Sun Mi was floating through space in the mother ship. Her feminine design was perfect. Genetically adjusted, the mind had no room for cognitive biases. Chemical mediators were regulated to prevent depression. The touch had been abolished. In her antiseptic room she watched black and white films of people from the past kissing, fighting, giving birth to children in that abject way. Suddenly a liquid licked down her cheeks. She felt then as if she were searching for something visceral, a fire within but she could not name it. Run a debug program.
Costică Tihan
The mower pours with fear, the charm is from me, but the cure is from Holy Mother, the old woman assured us by baring the few teeth that were showing through her mouth. May you remain Costicî clean, enlightened, as from Mother of God left you. She put the pewter in the bowl of water, then gave it to mommy with a solemn air. Look, see Aunt Neacșa, this is fear. You keep it for three days, and then you throw it away with your eyes closed. The fear was taken home, hidden in an inert piece of pewter. I am still looking for myself among the charms of that old woman Stanka.
Iulian Stoica
I tried to make an assembly of eight video cameras arranged on a sphere, so that the recorded film projected on a spherical screen reproduces reality as I see it. The assembly surrounds me like a robotic shell because I have integrated servo motors and computerized control devices. I feel proud of the achievement and shoot hundreds of hours from inside the device. Reality as I see it is called the project I want to compile from my footage. Where is ME, the AI assistant asks me.
(Translated by Andreea Maria Liceanu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.