One theme in Ted Chaing’s “Exhalation” is acting for the greater good, in this case, to add to the pool of scientific knowledge. The narrator, a mechanical being in a world populated with other mechanical beings who believe they will live forever, is an anatomist. He has suspected for some time that the prevailing hypothesis of how memory is stored is incorrect. He comes up with an idea for an experiment to find out. The experiment poses great risk to his body, so he deliberates over whether he should go through with it. When a strange clock pattern persists and confirms his suspicions, however, he feels he has no choice but to take apart his own brain and examine it to discover the truth. What propels him is the need to know and let others
