New fiction called “Shaggy Dog” up at the Booklyn Rail, an excerpt of a novel-in-progress.
The good doctor was working on a special kind of AI that anticipates your needs, and, of which, so claims Donna, the dog is a prototype. The program is turning out to work all too well, as the robots not only seem to anticipate when you want companionship or a beverage or the stereo turned on but quickly evolved to discover and emulate that which you most longed for—a desire perhaps unconscious, secret even from yourself—a desire which in most people turns out to be the recovery of the dead. This, though I’m not sure if I entirely believe or trust her explanation, is why, according to Donna, I thought the dog was the reincarnation of my deceased friend, Frank Exit.
“That’s impossible,” I say.
“Of course it isn’t,” Donna replies.
Read the rest at https://brooklynrail.org/2019/11/fiction/Shaggy-Dog
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unrelated, but i didn’t know did you that the wikipedia entry for shaggy dog includes reference to the linguistic rube Goldberg mashing of this ditty called albuquerque by one weird al. end of report.