Wednesday, October 4, 2017

The Psychology Game, by Xia Jia

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(Near-Future SF) A TV show features a person and a therapist, and the audience tries to guess whether the therapist is human or an AI. (2,894 words; Time: 09m)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Needs Improvement

"," by (translated by Emily Jin and Ken Liu, edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in issue 133, published on .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: Most of the facts about AI in the story really are true.

Con: No characters, no plot, all infodump.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 133)
Xia Jia Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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3 comments (may contain spoilers):

  1. This covers pretty much the same subject as the author's previous story "Goodnight, Melancholy." This one just sketches a scenario and examines it. Whereas, the other had two interwoven storylines. Maybe a reflection of the different audiences each of the original Chinese pieces were written for.

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    Replies
    1. I'm not sure what the audience is for what amounts to little more than the outline for a story.

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    2. It reads almost like a nonfiction piece. The orignal was in a publication called Knowledge Is Power. With that last line of "Know thyself," I imagine it was specifically tailored for its appearance there.

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