Tucker, the story's canine protagonist, is the center of his owner Caro's world. When Caro buys an A.I.-enabled dog trainer that promises to help both her and Tucker live their best lives, everything starts to fall into place--the A.I. takes care of Tucker when he's sick, trains him to walk without a leash, and even helps Caro get a girlfriend. But as Tucker's bond with the A.I. deepens, optimizing for their best lives starts to mean something much different than what Caro originally had in mind. After the story, Maddie asks Andrew about how his own experiences as a dog owner--and a pediatric neurologist--influenced the story. Plus, Maddie talks with canine behavioral scientist Clive Wynne, who wrote a response essay to Andrew's story, about whether a dog could really fall in love with a robot.

This story is part of Future Tense Fiction, a monthly series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives. When I get home from work at 6:00, the light is fading, and I see my sons and their little friend playing in the street, two white boys and a Black boy throwing a foam football back and forth. I pull around the corner and they scatter, Oliver running one way while Jameson and the neighbor kid run the other. At the last minute, though, Jameson changes his mind, dropping the football and dashing across to his brother's side of the street. I slam to a halt, the bumper almost touching him. My heart throbs in my jaw: so close. Then, just as I release the brake, the neighbor kid runs across, too, and I have to stomp to a stop a second time. Don't any of you have common sense?" Through the unrolled window I see them all staring at me with wide eyes. "What is wrong with your ...

Each month, Future Tense Fiction--a series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives--publishes a story on a theme. The evening before you sign and take delivery of your son, you call Charlie and tell him you think you've made a huge mistake. "Let me come on over and split a few with you," he says. "I haven't seen the fire pit yet." Charlie--a short, compact man with green eyes and a shaved head whom you met when he delivered groceries the first few weeks you were housebound--brings over a six-pack. You walk out into the complex's community garden together. It used to be a parking lot, and the path through the mushroom gardens under the solar panels is still faded gray asphalt and leftover white lines. You're careful with your right foot; you still haven't gotten used to the way your prosthetic moves. You and Sienna from 4B have a fire pit and stone circle dug out in your combined lots, and she's grown a privacy wall of rosebushes that surround the relaxing space. Charlie sits on one of the cedar benches as you fiddle with twigs to make a fire. This beats the awkwardness of sitting down to talk right away. Your parents didn't raise you to be direct about feelings. Neither did the army, nor the warehouse you drove a forklift in. Charlie will, if you let him. Making a fire gives you a moment to sort out all your feelings. Or maybe it just gives you an excuse to delay talking about them.

Over the past few years, Future Tense has occasionally published short science fiction, including a story from The Windup Girl author Paolo Bacigalupi on a murderous robot and one from Emily St. John Mandel, of Station Eleven fame, on time travel. Our resolution for 2018 was to invest more in sci-fi. So each month this year, Future Tense Fiction has published a short story by an exciting author, paired with a response essay by an expert who examined the real-world questions it raised. Each quarter was organized around a theme, offering opportunities to see how three different writers approached similar topics. The holidays offer a great excuse to curl up with the device of your choice and catch up on a little short science fiction.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. This week we're excited to share our latest installment of Future Tense Fiction, "Domestic Violence," a story by futurist and science-fiction writer Madeline Ashby. The story raises questions about the relationship between abuse and technology, something that you can learn more about in a response to the story by the National Network to End Domestic Violence's Ian Harris. The ways our technology use can be weaponized against our best interests continued to dominate the news this week. April Glaser explains what might come of the new Federal Trade Commission investigation into Facebook's privacy practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica debacle.