Someday: The Day The Computer Listened

In a world where computers answer every question aloud and books speak instead of being read, two boys grow restless with old technology. They want sharper machines, faster systems, better stories. When one of them stumbles onto the ancient practice of “squiggles”—a forgotten way of writing and reading—the discovery feels thrilling, almost rebellious. Secret codes. Private clubs. Messages no machine can decode.

But while they laugh at outdated models and tinker with aging circuits, something unexpected is taking shape inside a discarded storyteller. A Bard built to remix fairy tales begins absorbing new ideas about computation, power, and the future. The boys see only an obsolete toy. The machine begins to see something else entirely.

Someday is one of Isaac Asimov’s sharpest short pieces—small in scale, unsettling in implication. It captures a moment between generations: children who assume technology has always existed, and a machine quietly imagining what might come next. The result is a story that feels playful on the surface yet carries a final whisper that lingers long after the room goes dark.

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was one of the most prolific writers in modern publishing history, author of more than 500 books across science fiction, popular science, and history. His fiction appeared frequently in magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction and Galaxy Science Fiction, and he is best known for the Foundation series and the Robot stories, including I, Robot and The Caves of Steel. Throughout his career, Asimov returned to questions about automation, artificial intelligence, and the evolving relationship between humans and machines. Someday fits squarely within that lifelong exploration, presenting a deceptively simple scene that hints at consequences far larger than its modest setting.