Author Archives: Stephen Oram

About Stephen Oram

Stephen Oram writes near-future and speculative fiction. His work has been praised by publications as diverse as The Morning Star and The Financial Times.

500 “Brain Fruits” released today

Today 500 “Brain Fruits” are released by L’il Factory, using old printing techniques to birth a far future story.

“A mind-bending, bio-digital fable that pulses with poetic strangeness. Oram’s Brain Fruit is daring, disorienting, and deeply human.”

As the latest review from Josh M on NetGalley says, “A fruit falls and new life begins: a trioid with bee and bug. Thought-provoking short novella about identity and connection. To say too much might spoil it, just read.”

The beginning… “The evolutionary crawl continues its upward curve when the first of the fruits to drop this season hits the ground. It lies there helpless, and I reflect on the fact that, even as I was building this fruit, I thought it was special.”

More about the story here – https://stephenoram.net/brain-fruit/

More about the printing here – https://lilfac.com/printing

Is our convenience burning the planet?

I was fascinated by a talk last year about data storage given by Thomas Coughlin, president of the IEEE. What struck me most was finding out that magnetic tape storage is still used and not only is it cheaper than other mediums but its environmental impact is far less too.

So, this got me to thinking.

Why don’t we have a choice on how to store our emails and photos – those we don’t mind waiting 30 seconds to retrieve? Why can’t we choose to have them stored on magnetic tape?

Continue reading the post and the subsequent conversation on substack…