User Profile

As in his previous short story collection, Ted Chiang offers us a series of essays presenting thought experiments, camouflaged perfectly as well written fiction, in his own calm, measured, well polished style.

This collection seems to be concerned a lot with parenting, free will and AIs. I think especially on AI, it makes very interesting observations, which everyone should read. It offers an alternative vision for producing AIs that has a chance to avoid the pitfalls that creating them based on principles put forth in code has (at least in my mind).

All in all, it would even be worth it just for the story in question, so the fact that most of the stories are great means everyone interested in thought experiments about science should read it.

The writing and plot were very disjointed and did not make much sense. The puzzles were pretty good, as in the other books by the same creator.

All in all, I enjoyed the Journal 29 books more, but I did not regret doing this one too.

Peter Frase sets out not to make accurate predictions about the future, but in very broad strokes to describe four possible futures, based on two axes: scarcity/abundance, and authoritarianism/freedom. He gives us visions of those futures and not detailed descriptions, because as he himself writes, such a thing is impossible.

In my opinion, such an undertaking is useful, for people to be able to set courses and be clearer about what kind of future they're fighting for.

I imagine that reading this book expecting something more precise would lead one into disappointment. I was not disappointed.

After reading this book, I love Stewart Lee even more. Both the character Stewart Lee and the real Stewart Lee (as seen from the audience). The book explains a lot of things that are puzzling (although intriguing and funny) in his comedy, and gives them meaning. Can't wait to watch more of his shows and then read more of his commentary.