Sonder Speculation was developed out of a frustration with what tech companies have done with digital media. It opens with the following satirical PSA to illustrate that point:

Shouldn't You Be Online? 

Physical media is ideologically dangerous. We can't monitor which pages you spend the most time on, or who you share this with. There are no engagement metrics to maximize, and we can not tailor your experience. The creators of this "magazine" built it largely through person to person contact outside of monetizeable platforms, and value human "creativity" over luxurious, personalized consumption. Please, do not turn the page, and do not follow their example.

An appeal from the Preserve Our Technoligarchy Foundation

This recurring science fiction anthology is print-exclusive, in part as a form of resistance against what Cory Doctorow calls "enshittification," the process where tech companies make their own platforms worse for users in order to boost profits.

The cover art for the magazine, depicting the opening scene of "The Cockroach in the Box," was illustrated by the talented Jose Elgueta.

Interior design work for nine satirical ads, nine title pages styled as satirical ads, and 31 pseudo-screenshots was done by lead editor Cara Lynn Carter with the use of some stock photos and stock assets.

All nine stories by all eight authors were written and edited without the use of generative AI.

It’s 71 degrees Fahrenheit on a Tuesday in February, and I’m struggling to eat a live Madagascar cockroach for my phone’s camera. I promise I’m not doing this because I want to.

A tablet on my bed flashes the ⓧ symbol, demanding I fix the angles. I’ve been fighting to hold it thirty degrees above horizontal and fifty degrees left of vertical, as instructed. TruLang sends an animation of me, AI-generated in the uncanny valley, holding the phone like I ought to. It probably won’t surprise you that an understanding of angling isn’t the reason I’m struggling. It’s the cockroach’s legs skittering across my lips, the gagging in my throat bringing up tears, threatening to undo my mascara, my arm jerking the phone out of place.



Whoever prompted <e-girl wearing fairy costume eats live cockroach> and submitted a complaint about the AI video quality better fall down a flight of stairs...

There once was a 2023 Kia Sorento.

Actually, to be more precise, it was not technically a 2023 Kia Sorento. It was not even really a car. What parked in that spot was actually a quasi-spatial trans-dimensional being with non-translational spatial properties.



That is a lot of words to say there were no human means that could move it. Normally, this would not be an issue. After all, the world it occupied was overflowing with 2023 Kia Sorentos. Unfortunately, despite its overwhelming intellect, the Entity had failed to understand one key aspect of three-dimensional space: human parking violations...

Chime notes shivered through the still air in the House of Serene Demise. Three long tinny echoes: the code for a stranger. Adolphus Reus, senior brother of the first gate, stirred from his cryogenic meditations.



His mind rose slowly to consciousness, deep blue eyes hatching open. Each iris was haloed by eight tiny points that marked his passage along the ninefold path. Wide pupils ratcheted into focus, instinctively looking for the source of the noise...

Finding Aurora is styled as a collection of screenshots of digital journal entries, dating app messages, and social media posts, portraying a sapphic love story unfolding during a turbulent era in the near future.

December 1

I hate dystopias.

It's hard.

Reading books of the past. That tried to predict the future. So many futures.

They got a lot of the horrors right. Our enslavement to artificial intelligence. Climate change. Crop failures and fascism. A mainstreaming of cults.

They don't talk about life.

I'm falling in love...

The problem with the Elysian Fields is that you had to be dead to get there.

Well, that, and to have lived heroically.



“Have you finished feeding all the account info to Persephone?”

“Yeah, almost done. Just checking to make sure I didn’t miss any of yours. Anything I might not know of that comes to mind?” ...

... “My Bonnie lies over the ocean, My Bonnie lies over the sea. Well, my Bonnie lies over the ocean. Yeah, bring back my Bonnie to me...”

“What the fuck is he singing?” Christian asked.

Luis answered, “It’s an ancient Earth song about dead sailors.”



Izzy shook her head. “Well, that’s appropriate...”

... The auditorium was one of many identical others pockmarking the landscape. It was minimalist, smooth, flat, boring. A lore-crier sat in the middle, yelling in a frayed cloak.



“We are the Stupid Ones!” he shouted. “We have been ordained by the Radiant Ones above to toil for the betterment of their world, so that they may focus their attention on their glorious work. Their work is far too vital for us to do without, and far too ingenious for us to comprehend. But we need not! We need only understand that our toiling has incredible depth of meaning...”

This is the first chapter of an ongoing novel.

... There are no laws above ground. Truthfully, there are no laws anywhere. They don’t exist in form, they don’t permeate the air, they don’t matter to anyone or anything that doesn’t benefit by following or enforcing them. To those underground, though, the laws are very real. Every breath and step taken, every bite of rations, every sip of water, all must be monitored, tracked, filed...and paid for...

... Love Bot’s advertisement flashed through my visual cortex in a montage: me holding hands with a man, walking on the beach at sunset. Clichés at first. The two of us at our wedding reception, hosting small dinner parties, and adopting a child. It raised my pulse. In the images generated by Love Bot, the man’s cheeks grew leaner, the jawline slightly more pronounced, the dimple in his chin filled in until there was none in each progressive iteration. The data processors calibrated and recalibrated based on my reactions before I even registered them, creeping closer and closer to my ideal...