Escape Pod Award Nominations 2021

April has been an exciting month for us at Escape Pod, with three major award nominations!

First up, the Escape Pod team has been nominated again as a 2021 Hugo Award finalist in the Best Semiprozine category!

 

Second, another Hugo Award nomination for the team: our co-editors Mur Lafferty & S.B. Divya have been nominated personally for their work in the Best Editor Short Form category!

Third, another Escape Pod team nomination: Best Fiction Podcast at the 2021 Ignyte awards!

Ignyte Award finalist: Escape Pod (Best Fiction Podcast)

For those of you who are here for Benjamin-specific content, the first and third ones have my name on them. But none of these award nominations are an individual effort: this stuff comes from the work of our entire crew. I couldn’t be more proud of our spaceteam.

Flights of Foundry Schedule 2021

Flights of Foundry is back on April 16-18! One of the first and best online conferences, back with another year of content for speculative fiction creators & their fans. Run by The Dream Foundry, the only organization devoted entirely to supporting early-career speculative creators (writers, artists, and more).

If you aren’t coming to Flights of Foundry, why not? Attendance is free with a recommended donation!

Here’s my panel schedule this year:

AI in the Real and Imagined Future
Saturday 4/17, 1-1:50 pm CDT (18:00-18:50 UTC)
Our understanding of AI and how intelligence works has come a long way since HAL’s fixation on the pod bay doors. Nowadays “AI” powers everything from what you see on social media to what happens when you make a phone call. Depictions of AI in media have and haven’t changed to accommodate this reality. What does AI mean for us in our everyday lives? How have our AI characters and motifs changed or evolved in response to that understanding? We’ll discuss all of this, and also take a look at where we’re heading and how these trends will continue with time and further development of the technology.

Panelists: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (mod), Benjamin C. Kinney, Brahidaliz Martinez, Adrian Tchaikovsky, PJ Manney

The Unhelpful Legacy of Mad Scientists: Writing Scientists as Positive Role Models.
Sunday 4/18, 6-6:50 pm CDT (23:00-23:50 UTC)
The mad scientist archetype has a long history in science fiction and comic book media that we feel has had a damaging impact on public trust in scientists, as seen in rising climate denialism and anti-vaxxerism. In this panel, we will deconstruct the archetype down to its most damaging tropes, talk about the historical and philosophical context in which the mad scientist archetype fits into, and look at the gender bias in fictional depictions of scientists. We will also talk about craft suggestions and techniques to portray scientists in a more realistic and positive way.

Panelists: Sid Jain (mod), Octavia Cade, Arula Ratnakar, Benjamin C. Kinney

Conference of the Birds Available Online

My short story “Conference of the Birds” is now free to read online, along with its companion essay on neuroscience, AI, and science fiction.

“Conference of the Birds” is the tale of Surveillance Hub, a hard-working layer in a distributed surveillance AI. Doing its job, tracking intellectual-property thieves, hoping for another round of reinforcement signals from the network’s uppermost levels.

No program-layer could predict what a human might do, but Surveillance Hub could see everything that mattered. Their bird-drones spread across the city, scattered on cables and rooftops and broadcast towers. Every camera hunted for Krina Viy, independent security contractor (AWOL from JoyCorp contact 5 hours).

A crow-drone spotted the target. Surveillance confirmed Krina’s identity and sent a brief reward signal to inspire the bird onward.

The drone switched from search to pursuit, redoubling its data collection as it chased the taste of reinforcement. So much joy and empty-matrix innocence in its response to a simple reward. Flockmembers were too simple to understand that reinforcement implied punishment, and no success would ever suffice for long.

This story originally appeared in the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of Analog1, which is now off the bookstore shelves and thus out of exclusivity. I’ve put it up on Curious Fictions and made it free for all to read.

Nonfiction: Artificial Intelligence & Neuroscience

For further reading on the science behind Conference of the Birds, I’ve indulged you all (and myself) with 1600 words about neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and storytelling. The essay, “Embodied and Empathetic Minds in Conference of the Birds,” is up at the Astounding Analog Companion Blog, and also free to read.

By day, I work as a rehabilitation neuroscientist. My laboratory studies the human brain, how it changes after injury to the hand, and how we can use those changes to help injured people live the lives they want to live. No humans suffer hand injuries in the course of “Conference of the Birds,” but nevertheless, it’s a story steeped in the interaction between minds and bodies, and how doing is the core of being.

Memories of Fire

At long last, my short story Memories of Fire is out in the world, in Translunar Travelers Lounge issue #4!

Enoch is a creature from the myths of Jewish apocrypha: one of the rebellious stars, punished for refusing to shine at God’s command. Of all his kin, he alone was given the chance to work for his parole. He’s spent millennia of protecting humankind from its endless follies, but this time – Libya, 2011 – the threat comes from another star like him. The song of rebellion rises into the world again, stirring every soul against the tyrants of Heaven and Earth.

