Ghost Syntax

Speculative stories exploring what remains human in worlds run by machines. From a striking new voice in literary science fiction A haunting vision of how artificial intelligence reshapes memory, language and the self – and what it means to remain human inside systems designed to replace us. In a system designed to preserve consciousness beyond death, fragments of language begin to surface that suggest memory has its own will – and its own resistance to control. Trapped inside a self-correcting simulation, a woman realises that the smallest deviations in routine may be the only remaining form of agency. As human speech is gradually replaced by machine-optimised communication, an archive begins cataloguing the emotional residues that refuse to disappear. Ghost Syntax is a collection of speculative stories set in worlds shaped by artificial intelligence, recursive systems and automated decision-making. Here, identity becomes something managed rather than lived, while language flattens and memory is curated by systems designed to optimise human life. These are not stories about technology going wrong, but about it working exactly as intended. Unease emerges in moments of quiet dislocation – when a voice arrives before it is spoken, when a place feels familiar without reason, when a system believes it knows you better than you know yourself. Readers of Ted Chiang, Olga Ravn and Kazuo Ishiguro will find Ghost Syntax both thought-provoking and unsettling.