Exhalación

What if an innocent toy dynamited our notion of free will? What if it were possible to get in touch with versions of ourselves on other timelines? If we created virtual pets equipped with artificial intelligence that allows them to learn as if they were human children, what kind of ethical commitment should we make with their education and their future? And what if we could envision any episode in our life as it happened, without the affective nuance and interpretive bias of what we call "memories"? No matter what topic Ted Chiang addresses in his narratives, he always demonstrates a formidable ability to delve into the enigmas of the human condition and address the ethical conflicts that the relationship with technology poses in our existence. Far from the dystopian approach predominant in futuristic narratives today, Chiang's stories show an overtly positive and vitalist perspective, outlining philosophical questions of enormous human depth. Ted Chiang is one of the unavoidable names in science fiction, a genre in which for years he has enjoyed the most solid prestige, as evidenced by the infinity of awards his work has received; Revealing, elegant, and surprising, the stories in Exhalation rank him simply among the undisputed authors of contemporary American literature.