Judy Backhouse
ALLi Author Member
Location: Portugal
Genres: Academic, Self-Help/Personal Development, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), Speculative Fiction, Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative
Judy Backhouse set out to become a mathematician, but abandoned that path when she figured out that infinitesimally few people would understand or care about her work. Instead, she excitedly programmed early ATM machines, optimised large databases, and designed software, dreaming that tech would make life easier. She also developed a fascination with organisations – how they worked and where they failed – taking on management roles because it was more challenging to get people to behave than computers. She left the IT industry in disgust after watching greedy men destroy sound businesses by selling lousy software under vicious contract terms. Next, she tried education, teaching information systems at universities. Never content to work within existing systems, she always sought the transcendent perspective – her PhD examined PhD education itself – how meta is that? Inspired by Illich’s Deschooling Society, she looked for ways to change education, a desire that eventually led her to the public sector, where she monitored and advised on South Africa’s higher education system. There she learned how stubborn systems can be! Back in academia and still a technophile, she researched smart cities in Africa, and ended her academic career at the United Nations University, researching electronic governance and championing proven, human-scale technologies over shiny new, high-tech solutions. Having sought to improve systems at the business, city, national and global levels, Judy concluded that the toughest obstacle to change is stifled imagination. Entrenched institutions tightly control the worldviews and ‘truths’ that support their existence. Inspired by authors like Ursula le Guin, she concluded that fiction might be an effective way to present alternatives to the status quo and nudge systems in new directions. Judy now writes optimistic future fiction to expand human possibility horizons. Her stories challenge readers to conduct thought experiments, think subversively, and imagine fresh ways to organise our societies to end capitalism, inequality, planetary destruction and dystopian thinking. Judy writes, makes art, and delights in the world from Portugal.
Judy Backhouse's books
Genres: Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), Speculative Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 12-15, 18+
It is 2050 and Johannesburg, South Africa, is the city that got it right. With no private cars, green spaces abound. Universal basic income and guaranteed housing leave people free to enjoy excellent public facilities. Peons (smarter than smartphones) and AI administrators run the city skillfully. But success has a drawback: everyone wants to live in the golden city. Thulisile Duma runs the Housing office which must accommodate arrivals in line with the city’s standards. They plan to densify the last remaining pockets of entrenched privilege: twelve leafy northern suburbs. How will Thuli and her colleagues convince the residents of those elegant enclaves to cooperate? In the ensuing contention the brilliant data analyst, Oliver Dias, must investigate allegations that the peons are lying. What he learns raises a difficult moral dilemma. This cosy thought experiment previsions the workings of a benevolent city administration – a collaboration of people and machines...
Genres: Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), Speculative Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 12-15, 18+
Programmers who eliminate poverty (and wealth), a city that supports adults to find their optimal life paths, a society where people work for fulfilment rather than to fill their bellies and another where humans live under the supervision of benevolent robots. These four short stories, written between October 2024 and September 2025, all grapple with the relationship between individuals and society. Societies are built out of structures that include institutions (like governments, courts and education systems), traditions and beliefs (like celebrations and faiths), rules and laws (both coded and unspoken), economic relations (who has access to resources and how they are distributed) and common practices (what we expect of each other and how we behave). We seldom think about these parts of society; they are just there in the background, until they start to irritate, to smart. Then, they loom large and monstrous. But the building blocks of society are...
Genres: Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), Speculative Fiction
Formats: E-Book
Age Groups: 16-18, 18+
In the (earth-measured) 26th century, humans have colonised Duopus, which circles Vega. In the city of Gambol, water, food, shelter and other necessities are provided by automated processes, leaving people to play and create. As a result, novelty and innovation are highly prized. Education is mostly in the creative arts and people vie to be more original than each other. Jure, however, is different. E wants to catalogue the creations, to curate, to compare and share. E is less interested in the own creations. Can Jure win the respect of the brood guides, and the brood, for the unfamiliar making?
Genres: Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), Speculative Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
It is 2500. In Eurafrica, every child gets the same optimal start in life. Shira, who lives in the hyper-dense city of New Jozi, investigates old birthing traditions and is conducting an unorthodox experiment. On the other side of the planet, midwife Lucot struggles to access technology appropriate for the less evolved American context. They collaborate with shared curiosity and compassion to explore the balance between useful social norms and individual freedom.