A Collection of Short Stories 'Humeccan' by John Dickinson

13 March 2026

A collection of short stories exposing human nature as mechanistic.

Hueccan by John Dickinson

The backdrop of our evolution is first painted via a quixotic character’s mission to alert his neighbourhood to coming doom. Two stories then follow different trajectories from the same inflection point of our shifting culture. One has doom averted, another careers towards the prophesied doom. Intimate tales follow, evoking both unseemly and more humane aspects of our nature.

The central story, the dark heart, turns, presenting pathological behaviours as seen from the gene’s eye view and as resulting from forces that created us to be the gene-serving ape-machines we are. Further elaborating stories lead deeper into our psychology, dissecting the assumptions we make about ourselves and others. Projections are reflected back. We are challenged to justify our beliefs, and to confront a seemingly bleak view: that of a deterministic universe in which we evolved not for our wellbeing, but to propagate immortal genes.

The final story in the collection imagines a future in which an evolved culture helps us live better with our evolved natures. Mechanical devices and scientific concepts are embraced in story titles, anchoring the narratives in the mechanistic character of human nature. The natural world reverberates throughout what is, ultimately, a humane vision.

Author John Dickinson writer of Humeccan fictional short stories on human motivations

Author facts

John Dickinson was born and raised in Yorkshire, and now lives in London. Educated in scientific disciplines, he has worked in software development, first in a scientific domain, then in commercial finance. His time is now dedicated to his own projects and writing. John has long been intrigued by evolution, especially of the mind.

Why this book

John explains: “I wrote the book partly without knowing why – it unfolded in ways that often surprised me, revealing patterns beyond my conscious intent. It arose from the material workings of the brain itself, which drives thoughts and motivations beyond our awareness – like the metaphorical monkey of consciousness trying to steer the elephant of the subconscious.

In another sense, it grew out of the transformative impact of reading How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker, and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. These works shifted my interests from fiction to evolutionary and psychological non-fiction, opening up the vast scales of time, complexity, and human behaviour that we do not normally perceive. More immediately, the book responds to the culture wars, our tribal instincts, and our tendency to absorb narrative over reason. Through fiction, it seeks to illuminate hidden motives and the deterministic, material realities that shape human life.”

What we thought:

Humeccan sucks us into the personal inner worlds, confronting challenging truths that will resonate and reverberate, using the fictional accounts to illuminate hidden motives and the deterministic, material realities that shape human life. This is such a cleverly presented collection that will encourage the reader to question so many things of the human mind. It is a book that you will read then read again.