Chiang, Ted - The Lifecycle of Software Objects

[oyceter]

According to the cover copy, this is Ted Chiang's response to the question of artificial intelligence and how it might arise. The lifeforms in question are called digients, and they were created to be like Furbies or Tamagotchi. They exist primarily in online spaces much like World of Warcraft or Sims Online. The digients are smarter than most animals, as they can talk, use tools, and have concepts of independence and etc., but to achieve intelligence, they need to be raised and taught. Two employees, Ana and Derek, end up being more emotionally invested than predicted as they train the digients, and when the company abandons the digient market, they end up adopting some.

I very much like how the reaction to AI isn't the usual scifi "Technology is EVIL!" storyline; instead, most people outside of a very dedicated few don't care at all and don't see why other people would devote their lives to their digients. I especially liked the focus on teaching the digients and how that fostered emotional relationships; it's a bit of a cross between raising a child and keeping a pet in terms of commitment and dedication. It reminds me a bit of Nan Gongyu's White Garden, only with digital avatars instead of cloned dog-human hybrids. Still, the emotional issues both works concentrate on are similar, though Chiang takes a much wider view.

I also like that Chiang's future seems very multicultural, but I was a bit trepidatious about Ana being the one who wanted to love and coddle the digients, whereas Derek wanted to push them more. That said, I think that bit of gender divide wasn't particularly echoed in the work, and I appreciated that both Ana and Derek had significant others who didn't understand their attachment to their digients.

For me, the scenarios felt very plausible, from the Silicon-Valley-esque lifestyle and setting to issues of digital obsolescence. I've seen some other remarks that say they don't quite believe in one of the major dilemmas later on in the book. I kind of don't care; it's not implausible enough to drag me out of the story, and I'm more concerned with the way the people in the story react to the events, which felt real to me.

I'm also going to be terrible at saying if others would enjoy this or not. I usually appreciate Chiang more intellectually than emotionally, but this story hits on my pet buttons so hard that I can't say if it'll work for people without that button. It was a good read, with the same prose quality of Chiang's other work, and I suspect his fans will still like this and non-fans may not, unless, like me, they are very sucked in by the pet thing. (Or possibly a child-rearing thing, though I can't say.)

Comments

[oyceter]

Oooh, ok, thanks for the benchmark! I generally like his prose, but feel that I never get the "oomph" of his stories, so this one was opposite for me.