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.
