Catherynne M. Valente's Silently, And Very Fast

The way society thinks of Artificial Intelligence is absurd. Most people look at technological progress from a business perspective, namely, how can we profit from it. Some more pessimistic approaches may compare it to an uncontrollable snowball, where progress ultimately gets too fast and unstoppable. There are many ways to interpret the future of technology; however, Catherynne M. Valente proposes a new path for A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) that has not been explored yet. In Valente’s short story Silently, and Very Fast, an A.I. machine is introduced to a family and meant to stay with them for generations. As the narrative unfolds, the author writes with an astonishing descriptive language. Neva’s dreams are a big part in this story and the author takes this opportunity to create unbelievably beautiful surreal landscapes. I could picture everything in my mind as I read the story, even if the things described were insane, or non-sensical. The author makes the characters fly, tele-transport, glow, change bodies, and so much more and in this world of dreams, it all makes sense. The way the author depicts this whole reality seems unreal, yet it showcases the …show more content…
I interpreted one of the scenes from Valente’s story where Neva and Elefesis are interacting. Neva is holding a glowing globe, which stands for Elefisis’ heart or control system and she is floating in a lake of stars. In this scene, Elefesis is observing Neva and trying to understand her thoughts and feelings, as she embraces his heart. This is one of the most emotional scenes in the story because it shows how the human mind can connect and form such a close relationship with an A.I. device. This opens up the discussion of how fast these devices will evolve and become closer to human being brains, which in turn blurs the line between humans and human-like