Augmented reality and machine empathy: another great sf story from Sarah Gailey

Sarah Gailey (who wrote a brilliant, wrenching short story about empathy and self-driving cars) has just published a new story about wearable computers in a series in The Atlantic edited by Ian Bogost (previously).

Gailey's story, "An Augmented Reality," starts with an unhappy pharmaceutical rep late to see a doctor, and proceeds into some very technologically fascinating speculation that has all the hallmarks of Gailey's work: empathy, complexified by algorithms.

Denise was already late, even before her augmented-reality glasses decided to perform another endless system update.

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She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of her car. She could not afford to be late for her first appointment of the day. Being late meant being rushed, and a rushed pitch would almost always turn into a failed pitch. Shed been emphatically reminded of that at her last performance review. Shed also been reminded that she needed to fail a lot less, if she wanted to keep her job.

An Augmented Reality [Sarah Gailey/The Atlantic] Read the rest