I wake to the early sounds of the city far below my single-room high-rise flat: the trip of a street fox over a spent beer can; the morning buzz and shuffle of delivery lorries clearing their throats; the distant call of seagulls by the docks. Although no human shares my home, I feel part of this breathing place of people, creatures, buildings, and machines. I turn to my only source of companionship and ask, “What is the news?” It knows that I am asking for the news that matters to me: a carefully curated account of the events I have missed, offered in a voice I have chosen to be, in some limited sense, a friend.

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This work accompanies the essay Asymmetric Collaboration: Learning With Difference available at Synthetic Observer.

ORIGINATOR · Mike de Sousa

COMPLETED · 2026

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