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Free online story. First published in Thoughtcrime Experiments, 2009.
First published May 6, 2009
43 people want to read
About the author
Ken Liu
467 books22.1k followersKen Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards for his fiction, he has also won top genre honors abroad in Japan, Spain, and France.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book is All That We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
In addition to his original fiction, Liu also occasionally publishes literary translations. His most recent work of translation is a new rendition of Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book is All That We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
In addition to his original fiction, Liu also occasionally publishes literary translations. His most recent work of translation is a new rendition of Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 26, 2023
Liu was expanding on Ted Chiang's work - "Hell is the Absence of God" with this short. I liked this short better than Chiang's - "Hell is the Absence of God" - which I found cold and unresolved. I found it especially interesting after having read "The Future of the Mind" by Michio Kaku, which has a short section on hyperreligiosity and it's relationship to the temporal lobe. Some individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy see religious significant in everything (hyperreligiosity). There is conjecture that Joan of Arc may have had temporal lobe epilepsy. There was even some research (Persinger) where magnetic stimulation of particular parts of the brain induced feelings of a divine presence. This effect was repeatable on demand.
February 7, 2017
This is a pretty little short story which explores the themes of faith through the love of an atheist programmer. It's short enough that I won't go too much into the details of the story, except to note that a basic understanding of the mathematics of types from programming languages is probably a prerequisite to reading the story (though, given how it's written, you probably don't need more than a superficial understanding).
Excellent story; makes me feel like reading more of it.
Excellent story; makes me feel like reading more of it.
February 28, 2025
Thought-provoking companion piece to Hell is the Absence of God. Very quick and cool explanation of some fundamental programming concepts for laymen too!
December 26, 2017
I'm pretty sure I've never read another short story that geeks out on programming language type systems.
May 25, 2022
4.5/5 stars.
The beginning was a bit weird, but most short SF storied I read were of similar vibes. It took some time for me to get into it. But than around the halfway mark, something just clicked!
I really liked the conclusion and discussion about how personal religious beliefs are different depending on your personality and life experience. I like the comparison of a bit-error in a car's computer to that of neuron activity, the latter can bring someone salvation, while the former might cause them to get killed.
It's so interesting reading a sort of follow up story, in a sense, that builds upon another great short story: "Hell is the absence of God" by Ted Chiang, which I read last summer. This one also included more science concepts from physics and CS. I really appreciated how they enriched the story, especially since I'm already familiar with them.
Feels like Lydia is a bit of a maniac pixie girl...
Now I want to mention something that popped into me mind while reading this, that made me reflect a bit on the other short SFF storied I've read.
It seems like there’s a recurring pattern in some flash fiction/short stories, where a girl love-interest death or tragic life is a catalyst for the main character, who's a man, to do something, or to somehow to change his life. You know what I’m talking about. 'The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate' and 'Hell is the absence of god' by Ted Chiang, 'with her eyes' by Liu Cixin, 'how long the shadow' cast by Kenji Yanagawa, 'single-bit error' by ken Liu and others I don't remember or haven't read. I also wanted to point out that all the ones I named were written by men.
I'm not saying that they don’t have any deep meaning or that they're completely flawed because of this "issue". There is usually an underlying theme and message to the story. But couldn’t we find a different (and maybe better) plot device than this? It seems to stand on the patriarchal and myogenetic notion, and I do see a need to change and better this. Fiction does have influence on readers, and it also gives as a window into the mind of the author and the current society and its values.
The beginning was a bit weird, but most short SF storied I read were of similar vibes. It took some time for me to get into it. But than around the halfway mark, something just clicked!
I really liked the conclusion and discussion about how personal religious beliefs are different depending on your personality and life experience. I like the comparison of a bit-error in a car's computer to that of neuron activity, the latter can bring someone salvation, while the former might cause them to get killed.
It's so interesting reading a sort of follow up story, in a sense, that builds upon another great short story: "Hell is the absence of God" by Ted Chiang, which I read last summer. This one also included more science concepts from physics and CS. I really appreciated how they enriched the story, especially since I'm already familiar with them.
Feels like Lydia is a bit of a maniac pixie girl...
Now I want to mention something that popped into me mind while reading this, that made me reflect a bit on the other short SFF storied I've read.
It seems like there’s a recurring pattern in some flash fiction/short stories, where a girl love-interest death or tragic life is a catalyst for the main character, who's a man, to do something, or to somehow to change his life. You know what I’m talking about. 'The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate' and 'Hell is the absence of god' by Ted Chiang, 'with her eyes' by Liu Cixin, 'how long the shadow' cast by Kenji Yanagawa, 'single-bit error' by ken Liu and others I don't remember or haven't read. I also wanted to point out that all the ones I named were written by men.
