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drippydots 's review for:
The Lifecycle of Software Objects
by Ted Chiang
I just finished reading this in Chiang's Exhalation collection. I wasn't expecting to find a novella tucked away in there. I didn't look at the table of contents too closely and it was honestly a pleasant surprise to find a bit of a longer story because Chiang is so good at world-building and creating characters and worlds you really care about and want to spend more time with. Even though Lifecycle is the longest, I still wanted to spend more time with the characters and learn about what happens with the digients.
It brought up a lot of interesting questions about artificial intelligence that I hadn't come across before. The questions the trainers/owners of the digients have are a mash-up of training a pet and raising a small child. Because the digients are neither of those things, it means there is no road map to follow for what is right and wrong in terms of how they should be raised and when they are mature enough to be autonomous.
I will be reviewing Exhalation separately and highly recommend picking it up. Lifecycle is only the 4th story in the collection but pretty much everyone has moved me in some way.
It brought up a lot of interesting questions about artificial intelligence that I hadn't come across before. The questions the trainers/owners of the digients have are a mash-up of training a pet and raising a small child. Because the digients are neither of those things, it means there is no road map to follow for what is right and wrong in terms of how they should be raised and when they are mature enough to be autonomous.
I will be reviewing Exhalation separately and highly recommend picking it up. Lifecycle is only the 4th story in the collection but pretty much everyone has moved me in some way.