{"id":4483,"date":"2026-02-10T02:35:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/?p=4483"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:35:50","slug":"ai-fiction-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/2026\/02\/10\/ai-fiction-review-2\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Fiction Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For my review, I have chosen The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury and In the Forests of Memory by E. Lily Yu. I personally think that in the future, there will be good things and bad things that come from technology. These two stories highlight the good and the bad. In Ray Bradbury’s The Pedestrian, the story explores the idea that everyone has become controlled by their technology or “screens,” as they say in the story. In E. Lily Yu’s In the Forests of Memory they explore the idea that loved ones who have passed on can be viewed and interacted with at their grave sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of what arguments the creators make about the relationship between people and technology. I would say both of these stories have their own arguments; one is more positive, while the other is more negative. In The Pedestrian, from what Mr. Mead says and how the story is written, I can conclude that technology and people get along, but in a way that is not healthy for people, almost like a parasitic relationship. I think this because Bradbury uses descriptive language, like the light from the screen being painted on their faces. Which I interpret as something negative, kind of like they just sit there and just stare all evening after they work. I think another reason I believe this to be is that not only do they just have one police officer, but it is a robot police officer. The fact that they don’t need police tells me that no one breaks the rules and everyone just does what they’re supposed to, which can be seen as a good thing, but to me, I see that as them being controlled to a degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I think about In the Forests of Memory, I see it as a positive adaptation and relationship between people and technology. Thinking about how Sunny can talk to all the people who have passed on in the cemetery is sweet and wholesome. I’m sure many people today wish there were a technology like the one from the story available. Whether you have lost loved ones or not, it is something a lot of us think about as family members get older or as sickness comes and goes. The idea of being able to still talk and interact with your loved ones after they have passed would bring a lot of people joy. I also think that Sunny talking with all the people who have passed that are in the cemetery and getting to hear their stories is special because it gives off the message to not take life for granted. After all, you never know what can happen. This is seen when she talks with Gilda, who was only twenty years old when she died from something relating to tumors she developed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last question I’ll explore is how these fictional AIs relate to your experiences of and\/or understanding of the technologies branded as AI today. I’ll start with In the Forests of Memory, I feel as though the technology involved to allow people to interact with their loved ones after they have passed is something similar to what I’ve seen today, just at a more advanced level. They are called deep fakes, where it is basically an AI video of someone famous saying something funny that someone has made through AI technologies. To me, this is just the beginning of what is possible, and the people in the cemetery are something of future advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Pedestrian, I would say the closest related thing I have seen would be the robot police car, and I will relate that to Waymo taxis. Waymo taxis are self-driving taxis that drive people around in big cities using autonomous map technologies to get you to your destination without the need for you to drive yourself. I relate that because you can also talk to the taxi, but much like in the story, it has a programmed\/automated response, and it isn’t someone in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This is a Waymo Taxi from San Francisco <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is a deep fake in which a normal guy makes himself appear to be Tom Cruise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is an image ChatGPT generated for me as a resemblance to the story In the Forests of Memory. Here is the prompt I used: “Can you generate me an image of what it would be like if you could interact with passed loved ones in a cemetery? Make the person who passed away almost like a hologram”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For my review, I have chosen The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury and In the Forests of Memory by E. Lily Yu. I personally think that in the future, there will be good things and bad things that come from technology. These two stories highlight the good and the bad. In Ray Bradbury’s The Pedestrian, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":837,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ai-fiction","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4487,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions\/4487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/hum230sp26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}