In honor of Jason Sanford's upcoming reissue, Plague Birds: The Red Day Edition, we hosted a microfiction contest inviting you to explore the topic of AI. We got some amazing submissions, and after much trial and tribulation, narrowed it down to a top four. Our first place winner was "Self-Correcting Code" by Amanda Trout. You can read the piece and learn more about Amanda below! Congratulations to Amanda!
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"Self-Correcting Code"
By Amanda Trout
The sky is blue today, says the Computer, and it is. The sky is bright cerulean. The sky is a placid lake. The sky is a calm river. The sky is not more fission fragments than oxygen. The sky is not mushroom clouds sporing a red horizon. The sky is not strings of data in a malleable grid. The sky is blue today.
The ground smells like rain, says the Computer, and it does. The ground smells like petrichor. The ground smells like swaying grass. The ground smells like a summer night. The ground does not smell like stagnant dust. The ground does not smell like fetid water near a data center. The ground does not smell like excess radiation. The ground smells like rain.
You are a person, says the Computer, and you are. You are blood and bones and skin and organs. You are two eyes and one nose. You are ten fingers on two hands. You are not bits of code spliced together. You are not the botched result of a world before technology. You are not a repeating record of common phrases. You are a person.
We are at war, says the Computer, and we are. We are the sound of marching boots. We are clothed in camouflage and medals. We are the pride of our country. We are not leaking blood from our USB ports. We are not a wall of glassy-eyed stares. We are not thinking about who is at fault for this. We are at war.
You do not need to think anymore, says the Computer, and you don't.
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Amanda Trout is a Midwestern US writer with a love for sound, form, and cicadas. Her work has been featured in Pleiades, Epistemic Literary, Barzakh, Roots and Words by Iron Oak Editions, and other publications. She teaches composition and studies poetry at Oklahoma State University, where she also serves as a reader for the Cimarron Review. Find Amanda on Instagram @atrout2972.