Geschichten, die ein ganzes Universum enthalten: Die Wahrheit ?ber den Turmbau zu Babel; der folgenreiche Erstkontakt mit einer au?erirdischen Spezies; die Verzweiflung angesichts des Verlusts eines unersetzlichen Menschen; ein Zeitreiseabenteuer der anderen Art; und ein best?rzender Ausflug an die Grenzen des wissenschaftlich Machbaren ...Kein anderer Science-Fiction-Autor hat in den letzten zwanzig Jahren auch nur ansatzweise so viel Begeisterung ausgel?st wie Ted Chiang. Kein anderer Science-Fiction-Autor wurde f?r ein so schmales Werk mit mehr Preisen ausgezeichnet. Nun liegt endlich auch auf Deutsch ein Auswahlband mit seinen Erz?hlungen vor.Ted Chiang ist studierter Informatiker. Er arbeitet als technischer Autor in der Software-Industrie und lebt in Bellvue in der N?he von Seattle, Washington.
The story is epistolary in nature, taking the form of a scientist's journal entry. The scientist is a member of a race of air-driven mechanical beings. When it is realised that a number of clocks simultaneously appear to be running fast but they do not appear to be malfunctioning, the narrator decides to explore alternate explanations. The scientist carries out an experiment which confirms his worst fears.
Ted Chiang has made his bones in SF as a master of the short story, so a much longer work than is customary comes as a surprise. "The typical science-fiction depiction of AI is this loyal, obedient butler; you simply flip a switch, turn it on and it's ready to do your bidding. I feel like there's a huge story being glossed over," Chiang tells Boing Boing about the genesis of The Lifecycle of Software Objects. To be sure, the ethical issues that he raises and the depth of the technology (even for a novella) overshadow character development and some hasty plotting. Chiang's distinctive voice is evident here — a tech-industry insider, he's always been fluent in geek-speak and has a knack for translating heavy ideas into workable plots — and his first foray into the long form is a success. It would be his readers' good fortune if the author decided to take up novel-writing full time.
The story follows Fuwaad ibn Abbas, a fabric merchant in the ancient city of Baghdad. It begins when he is searching for a gift to give a business associate and happens to discover a new shop in the marketplace. The shop owner, who makes and sells a variety of very interesting items, invites Fuwaad into the back workshop to see a mysterious black stone arch which serves as a gateway into the future, which the shop owner has made by the use of alchemy. Fuwaad is intrigued, and the shop owner tells him three stories of others who have traveled through the gate to meet and have conversation with their future selves. When Fuwaad learns that the shop keeper has another gate in Cairo that will allow people to travel even into the past, he makes the journey there to try to rectify a mistake he made twenty years earlier.
Dr. Louise Banks is enlisted by the military to communicate with a race of radially-symmetrical aliens who initiated first contact with humanity. Woven through the story are remembrances of her daughter.
The story follows a young miner from the town of Elam who ascends the tower of Babylon to help break through the vault of heaven. Along the way he sees many wonderous sights, uncovers mysteries of heaven and earth, and in the end finds them as inscrutable as ever.
The story follows a man who is given an experimental drug to heal brain damage caused by anoxia after he nearly drowns. The drug regenerates his damaged neurons and has the unintended side effect of exponentially improving his intellect and motor skills. As he gets smarter and smarter, he is pursued by several government agencies and eventually receives a message from—and then enters into conflict with—another super-smart test subject.
"What's Expected of Us" is another of the fictional explorations of biochemical determinism of human personality and behavior that Chiang, Greg Egan, and Peter Watts, to name three distinguished examples, have been pursuing in SF.
