Shallow Copy

Novelette by Jesse L. Watson

I see a deep, interesting AI story off in the distance across some harsh terrain. So I hop up into my Disbelief model dune buggy, with its brand new suspension and off I go. Now keep in mind, this thing has the MST3K mantra painted on the side in Big, Friendly Letters, and has been over some pretty hazardous terrain before. But Mr. Watson has planted a bunch of goddamn landmines; by the time I reach the beginning of the actual story the suspension is a smoking pile of debris under a dune buggy with all of its paint and most of its bits blown completely off. And I've replaced one of my mutilated legs with a machine gun.

I've made a lot of rant posts in the past few days, and there are several good rants here, but I'll skip all that in favor of hyperbolic metaphor and the comment that once you get past it, the story isn't bad, although it is fairly obvious. The ethical issues are good though. 2 out of 5.