Spillway
2022
Short story / pocket publication
This story of technofiction takes place in the future. We meet Smittie, a woman in a modern world who is suffering under the predictive control of the Masters of Fact. The idea of a singular truth has been abandoned. In stead, multiple Reality Channels have been set up by the Masters. This mandatory network of truth production systems is run by an army of agents and algorithms in service of the Masters. Every aspect of living has now been completely datafied and automatized and predictability is the highest currency. Leaving the people numb and snoozing like zombies, stuck in their own devices and blindly following the recommendations..
But in the shadows the resistance is rising.
An underground fuck-the-algorithm movement is fighting these predictive powers and Smittie joins these troopers in a mission to find a way out of this predetermined dystopia.
This story investigates the potential of fiction as a vehicle for meaningful change. More specifically it uses the genre of science fiction to help offer tools of resisting automation and predictive control in the now.
written & designed by Elki Boerdam
cover illustration: Michel Keppel