“Bit Storm” recieves honorable mention from the Writers of the Future Contest
A futuristic computer jockey named Diff gets attacked by bad behaving nano-bots during a Halloween party. The short story, “Bit Storm,” is about a future where nano particles have been commoditized to well beyond Diff’s prosthetic hand. Now it’s in makeup, toys, and nifty “Nstant” halloween costumes. Even Diff’s co-worker, Jake, an Artificial Intelligence, insisted on Diff picking him up a cat. Diff took the easy route and got him a nano cat (you don’t have to clean up after a nan cat).
Why does the nano go bezerk at the Halloween party? Have you ever heard of griefers? Being a griefer is a natural part of human development. All those naughty four-year olds spend a good part of their childhood enjoying the reactions they get when they purposefully behave badly. Sadly, not all these little buggers grow up. Some dedicate themselves to a life of causing grief by becoming Protest Warriors and stirring up trouble at peace rallies. On the MOGS, they are groups of people who band together to cause grief to the other denzines. Diff meets a griefer who goes by SickDevil and this griefer, like all griefers, has a very reasonable way of looking at the world which supports all of his ill doings. (Griefers are very smart four-year olds in adult bodies.) SickDevil challenges Diff to prove SickDevil’s “malthusian outlook,” that it’s “natures order of things” that the planet’s resources (oil, gas, food, water) will only be enjoyed by the strong and that the strong will user the weak to perish ASAP.
And this griefer, SickDevil, is a nano expert.
This story was co-written by my then wife Shelli during a long road trip between Montana and Seattle. It was my turn to drive and I hadn’t finished the scene. So she did it for me! Thanks Shelli! It was probably your part that got the honorable mention. 🙂