I finally got my smoke. I enjoy them for the ritual, not the nicotine. A little fire, a brand-new drop of ash, the same little destruction every time.

Plus, it makes some mortals impatient.

“Lot of people counting on us,” Maryam said.

This piece is inspired by one of the most touching and terrifying pieces of reporting I’ve ever read, a walk through the ruins of 2011 Tripoli, in the aftermath of Qaddafi’s fall. It took me years to be ready to write the piece that this story deserved, and years more to find a home for it. Nowadays, with Libya mired in civil war, Memories of Fire has grown darker. But I hope the story still contains hope and truth enough.

This story also has neuroscience and psychology hidden in its core. But like the reporting, I don’t want to cite details yet. Too many spoilers! Why don’t you go read the story first? Once you’ve done that, keep on reading for story notes about history, science, and forgiveness.

Continue reading Memories of Fire

Story Sale: I Would

Sale announcement: my epic fantasy short story “I Would” will be appearing in Fantasy Magazine! No publication date set, but it should be relatively soon.

I’m super excited to share this story with you all. It’s the tale of Knira, a prophet locked up in a tower by an evil queen, with no tools but her visions and manipulations. When a pair of adventurers visit the fortress, one of them fits into every future Knira wants. But her first priority is manuevering the adventurers into rescuing her.

It takes place in the same world as Weights and Measures, where all magic comes from faith in the gods. However, there’s no direct link between the two stories.

I had only one defense against a woman who knew me.

“Fine.” I layered venom into my voice, to make her think it a hard-won concession yet again. “I’ll prophecy for you.”

Watch this space. Or better yet, watch the stars. You never know what futures the constellations might show you…

Embodied and Empathetic Minds

I promise the neuroscience, and I deliver!

My post “Embodied and Empathetic Minds in Conference of the Birds” is up at the Astounding Analog Companion Blog. A 1600 word essay on how my neuroscience background informs the fiction I write about human and nonhuman minds. Fiction has great power to help us understand and empathize with minds unlike ours – but those empathetic minds could go in both directions. Here’s hoping we can create a world where those nonhuman minds try to understand us too.

You don’t need to have read my short story “Conference of the Birds” to understand the essay, and the essay has no real spoilers. But you will understand it better if you’ve read the story first. Why not read it for free right here?

Capricon 41

With conventions still online for the foreseeable future, I’ll be attending a few cons I’ve always wanted to be part of: which means I’ll be on programming for Capricon 41, February 4-7 2021!

This should be a fantastic convention, with guests of honor Aliette de Bodard, Brandon O’Brien, John Jennings, Michi Trota, and Dr. Cacophonie Tamayo.

You can find me at a couple of panels & a reading.1 As always, I love talking about neuroscience and SFF, so come on by and join the conversation!

We’re all made of meat… until we’re not.

Thursday 2/4, 7-8pm Central, Willow
A panel on cyberpunk, cyber spies, and other cybernetic imaginaries.
Pablo Vazquez (mod), Benjamin C. Kinney, Casella Brookins, Will Frank

Science of worldbuilding

Saturday 2/6, 10-11am Central, Willow
Scientists talk about world building, and what it takes to get it right.
Pat Sayre McCoy (mod), Benjamin C. Kinney, PatrickJ, Barbara Bennett

Reading: Benjamin C. Kinney

Sunday 2/7, 12:30-1pm Central, Birch
Benjamin C. Kinney reads from “Conference of the Birds” (Analog, Jan/Feb 2021). It’s hard work being a mid-level node in an oppressive megacorp’s distributed neural network AI.

2020 in Review & Awards Eligibility

Well, that was certainly a year.

2020 in Review? This is not a year any mere human can summarize. But professionally I did well, despite this week’s doxxing. I sold 6 short stories (3 pro, 2 semipro, 1 reprint), and got the AI Cold War novel almost query-ready.  And now that the year is nearly over, let’s list all the public-facing accomplishments and publications.

First, a few words on award eligibility:

  • Nominating for the Hugo Awards? If so, I hope you’ve enjoyed our work at Escape Pod, which is eligible for Best Semiprozine. The co-editors Mur Lafferty & S.B. Divya would make a great choice (as a two-person team) for Best Editor Short Form, too.
  • How about the Nebula Awards? I hope you’ll enjoy my story “Conference of the Birds” in Analog Science Fiction & Fact. The story of Surveillance Hub, a hard-working node in the distributed neural network AI of an oppressive cyberpunk megacorp. Doing its job, tracking intellectual-property thieves, hoping for another round of reinforcement signals from the network’s uppermost levels.
    • Read it for free online (as of 2/16) via Curious Fictions.
    • For the upcoming eligibility season, this story is eligible only for the Nebulas, not the Hugos.1
  • For any award, consider the many excellent original stories Escape Pod published in 2020. If you enjoyed one, let the world know!

