The Lifecycle of Software Objects

Ted Chiang

ISBN 10: 1596063173 / ISBN 13: 9781596063174

Published by Subterranean Press, 2010

Very Good in a Very Good dust jacket; Hardcover; Second Printing; Dust jacket is clean and intact with no tears, and has not been price-clipped (Now fitted with a new, Brodart jacket protector); Light wear to the boards; The textblock edges are unblemished; The endpapers and all text pages are clean and unmarked; The binding is excellent with a straight spine; This book will be shipped in a sturdy cardboard box with foam padding; Medium Format (8.5" - 9.75" tall); 0.8 lbs; White dust jacket with title in black lettering; 2010, Subterranean Press; 150 pages; "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," by Ted Chiang. Seller Inventory # SKU-1118AJ06908314

Synopsis:

Follows the lives of Ana Alvarado and Derek Brooks as they create and relate to the artificial intelligences they helped design.

From the Inside Flap: 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.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: 2010
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good