“Siri™, drive me home,”
Carol reclined while the Rambo’s™ dashboard flared with a choice of movies matching her taste. The ez-drive™ whirred her gently through commuter-lightworm.
She didn’t need distractions and started with dinner. Checking her Freezy™ she opted for TripleCheesePasta™ and with a few clicks RoboChefBob™ gave her a thumbs-up;
Food would be served upon her arrival.
Fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, she was seated by the CookEazyTable™. Eating with Hologram-Tinder™-proposals flexing their muscles, she swiped left, again and again.
Extinguishing the Simu-screen™ she sighed:
“Siri™, I need a book.”
Siri™ gasped while faraway the LunaSiren™ began wailing.
OK, the only thing I saw in the picture was the road and thought about a life with self-driving cars, where I realized we might be on our way to create our new version of an updated dystopia.
Friday Fictioneers write on any topic to the same picture every week and Rochelle set the standard and selects the picture. If you want to read more stories click on the cyberfrog below.
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November 27, 2019
Björn Rudbergs writings 
The corporate world that awaits us, some of it not too far away already. I have faith that the humble book will survive though!
The humble book will be forbidden… we have to consume to keep the wheels turning… like in Huxley’s book.
I’m sure Siri can provide her with any Gutenberg (TM) she wishes
Gutenberg is free and therefore to forbidden… we have to consume… every Friday is black
Dear Bjorn,
Why does this story frighten me a bit? Well imagined.
Shalom,
Rochelle
It scares me…
I enjoyed the path that you took with this story. Siri may well take over,
Siri and her friends will be our only companions.
That robot froggy, though! 🙂
This was trademarked to unease, this was! Well done, then!
I wonder if Carol was trademarked too.
Who knows … I know some people’s DNA already is … 😉
Oh, I loved this! What a great take on the photo prompt.
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
Thank you… it was fun to write.
Well done, Björn. It does so feel like that is what is ahead… I refuse the Siri and the Googe and the other voice-activated doohickeys…
Love the frog.
I fear that it’s around the corner.
Life captured by artificial intelligence, totally! Why does she need a book? Siri could have read anything to her from her collection.
Siri would have “corrected” everything…
Bjorn you see the writing on the wall. It’s almost as if we are rag dolls being pulled along with technology. So many of the “gadgets” I use today were things I resisted and said I’d never use — like microwave ovens and cell phones and automatic deposit and bill auto-pay and…
We do become well adopted… like the frog being boiled.
p.s. robo-froggy eats nano-bots for breakfast
If a hundred years ago someone had written an accurate prediction of where we are in 2019, it would probably be seen as fanciful fiction!
Or something dystopian… ?
That kind of future doesn’t seem so far away. I’m confident that paper books will always be around though (in my lifetime anyway). Great take on the prompt.
I am thinking Fahrenheit 451 here…. printed books are dangerous since they cannot be changed to fit a big-brother narrative.
Very true. Any government that bans or burns books is a dangerous one.
What an ingenious take, life lived with apparent ease alongside a weight of claustrophobia. I think we’re already on this journey- help.
We are already there I think
A strange fantasy – at least , I hope it remains a fantasy!
I think it’s still a few years away…
Yep. I just ordered a smart thermostat and had to be very careful not to get one that connected to Amazon. We are happily welcoming our corporate and technological overlords into our lives.
Oh my, Wonderful imagination here, and you caught me by surprise 🙂
I like where you went with this. I found it very realistic (in a dystopian kinda way). 🙂
Aaaagh! That’s a true horror story! Well done, Bjorn.
in a roundabout way, the road before us looks scary.
Brilliant ! I love this. A world controlled at the touch of a button but oh I would long for a book too.
What an ominous title… it makes me wonder how she will unravel. Existential angst is palpable in this tale.
*how her mind will unravel
A book? Perish the thought! Nice one, Bjorn(TM)!
Haha. This story reminded me – a few years back Apple introduced Maps in Australia (at the same time I think Apple blocked Goggle Maps on the iphone), people kept getting ridiculously and dangerously lost. Tourists ended up in the outback, cars in water etc. Police issued huge warnings about using Apple Maps and use common sense. 😀