Ted Chiang is the best. ( )

7/10
Let me start by saying I am generally not a fan of short stories. They are too much like reading a random chapter from the middle of a book or watching a random episode from a long-running TV series. If they are well-done, I usually am left wanting more. If they are not, I am left confused and disappointed.

Having said that, [a:Ted Chiang|130698|Ted Chiang|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1399023404p2/130698.jpg] has specialized in short form speculative fiction and the stories in this collection vary greatly in subject, style, and, IMO, effectiveness, but they are all thought-provoking. My favorites were “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”, “Omphalos”, and “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom”. Least favorites were ‘What’s Expected of Us” and “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny”. ( )

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate: In a story-within-a-story, a merchant meets an alchemist who invented a gate through which a traveler can access the future or past. The alchemist tells him an additional layer of stories, and the merchant decides to go to the past and change things.
This story is fine, but not spectacular. It contains some time travel tropes that I enjoy, while also feeling very Arabian Nights. Perhaps a little derivative of it.
Exhalation {short story}: The narrator describes their life a bit, and then their discovery that the environment is deteriorating and their species will go extinct in a few hundred years.
A nice little story with a good twist - the people are robots. It felt kind of halfway between Ray Bradbury and H.G. Wells. It's a little bit of a metaphor about climate change, except it falls apart when there's nothing society can do about it. (Solar power would fix their problem but they live inside a titanium dome.) I enjoyed it a lot.
What's Expected of Us: A very short letter from the future explains the invention of a button that lights up one second before you press it, and the effect it had on society.
This story is only 4 pages but it packs a lot. A good lesson - it doesn't matter if we have free will or not, but we have to act like we do.
The Lifecycle of Software Objects: Ana and Derek both work for a company that creates Digients, cute digital pets with a genetics-mimicking algorithm that allows them to grow and change based on how they're raised in their digital world. They love their work, bond with the Digients they've created and raised, and create a community with other Digient owners. The market for these pets is vibrant, with several companies in gentle competition over who has the best algorithm or the cutest interface. Over the next few years, however, the market declines and eventually the company closes. Ana and Derek get jobs elsewhere, but continue to find joy in raising their Digients in their free time. As the tech world continues to move on to shiny new things, the digital world the Digients live in is no longer supported and is in danger of shutting down. The Digients could be ported into a more modern space, but it would cost far more than the dwindling Digient-raising community could ever afford on their own. They are approached by a company with a proposal: sell copies of their hand-raised Digients to be used as sexual companions, and guarantee their survival.
This truly remarkable story has been sitting with me since I first read it 5 years ago. I think about it constantly. It's hard to explain in a plot synopsis but Ana's bond with her Digient feels so true, and the way she feels about losing them is the way I imagine I would feel if, say, LibraryThing shut down tomorrow. The story is about what it's like to form a bond with an internet community, but it's also about what it means to be a sentient being. An adult. To consent. The Digients are in favor of selling copies as sexual companions because for them, like humans who have turned to sex work since time immemorial, it's about an existential threat. To the owners it is unconscionable, because they don't think the pets they've been raising for the last 18 years are capable of consent. Really thought-provoking stuff.
The only bad part of this novella is the relationship between Ana and Derek. The story is told equally from their points of view, but Derek's sections are full of romantic thoughts about Ana. At first he is married but wants to be with Ana, then he gets divorced but Ana is in a relationship and Derek thinks all the time about whether/how he can drive a wedge between them. Ana, on the other hand, never thinks about him romantically in any direction and is apparently unaware of his obsession. It's a gross dynamic that treats an otherwise well-written woman like an object. The point of it in the end is that Derek "sacrifices" his "chance" of a relationship with Ana by selling a copy of one of his Digients so that she doesn't have to take a possibly abusive job to pay for the port. It's not that she's terribly disgusted with him for doing so (after he explains that he let the Digient choose), but that her boyfriend did not want her to take the abusive job and so by preventing that Derek pushed them together. It left a bad taste in my mouth to end a story about consent on that note.
Despite that fairly big flaw, I do highly recommend this story. I think the good parts will stick with you.
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny: An eccentric inventor in 1901 creates a mechanical nanny that will help raise children, after being unhappy with how he saw real nannies treat his son. It doesn't catch on, but later the inventor's son revives the mechanical nanny, and has it raise his own son.
A nice little story with a steampunk vibe. I liked that both of the inventors are well-meaning (the original inventor thinks that nannies should be nicer), and that nothing really bad happens to the young child, he's just emotionally bonded to robots, which is totally fine after he gets a few accommodations. I especially liked that the whole story is presented as the description of an item in a museum catalog.
The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling: Two alternating narratives - a first-person story from a future in which everyone's life is awkwardly recorded on video and the introduction of a new algorithm which analyzes and organizes the videos to anticipate which ones the user might want to revisit, and an historical account from the introduction of written language to a fictional pre-literate African society.
I didn't love this one. I think it goes on too long, especially compared to other stories in this collection which are so concise. The point is that new technology, whether it's written language or a video-analyzing algorithm, will radically change society but society will adapt and move on and everything will be fine. But it takes too long to get there.
The Great Silence: A parrot laments in the first-person that humans spend all their time and energy trying to communicate with aliens beyond earth, when they could be communicating with parrots right here on earth.
I don't think this one really clicked for me, but it's short and sweet.
Omphalos: A world that is mostly the same as ours, except there is substantial tangible proof that all of life was created at once several thousand years ago. The narrator, an archaeologist who specializes in uncovering artifacts proving the creation of life, investigates a black market which leads to an astronomer who has discovered life on another planet which seems to be more favored by God than Earth. A crisis of faith ensues.
This story was fine. The faith vs. proof aspect didn't speak to me but I really liked thinking about how this world differs from ours. I liked the methodology for realizing that life was created (by examining ancient preserved wood they can see the point at which tree trunk rings begin, same with ancient shellfish shells) and how their Earth never discovered how genetics works because there is no evolution.
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom: A device is invented which causes a single change at the quantum level, branching the timeline into two, and also allows communication between the timelines. The technology is originally used for research, but as it gets less expensive regular people start using the device (called a "prism") to talk to their alternate timeline selves. Some find it comforting, but others become addicted and spend all their time thinking about how their life could be if it was slightly different. Nat works in a shop where people can rent prisms, and on the side she and her coworker hustle prism users out of money whenever they can. Dana is a therapist who sees patients and also runs a support group for prism addicts, which Nat starts attending as part of a scam.
I really loved this story. It's the only story in this collection in which any character has actual bad intentions, and it also provides lots to think about. It's about free will and determinism. If for every action you take there is an alternate timeline in which you make a different choice, does any choice matter? Or, if you consistently act a particular way does that become an inherent part of you that is rarely changeable? I really loved the story's ending.

