The Master Key by Masako Togawa

A fun, mystery novel. 🧐🧐🧐🧐 Short, quick to read and gripping. It felt like reading a jigsaw puzzle. It starts with a crime and a body being buried somewhere in an apartment complex. Then we are given the pieces of the puzzle in each chapter. We go back at different points in time to see what the women in the building were up to. Each of them had secrets of their own but are they connected to the murder?

Machines like me by Ian McEwan

A really enjoyable read. Reminded me of Galatea 2.2 but instead of an AI in a Computer here we get an AI in an Android called Adam. Like in Galatea we see more about the AI's human owner, Charlie, than we see of the AI. We meet Charlie's girlfriend who's got a dark secret. And how Charlie, his girlfriend and Adam form an unusual family, with Adam trying to learn how to be human. All this happens in an alternative 1980s Britain where Alan Turing is still alive and were mobile phones already exist.

The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction edited by Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts and Sherryl Vint

Ch27. Posthumanism and Cyborg Theory by Veronica Hollinger – this essay discusses ideas of intellectuals such as Katherine Hayles and Donna Haraway (and a bit of Foucault) regarding the concept and the role of the posthuman in today’s, technocultural societies. It asks the question what are we? According to Hayles some discourses tend to define humanity as information patterns giving the human body a secondary role, as carrier of the mind. According to Haraway the concept of “cyborg” helps us to blur the differences between the human (nature) and the machine (culture). Thanks to that we can beat those rules which have been historically enforced to us because they were “natural” rules. For example, the role of women in society as mothers. The essay mentions a few Science Fiction works such as He, She and It by M. Piercy, Schismatrix by B. Sterling and Air by Geoff Ryman. 

Ch32. Virtuality by Thomas Foster. This was a difficult read because of the language and the reference to previous philosophical work. Foster discusses the term Virtuality not only in relation with technologies but with our everyday life. For example the Virtuality in writing and reading. Foster quotes Hansen (2004) "far from being a synonym of the digital, the virtual must be understood as the capacity, so fundamental to human existence, to be in excess of one's actual state". Foster draws connections between Virtuality and the concept of Cyberspace (a narrower term specific to the use of technology coined by William Gibson) citing well known SF works such as Gibson's Neuromancer, Gwyneth Jone's North Wind and Damien Broderick's The Judas Mandala (where Broderick uses the term virtual reality for the first time). The text turns very complicated as Foster introduces the work of Katherine Hayle. He quotes her definition of Virtuality "the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns." Hayles sees the opposition between materiality and information as a duality or dichotomy in which Information is privileged over materiality. The text ends with a reference to Richard Morgan's Alter Carbon (a novel/trilogy I've wanted to read for some time now). 

Ch22. Feminisms by Jane Donawerth - provides a brief overview of feminist theory and the history of feminism: first, second and third (or postfeminist or postmodern...) waves. Since the 1600s and 1700s women have written about their rights to education and to preach (e.g. Women's speaking justified by Margaret Fell, 1666). SF (?) Fiction mentioned: The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World by Margaret Cavendish (1666). During the 19th century and early 20th century women fought for property rights, sexuality and enfranchisement. Mentioned SF references are feminist technological utopias (e.g. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, 1915), critiqued housewife oppression as they saw women confined in comfortable concentration camps (e.g. The Heat Death of the Universe by Pamela Zoline, 1967), The Women Men don't see by James Tiptree Jr, 1973). The 1970s saw a development of Women's studies and a resurrection of feminist utopias (e.g. The female man by Joanna Russ, 1975; The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri Tepper, 1988) and slave narratives (e.g. Kindred by Octavia Butler, 1979; Floating Worlds by Cecelia Holland, 1975). In the third wave, postmodernist thinkers questioned earlier feminist theories with for example proposing an interlocking matrix of identity for women (Collins, 1989) and intersectionality (Collins, 1999) which examines the intersection of science, gender, race and ethnicity. Donna Haraway (1985) proposed that "we live in a postmodern society where are all cyborgs and we should begin dreaming a monstrous world that is postgender ... The cyborg, the sf part-human/part-machine fantasy that is rapidly becoming our reality, represents 'transgressed boundaries' and unsettles the concept of heterosexuality as natural" (1991). (Works mentioned: Drinking sapphire wine by Tanith Lee, 1977; Dreaming Metal by Melissa Scott, 1995; The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherry, 1982 and others). 

Ch51. Feminist SF by Gwyneth Jones - this short essay recounts the literary devices Feminist SF writers have used in the past: e.g. imaginary domains where women are capable of governance, where women are morally superior, where women are intelligent; utopias and dystopia; role reversal; stories with destructive value systems (subjection of women, violence); catastrophe that wipes the male population; multiverse stories; stories where women and men are equal, and more. Works I am interested in checking are Gateway by Frederick Pohl (which they say a feminist work), and James Tiptree's work. There is an entire paragraph dedicated to Tiptree and how the revelation as "him" being a woman resulted in a decline of her reputation, and a decline of Mainstream SF interest in feminism. 

Ch53. Hard SF by David N. Samuelson - this essay tries to define Hard Science Fiction, what it involves and doesn't, not necessarily in literary terms but in terms of the Science reflected in the stories. Hard SF requires a plausible and reasonable connection with Science and technology. This means that the Science and technology depicted need not to be real but believable, connected in some way to reality. This may involve rigorous scientific knowledge by the writer. The essay explains that the term Hard SF was first used in the late 1950s when SF began to emphasise social and psychological issues. Another important thing I learned, or maybe confirmed, was the lack of Female Hard SF writers. The world of Hard SF seems to be centralised in English speaking countries and is predominantly written by men. Samuelson explains that "males seem statistically more fascinated with looking under the hood and taking mechanisms apart" also that social conditioning emphasise in males the "hardness" of making and enforcing laws. Women on the contrary show little interest or satisfaction in writing... overly mechanical and unconcerned with human values." One exception is C.J. Cherryh's space operas (now on my list!) 

