Jane Lucas

Yesterday in class, you and two or three of your classmates wrote about the conflicts and sources of potential conflicts in chapters one and two of Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Those tensions you addressed and lines you quoted are included in the notes that follow.

As our study of Chiang’s novella progresses, return to these notes and consider how and where the moments detailed here seem to anticipate later complications in the narrative.

The differences between Ana Alvarado’s and Derek Brooks’s perceptions of the digients (69-70): You cited Ana’s observation that “it feels like we’re dressing them in circus costumes when we try to make them look like monkeys or pandas” (69) and how Derek, though initially hurt by Ana’s remark “appreciate[s] hearing a different perspective” (70). Though Ana and Derek’s contrasting visions of the digits may not be a source of tension between the two of them–since they seem to respectfully disagree–that lack of consensus could be an issue among other employees at Blue Gamma. It also raises a larger question about the digits: How will the digients’ relationships with their designers, trainers, and owners proceed when those humans are uncertain of the digients’ nature?

Lolly, the lion cub digient, learning an obscenity from Stefan, the Blue Gamma trainer in the Australian office (73-74): You referred to Stefan, “one of the trainers from Blue Gamma’s Australian office” (73), as the person from whom Lolly learned the curse word and mentioned one of Blue Gamma’s cofounders, Mahesh, saying they “can’t sell a digient that says” an obscenity (73). Stefan’s misstep and its consequences–namely Mahesh’s decision to roll back the digients’ memories demonstrate the considerable costs of raising the digients, both the learning loss they suffer and the productivity cost for Blue Gamma. It also highlights the vulnerability of the childlike digients.

Blue Gamma customer Andrew Nguyen’s interactions with his digient (76-77, 79): You noted Derek’s suspicion that “the user hadn’t read Blue Gamma’s recommendations on raising digients” (77) and Andrew’s response to Derek’s recommendations: “The Hell with that. I paid good money for this avatar, and I bought it specifically to wear when I’m on the social continents. I’m not going to stop wearing it for a digient” (79). Andrew’s resistance to Derek’s suggestions illustrates how some owners’ approaches to their digients disregard the company’s guidelines, which can lead to neglect. That negligence on the part of owners may in turn give rise to larger problems.

Jax, the digient with the neo-Victorian robot avatar, “inhabiting” the SaruMech robot body, and SaruMech’s plans to rent the robot bodies, rather than sell them (81-83): You addressed Ana’s comment on Jax’s progress, that “it’s cool to see him that way” (83) and her hope that “[f]or SaruMech’s sake, the experience translates well onto video” (83). You also noted that “[t]here were many reasons Blue Gamma targeted the virtual realm instead of the real one–lower cost, ease of social networking–but one was the risk of property damage” (83). Ana’s comments juxtaposed with SaruMech’s corporate decision to limit the robot bodies to rentals demonstrates the competing interests of Blue Gamma and Sarumech and prompts questions about the effects of Sarumech’s choice. How might Saumech’s rental-only hardware policy affect digient’s who may grow to prefer the experience of virtually inhabiting a body?

Blue Gamma’s design of an alien species, Xenotherians, commissioned by a group of artificial-life hobbyists (87): You cited the hobbyists’ haste, noting the narrator’s observation that “rather than wait for real intelligence to evolve on its own in the biomes, [they] commissioned Blue Gamma to design an intelligent alien life species for them” (87). You also mentioned that the hobbyists “intend to create a new culture from scratch” (87). The hobbyists’ desire to develop an alien digital world in isolation, using a custom dialect of an artificial language, Lojban, that only insiders can comprehend runs counter to what the professionals at Blue Gamma have identified as necessary practices for knowledge building, both for individual digients and their community. If creating a private continent for the Xenotherians is simply an intellectual exercise, will the hobbyists lose interest? If so, what might the Xenotherians do if left to their own devices?

Next Up

Tomorrow we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library in a glass-front room near the tables where we met on September 16, and I will distribute copies of your annotated bibliography and preface assignment. Lauren Ksa, Head of Research and Instructional Services, will lead us through the process of using library databases to locate sources for your bibliography.

Today marks the beginning of our study of the novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, whose author, Ted Chiang, was named to Time magazine’s list One Hundred Most Infuential People in AI (2023).

This morning, after your Scrabble debriefing, you and two or three of your classmates will compose a short piece of writing that addresses one of the conflicts or sources of potential conflict in the first two chapters of Chiang’s novella. The guidelines for your assignment follow.

Directions

Compose a statement of at least one complete sentence that begins with a signal phrase for a quotation that addresses one of the bulleted items below, follows the quote with a parenthetical citation, and concludes with words that convey the situation’s conflict or indicate its potential for conflict. Do not include the word conflict. Instead, describe the conflict or explain its possibility.

Example

Ana Alvarado, who studied primate communication and “dreamed of following Fossey and Goodall to Africa” (66), and the animator Derek Brooks, whose design work is limited to such tasks as fashioning “a body that manifests the digients’ gestures” (67), both find themselves pursuing careers that differ considerably from the ones they had envisioned for themselves. The discrepancies between their plans and their current circumstances prompt questions about their futures. Will their days at Blue Gamma be marked by satisfaction or resignation, and how will their attitudes affect their relationships with the digients?

• The differences between Ana Alvarado’s and Derek Brooks’s perceptions of the digients (69-70).
• Lolly, the lion cub digient, learning an obscenity from Stefan, the Blue Gamma trainer in the Australian office (73-74).
• Blue Gamma customer Andrew Nguyen’s interactions with his digient (76-77, 79).
• Jax, the digient with the neo-Victorian robot avatar, “inhabiting” the SaruMech robot body, and SaruMech’s plans to rent the robot bodies, rather than sell them (81-83).
• Blue Gamma’s design of an alien species, Xenotherians, commissioned by a group of artificial-life hobbyists (87).

In the second half of class, we will discuss what you’ve written about the conflicts and potential sources of conflict in chapters one and two. Afterward, I will introduce the annotated bibliography and preface assignment, your third and final major paper assignment for the course.

Scrabble Debriefing, Part II: Viruses You’d Like to Catch

Although viruses are infections to avoid, playing viruses in Scrabble by using all seven of your tiles will earn you fifty bonus points. That was the case in last Friday’s game pictured above. Using a blank for the e, a team played viruses vertically by adding the s to leap for a total of seventy-five points.

Next Up

Wednesday we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library in a glass-front room near the tables where we met on September 16. Lauren Ksa, Head of Research and Instructional Services will lead us through the process of using library databases to locate sources for your bibliography.