[7thaccount]

Understand really was my favorite super intelligence story. Isn't the new show severance based off one of his short stories as well? I can't remember. I wasn't a big fan of the pacing of the digients story with the little digital life forms. It was certainly thought provoking though.

[gcanyon]

It's sooo easy to blow it when illustrating super intelligence. Interestingly, I thought Phenomenon with John Travolta did a pretty reasonable job -- when they asked him to name as many animals as he could in a minute, and he was bored and made it harder (by giving them for each letter of the alphabet?) and when he says to a friend that he should redesign/paint the parking lot outside his store because he could add an extra space and at the same time make the traffic flow smoother.

[jrussino]

I'll preface this by saying I've only watched season 1 of Severance so far.

I have never heard anyone involved with the show suggest this, but I feel pretty strongly that it's based off or at least inspired by Greg Egan's "Learning To Be Me".

[I-M-S]

Severence is an original work written by Dan Erickson.

[OisinMoran]

Yeah I’m a massive Chiang fan but I’ve told everyone to skip “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” when recommending the Exhalation collection, though I feel it’s only getting more relevant.

[mkoubaa]

Why? I found that story fantastic

[7thaccount]

My wife and I both thought the pacing was glacial. The subject matter was also pretty depressing (not unusual with his stories) and I didn't think the payoff was that great tbh.

Overall, it's a fantastic book though.

[mkoubaa]

That could be the case. I read it on vacation so I was more willing to indulge in a slower story