“The Assistant” by Angela Cavanaugh was first published in The Future Chronicles – Special Edition in 2015.
When I started this, I thought, oh no, not another story by a writer writing about a writer. It seemed like a writer’s wish-fulfilment piece. But I forgot for a minute that this was science fiction, and this was just the build-up, and that there would be a turnaround later on. In the end, or about half way through, I found it to be very enjoyable and worthy of a place in this anthology.
It tells of a writer of a tech blog who is persuaded to have an implant in her brain that will act as a personal assistant, like Siri or Google Now or Cortana, but one that knows your thoughts and can take over bodily functions like exercise and eating and grooming so that the writer’s mind will be free to write. See what I mean by a writer’s wish-fulfilment piece, or a wet dream?
Of course, things begin to go wrong. She has nightmares, people seem to know her but she has no recollection of knowing them, and so on.
Really enjoyed this.