In this episode we review the story The Lifecycle of Software Objects from the collection Exhalation by Ted Chiang. The story is about a pair of startup employees who train and bond with software beings created by the company they work for. It’s a metaphor for parenting, but being a longer story with several breaks in time, it also contains a richly detailed speculative world. We use it as a jumping off point to discuss ovafusion, uploaded mammals, paths to AI, and more.
Relevant Links
- Exhalation on Amazon