Chris Almeda’s Reviews > Exhalation > Status Update

Omphalos: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Every time she said lord I just thought of the confessions of st augie

The Great Silence: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

😭😭😭

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Finally, one where people are gaslighting each other.

The lifecycle of software objects: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

So far Ted Chiang’s stories are all interesting thought experiments. With any piece of fiction about ai, I have a hard time really loving it when it asks questions such as “to what extent should we treat them like humans” and not “how deep is this box we’ve just opened.” 2001 space odyssey goated forever.

What is expected of us: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The interesting thing about this one is that it stems from other stories in which a joke is so funny it kills people. There are other examples in literature where a movie is so good it kills you or a woman is literally drop dead gorgeous, but the idea of people shutting down because they don’t think free will exists seems… kind of silly no?

Exhalation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Couldn’t give you any insight on the article this story is based on. Also not really sure how well Ted Chiang gets his point across in the story. Another pretty interesting thought experiment though.

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

He said cultural appropriation off rip this is my kind of book. Also love the little author’s note at the end. He’s such a dork lol.