Tag Archives: cyborg

What’s behind the fish?

Naturally, each and every story in my new collection, Biohacked & Begging, has a background story behind it.

The final story (and the one illustrated above) is Placodermi Protection which came from the combination of two threads I was thinking about when I wrote it.

The story started to form after listening to Jaron Lanier, where one of the things he talked about was using virtual reality to experience things that are ‘other’ to the normal. Something different to the tired ‘swimming with dolphins’ type of VR.

Alongside this I’d become interested in zombie neurons, the neurons that are present in the fetus but die at birth because they relate to aspects that evolution has seen the back of, such as wings on sheep mites.

And so, the world of virtual reality for babies and biohacked fish was born.

If you’re in London on 9 April, you can hear the first public reading of this at the near-future fictions event, Boundless Bodies.


Biohacked & Begging is published on 12 April, but you can pre-order from Amazon now.

Press release available here and on request.


Art: Placodermi Protection by Kim Hutson @batfacedgirlart

Prodding and poking the possible

Biohacked & Begging is the second volume in the Nudge the Future series. These are collections of (very) short stories that dig around in our possible futures.

Some of the stories come from collaborations with scientists and others have flown around inside my head all alone before making their way out and on to the page.

Most of the collaborations have come through a project with Dr. Christine Aicardi, who is a Senior Research Fellow from King’s College London. Among other things, her project is looking at: “How good can near-future fiction be at provoking ethical and social reflection on emerging science and technology?” Continue reading

Living forever and mailing lists

It’s always an honour to be asked to feature on a blog,  so I was pleased to be on Richard Dee’s showcase recently.

The great and unusual thing about Richard’s request is that he didn’t specify a particular topic or have a set of questions. It was entirely up to me, and for some reason I chose to write about mailing lists and living forever. Check it out here and leave a comment if you feel inspired to do so.