Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom is one of the original stories in Ted Chiang's Exhalation collection, and was nominated for a Hugo for Best Novella this year. My very favorite thing about all of Chiang's stories is that in each one he takes on the biggest of topics--some aspect of the meaning of life. I can't think of one that couldn't be a sermon (in a somewhat liberal, intellectual church). The driver is a speculation that is sometimes possible, sometimes not, but always grounded in reality. In this story the driver is a device that forces a quantum choice, causing possibilities to diverge, then showing you yourself living in that alternate possibility. What would we use that for? What would it teach us? Well, we'd exploit it for money, but also use it for connection, for collaboration, and for science. In the protagonist, Nat, we see someone who has gone down a difficult road but is trying to make better choices, and trying to find reasons to do so. My favorite idea is that of making choices that influence our future alternate selves--each positive choice makes it easier for those alternate versions to make positive choices as well. Made my day.
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