In almost every science fiction movie you’ll see people conversing with machines. Of course, the rise of intelligent personal assistants means you probably do this yourself already. This posting asks: what’s the difference? Also, recent news on Facebook acquisitions, spoken language translation, and sentiment analysis. Science fiction fascinates us because it paints a picture of a world that is...

ROBERT PHILMUS and DAVID Y. HUGHES (editors), Early writings on science and science fiction by H. G. Wells, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, University of California Press, 1975, 8vo, pp. xiv, 249, £10.00. The editors' purpose is to bring together twenty-eight essays from H. G. Wells' hitherto unreprinted writings of the 1880s and 1890s, which are concerned with science and science fiction. T...

This paper uses a narrative literary study to discuss how the science fiction prototyping method has been applied so far in different disciplines, including technology and engineering research (specifically Intelligent Environment research), foresight, futuresand business studies. Then the paper presents very similar practices in human-computer interaction, entitled as e.g. critical design, spe...

This science-fiction prototype comprises two stories discussing potential futures of human hearing. The stories focus on the potential consequences of two speculative factors affecting human behaviour and societies: 1) sound conditioning technology, and 2) the mass hearing impairment. The stories will also be presented in a gallery space by means of the communicating arts: a prototype, moving i...

This Science Fiction Prototype explores both the possibilities of Brain-Computer Interfaces with Artificial Intelligence and writing autobiographical Science Fiction. The paper proceeds in three parts. The context for the story is introduced in the first section, outlining the particularly personal circumstances from which the story has been written. In the second section the story is presented...

Traditional discourses upon literature have been predicated upon the ability to refer to a text that others may consult (Landow, 1994, p. 33). Texts that involve elements of feedback and nontrivial decision-making on the part of the reader (Aarseth, 1997, p. 1) therefore present a challenge to readers and critics alike. Since a persuasive case has been made against a critical method that sets o...