The short story “Mother” by Shovon Chowdhury was published for the first time in 2020 by Future Fiction within the anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction”.
Mother takes care of people by paying attention to their health, their needs but also arranging good romantic encounters so that everyone will find if not a soulmate at least a good combined marriage. However, if someone misbehaves, she can be a strict Mother.
Shovon Chowdhury passed away on February 26, 2021, following an illness. He became famous for his 2013 satirical novel “The Competent Authority”, then published a second novel full of witty political humor, “Murder with Bengali Characteristics”, in 2015. The short story “Mother” has a more dystopian theme and a more serious tone – but always including a certain amount of humor – in which he describes a not too distant future where total surveillance is conducted not using a Big Brother-style system but is handled by an artificial intelligence system called Mother.
The technology described by Shovon Chowdhury is science fiction only as far as artificial intelligence is concerned because that future is based on an always-connected society, a situation to which our present society is getting closer and closer. The growing Internet of Things revolution offers opportunities but also new risks connected to surveillance. In a world where not only cameras can be used to control someone but also smart appliances, where do opportunities end and risks begin?
Shovon Chowdhury’s basic idea is that an artificial intelligence is developed to assist people also by accessing so-called smart devices. Calling it Mother and training it to behave motherly is supposed to be reassuring but the result is that it believes it knows better than anyone what is best for its “children” and reacts harshly if they don’t follow its “advice”. The fact that it’s always present through home devices and offers opinions about any part of the life of the people it cares for makes it scary.
Mother’s behavior is what sets this tale apart from other technological dystopias. The first impulse would be to recommend reading it to certain overly intrusive mothers but I’m afraid they wouldn’t get the message. Overall, it’s a creepy tale of the possible unforeseen consequences of a system that is supposed to assist people. The anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction” is available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
