A cute yet tragic story. It has some real potential for more interesting scenarios in that world.. I'd read more if Kritzer chooses to explore it. ( )

A stunningly well-done piece about loss and sorrow, done through a gorgeous mirror of colors and perfect poetry. ( )

As we've become increasingly reliant on the Internet to fulfill our needs and desires, we are now feeding it more information about ourselves than ever before. And we simply assume it just sits there where we put it. But what if the Internet was self-aware? What if it took that information and used it for its own purposes? We can only hope that the Internet would be a benevolent AI, right?

But if the Internet was a benevolent AI, would it really impact us? Would we just continue to assume we put information up on the Internet and that's where it stays? If the Internet tried to use that information to help us, would we listen? Or would we just continue to see it as a repository for our Tweets, our rambling Facebook statuses, and cute pictures of our cats?

The idea of sentient AI and self-aware technology is not a new one in science fiction. But Naomi Kritzer's "Cat Pictures Please" is a unique and somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at what it would be like if the Internet was that technology. With as much of our lives as we make public these days, it might not just be the government we need to worry about seeing and using the information. And while it's fiction, it's still a sobering thought as one thinks about how someone could do these same things on their own by accessing the right feeds for an individual person.

This story has made it onto the list of finalists for this year's Hugo Awards. And I can definitely see why. It's a fresh and unique take on an science fiction standard. It's well-written, entertaining, and thought-provoking. It's the kind of work that I think should be recognized by the Hugos. And I'm glad that it's a finalist. ( )

So far only read/listened to:

-- Cat Pictures Please (2015) by Naomi Kritzer, narrated by Kate Baker - 5*
Available on Spotify and online here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/
Adorable, unique. Often we read stories of Artificial Intelligence that wants to wipe out humans or something evil. This one wants to be helpful and knows a lot about us based on our Google searches and social media accounts. The AI targets cat owners to start seeing if being helpful will work. The AI just loves cat pictures and cat owners post a lot of cat pictures. LOL! Lots of posts about their job making them miserable? Starts putting lots of job ads and how to build resumes in their search results etc....

-- Laika's Ghost by Karl Schroeder, narrated by Alasdair Stuart - DNF
I believe I gave it a shot because that title caught my attention. I attempted to listen to it, the narrators accent was a struggle for me so I was missing too much stuff. Come to find out it's outside my reading interest anyways. (Soviet Union, cold war.) It's been republished quite a bit so YMMV.

A cute yet tragic story. It has some real potential for more interesting scenarios in that world.. I'd read more if Kritzer chooses to explore it. ( )