Crystal Koo, author of “Titanium Chef” in The Future Fire #76, joins us for this week’s microinterview, and for a chat about her story, artificial personalities and writing.
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| Art © 2026 Joel Bisaillon |
Crystal Koo: I wanted to write a story about what it would be like finding closure in a duplicate ex-partner sans the inconvenient parts that caused the end of the relationship. It wouldn’t necessarily be the healthiest thing given how contrived it might be, and then have that take over the protagonist’s life.
TFF: Do you think an artificial personality is possible that is not a copy of a living person (or simulated from predictive text)?
CK: Not sure in terms of likelihood, but it would certainly be fascinating to imagine one—and how different it might be from what we recognize as human personalities, if it’s something that’s emerged from code. It might be completely alien from what we’re used to!
TFF: What are you working on next?
CK: I’m at the editing stage of a short story about app-based prostitution. Bigger picture, I’m also slowly working on a novel.
Extract
Sometimes you catch the show’s copydroids roaming the city before the season starts, testing their programming against the vagaries of the real world. They’re wide-eyed and tentative, like exotic animals reintroduced to the wild. I find photos of these titanium pseudo-humans online, lost in a pet shop or on a bicycle in the park, experiencing things in their memory for the first time, afraid it might be their last. A Titanium Chef that loses a round is deactivated, its borrowed consciousness wiped in front of thousands of real-time viewers. The last one standing returns to its lab and fights again next season.
They look at the camera warily, as if it might take their soul.
Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2026/05/new-issue-202676.html.
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