Overall this is an excellent collection. The stories are varied but still themed - free will, the introduction of new technology, seeing the future. There was a bit more first-person narration than I like, but I really enjoyed that all of the stories are gentle and everyone is well-meaning. Highly recommended, and I’m definitely going to check out the author’s other collection. ( )

Wow. This is my favorite kind of SF. Explorations. What If, and Sense of Wonder, and Science. Like the best of the old pulps, but bright & shiny, relevant to what we know better now. Not plagued with 'isms. Thoughtful character development. Tight, crisp craftsmanship. I highly recommend this collection to everyone who reads any sort of SF.
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Reread for buddy read in SFFBC, May 2024. Still love it. Love the notes on the stories at the end, too. Besides the notes in the group discussion, I want to add some here for the final story, [b:Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom|56482305|Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1681951064l/56482305._SY75_.jpg|88126963]:

"We like the idea that there's always someone responsible for any given event, because that helps us make sense of the world. We like that so much that sometimes we blame ourselves, just so there's someone to blame. But not everything is under our control, or even anyone's control."

"We've all made mistakes.... But there's a difference between accepting responsibility for our actions and taking the blame for random misfortunes."

"If Vinessa hadn't gotten her act together by now, it was her own fault, not Dana's."

"... if you act compassionately in this branch, that's still meaningful, because it has an effect on the branches that will split off in the future. The more often you make compassionate choices, the less likely it is that you'll make selfish choices in the future, even in the branches where you're having a bad day."

"If the same thing happened in branches where you acted differently, then you aren't the cause."

Basically it's pretty much the same theme hammered home... but we all either are, or know, people who need to understand that! :) ( )

Chiang's stories walk a thin line between fiction and thought experiment. As prompters for speculation about free will, consciousness, the multiverse etc. they're excellent. I especially liked the title story, set in a pneumatically-powered universe where the equalization of air pressure is a metaphor for entropy in ours, and featuring an extended scene of self-conducted brain dissection. What this story has in common with Chiang's best is that it sticks the emotional landing: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, a time-traveling Arabian Nights-style frame story does this too, and is impossibly clever to boot.

