Maneki Neko by Bruce Sterling (2011)

[walterbell]

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/maneki-neko/

[toyg]

This story is not from 2011. Sterling first published it in a Japanese sci-fi magazine in 1998, and then in English as part of his collection of short stories "A Good Old-fashioned Future" in 1999.

Sterling is probably the most accessible and most on-the-money writer of the cyberpunk era.

[trilbyglens → toyg]

Absolutely! I had the luck to meet him once in Prague at a conference thing and he was a super guy.

Would also highly recommend "The Hacker Crackdown" for a great history of the early hacker scene.

[walterbell]

2013 comic on (AI chat?) questions & answers, http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park

[fractallyte]

Bruce Sterling consistently had some of the most far-out and far-sighted ideas. This old comment - pre-ChatGPT! - points to one of his stories written in the 1990s: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18546242

Just a casual paragraph, but rich with prescience!

[MrVandemar]

Amazing and creepy story about a AI-connected society that I'd totally forgotten about. Very timely. Thank you!

[mrlonglong]

I liked what I read so far. I will have to find a copy.

[zem]

perhaps my favourite of sterling's stories.