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storyofus 's review for:
The Lifecycle of Software Objects
by Ted Chiang
Chiang came in with yet another captivating and unnerving sci-fi story this time centered around artificial intelligence and machine consciousness. The Lifecycle of Software Objects explored the idea of essentially raising a tamagotchi pet that actually develops awareness and can be transferred in and out of a physical body -- however, there is no AI takeover in this one. Instead, Chiang masterfully creates a parent-child relationship with these robots through the protagonists, Ana and Derek.
Ana and Derek constantly grapple with deciding how much hand holding these robots need versus letting them grow consciousness on their own, as well as consent and freedom of their existence. Frankly, I would 100% be Wendy who ends up leaving her partner over this whole situation because I truly would not be able to handle this AI nonsense.
Being one of Chiang's longest works, I found that the writing and pacing differed from his other works, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much. Additionally, his ending felt almost too abrupt, despite the fact that he often ends his stories like this. I'm not sure if it was the discomfort I have regarding AI consciousness or just the difference in writing here, but it wasn't one of my favorites by him.
Ana and Derek constantly grapple with deciding how much hand holding these robots need versus letting them grow consciousness on their own, as well as consent and freedom of their existence. Frankly, I would 100% be Wendy who ends up leaving her partner over this whole situation because I truly would not be able to handle this AI nonsense.
Being one of Chiang's longest works, I found that the writing and pacing differed from his other works, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much. Additionally, his ending felt almost too abrupt, despite the fact that he often ends his stories like this. I'm not sure if it was the discomfort I have regarding AI consciousness or just the difference in writing here, but it wasn't one of my favorites by him.