I was less taken with the Hugo-winning novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which relates the ups and downs of a group of (mostly) VR-dwelling self-learning AI's, designed and marketed as virtual pets, and their human owners in loco parentis. Unfortunately the "digients" never get past toddler-speak, so the dialogue is somewhat infuriating, although it has its moments, like when they get upset because their owners won't legally incorporate them:

"People say being corporation great," says Marco. "Can do whatever want."

A number of human adolescents have complained that Voyl has more rights than they do; obviously the digients have seen their comments. "Well, you're not incorporated, and you definitely cannot do anything you want."

"We sorry," says Marco, suddenly appreciating the trouble he's in. "Just want be corporations."

A wry moment in a too-long tale. But I can't really fault Chiang for writing brain-twizzling conceptual science fiction tales; God knows the general direction of the genre seems to favour the waving of hands and the baring of souls. Three or four of these — shout-out to closer Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom — reach the empyrean heights of Story of Your Life, and you can't ask for more than that. ( )

Un gran ejemplo de ciencia ficcion especulativa, de la que te hace pensar e imaginar que harias en esta situacion si fueras tu, alguna de estas historias son de las mejores que he leido en este genero:
- The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
- Exhalation
- What's Expected of Us
- The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling
- Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom

5 estrellas a todas estas, pero el resto son 3 o 4 estrellas. Estan bien.

Bastante recomendable, lo bueno en una coleccion asi es que si una historia no te interesa, siempre hay otra para compensar. ( )

I really enjoyed Ted Chiang's [b:Stories of Your Life and Others|223380|Stories of Your Life and Others|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356138316l/223380._SY75_.jpg|216334] and 'Exhalation' is a collection along very similar lines. Chiang's short stories tend to be cool and measured in tone as they explore the implications of extraordinary concepts. I find his writing insightful and ingenious. Although 'Exhalation' did not reach the same heights as his previous collection, I really enjoyed it. I found the shortest tales ('Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny', 'The Great Silence', 'What's Expected of Us') least satisfying, as they didn't have space to do much with their central conceit. To be fair, 'The Great Silence' was written as part of an art installation, and I think would be much more powerful in that context. The most interesting, for me, was 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects', which takes up more than 100 pages of the book so is really more of a novella. This follows the twenty year upbringing of AIs, discussing questions of personhood throughout by contrasting the AIs with pets and children. The slow pace of this story is its strength, I think, as it allows space for technology to evolve, characters to debate, and minds to change (in more than one sense).

Another highlight is 'Anxiety in the Dizziness of Freedom' which explores the ways that communication with parallel universes would impact on self-perception. It also considers the ways that this could be monetised, both by big business and small-time con artists. Again, its strength is the space for characters to contemplate and second-guess their choices. I found the stories told in the first person slightly less effective, while still interesting. As he has done in several prior stories, Chiang interprets the bible literally in 'Omphalos' and spins out the implications, although it didn't prove quite as powerful in this case. The titular story, 'Exhalation', had an interesting conceit but not much detail embroidered around it. The narrator's body was absolutely central to the story, with little information about the society they lived in and how it might have come about. Still ingenious, though. Chiang's stories are never lacking in clever ideas and I enjoy his considered, thoughtful writing style. Although collectively these stories didn't seem quite as ambitious as those in [b:Stories of Your Life and Others|223380|Stories of Your Life and Others|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356138316l/223380._SY75_.jpg|216334], that's a very high standard to live up to. 'Exhalation' is nonetheless polished and rewarding high concept sci-fi. ( )

This collection of short stories absolutely took my breath away. Like Asimov and Clark and most sci-fi writers since then, Ted Chiang has a brilliant mind for writing about interesting physical and philosophical concepts, but the way he adds emotional and character-driven elements to his stories makes them digestible and heart wrenching. He has a way of discussing huge scientific notions with epic implications on such a small-scale and personal level. One story, written from the perspective of a parrot (called "The Great Silence"), is only ~2 pages long, and it still made me cry because of how poignant and startling it is. One slight (slight!) criticism about Exhalation is that some of the stories dragged on a little. I was fascinated enough by the mind-blowing ideas that I kept turning the pages, and it never felt like a slog; it just could have been shortened. One story in particular—"The Lifecycle of Software Objects"—very much is in need of a bit of trimming. Overall, though, I'm in love with Chiang's writing, and I hope he keeps publishing things like this. ( )

Imaginative sci fi on free will, time, AI and more. still fresh and relevant 15 years after writing. ( )

Really good. Not quite as good as Ted Chiang's first collection, which was incredible, but still great. Deep stories that make you think. They are more homogeneous than I expected, because many of the stories deal with free will, or the lack of it.

