P.E.’s Reviews > Exhalation > Status Update

'We don't normally think of it as such, but writing is a technology, which means that a literate person is someone whose thought processes are technologically mediated.'

'People are made of stories. Our memories are not the impartial accumulation of every second we've lived; they're the narrative that we assembled out of selected moments.'

'Regarding the role of truth in autobiography, the critic Roy Pascal wrote, "On the one side are the truths of fact, on the other the truth of the writer's feeling, and where the two coincide cannot be decided by any outside authority in advance." '

'Millions of people [...] have been keeping lifelogs for years, wearing personal cams that capture continuous video of their entire lives. People consult their lifelogs for a variety of reasons—everything from reliving favorite moments to tracking down the cause of allergic reactions—but only intermittently; no one wants to dpend all their time formulating queries and sifting through the results.'

'It's indicative of the Victorian attitude toward children that at no point does Dacey suggest that children should be raised by their parents.'

["Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny"]

'They want something that responds like a person, but isn't owed the same obligations as a person, and that's something she can't give them.'

'I want to make sure we're clear about our motivations. I'd be terrific if our digients learned practical skills, but we shouldn't think of them as failures if they don't. Maybe Jax can make money, but Jax isn't for making money. He's not like the Draytas or the weedbots. Whatever puzzles he might solve or work he might do, those aren't the reasons I'm raising him.'

'Women who work with animals hear this all the time: that their love for animals must arise out of a sublimated child-rearing urge. Ana's tired of the stereotype. She likes children just fine, but they are not the standard against which all other accomplishments should be measured. Caring for animals is worthwhile in and of itself, a vocation that need offer no apologies.'

What's Expected of Us
3☆

'The immediate problem is that Predictors demonstrate that there's no such thing as free will.

[...]

Some people, realizing that their choices don't matter, refuse to make any choices at all. Like a legion of Bartleby the scriveners, they no longer engage in spontaneous action.'


Voir aussi :
Story of Your Life — Ted Chiang
Division by Zero — Ted Chiang
The Stanley Parable

Exhalation
5☆

"Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so"


Voir aussi :

Stories of Your Life and Others — Ted Chiang (quantité de nouvelles qui partent d'un postulat audacieux !)

The Fish of Lijiang — Chen Qiufan (in Invisible Planets, tr. Ken Liu)

Le Monde sans fin — J.-M. Jancovici, C. Blain

The Devil in the Belfry — E. A. Poe