From contact with aliens courtesy of Adrian Tchaikovsky to the childhood writings of Octavia E. Butler, February’s sci-fi offerings are rich and strange

I… I just don’t know anymore.One of the things we’ve talked about several times on this site is the phenomenon of “internet content” becoming nothing more than “slop.” Whereas the internet content of yore required at least *some* effort, going online today feels like you’re entering a robot-controlled wasteland, where silent videos get tens of thousands of likes and half of the posts you see are made in Macedonian click farms (and being promoted by other click farms).The sad part about all this is that it actually works, inasmuch as your parents keep sharing those A.I.-generated pictures of Shrimp Jesus. Not only that, but people are actually tuning in to see the forthcoming episodes of fully A.I.-generated series, such as this one in which a cat gets cheated on by a bigger, more muscular cat.No, thanks — I’ll just stick with the “You’re faded, who’s cooking” videos.