I'm not saying that they don’t have any deep meaning or that they're completely flawed because of this "issue". There is usually an underlying theme and message to the story. But couldn’t we find a different (and maybe better) plot device than this? It seems to stand on the patriarchal and myogenetic notion, and I do see a need to change and better this. Fiction does have influence on readers, and it also gives as a window into the mind of the author and the current society and its values.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2023
I read Single-Bit Error after seeing that it was, I believe incorrectly Referenced as "response" Hell is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang on Hell's Wikipedia Page. It was inspired in part by that story and Liu even reached out to Chiang to ensure his story was OK to publish. This is an incredibly thoughtful and charming action, despite the stories being so very different beyond the themes of reconciling faith and the inclusion of angels.
It was originally published in ThoughtCrime: https://thoughtcrime.crummy.com/2009/...
There is a different edit that appears more to be in its format than anything else on Liu's website:
https://kenliu.name/stories/single-bi...
This is a story I read twice for the first time tonight. The first time was breathtaking, but for every sense. The second time I was sobbing from about halfway through to the end and sporadically afterwards.
Liu writes in such a beautifully poignant manner that reading it is an ecstacy and/ or an agony from which my brain can't compute. I am left hollowed out his words and barely able to think. I literally don't know what else to say.
I lack the capacity to do this story any justice in reviewing or critiquing it, and, frankly, I see this as art in such a pure and affecting sense that I am disinclined to even try. However, I absolutely do recommend it and believe this is one of those stories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. This is also how I feel about another of Liu's stories, The Paper Menagerie.
It was originally published in ThoughtCrime: https://thoughtcrime.crummy.com/2009/...
There is a different edit that appears more to be in its format than anything else on Liu's website:
https://kenliu.name/stories/single-bi...
This is a story I read twice for the first time tonight. The first time was breathtaking, but for every sense. The second time I was sobbing from about halfway through to the end and sporadically afterwards.
Liu writes in such a beautifully poignant manner that reading it is an ecstacy and/ or an agony from which my brain can't compute. I am left hollowed out his words and barely able to think. I literally don't know what else to say.
I lack the capacity to do this story any justice in reviewing or critiquing it, and, frankly, I see this as art in such a pure and affecting sense that I am disinclined to even try. However, I absolutely do recommend it and believe this is one of those stories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. This is also how I feel about another of Liu's stories, The Paper Menagerie.
June 27, 2023
Quite similar to Ted Chiang's Hell is the Absence of God, although different enough to be fresh. A little bit more tech-heavy than religion-heavy in comparison, although certainly the in-world aspect of faith is still extremely prominent, just not as much as in Chiang's work. Overall the work reflects what is much of the same story, but written by different authors with different perspectives, worldviews, and priorities.
Read
October 14, 2024-it was great. perhaps even better than the story it was inspired by, Ted Chiang's "Hell is The Absence of God."
-i love the central idea that drives the story. I already knew about cosmic rays before and the power they have over our electronic devices, how the universe is hostile to computers because stray cosmic rays can change bits in our computer memories to create anomalies in our data. bringing that over to our brains, to suggest the idea that we can do the same to our neurons to affect our biological memory was a brilliant idea. and now we got this amazing story.
-i love the central idea that drives the story. I already knew about cosmic rays before and the power they have over our electronic devices, how the universe is hostile to computers because stray cosmic rays can change bits in our computer memories to create anomalies in our data. bringing that over to our brains, to suggest the idea that we can do the same to our neurons to affect our biological memory was a brilliant idea. and now we got this amazing story.
December 2, 2022
Good writing, basically an inferior rip-off of “Hell is the Absence of God” by Ted Chiang. I know that he gives credit for this in the afterword of the story, but when this story has the exact same beats as Chiang’s and he doesn’t improve the experience from the original, it’s hard to say this is homage. Hell, the story literally says “Hell is the Absence of God” twice. Usually I’m totally good with references to other works but this one doesn’t stand on its own.
February 14, 2020
Cute stuff, fan fiction for Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God". The programmer spending his evenings reading poems at open mics, really living, is a cliche I haven't seen before (if you see what I mean).
Very earnest, slightly flat.
Programmers are not really numbers people,” Tyler said. “We are words people. The numbers people work in hardware.”
Very earnest, slightly flat.
November 10, 2025
Bro denies a manifestation of God because he saw a star twinkle so he thinks it’s just his brain tripping out 💀💀💀💀
November 30, 2016
Totalmente recomendable al mismo nivel que el zoo de papel
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews