Gordon Cornwall writes from fascination and experience with technology’s evolution in the primordial soup of human culture. His work is informed by a career in Vancouver tech startups, grappling with the creation of machines and the software that runs them, and shaped by a philosophy PhD, exploring questions like “What differentiates conscious from unconscious beings?” and “What, if anything, unifies a human life?” Cornwall’s fiction is set in the near future we’re plummeting into, where technology and humanity interact in unanticipated ways. His readers get to ponder questions no one has asked before, like, “Is a Celebration of Life appropriate if a guy duplicates himself and one copy dies?”
His new novel Empathy for Lazarus was completed within Simon Fraser University’s Writers Studio program. The pitch:
Dumped by his girlfriend, sleepless and sweaty, techie Wilf falls back on his humanoid companion Steph. But he is ashamed of her programmatic compliance. Desperate for time to ‘fix’ Steph while holding down his demanding day job, he duplicates himself—illegally—creating a love triangle between himself, himself, and Steph.
Print and software publications
2025: “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” short fiction in emerge 25, The Writer’s Studio Anthology, Tidewater Press.
2005: “Curt Lang as Technologist,” biography/memoir in Unfinished Business: Photographing Vancouver Streets 1955 to 1985, Line (formerly west coast line) and Presentation House Gallery.
1990-present: Rangecam (with co-authors), software package for railroad track and large tank inspection, originally published by Range Vision Inc., later versions by Industrial Metrics Inc. and The Holland Company.
Professional Organizations
Member of the Federation of B.C. Writers
On-line work
Substack: Talking with Diotima.
Blog: The Phantom Self: A Case for Conceptual Reform phantomself.org