First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2017, Wole Talabi’s short story The Regression Test is a deceptively dark tale exploring human involvement with artificial intelligence. In an ugly corporate conference room, Titilope Ajimobi takes part in a regression test designed to ascertain whether an AI has deviated too far from the original human source of its thought patterns. As the person who knew the human subject best, it’s her role to pose a series of questions that will determine whether the AI is still recognisable – as her mother, who’s been dead the last 40 years.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Bahrain Underground Bazaar – Nadia Afifi
First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and most recently included in the Lavie Tidhar-edited anthology The Best of World SF Volume 2, Nadia Afifi’s fascinating short story The Bahrain Underground Bazaar is a powerful tale of an elderly woman coming to terms with a terminal illness in the modern, digital world. Understandably scared, and worried about being a burden on her family, Zahra visits the ‘virtual immersion chambers’ of the Underground Bazaar where she practices for her own passing by virtually experiencing the deaths of others. When one particular visit raises more questions than it answers, Zahra finds herself compelled to try and understand the life of the woman whose end she experienced, hoping to find some clarity in what remains of her own life.
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