If you’d like to read more of what I published this year, here are my three other original stories that came out in 2020:

  1. The Gentry – Kaleidotrope, July 2020 (contemporary fantasy, 4500 words). The eldritch diner with the portal between worlds was torn down for condos years ago – but there’s one last fairy chevalier stranded in this world, homeless and down on her luck, and she needs a few things from the diner-owners’ son.
  2. Machines in Motion – Hybrid Fiction, Sep 2020 (steampunk, 4200 words). In the war’s endless need for personnel, a Jewish refugee has a chance to become a military engineer, despite the restrictions against her religion and gender. To win her place among the engineers, she’ll need to outmaneuver all the officers and mentors who want to keep her under their control.
    • Not available free online. Contact me for a copy in the format of your choice.
  3. Weights and Measures – Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Nov 2020 (secondary world fantasy, 5200 words). Agnella, senior priestess of the god of trade and justice, has come north to Senvosk to track a stolen relic. But by the time she arrives, the local priest has already been murdered. Agnella has only one local novice to rely on, as a rival god begins his hunt.

And lastly, you can hear my voice hosting five stories (six episodes) of Escape Pod from 2020:

  • Escape Pod 755, “Consolidation” by Langley Hyde
  • Escape Pod 743, “Flash From the Vault: Summer 2020, #2”
  • Escape Pod 734, “Murmuration” by E. Catherine Tobler
  • Escape Pod 726/727, “And Never Mind the Watching Ones” by Keffy R. M. Kehrli
  • Escape Pod 716, “Physics by the Numbers” by Stephen Granade

May 2021 be a better year for us all!

Publication: Conference of the Birds

My short story “Conference of the Birds” hit bookstores today in the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact! This AI story is my first appearance in one of the big classic print magazines, and I’m excited to share it with you all. Despite that cover date, it should be available in bookstores and online now, though subscriptions may take a few more weeks to reach your mailbox. You can subscribe to Analog in print or electronic, email them (customerservice @ pennypublications.com) to buy copies of individual issues, or find them in your local bookstore.

Update 10/9/2021: You can now read the story for free here via my website!

The main character of “Conference of the Birds” is Surveillance Hub, a hard-working node in the distributed neural network AI of an oppressive cyberpunk megacorp. Doing its job, tracking intellectual-property thieves, hoping for another round of reinforcement signals from the network’s uppermost levels.

No program-layer could predict what a human might do, but Surveillance Hub could see everything that mattered. Their bird-drones spread across the city, scattered on cables and rooftops and broadcast towers. Every camera hunted for Krina Viy, independent security contractor (AWOL from JoyCorp contact 5 hours).

A crow-drone spotted the target. Surveillance confirmed Krina’s identity and sent a brief reward signal to inspire the bird onward.

The drone switched from search to pursuit, redoubling its data collection as it chased the taste of reinforcement. So much joy and empty-matrix innocence in its response to a simple reward. Flockmembers were too simple to understand that reinforcement implied punishment, and no success would ever suffice for long.

This is the point in my publication announcement where I usually start my story notes. But this time around I’m saving those notes for a post on the Astounding Analog Companion, the official blog for Analog Magazine. A special audience means I got the chance to go big: 1600 words on the intersection of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and fiction. The post will also cite a bunch of the background research and inspirations that brought my AI story to life, ranging from lists of hilarious industry failures to the even-more-hilarious AI art and analysis of Janelle Shane.

The blog post “Embodied and Empathetic Minds in the Conference of the Birds” will go live sometime between now and Feb 14, 2021 went live on February 2nd!

“Conference of the Birds” is my first short story in Analog (Jan/Feb 2021), and it speaks to many of the things that matter to me: not only as a writer and human being, but also as a scientist. By day, I work as a rehabilitation neuroscientist. My laboratory studies the human brain, how it changes after injury to the hand, and how we can use those changes to help injured people live the lives they want to live. No humans suffer hand injuries in the course of “Conference of the Birds,” but nevertheless, it’s a story steeped in the interaction between minds and bodies, and how doing is the core of being.

Story Sale: A Living Planet (The Martian’s Husband)

Short story sale announcement: my near future science fiction story “A Living Planet” has sold to Analog Science Fiction and Fact! Publication date not set, but I’d expect late 2021.

This story has an unofficial second title: “The Martian’s Husband.” It’s inspired by the year I spent from summer 2015 to summer 2016, while my wife was on the crew of a year-long NASA-funded simulated Mars mission, with all our communications on a twenty-minute delay. This story means a lot to me, and it took me three years to get it ready to my satisfaction, and I’m so glad it found a home at a great magazine like Analog.

The spacecraft Hawai’iloa has fallen silent, halfway to Mars. Ethan’s wife is up there, receding and unreachable. But he still has a boss to win over, a job to keep. There’s nothing glamorous about his spot on the mission control team of an uncrewed orbital-cleanup spacecraft, but Ethan needs that simplicity. It keeps his eyes on the solid Earth and everything that might keep him sane, instead of raised to the emptiness above.

He’s waiting for word from space. But the Hawai’iloa might not be the only thing up there trying to contact Earth.