The Author Behind Arrival Doesnt Fear AI. Look at How We Treat Animals.
b'For years, I\\u2019ve kept a list of dream guests for this show. And as long as that list has existed, Ted Chiang has been atop it.\\n\\nChiang is a science fiction writer. But that undersells him. He has released two short story collections over 20 years \\u2014 2002\\u2019s \\u201cStories of Your Life and Others\\u201d and 2019\\u2019s \\u201cExhalation.\\u201d Those stories have won more awards than I can list, and one of them was turned into the film \\u201cArrival.\\u201d They are remarkable pieces of work: Each is built around a profound scientific, philosophical or religious idea, and then the story or the story structure is shaped to represent that idea. They are wonders of precision and craft. But unlike a lot of science fiction, they are never cold. Chiang\\u2019s work is deeply, irrepressibly humane.\\n\\nI\\u2019ve always wondered about the mind that would create Chiang\\u2019s stories. And in this conversation I got to watch it in action. Chiang doesn\\u2019t like to talk about himself. But he does like to talk about ideas. And so we do: We discuss the difference between magic and technology, why superheroes fight crime but ignore injustice, what it would do to the human psyche if we knew the future is fixed, whether free will exists, whether we\\u2019d want to know the exact date of our deaths, why Chiang fears what humans will do to artificial intelligence more than what A.I. will do to humans, the way capitalism turns people against technology, and much more.\\n\\nThe ideas Chiang offered in this conversation are still ringing in my head, and changing the way I see the world. It\\u2019s worth taking your time with this one.\\n\\nRecommendations: \\n\\n"Creation" by Steve Grand\\n\\n"On the Measure of Intelligence" by Francois Chollet\\n\\n"CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" by George Saunders\\n\\n"A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan\\n\\n"Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honn\\xeaamise" (movie)\\n\\n"On Fragile Waves" by Lily Yu\\n\\n"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard\\n\\nControl (video game)\\n\\nReturn of the Obra Dinn (video game)\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Rog\\xe9 Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.'