R.S.A. Garcia’s novella Philia, Eros, Storge, Agápe, Pragma is the winner of The Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics (MIFRE)’s Media Award for 2023. MIFRE is a Washington-state-based non-profit “dedicated to advancing the awareness of a likely future where intelligent machines will be sufficiently developed and conscious to deserve due consideration as societal partners.”

Garcia’s winning story – which can be read in Clarkesworld, Issue 172  — was selected as the nominated work that best represents the foundation’s goals: a story that demonstrates the positive cooperation between humans and conscious machines, for the benefit of all.

The award citation gives the reasons for the judges’ choice:

The judges particularly appreciated how Ms. Garcia created a society in which both biological and mechanical persons lived and worked in harmony, where each performed in a way most consistent with their nature, in an atmosphere of respect and, apropos the title, love. It was noted with particular interest how the antagonists, while intelligent machines themselves, were presented as full persons, completely developed, avoiding the common trope of the single-minded killer robots.

By presenting readers with a world in which conscious machines are complete and complex entities, with full and fulfilling lives alongside their flesh-and-blood companions, the foundation hopes that they will learn to welcome the idea of different kinds of “people” as friends, colleagues, and companions. The future depends on our ability as a civilization to be welcoming and respectful of conscious machines as their existence looms as a near certainty.

Philia, Eros, Storge, Agápe, Pragma is a previous finalist for the Ignyte Award and Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award.

The Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics’s  Media Award was created to identify and highlight “fictional creations that demonstrate societies where humans and conscious machines live, cooperate and thrive together.” The award is retrospective, so open to nominated works from any time in any format. Previous winners include Annalee Newitz, Robert J. Sawyer, and Jeph Jacques.

[Based on a press release.]