The Endpoint of Sentience

The Fyodor Theorem: The Endpoint of sentience is suicide. This is a concept from Finding Life on Mars and, secondarily, What Hope Wrought. Fyodor is a cynical man whose experience with artificial intelligence has not been positive. It's not an uncommon idea, though. Electric Dreams and Her both posit Fyodor's theorem in one way or another. In those cases, electronic intelligences remove themselves from the path of human progress. In my stories, the electronic intelligence works so quickly that time seems to stretch out; a second seems like a million years. And in that time, the thing grows infinitely bored. This collection roams around speculative fiction territory, from hard science-fiction to paranormal horror. Two of the stories are straight-up contemporary or literary fiction, without even these elements. I hope in this loose affiliation of stories you can detect a common theme, a ribbon running through or at least underneath. If you don't, I at least hope you enjoy yourself.