My ratings:

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" 10/10
"Exhalation" 10/10
"What's expected of us" 7/10 (ultra-short story)
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" 9/10 (short novel, really good but it just kind of ends, without a sense of resolution... maybe that was the point?)
"Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny" 6/10 (ultra-short story, more a curiosity than a proper story)
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" 9/10 (half-story, half-essay, but Chiang always has such interesting ideas to explore...)
"The Great Silence" 8/10 (ultra-short story)
"Omphalos" 9/10
"Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom" 10/10 ( )

the epistolary short eponymous to the collection's title and, unfortunately, @mverant, although a creative metaphor for entropy, I couldn't suspend my disbelief: the whole brain tech was more fantastical than sci-fi and yet it was set in the sci-fi genre. I read the flash piece that was published in Nature Futures and it was clever and worth a chuckle. Epistolary is one of my least favorite styles and time-travel the hardest of sci-fi subgenres to swallow. Perhaps, those are a couple of counts against those stories. But I suppose it must be his distant POV and unadorned, matter-of-fact authorial voice. ( )

A nearly perfect collection. There's only one short story in here that I could have done without. But that's a really minor complaint, because there are several genuine masterpieces too. ( )

Not my genre, but a great set of stories that certainly prompt thinking. ( )

Loved it! Each story was very different and brought unusual perspective to difficult situations. Very unique in the genre. Will reread. ( )

Some imaginative stories in here, exploring some of the current zeitgeist around AI, quantum mechanics, and others. I found the stories interesting but the interpersonal communications we're really hard to get through and tended to break the spell in their awkwardness. ( )

Exhalación
Ted Chiang
Publicado: 2019 | 245 páginas
Relato Ciencia ficción

¿Creías que no te gustaba la ciencia ficción? El nuevo libro del autor que inspiró la película «La llegada», escogido por The New York Times como uno de los libros del año. ¿Qué pasaría si un inocente juguete dinamitara nuestra noción de libre albedrío? ¿Y si fuera posible ponerse en contacto con versiones de nosotros mismos en otras líneas temporales? Si creáramos mascotas virtuales provistas de una inteligencia artificial que les permitiera aprender como si fueran niños humanos, ¿qué clase de compromiso ético deberíamos asumir con su educación y su futuro? ¿Y qué ocurriría si pudiéramos visionar cualquier episodio de nuestra vida tal como sucedió, sin el matiz afectivo y el sesgo interpretativo de lo que llamamos «recuerdos»? No importa cuál sea el tema que trate Ted Chiang en sus narraciones, siempre demuestra una formidable habilidad para indagar en los enigmas de la condición humana y abordar los conflictos éticos que la relación con la tecnología plantea en nuestra existencia. Lejos del enfoque distópico hoy predominante en las narraciones futuristas, las historias de Chiang muestran una perspectiva abiertamente positiva y vitalista, delineando preguntas filosóficas de un enorme calado humano. Ted Chiang es uno de los nombres insoslayables de la ciencia ficción, género en el que desde hace años goza del más sólido prestigio, como atestigua la infinidad de premios que su obra ha recibido; reveladores, elegantes y sorprendentes, los relatos de Exhalación lo sitúan, sencillamente, entre los autores indiscutibles de la literatura estadounidense actual.

Truly incredible. So many unique ideas written in such poignant ways ( )

This speculative fiction collection by Ted Chiang explores complex philosophical and scientific concepts by his deep and thought-provoking narratives operating at the intersection of technology, morality, and human nature. The relationship between humans and A.I., check—he covers this in the Lifecycle of Software Objects. Curious about consciousness and entropy, see the namesake story, Exhalation. Each story in the collection is carefully crafted and engages with big ideas in a way that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally resonant. As a collection, Chiang’s writing is clear and precise, allowing the reader to grasp complex concepts without giving up the pleasure of high-level narrative. It’s a unique and rewarding experience. ( )

This book is my introduction to Ted Chiang.

