Nando161Sep 22, 2023
Wake up babe, new Philip K Dick story just dropped
Show threadWladimir PalantSep 22, 2023
@nando161 Nope, that isn’t Philip K. Dick but Ted Chiang. The story is called “The Lifecycle of Software Objects.”
Show threadOmnivoreSep 23, 2023

@WPalant @nando161

Also "The Probability Broach" by L. Neil Smith and a few others I can't be arsed to remember. The virtual wife story is the "Life imitates Art" version of the Pygmalion -> Pinochio -> Frankenstein -> I Robot (the book, not the "CGI Robot" movie), Genera.

Humans have long been known to create their own nemeses (like Batman created the Joker and vice versa).

Show threadWladimir Palant
@Ralph I don’t think any of those covered the software running the virtual friend/romance going out of support. @nando161
Sep 23, 2023 at 1:10pmWeb
Show threadOmnivoreSep 23, 2023

@WPalant @nando161

In "The Probability Broach" the protagonist has to save an alternate universe to get another copy of the cartridge that contains his virtual wife because it is out of print in his reality. It's better than it sounds. L. Neil Smith was kinda like the literary reincarnation/evolution/extrapolation of R. Heinlein.

The rest are the "be careful with what you create" or "Don't play God" Memes. See Also: the current controversy over AI. I consider loving and hating artificial beings to be on the same 'kink' spectrum. YMMV