WWW trilogy wins MIFRE Media Award
by Rob - April 19th, 2022.Filed under: Awards, Wake, Watch, Wonder, WWW.
I am pleased as punch to have just won the 2021 Media Award from the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics (MIFRE) for my WWW trilogy of Wake, Watch, and Wonder. The award trophy is truly gorgeous, consisting of layers of laminated wood under glass — I just love the look of it.
machineintelligencefoundation.org/mifreAward.html
The award is given “for the recognition of the representation of human and Machine Intelligence forming and thriving in a cooperative peer relationship.” Works published in any year are eligible for nomination. This is the second year the award has been given; last year’s winner was the story “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis” by Annalee Newitz.
In announcing this year’s win, David Miller wrote:
It is my pleasure, as president and co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics, to present you with the 2021 Media Award for your series, the WWW Trilogy. It was exactly what we had hoped to find: a story that demonstrated the positive cooperation between humans and conscious machines, for the benefit of all.
We enjoyed what was a fascinating possible origin story for Machine Intelligence, and particularly appreciated how it demonstrated that its relationship with the human race could become a mutually beneficial partnership. Our species has a discouraging record of first contact with new peoples, and stories like yours show that we can and should be better than we have in the past. Our hope is that by promoting works such as yours, we can encourage the public to welcome the idea of different kinds of “people” as friends and partners. We feel that the future depends on our ability as a civilization to be welcoming and respectful as the existence of conscious machines looms as a near certainty.
Please accept my heartiest thanks for your thoughtful and encouraging series. I hope that our recognition gives you a small fraction of the pleasure we received by reading it.
We wish you the best of luck in what is already a thriving and varied writing career, and hope that in the future, we may see another of your works nominated for the award again.
This Friday, I’ll be recording an episode as guest on the always-interesting MIFRE Podcast.
For more about the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics, see here:
And to nominate for the 2022 MIFRE Media Award, see here:
Robert J. Sawyer online:
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