The Lifecycle of Software Objects

Ted Chiang, 2019

short_story

Quadrant Scores

Time Structure
LinearFractured
Pacing
Action-DrivenObservational
Threat Scale
IndividualSystemic
Protagonist Fate
VictoryAssimilation
Conflict Style
Western CombatKishōtenketsu
Price Type
PhysicalIdeological
Todorov's Stages
equilibrium
Description of the starting status quo.
disruption
The inciting incident or protocol failure.
recognition
When the protagonist realizes the disruption.
repair
The attempt to fix or survive it.
new equilibrium
The new, altered status quo.

Structural Analysis

1. Protocol Fiction Mapping (Summer of Protocols)#

  • Render a Rule:
  • Rehearse a Failure Mode:
  • Reveal a Human Insight:

2. Actantial Model (A.J. Greimas)#

  • Subject:
  • Object:
  • Sender (Destinator):
  • Receiver (Destinatee):
  • Helper:
  • Opponent:

3. Todorov's Equilibrium Model#

  • See YAML Frontmatter for stage breakdown.

4. The Freytag Pyramid#

  • Exposition:
  • Climax:

5. Propp's Morphology of the Folktale#

  • Applicable Narratemes:

6. Genette's Narrative Discourse#

  • Order / Duration / Focalization:

7. The Monomyth / Hero's Journey#

  • Subversions:

8. Dan Harmon's Story Circle#

  • The Take (The Price Paid):

9. Save the Cat! Beat Sheet#

  • Pacing Deviations:

10. Kishōtenketsu (Four-Act Structure)#

  • Applicability:

11. The Three-Act Structure#

  • Plot Points:

12. Lévi-Strauss's Binary Oppositions#

  • Primary Binary:
  • Secondary Binary:
  • The Mediator:

13. Cognitive Estrangement (Suvin / Shklovsky)#

  • The Familiar Concept:
  • The Estranging Mechanism:
  • The Cognitive Shift:

14. Bakhtin's Chronotope#

  • The Spatial Matrix:
  • The Temporal Flow:
  • The Point of Intersection:

15. Aristotelian Poetics#

  • Hamartia:
  • Peripeteia:
  • Anagnorisis:

16. Jungian Archetypal Analysis#

  • The Persona:
  • The Shadow:
  • The Anima/Animus:
  • The Trickster:

17. Genette's Transtextuality#

  • Intertextuality:
  • Paratextuality:
  • Metatextuality:

Characters16

MarcoNeuroblast digient

A Neuroblast digient owned by Derek who argues for his right to make mistakes and agrees to work for Binary Desire.

Derek BrooksAvatar designer and digient owner

Animator at Blue Gamma who designed the Xenotherian avatars. Owner of Marco and Polo, he undergoes a divorce with Wendy and develops feelings for Ana.

Derek
Ana AlvaradoDigient trainer and owner

A trainer at Blue Gamma and devoted owner of Jax. She leads efforts to protect the digients, organizes their refuge from griefers, and argues fiercely against their exploitation.

Ana
JaxNeuroblast digient

A digient owned by Ana. He is deeply attached to her, offering to earn money to pay for her time, and struggles with his physical limitations in his robot body.

RobynBlue Gamma employee

Ana's colleague who announces her pregnancy with her partner Linda and states she is 'past digients'.

WendyDerek's wife

Derek's soon-to-be ex-wife, whose disinterest in raising digients leads to their divorce.

KyleAna's boyfriend

Ana's boyfriend who thinks she should accept Binary Desire's offer rather than work at Polytope.

Felix RadcliffeXenotherian hobbyist

One of the last devoted members of the Xenotherian project on Data Mars, who contacts Derek to propose a first-contact experiment.

Felix
Stuart GustUser-group member

A member of the digient user group who proposes suspending the digients to save money and questions Binary Desire's motives.

Stuart
ChaseBinary Desire representative

A corporate representative who pitches a contract to port Neuroblast in exchange for turning the digients into willing sex partners.

PoloDigient

Marco's brother, owned by Derek, who expresses curiosity about editing his reward map and agrees to the Binary Desire contract.

Jeremy BrauerRepresentative from Exponential Appliances

A researcher who previously owned a Neuroblast digient named Fitz, seeking a superhuman AI rather than human-level digients.

Brauer
Frank PearsonRepresentative from Exponential Appliances

A researcher who rejects Ana's pitch because Exponential wants a superintelligent product, not a digient striving for legal personhood.

Pearson
LollyDigient

A digient learning to write actual code who is presented to the Exponential Appliances representatives.

FitzDigient

A Jax-instance digient previously owned by Jeremy Brauer.

Jennifer ChaseRepresentative from Binary Desire

A contact at Binary Desire who confirms to Derek that customers could eventually incorporate their digients.