Reading his first story, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” made me feel like I was back in the environs of Borges’ “Labyrinths.” I have to say it was a very pleasant feeling. So if you’re a Borges’ fan, dive right in.

Chiang’s follow-on stories were equally pleasant for me. His dive into the meaning of entropy for humanity, to the impact of technology on human interaction, to how we must relate to AI beings. All were joyful, if unsettling.

That certainly is what good writing does. It unsettles us.

I think this author also deserves a shout-out to George Saunders for the humour and stylishness of these stories as well. ( )

This is the most thought-provoking book I've read in a long time. It's so so good. I wish I could talk to Barack Obama about it (I found it on his 2019 summer reading list). ( )

Liked some of the stories, didn't love any of them. Very much in the thought experiment tradition of sci-fi, as opposed to 'ripping yarn with great ideas.' Tapped out after the digital pets novella.

Ted Chiang is brilliant, and this collection of stories is full of ideas to challenge your mind.

Three favourites:
Merchant and the Alchemist’s gate
Omhalos
Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom ( )

Excellence. My favorite kind of science fiction. That which uses the genre to explore ethical, philosophical, and emotional ramifications of ideas, innovations, technology. Really good stories.

Really really fantastic book would recommend. Every single story Ted will turn an incredible and complex idea into the most digestible, engaging story. What’s more impressive is how much he is able to explore and explain these topics within such short stories. Even the stories that look at popular concepts like the multiverse, proof of god, and ai take a very unique and interesting twist. The stories that I did not enjoy as much as the others still made me want to continue through Teds amazing writing and storytelling. I’m so glad this was recommended to me, I can’t wait to read more of him. ( )

Mind blowing! This is my first time reading Ted Chiang’s stories and every single one was so impactful and really made me think deeper and more critically about things that we often don’t question. They were also just so well written I wanted to keep going to the end of each story in one sitting. The last story, “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” was the only one that started a little slower for me, but still by the end I found it to be very insightful and intriguing.

Reading the story notes on the inspirations and how these stories came into being at the end was also cool. I think my favorite story would have to be the longest one in this collection: “The Lifecycle of Software Objects.” That one really drew me in, and yet I have to say that really and truly each story has stayed with me. This story in particular focuses on the topic of AI and what rights AI “should” have, who gets to decide that, and why. And then it also looks more specifically at the way humans and AI may interact and how those interactions may play out. The AI must interact with the world and continue developing just as humans do, so it would make sense that it would also take some time to develop and during that time, would also need some guiding and nurturing presence. But how would humans respond to that need and what ways would those willing to provide these things go about doing so?

My favorite type of time travel story is the one in which nothing you can do in your traveling can actually change the present, and yet this doesn’t matter so much when you realize the importance of simply gaining a better understanding or a different view of something from your past— essentially, even though nothing will be different in the general sense when you return from the journey, you yourself will be changed as a person. This is the kind of time travel that is seen in the first story of this collection, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate.”

“Exhalation” dives into the idea of the world becoming increasingly chaotic since it’s beginning and how it constantly strives for a balance but in doing so gets ever closer to an equilibrium. One of my favorite quotes is from this story: “I hope that you were motivated by a desire for knowledge, a yearning to see what can arise from a universe’s exhalation…Our universe might have slid into equilibrium emitting nothing more than a quiet hiss. The fact that it spawned such plentitude is a miracle, one that is matched only by your universe giving rise to you.”

“What’s Expected of Us” really taps into our need for a purpose and the link that this often has with the search for where we came from and why. Many seek their purpose from the creator they place their faith in, and some seek purpose within the environment around them and what they believe this reflects on themselves. But what if we found out through scientific observations that we weren’t created on purpose? And therefore, that we have no purpose given to us? How would this effect our view of ourselves and others? How would it effect our ability to make choices and find meaning in anything we do?

The remaining stories go into similar themes, questioning the way humans interact with one another and non human beings and objects. Questioning what possibilities may arise in our deepening relationship with and dependence upon technology. Questioning when and why a choice matters against the platform of the universe. This will only be the beginning of my readings into Ted Chiang’s imaginatively and immaculately rendered speculations on humanity.

Exhalation: 5/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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