Scrolls Book Group: The Life-cycle Of Software Objects

The Life-cycle of Software Objects is a story by Ted Chiang about our relationship with artificial intelligence and what it means to be alive.  It's kind of a peculiar read but well worth it, as we quickly discovered.  Joining Dion and Phil to discuss the tale is our guest host, the delightful Dee - otherwise known as 'Faint Dreams.'Now, don't go skipping straight past.  I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking 'I've never heard of it, never read it, so why listen to the podcast?'  Well, Firstly we're bloody brilliant.  Honest, guv'nor.  Secondly, it's actually a pretty quick read - a novella rather than a book (Around 60 pages.)  Thirdly, The Life-cycle Of Software Objects is available right here for free, and Fourthly it's an absolute corker.  We've all had ideas and questions exploding in our brains long after we finished reading it.So you're not going anywhere, right?Right :-DYou snuggle down and start reading, I'll just sit here and... I dunno, tweet or something.Dum de dum...  de dum...  de dum...Ready?  Brilliant.For those of you interested in reading more of Ted Chiang's work, there is a round-up of his stories at Metafilter, all free and perfectly legal.  Some are in text, some are audiobooks.  Here also is a separate link for the story that Dee mentions right at the end of the podcast, called 'Liking What You See: A Documentary.' Want to know a little more about Artificial Intelligence?  You could listen to Dissecting Worlds (cheap shot) or have a look at this wikipedia entry.  Most edifying. As ever, feedback is appreciated. You can tweet @Dion_Scrolls, @Phlambler or @FaintDreams, e-mail us at [email protected] or share your views with everyone in the Comments section below.We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it.Keep reading.