Autonomous Decisions
Computing quandaries in short fiction
by Maria Keet
ISBN: 978-0-7961-9536-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-7961-9537-1 (eBook)
Publication: KREST Publishers, 2025
Back cover
Where to buy it
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Back cover
Who has, takes, or relinquishes control of computing software? The users, the corporations, the programmers, the State, or the algorithms and applications themselves? This short story collection explores the dynamics of who, or what, dominates—or perhaps ought to dominate—in our interactions with such technologies.Car crash survivor Lubanzi in Claremont tries to get his new care robot to serve him more wine. An oncologist in a hospital in Athlone discovers that a donated radiation machine has a bug. Neev’s digital retinal implant becomes uncontrollable. An AI home assistant snitches on daughter dearest smoking marijuana in her bedroom. An honest, hard-working student from Khayelitsha tries not to succumb to the dubious social credit app at his university.
Delve into the moral quandaries and flagrant violations of fictionalised current cases and scenarios in information technology as well as past transgressions, explored in ten short stories situated in South Africa and elsewhere in the 21st century.
Where to buy it
Key data:Keet, C.M. Autonomous Decisions -- Computing quandaries in short fiction. KREST Publishers, 2025. 192p. ISBN: 978-0-7961-9536-4 (paperback); 978-0-7961-9537-1 (eBook).
It's available in paperback and as eBook from various physical and online stores, among others:
- The publisher's website: KREST Publishers, paperback and eBook.
- Amazon: Kindle edition and paperback, and on its country-specific sites, such as on amazon.co.uk and amazon.de, and amazon.nl.
- National bookstores, including:
- Exclusive Books, spotted in at least the Cavendish and V&A Waterfront branches
- Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town CBD
- DotDot Direct online
Media
Reviews and endorsements
On goodreads, among others:"Brilliantly written by a brilliant mind!
This is a book for the now generation. The AI debate, wonky algorithms, robot caretakers and a big dose of South African culture. A very enjoyable and educational read."
Awards
"Radiating confidence" (one of the stories included in the collection) was shortlisted in the Northwestern Ontario Writer’s Workshop’s (NOWW) writing contest of 2024.Social media
Among others (reverse chronological order):- EthicsLab post on LinkedIn about the AI and the imagination retreat that I participated in; Oct 2025.
- Guest speaker at the Kearsney College Book Fair in the Midlands, KZN
- News item on mkeet.com about my talk at the EthicsLab at UCT
- Debate and Provocations: Who Cleans Up After Failed Implants? by Lerato Moseme, with reflections emanating from my talk at the EthicsLab at UCT
- DotDot direct reel for World Read Aloud Day 2025
- Cover reveal by KREST on Facebook and Instagram
Supplementary material
FREE stories:- Melokuhle -- good things; published on East of the Web in January 2024. It's also the first story in the short story collection. Wheelchair-bound Lubanzi tries to make his somewhat culturally-aware care robot serve him more wine.
- Summary of the technology ‘featured’ in each short story in Autonomous Decisions
- Blog post Algorithmic domination through ratings in apps and websites?, as extended background information to the "Adjudication of the Algo Aunt" story in the book; 25 May 2025
- Blog post Background readings to the "Melokuhle -- good things" short story; 7 January 2024.
- Blog post Social impact issues with LLMs – a brief write-up of my list from the SIGdial'23 panel; 17 September 2023.
- Lecture notes Social Issues and Professional Practice in IT and Computing (FKA Computer Ethics), developed for the Masters in Information Technology course on in (CSC5014Z) and for the SIPP module when it was part of CSC1016S at the University of Cape Town, which I taught from 2016-2021 and in 2023.