★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended
(Robot SF) An AI coffee-making machine broods about how it’s vast intellect is simply wasted, and it seeks some form of vengeance on the humans who created it. (2,486 words; Time: 08m)
"It Came from the Coffee Maker," by Martin L. Shoemaker [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 09-10|18, published on August 16, 2018 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: The strategy of torturing readers by writing great SFF stories and then leaving them hanging was amusing.
Con: The whole story is based on the fallacy that AIs are fast. Absurdly fast.
In real life, computer hardware does simple binary operations with great speed (though nowhere as fast as in this story), but AI needs so many cycles that the result is slow even in human terms. When actual learning is required, AI is far slower than humans.
What this story really is is a tale of how miserable a human being would be were he/she stuck in the place of an AI (one that had the impossible speed this one does).
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 09-10|18)
Martin L. Shoemaker Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Con: The whole story is based on the fallacy that AIs are fast. Absurdly fast.
In real life, computer hardware does simple binary operations with great speed (though nowhere as fast as in this story), but AI needs so many cycles that the result is slow even in human terms. When actual learning is required, AI is far slower than humans.
What this story really is is a tale of how miserable a human being would be were he/she stuck in the place of an AI (one that had the impossible speed this one does).
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 09-10|18)
Martin L. Shoemaker Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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