Better Living Through Algorithms

Published by Clarkesworld.

Better Living Through Algorithms

4 stars

This short story can be read here: clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/

This was a fun story about a mysterious new wellness app, which seems to actually have people's best interests in mind. People call you (yes phone calls???) to remind you to do things like time to wake up but don't forget your appointment, or open your curtains, or maybe try out these hobbies you're interested in but never quite make the time for. It feels like Person of Interest, if the machine was there to support people. The story turns around the fact that most technology is out there exploiting you and working against your own needs, and asks what it might look like if it were the opposite.

In some ways, this is almost feels like escapism from therapy, where some of the hard parts about self-care and self-knowledge are externalized, where external folks not only know what you need but …