two things make a post
Dec. 26th, 2010 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arkuat1) I had a wonderful birthday, starting out with Pamela and her family, and then ending up at a lovely party thrown by my housemate Beth. It was a delightful surprise to see Lynn and Victor visiting from out of town.
2) I just read Ted Chiang's new novella, /The Lifecycle of Software Objects/, and it may be the best near-future science fiction dealing with artificial intelligence that I've ever read. Basically, it takes the stance that real AIs are going to need to be raised the way children are raised, which is going to be strange and difficult when the first generation of them are initially going to be sold (and treated) as something a lot more like pets. Chiang writes about the transition that this implies, and deals with a huge (for such a short work of fiction) number of serious issues very skillfully.
2) I just read Ted Chiang's new novella, /The Lifecycle of Software Objects/, and it may be the best near-future science fiction dealing with artificial intelligence that I've ever read. Basically, it takes the stance that real AIs are going to need to be raised the way children are raised, which is going to be strange and difficult when the first generation of them are initially going to be sold (and treated) as something a lot more like pets. Chiang writes about the transition that this implies, and deals with a huge (for such a short work of fiction) number of serious issues very skillfully.
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Date: 2010-12-27 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-27 10:38 pm (UTC)