"What's Expected of Us" | |
---|---|
Short story by Ted Chiang | |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Science fiction |
Publication | |
Published in | Nature |
Publication type | Magazine |
Publication date | 6 July 2005 [1] |
"What's Expected of Us" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ted Chiang, initially published on 6 July 2005 by Nature . [2] The story was also included in the 2006 anthology Year's Best SF 11 and in the 2019 collection Exhalation: Stories . [3] [4] [5]
A small device, the Predictor, looks like a remote control. It consists of a button and a green display. When you press the button, the screen flashes. However, it flashes a second before you click on the button—by receiving a signal a second from the future. Millions of these devices have been sold. The Predictors create a dystopic world by providing evidence that free will is actually a myth—the future is predetermined and fixed. As a result, people become lethargic and just stop eating entirely.
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empirical relationship linked to gains from experience in production.
Ian R. MacLeod is a British science fiction and fantasy writer.
Ted Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and six Locus awards. His short story "Story of Your Life" was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). He was an artist in residence at the University of Notre Dame in 2020–2021. Chiang is also a frequent non-fiction contributor to the New Yorker Magazine, most recently on topics related to computer technology, such as artificial intelligence.
Foreshadowing is a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, and it helps develop or subvert the audience's expectations about upcoming events.
"Story of Your Life" is a science fiction novella by American writer Ted Chiang, first published in Starlight 2 in 1998, and in 2002 in Chiang's collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others. Its major themes are language and determinism.
Year's Best SF 11 is a science fiction anthology edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer that was published in 2006. It is the eleventh in the Year's Best SF series.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" is a fantasy novelette by American writer Ted Chiang, originally published in 2007 by Subterranean Press and reprinted in the September 2007 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. In 2019, the novelette was included in the collection of short stories Exhalation: Stories.
"Exhalation" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ted Chiang, about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It was first published in 2008 in the anthology Eclipse 2: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Jonathan Strahan. In 2019, the story was included in the collection of short stories Exhalation: Stories.
"Hell Is the Absence of God" is a 2001 fantasy novelette by American writer Ted Chiang, first published in Starlight #3, and subsequently reprinted in Year's Best Fantasy 2, and in Fantasy: The Best of 2001, as well as in Chiang's 2002 anthology, Stories of Your Life and Others.
Stories of Your Life and Others is a collection of short stories by American writer Ted Chiang originally published in 1998, and later in 2002 in a collection of short stories by Tor Books. It collects Chiang's first eight stories. All of the stories except "Liking What You See: A Documentary" were previously published individually elsewhere.
The Lifecycle of Software Objects is a novella by American writer Ted Chiang, originally published in 2010 by Subterranean Press. It focuses on the creation of digital entities and their growth as they are raised by human trainers over the course of many years. The novella received critical praise, winning the 2011 Locus Award for Best Novella and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" is a science fiction story by American writer Ted Chiang. It was first published in 2013 in Subterranean Press.
Exhalation: Stories is a collection of short stories by American writer Ted Chiang. The book was initially released on May 7, 2019, by Alfred A. Knopf.
"Omphalos" is a science fantasy short story by American author Ted Chiang. It is named after the Omphalos hypothesis and a 1857 book by English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse. It was first published in Chiang's 2019 collection, Exhalation: Stories.
"The Evolution of Human Science" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ted Chiang, published in June 2000 in Nature. The story was also included in the collection Stories of Your Life and Others (2002).
"Liking What You See: A Documentary" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Ted Chiang, published in the 2002 collection Stories of Your Life and Others.
"Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Ted Chiang, initially published in the 2011 anthology The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer. It also appeared in the 2019 collection Exhalation: Stories.
"The Great Silence" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ted Chiang that originated as the onscreen text for a video installation of the same name created in collaboration with Allora & Calzadilla. It was initially published as a story in e-flux Journal in May 2015. The story also appeared in the 2016 anthology The Best American Short Stories and in the 2019 collection Exhalation: Stories.
"Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom" is a science fiction novella by American writer Ted Chiang, initially published in 2019 collection Exhalation: Stories. The novella's name quotes a proverb by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in his work The Concept of Anxiety. An abridged version of the novella was also published under the title "Better Versions of You" in the literary supplement to The New York Times.
"It's 2059, and the Rich Kids are Still Winning" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ted Chiang, initially published on May 27, 2019, by The New York Times, as the first installment in a new series, "Op-Eds from the Future".