Exhalation by Ted Chang

Digital pets, AI, and societal perspectives

There is a lot to unpack in these complex speculative science fiction stories

In this collection of short stories, the author visits themes of time travel, the future, and artificial intelligence, among others. It took me a few stories to warm up to the the writing style, which at first felt a little technical and cold (come to find out, the author is a technical writer) – but by the time I got to the story about self-aware online digital creatures (this story reminded me of the 1990s Tamagotchi digital pets my kids had) I was completely hooked.

Each somewhat unsettling story is a well-thought-out idea on where the future may take us. The writing is nuanced and complex. I also enjoyed the author's notes at the end that explained where the ideas came from for each of the stories. Although there were a few stories that were extreme standouts for me (the one on life-logs and how the written word changes our societal perspectives was amazing, as was the parrot mythology), every one of them was a worthy, thought-provoking read.

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Eventide by Christine Allen-Riley

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