Alexander Weinstein’s “Children of the New World” is a collection of cautionary tales about extreme emotional attachment to software and silicon. One story recounts a family grieving the loss of their android son; another imagines a world where technologically-assisted spiritual experiences supplant chasing the latest drug-induced high. The title story is about spam and malware that take the form of humans terrorizing a young couple in their home.
Each story serves as a fresh exercise in contemplating the new ways that technology has become enmeshed in the human experience, and what the consequences might be for us as a species.