A Psalm for the Wild-Built

I think fiction like this will probably become more important in the coming years, but I also think we have no idea what stories we should be telling about AI. These days, I'm much more interested in what artists and writers have to say about AI than what engineers have to say about it. This book eventually arrives at a discussion that feels like a debate between religion and secularism: a robot that insists that it contains multitudes in conversation with a human who insists that they are in search of their one "purpose." The human character feels, at times, flatter and more cliche than the robot, but I wonder if my reading of these characters is too shaped by my own resistance to the idea that one needs a single purpose in life.

as per title. more stories without the usual american conflicts and cartoony villains. more utopias and less dystopias. more writing that challenges our belief and makes us think, even if shortly, about the possibility of a different world. the relationship between the two characters is beautifully narrated.

sweet, beautiful, simple and short. this story came to me on the heels of a hard year, which itself was following a couple more hard years. sibling dex and mosscap were precisely the guides i needed to recenter at the end of this year and think about how to bring a little bit of tea monk energy into the next chapters of my life. i'll be rereading this one.