From the depths of global cloud computing, his co-author — a writing algorithm called CTRL — continued the tale: “Hey man, you’re not afraid of anything.” That, apparently, was CTRL’s vision of the storyline. Kehlmann tried to stay on track by responding: “That’s true, but about the apartment ...” His co-author stopped collaborating. Kehlmann described these experiences with machine prose in February in his first “Stuttgart Speech on the Future,” a new lecture series in which personalities from science, culture and politics reflect on the future.