21 August 2058. They say I am to keep a detailed record of my feelings, my perceptions, as I grow accustomed to the new parts. To that end, they gave me an apparatus that blind people use for writing, like a tablet with guide wires. It is somewhat awkward. But a recorder would be useless, since I will not have a mouth for some time, and I can’t type blind with only one hand.
Welcome to issue four of Lightspeed. On tap this month… Fiction: “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee, “The Long Chase” by Geoffrey A. Landis, “Amid the Words of War” by Cat Rambo, and “Travelers” by Robert Silverberg. Nonfiction: “Future Weapons” by Jeff Hecht, “Engines for the High Frontier” by G. David Nordley, “Five Reasons Why Aliens Make Better Lovers” by Carol Pinchefsky, and an interview with John Scalzi by Erin Stocks.
Long before the premiere of The Six Million Dollar Man in 1974, the idea of a bionic human has fascinated the scientific and science fiction communities. Just turn on the television or take a trip to the local movie theater to find some examples. But there’s a lot more to this burgeoning science than Darth Vader and the Borg. It’s not just science fiction; it’s not even science future. What most people might be surprised to discover is that the kinds of mechanized prosthetics writers used to dream about actually exist right now.
© 2010 Lightspeed Magazine
