Versions of the Future is a collection of short stories inspired by a collaboration between science fiction authors and scientists from the Human Brain Project and the Bristol Robotics Lab. The authors were me, Stephen Oram and Allen Ashley and the scientists included Professor Allen Winfield, Marta Palau Franco and Dr Antonia Tzemanaki. We spent a day with the scientists, discussing their work and touring the lab. The authors then went away and wrote stories based on what we saw. Marta’s involvement particularly inspired me in ERL Emergency Robots – a civilian, outdoor robotics competition focusing on realistic, multi-domain emergency response scenarios. Rescue robots. My story imagines a near future scenario where robots may be used to good effect to rescue people after a terrorist attack. After the authors had written their stories, we got together again at the Bristol Literary Festival to read out what we’d written and discuss in front of a live audience.