The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling
by Ted Chiang · first published 2013
71% recommend27% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short sci-fi story pairing a near-future world of searchable lifelogging video with a tale of writing arriving in an oral culture; it probes memory, forgiveness, and how tools shape truth. Free to read online.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the near future, a journalist observes how the world, his daughter, and he himself are affected by "Remem", a form of lifelogging whose advanced search algorithms effectively grant its users eidetic memory of everything that ever happened to them, and the ability to perfectly and objectively share those memories. In a parallel narrative strand, a Tiv man is one of the first of his people to learn to read and write and discovers that this may not be compatible with oral tradition.
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An article by Ted Chiang: The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling -- talks about some of these issues from a couple of different & interesting perspectives which I found really intriguing. One of which being a thought exercise about what it would mean to have the ability…
on “How You Know” ↗Definitely check out Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" (fiction short story) for a really fascinating take on just that idea.
on “Beam has raised $9.5M to reinvent the browser” ↗From Ted Chiang's truly wonderful "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling": > As he practiced his writing, Jijingi came to understand what Moseby had meant; writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said…
on “Self-Dialogue as a Journaling Strategy” ↗For those who enjoy reading sf short stories and wonder about the implications of recording one's entire life, I can recommend the remarkable short story 'The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling' by Ted Chiang.
on “Ray-Ban Meta next generation of smart glasses” ↗The truth of fact, the truth of feeling by Ted Chiang https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_o... This story changed the way I saw writing with the way it portrays it as a tool that can be used or misused just like any…
on “Ask HN: Whats your favorite Sci-Fi short story?” ↗Ted Chiang's short story 'The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling' is very relevant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_of_Fact,_the_Truth_o...
on “Autobiographical memory is typically biased toward positive events” ↗Which reminds me of Ted Chiang's story "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling"[1] about exactly this tension. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_of_Fact,_the_Truth_o...
on “Severely deficient autobiographical memory in healthy adults (2015)” ↗…you mean by “accurate”. It’s hard to describe directly, since I’ve thought about this from a bunch of different sources that I struggle to synthesize, but I recommend this short story by Ted Chiang, The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling[1], which I think does a great job of capturing that ineffable, paradoxical nature of truth. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140222103103/http://subterrane...
on “String Theory Does Not Win a Nobel, and I Win a Long Bet” ↗This reminds me of the truly excellent (as they all are) short story by Ted Chiang - The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling [0]. We've gotten pretty good at recording everything, but recalling it at the appropriate time and context is still the big challenge. When Roam started becoming popular, I began hearing about Zettelkasten.…
on “Athens an open source Roam alternative” ↗Ted Chiang has a wonderful story called "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" which delves into this phenomenon, as well as how written language shapes our memories.
on “We Are What We Remember” ↗Have you ever read Ted Chiang's 'The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling'? What if forgetting is a part of forgiveness or healing? Eidetic memory seems fraught to me, but I'd love to know your thoughts on this.
on “Rewind: The Search Engine for Your Life” ↗it is fascinating that even just lexing spoken language is so hard. unsurprisingly, Ted Chiang has a very good short story on the topic, "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling".
on “Why is spoken language so hard to understand?” ↗Also “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang Less about the panopticon of surveillance, but about the ramifications of having perfect memory in your daily personal interactions.
on “Ray-Ban Meta next generation of smart glasses” ↗I recommend "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" by the brilliant Ted Chiang, a short story featuring a related social situation. People in the story use a recorder with highly advanced search and indexing capabilities so it becomes possible to instantly…
on “Humane AI Pin” ↗I love Ted Chiang, and "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling" is maybe my favorite of his stories. Certainly the one I think about most often.
on “They're Made Out of Meat” ↗