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future
IMPERFEC1
BY
MARKBAUMGARTEN
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
ANDREWWAITS
IN
HISLATESTNOVELLA
TEDCHIANG
TELLS
USWHERE
WE'RE
GO
ING.
SOR
RY,
THERE
WILL
BE
NO
READY-MADE
ROBOT
BUTLERSTHERE.
CITY
ART.
JULY
2010
P.
13
&
,j
- . ~ '
.
 
"Instead
of
trying
to
produce
a
programme
to
simulate
the
adult
mind,
why
not
rathertry
to
produce
one
which
simulates
the
child's?
If
this
were
then
subjected
to
an
appropriate
courseof
education
one
would
obtaintheadultbrain.
"
-Alan
Turing
TED
C"'"'
~
••
",m,,".
n,
forty-two-year-oldSeattlenativedoeshavefourdependentsliv
ingwithhimandhisgirlfriendinaBellevuehome,butthey
are
ancat,.
"Onthespectrum
of
pets,
catsarerelativelyundemanding,"
theauthorsays,takingalongpausetoconsiderhischoice
of
animal."Thetimeittakestoraiseausefulcatisnotthatlong.
Thetime
ittakes
to
raiseauseful
dog
is
longer_
If
youhavea
bordercollie,youaregoingto
have
to
putsomeseriouseffortintothatdog.Butthat'snowherenearthetime
it
takestoraiseausefulhumanbeing."ChiangandI
are
sitting
at
abooth
in
theExperienceMusicProjectandScienceFictionMuseum
cafe
onaquietluneafter
noon.
At
theother
end
of
themisshapenbUilding
is
acollection
of
artifactsfromsciencefiction'spast:BuckRogers'XZ-38disintegratorpistol,
Darth
Vader'shelmetfrom
TheEmpireStrikes
Back,
the
pistolwielded
by
HarrisonFord
in
BladeRunner,
as
well
as
first-edition
books
by
theauthors
Chiang
devouredasachild:
Arthur
C.Clarke,IsaacAsimov,
Ray
Bradbury.Infront
of
me
isthe
man
who,some
have
said,
is
the
future
of
the
genre,
aquiet,yetdeeply
inqUisitive
author
who
has
littlepatiencefor
embellishment
in
hiswritingand
no
stomachforsciencefiction
that
f a i l s ~
in
his
exacting
mind,
todo
its
job.Chiang'smusings
about
pets
have
comeup
aswe
discusshis
l.teotwork,
The
LifecycleofSoftwareObjects,
whichtellsthestory
of
two
people
named
Ana
and
Derekandtheirdifficultiesin
raising
three
syntheticpetscalleddigients
that
turn
out
to
bemore
than
theybargainedfor.The
book
will
be
releasedthis
mOllth
to
much
anticipationfrom
the
sciencefictioncommu
nit)'.
The
publisher,Subterranean
Press,
is
soldout
of
its
first
!ipec.ial-editionfunand
is
alreadyplanningfutureprintruns.
To
lJe
clear,
this
is
notablockbuster.Chiang
is
not
expect
ingto
fieldoffersfromHollywood,
go
on
book
tour
or
even
to
14
CITY
ARTSJULY
2010
lightenhisworkloadasafreelancetechnicalwriter.Asawriterspecializing
in
shortworks
of
fiction,
heis
under
no
illusions."Nobodymakesmoneywritingshortfiction,"heassuresme.
Andeven
if
somebodycould,itprobablywouldnot
be
Chiang.Hejustdoesn'twritemuch
of
it.Sincepublishing
hisfirst
shortstory
in
thenow-defunctsciencefictionmaga
zine
Omni
in1990,Chianghasauthoredapaltrytenworks
of
shortfictionandonenovelette.Those
few
works,though,
have
earnedChiangsciencefiction'sgreatestprize,the
Hugo
Award,
twice.
Lifecycle,
anovella,
is
hislongest
work
todate.
It
was
probably,hesays,alsohis
hardest
work
towrite,likelycon
tributingtothegrayhairs
that
streakhislongblackhair,theonlytelltalesign
ofthe
baby-facedauthor'sage.
"Lifecycle
tooka
very
longtime,"he
says,
takingamoment
tosip
themango-pineapplejuice
in
front
of
him.
"I
wrotea
draft
of
itthree
or
fouryearsago,andIhad
toput
itaside.ThenIworkedonadifferentstory.
Then
Iwentback
to
itandwrote
.Imost
anentirelydifferentdraftand
then
I
had
tosetthatasideforawhile.ThenIfinallyreturnedtoit,soit'sbeen
in
gestation
for
quiteawhile."
Chianghadintended
the
storytobeawork
of
shortfictionbutfoundthat
the
ideashewasattempting
to
grapplewithdemandedalargerstage.InitiallyinspiredbyAlanTuring's
work
from
themid-twentiethcenturyregardingartificialintelligence,Chiangsoondiscoveredthathecouldnottakeshortcuts.
In
fact,hewouldrealizethat,
in
sciencefiction,shortcuts
aretheproblem.
"In
sciencefiction,youseea
lot
of
artificial
intelligencesto
ries,"
Chiang
says.
"Storieswherepeople
have
robotservants,
or
HAL9000,
or
somethinglikethat,which
are
super-smart,
they're
totallyobedient,theycanevenbe
funny
orloyalor
any
of
thosethings.Ifeltthatthere
is
this..."HereChiangpauses,hisbrowfurrowed.Afterholdingthat
posefora
full
tenseconds,hecontinues.
..
...
erroror
an
assumption
inall
thesestoriesthat
if
you
are
abletocreateartificialintelligence,whenyou
turnit
on,
it
will
instantlybe
your
super-smart,super-loyal,perfectrobot
butler."
Chiangutterstheselasttwowordswithgreatprecision,hammeringtheplosive
"b"s.
Thenhepauses.Hisfacedoesn't
reveal
it,butyougetasensethatChiangenjoysthisphrase,"robotbutler."
He
continues.
"I
thinkthat
isanerror
in
thinkingaboutthenature
of
intelligence,"hesays.
"t
don't
think
youcangetsomethingthat
behavesthat
way
themomentyou
turnit
on.Sothesestories
are
ignoring,
or
they're
glossing
over,
thefactthatyouwouldneedtospendyears
to
train
an
intelligentrobothowtobeausefulservant,
in
thesame
way
that
it
takesyearsto
turn
a
human
beingintoausefulemployee,ausefulbutler,auseful
slave.
It
takes
alot
of
training
andtime.
By
glossing
overthat
period,thoseyears
of
training,
they
are
ignoringalot
of
s i g ~
nificantquestions,becausethat
is
abiginvestment,andIdon't
thinkthesestoriespositagoodmodel
of
peoplespendingyears
trainingtheserobotbutlers,orrobotservants,
or
robot
slaves."
WhentalkingwithChiang,it
is
easy
to
forgetthatyouare
talkingaboutsciencefiction.Heeasilyslipsfromdiscussingtherolefiction
plays
in
theexploration
of
complicatedideastotheidea
of
sciencefictionasamodelfortheapplication
of
thoseideas.Andthenhe's
back
totalking
aboutHAL
9000,thestar
of
the
SpaceOdyssey
series
of
books
and
films.
i
I
"YOU
WOULD
NEEDTOSPENDYEARSTO
TRAIN
AN
intelligent
robot
HOW
TOBE
A
USEFUL
SERVANT."
JULy
2010
CITY
ARTS
IS
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