From an interview with the author: "I wrote 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects' partly out of a long-standing dissatisfaction I’ve had with the way artificial intelligence has been depicted in science fiction: as a very useful butler, an idealized servant who does whatever you want and is hyper-competent but servile. [...] We do know a lot more than Lester del Rey or Isaac Asimov did when they were writing their robot stories. I have no criticism of their depictions of robots because back then, they didn’t know what a transistor was. But today, even though we know a lot more about computers than Asimov did, many standard assumptions in our depictions of artificial intelligence date back to a time like that of Asimov’s robots. For example, technological obsolescence was not that big an issue in the ’40s. If you had something made out of steel, that could last a good long time; it was not going to be replaced by Version 3.1. We didn’t have experience with the pace of computer technology. Now we do, but our depictions of artificial intelligence don’t really reflect that; there’s no acknowledgement of how short product lifecycles are now."
kleinbl00 and theadvancedapes, I think you two would enjoy this story. Here is the direct link: http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_...
I'm glad you enjoyed the read. You should do something with "Restaurant."
Great, great read. I will definitely be "hub-ing" this. -Thanks.