The Lifecycle of Software Objects
by Ted Chiang · first published 2010
61% recommend33% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Thoughtful, moving novella about people raising sentient digital pets (digients) over years, raising ethical questions about AI companions and obsolete platforms. Suits readers wanting humane, near-future AI fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The story of two people and the artificial intelligences they helped create, following them for more than a decade as they deal with the upgrades and obsolescence that are inevitable in the world of software. At the same time, it's an examination of the difference between processing power and intelligence, and of what it means to have a real relationship with an artificial entity.
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…https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48178154?book_show_act... While we're on the topic I also really didn't like the three body problem. I loved Permutation City and most of Ted Chiang (particularly Liking What You See: A Documentary, and The Lifecycle of Software Objects). I love True Names by Vernor Vinge. I loved this: https://sifter.org/~simon/AfterLife/ Hopefully someone finds this helpful, sometimes an anti-recommendation can be just as useful for calibration…
on “The Culture War: Iain M. Banks’s Billionaire Fans” ↗Ted Chiang writes some amazing stuff. "Lifecycle of Software Objects" is a personal favourite.
on “Understand - A novelette by Ted Chiang” ↗Ted Chiang also wrote "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", where said objects are sentient digital pets. The story is freely (and legally) available on the web. Highly recommended.
on “Ted Chiang on Seeing His Stories Adapted and the Ever-Expanding Popularity of SF” ↗Having just watched Black Mirror and Westworld, I was totally bummed about how much near-future sci-fi is so goddamned depressing. Yesterday I decided to reread a story I love, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," coincidentally also by Ted Chiang. It's a nice AI story that you can get through in one sitting. Highly recommend. Read it here: http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_...
on ““Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (2008)” ↗…Permutation City, Diaspora, and basically everything * Liu, Cixin - The Three Body Problem (trilogy) * Rajaniemi, Hannu - Jean le Flambeur (trilogy) * Watts, Peter - Firefall (series) * Chiang, Ted - The Lifecycle of Software Objects * Liu, Cixin - The Wandering Earth (short stories) I know quite a few people in love with Neal Stephenson, but I can't really muster his style. Check out Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age.
on “Ask HN: Recent sci-fi recommendations” ↗Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects. What happens when support for the platform for your artificial mind is deprecated? (or in this case, your child's). Warning: heartbreaking.
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗…consciousness will be grown from a (reasonably complex) seed, more than constructed. And it will probably require a huge amount of slow, human interaction at first. (Ted Chiang has a wonderful novella called The Lifecycle of Software Objects that is the only SF that I know that explores this possibility).
on “Can AI Become Conscious?” ↗Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is the best, single-author collection of short stories I've ever read. If you like that, you might also enjoy The Lifecycle of Software Objects, an absolutely heartbreaking novella about simulated children, and his follow-up collection Exhalation. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is fantastic, and it's follow-up, Speaker for the Dead is even…
on “Ask HN: I only read tech/business books – recommend me some fiction?” ↗Ted Chiang! He has some stories that deal with similar issues, like "The Lifecycle of Software Objects". But I enjoy his people-centered stories more, my favorite is "Liking What You See: A Documentary", you can read it online here: http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/liking.html . Another great one is…
on “Why 'Her' will dominate UI design even more than 'Minority Report'” ↗My personal favourite by Ted Chiang is The Lifecycle of Software Objects. I'm certain a technology paralleling the digients will arrive.
on “"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang [pdf]” ↗Ted Chiang wrote an interesting novella, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, about that very subject https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lifecycle_of_Software_Obje...
on “John Carmack: I’m going to work on artificial general intelligence” ↗…This is very well written, and probably one of my favorite takes on the whole ChatGPT thing. This is not a surprise, as the author is Ted Chiang, who is the award winning novelist and the author of "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", "Tower of Babylon" and other science fiction works. I had a pleasure of once having coffee with him while talking about his thoughts on some of the topics in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", which…
on “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web” ↗…his short stories and novellas are mind blowing, best stuff I're read since early Egan. Check out: Stories of Your Life and Others http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Ted-Chiang/dp/193152...) The Lifecycle of Software Objects* http://www.amazon.com/Lifecycle-Software-Objects-Ted-Chiang/... *if there's a more HN title for a novella ever I haven't heard of it!
on “The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)” ↗A varied assortment: --- The Lifecycle of Software Objects Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind What Is Property The City of Dreaming Books Born to Run Gödel, Escher, Bach
on “Ask HN: What are some Good Books you have read in past one year or so..” ↗That reminds me of a story, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" by Ted Chiang, in which people keep AIs as pets. But they don't dare let them on the internet because when they did, trolls would torture them. So the AIs could only live in walled garden type virtual…
on “A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”” ↗