io9 proudly presents fiction from Lightspeed Magazine, featuring a story from their current issue each month. This month’s selection is “Teach Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness” by B. Pladek. Enjoy the story! The text is a message for Milwaukee Elementary’s curator, Jude Towers, praising the story generated for 10th graders’ Empathy Week. The user expresses gratitude and curiosity about the story. The curator responds positively and discusses the impact of the story on teaching empathy. The user reflects on the story’s themes of happiness and suffering, and the choices we make in the real world. The conversation becomes personal, with the user sharing their name and Instructor ID. The curator shares their own thoughts on the story and asks for a messenger address to continue the conversation. The text then shifts to a personal email from the curator to a friend, discussing loneliness, bitterness about their job, and their feelings about curating AI-generated stories. The curator expresses love for their friend’s child and reflects on their own life. The email ends with expressions of love and regret for writing while drinking. The text then includes a message from the principal to the curator, outlining guidelines for the stories curated for English classes. The principal emphasizes the importance of relatability, readability, and rectitude in the stories, along with specific guidelines on content. The text then shifts to a conversation between the user, Booker, and the curator, Jude, discussing their motivations for becoming a teacher and curator, personal experiences, and the impact of stories on their lives. Booker shares a personal story of escape and trauma, and how stories helped him cope. Jude reflects on Booker’s interpretation of the curated story and their own perspective. Booker expresses interest in creating similar stories and asks for the prompt used to generate the story. The conversation ends with a sense of connection and understanding between the two characters.
