The Redmond tech giant, and what goes on within the walls of Microsoft, has been turned into a book of short stories. The book, ‘Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft’, consists of nine stories by nine science fiction writers who were allowed into Microsoft’s labs to help them imagine what the future of computer technology might be up to in the future.

The writers who were given free rein to get inside Microsoft’s head were: Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Robert J. Sawyer, Greg Bear, David Brin, Seanan McGuire, Elizabeth Bear, and Nancy Kress. It also includes a graphic novel by Blue Delliquanti and Michele Rosenthal, with original illustrations by Joey Camacho.

While we haven’t had time to read it yet – it’s only been out a day – it has been read and reviewed by ZDNet. The critique was very positive, with ZDNet being especially enamored with award winning writer Ann Leckie. “It’s a fascinating read, from a group of writers at the top of their game, all delivering stories inspired by current work at Microsoft Research,” said ZDNet.

Leckie, who has won awards for her book Ancillary Justice, takes Microsoft’s Skype technology to fictionalize an account of a diplomat using translation tools to communicate with a frontier world. Although ZDNet writes that everything gets a little misshapen when the tools don’t work as well as they should do… something we might all relate to.

It’s a brave new move by Microsoft to open its doors and allow writers to imagine mostly the good, but some of the bad and the ugly of future technology. Steve Clayton, chief storyteller at Microsoft, said that, “We didn’t show them a piece of technology and ask them to please write about that. We showed them technology and introduced them to a group of people, and then asked them, what did it spark in your mind as ideas, where did it inspire you to think the technology may go?”

Other stories focus on artificial intelligence, Big Data, multi-media, machine learning, wearable technology and quantum computing. The kind of thing you’d expect when science fiction writers are asked to use Microsoft as a means to write the future.

Future Visions can be downloaded for free, but will also be available as a hardback.

Photo credit: Microsoft