow Butler to clean Pebbles’s favourite spots frequently, saying ‘if you take her smell away, she won’t feel at home’, a view Butler struggled to comprehend—it was in absolute opposition to his fundamental operating principles. He stepped past the fat sausage body and closed the door so as not to wake