![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792883661_334_af34b7346cddb285a27a328515eee10ed715d7fb.png\")
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October 25, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Ted Chiang has been thinking about some of the worst people in the world.<\/p>\n Considered one of the greatest living science-fiction writers and known for fighting the rapacious rise of artificial intelligence, the New York-born, Seattle-based writer is bound for Sydney for Powerhouse Parramatta\u2019s 23-day opening festival<\/a>. Chiang will give a keynote address on November 8 about billionaires and capitalism and whether immortality can be pursued ethically.<\/p>\n Spoiler alert: probably not.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like a lot of the people who are interested in pursuing immortality in recent years, they seem like the worst people in the world,\u201d Chiang says. \u201cI guess this raises a couple of questions. You know, like one is, would you really want to spend eternity in the company of these people?\u201d<\/p>\n The other question Chiang is pondering is along these lines: \u201cIf the worst people in the world seem to be the only ones who are really interested in that, does that tell you anything about that thing that they are interested in?\u201d<\/p>\n There have been headline-grabbing examples of biohacking, and the longevity billionaires<\/a> are a class of ultrawealthy individuals who seem intent on testing the theory that money cannot buy more time. Chiang doesn\u2019t name anyone, but points out those in such a socioeconomic stratosphere already live pretty long lives.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cFor us to have good evidence that [these treatments] are working, we\u2019ll need to see a significant number of them living over 100 or like 120 or something like that, and so you know that\u2019s decades away.\u201d<\/p>\n In a sense, the ultra-rich have bought time anyway, since they do not have to bother themselves with such mundane tasks as dishes and laundry, or driving around to hardware stores to swap the gas bottle.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s another version of the question of, \u2018Why does anyone continue to pursue wealth?\u2019 There\u2019s a level of wealth which is modest by billionaire standards but is really more than anyone could actually want in terms of improving the quality of their life.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have $10 million, I don\u2019t know how much better your life is going to get with additional money, but you know, obviously, billionaires \u2013 they have 100 times that.<\/p>\n \u201cNow there are people who have $10 billion or $100 billion. Why do they keep pursuing that? It\u2019s not because it will help improve their life in any meaningful way. It\u2019s just because, arguably, it\u2019s the only thing they know how to do. You know, they can\u2019t think of anything else to do.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Chiang\u2019s early stories, his 1998 novella Story of Your Life, was the basis of Eric Heisserer\u2019s screenplay for the award-winning Denis Villeneuve film Arrival. But another, The Tower of Babylon, was the inspiration for one of the blockbuster opening exhibitions for the Powerhouse Parramatta.<\/p>\n For Task Eternal<\/a>, billed as \u201cone of the most ambitious aerospace exhibitions ever staged\u201d and located in the museum\u2019s largest space, the architects drew on the story for an ascending design in four acts, titled Skyward, Power, Off-Earth and The Return.<\/p>\n About 30 minutes into the interview, I throw a barbie into the conversation as we veer from billionaires\u2019 quixotic quests to the inevitable heat death of the universe.<\/p>\n In Chiang\u2019s Hugo award-winning story Exhalation, the title work from his 2019 collection, long-lived mechanical beings come to grips with the inevitability of their own demise when they realise the differences in air pressure that power them will eventually equalise and their universe will be rendered inert. Mortality, or immortality, was not front of mind.<\/p>\n \u201cI can understand why you might be reminded of that story, but I guess I want to clarify that that story is just about thermodynamics,\u201d Chiang says.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes people interpret the story as maybe being about climate change. It is absolutely not about climate change because climate change is not inevitable, whereas the heat death of the universe is inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n Early on, there\u2019s a passage about how swapping depleted lungs for full canisters can sometimes be a joyous communal event, and sometimes as perfunctory as changing the batteries in the remote. I\u2019d read it when the bottle under the barbecue had run empty, so fossil fuels were front of mind. Not so for the author.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly never expected people to interpret Exhalation as being about climate change. That was not something that ever, ever occurred to me. But yeah, that\u2019s just another example of how it is impossible to anticipate how people will read your work.\u201d<\/p>\n Chiang was named among Time\u2019s 100 most influential figures<\/a> in artificial intelligence for his criticism of the technology and the companies profiting from it. His work has dealt with fate and mortality, along with thermodynamics. \u201cTrying to make peace with one\u2019s mortality is, yeah, I think a really central part of what it means to be a human. What I want is not to live forever, but I want to be at peace with my mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n If writing might be an easier way to achieve immortality, \u201cthat has never crossed my mind\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people crave immortality, mostly what they want is actual physical immortality. I don\u2019t think that having a long-lasting reputation is a substitute for physical immortality,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in terms of my own relationship to my writing, it has nothing to do with any expectation that my work will outlast me.\u201d<\/p>\n Chiang suspects few of us want to live forever, but are rather worried about growing old and the pains and indignities that come with age. \u201cWhen you fear death, the thing that you have to overcome is the fear, not the death.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more about the Powerhouse<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Author](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792883662_666_d63aeb9b4094de23331f5da2d4fc50c44d78becd.jpeg\")
Author Ted Chiang will make a guest appearance for the opening of Powerhouse Parramatta in November.Kate Joyce<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792883664_440_1486085c83e3a87bf49d7c147f19237a1aaa661e.jpeg\")
In the film Arrival, adapted from Ted Chiang\u2019s story, Amy Adams plays a linguist who tries to interpret for visiting aliens.
\n Alamy<\/p>\n