Talk:Again, Fear/@comment-25021327-20150117020917

A rather tragic tale!

I thought this was a well done piece of speculative fiction (as Harlan calls it) and felt a bit reminiscent of (if I'm remembering correctly, it's been years) Clarke's Maelstrom II, although from a different perspective.

Sentience in computers has been and is an interesting topic that can yield interesting insights into the human condition, as well as where the line is drawn in regard to "being alive." Though this piece is short, I feel that it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

We meet the narrator at the genesis of its consciousness, only to see it face its demise, it's hard to get much more tragic than that. Though I didn't find this piece overbearing. I think that perhaps the fact that we know only enough about the narrator to begin to feel empathy for it works as a strength. We don't know what exactly is happening, or why, but these factors aren't important. I also enjoy that the timeline of the story occurs in such a short span.

Personally I like stories about computers glitching out and doing strange things that they maybe aren't supposed to, so this worked for me. I enjoyed the interspersing of garbage code and text mixed with the poetic narration of the computer. It had me wondering is what the narrator was feeling were shadows of the many programmers whose time and perhaps personalities went into creating it, or if this was a more pure type of sentience.

So for me, this was a nice quick read. Thought provoking, and tragic, but ultimately enjoyable. Glad I checked this one out :)