The Lifecycle of Software Objects

作者：TedChiang

出版社：Subterranean

出版年：2010-7-31

页数：150

定价：USD25.00

装帧：Hardcover

ISBN：9781596063174

内容简介
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What's the best way to create artificial intelligence? In 1950, Alan Turing wrote, 'Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child. Things would be pointed out and named, etc. Again I do not know what the right answer is, but I think both approaches should be tried.'

The first approach has been tried many times in both science fiction and reality. In this new novella, at over 30,000 words, his longest work to date, Ted Chiang offers a detailed imagining of how the second approach might work within the contemporary landscape of startup companies, massively-multiplayer online gaming, and open-source software. It's a story of two people and the artificial intelligences they helped create, following them for more than a decade as they deal with the upgrades and obsolescence that are inevitable in the world of software. At the same time, it's an examination of the difference between processing power and intelligence, and of what it means to have a real relationship with an artificial entity.

评论 ······

是个满sentimental的故事，所以结局把AI们

淡如水的姜

中文版载于科幻世界译文版2011年9月号。这个长度似乎是特德姜不曾挑战过的，所以稍稍松散了一些。整篇文章探讨的问题，与其说是软体更新，倒不如说是教育的困境。面对一种很快就被淘汰掉的人工智能，没有人能判断它们要接受怎样的教育、最终选择怎样的“生活”。而从主角的坚持中，也能窥知作者特德姜的坚持——在技术时代坚持人文传统。这篇小说提出的问题是很有趣的，可惜笔调过于平淡了。作为脑残粉，给出四星评价。

@kindle，觉得很像自己喜欢的一部短篇科幻http://escapepod.org/2011/08/26/ep307-soulmates/

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