Ch55. Space Opera by Andy Sawyer - tries to define Space Opera by providing a short historical account. Starting from being a pejorative term to describing a kind of story with particular settings, technologies and goals. Space Operas are committed to action and adventure and focus on the heroic. In the 1950s some space opera got inspiration from westerns, with the aliens taking place of the Indians. Trends: galactic empire stories, influences of the new wave movement, influences of the visual aspects of film and TV and modern space operas reflecting American politics, warfare and history. For example using Terraforming stories as an analogy of stories about American settlers in hostile environments in the west. (Scifi Novels mentioned: the Culture series by Iain Banks which for Sawyer is more character based fiction than Space Opera, Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh who "matured the form" as she incorporated detailed historical background in her stories. Other authors mentioned Peter F Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds, Scott Westerfeld, John C Weight and M.John Harrison.)

City of Illusions by Ursula K Le Guin

This is the 3rd and last novel in this SF Masterworks edition. It is my favourite of the 3 by far. It hooked me from page one. In City of Illusions Le Guin uses the same literary device she used in the other two novels (Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile). The protagonist has to endure a long and hard journey across the planet. A journey of self discovery where he grows as a person and discovers the people of earth, a place he doesn't belong to. Great story and loved the ending.

The Call of Cthulhu - H.P. Lovecraft

This is a classic of horror short story. It follows a man who is investigating a secret cult. The Cthulhu cult whose followers are waiting for the Coming back of an ancient god. Having read some strange notes left by his late uncle the man then goes around the world looking for the places and people mentioned. The things he learns are scarier than hell. Loved the writing buy got shocked by those nasty remarks Lovecraft is well known for. However I guess those remarks contributed to the already dark and hideous atmosphere set throughout the story. 

So far I've read 47 stories in the B&N Volume and out of those The Call of Cthulhu is one of my favourites, with the Transition of Juan Romero, The Outsider, Herbert West - Reanimator and maybe Under the Pyramids.

Science Fiction and Philosophy - Part II - edited by Susan Schneider

Part II What am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons

6. Where Am I? by Daniel C Dennett – this is an excellent short story with Dennett himself as protagonist. Dennett accepts a job which requires him to get a surgical procedure to remove his brain from his body, put it in a vat and install radio connections between brain and body. Once he is following his assignment his brain-body connection fails. Sometime after that he is “revived” in a new body and is told that there is a computer copy of his brain which is synchronized. Throughout the story Dennett reflects on where he is. Is he were his brain is or where his body is? Where is he when he changes body? Or when he learns that there is a copy of his brain? Excellent, thought provoking.

7. Personal Identity by Eric Olson – this was a dense, difficult to read article of pure philosophy (of which I could only grasp it’s surface) . Olson is an expert in Philosophy of Mind and in this chapter he tries to answer several questions: What is to be a person? At what point in one’s develop from a fertilized egg there comes to be a person? What evidence bears on the question of whether the person here now is the one who was here yesterday? What it takes for us to persist through time? I learn a couple of concepts: first-person memory and psychological continuity, which try to explain the factors which make one person be the same person in a different time… cannot say much more, the text is complicated and got tangled in my brain.

8. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons by Derek Parfit - The chapter starts describing real split-brain cases. That is, when people have their two  brain hemispheres disconnected. Such people can have two separate and different experiences with either hemisphere at the same time. Does this mean that there's two streams of consciousness? Are there two people there? Parfit then discusses two theories about what persons are: the Ego Theory - the Ego or Subject of Experiences which unifies someone's consciousness at all time. The soul or spirit which exists apart from our physical existence.  The Bundle Theory - persons do not exist. Instead we are a bundle of Experiences tied up by causal relations. Hard to understand but maybe connecting this definition to Buddhism may help. Parfit says Buddha was the first Bundle theorist....

There is another case described about someone teletransporting to another planet.  The process starts with the person being scanned, body and brain, and the cells being destroyed at the same time. The information is sent to the other planet where a replicator makes an organic copy. Has that person travelled?  Is the person in the other planet the same person or a replica? What if the original body isn't destroyed in the process? The discussion continues with Parfit proving that the Bundle Theory is real. I got lost in most if this discussion but I guess I got the message.

9. Who am I? What Am I? by Ray Kurzweil – a much more accessible read than the previous two. Here Kurzweil builds a case to support his view on who and what Am I. He says that we are "patterns that persist in time" patterns that evolve in time an can "influence the course of the evolution" of their own pattern. Kurzweil uses the case of cryonics where people are preserved in freezing conditions so in the future they can be rebuilt with new material thus making a copy (or not?). Kurzweil also explains that under normal circumstances our bodies replace the particles that comprise us on a monthly,  weekly and even daily basis. So if we are completely different from what I was a month ago how come Am I the same person? Finally Kurzweil discusses the concept of Consciousness as something subjective, immaterial coming from by our objective brains. He believes that ultimately humans will come to accept that non-biological entities can be conscious as Consciousness isn't organic but subjective.

10. Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report by Michael Huemer – uses the Minority Report movie (not the short story by Philip K. Dick) as an example to discuss free will and determinism. If our futures are predetermined then we don’t have free will. Therefore we cannot be held responsible for anything we do. Huemer says that Free Will requires: alternate possibilities and self-control. If we lack one of them we don’t have free will. He contrasts various views on determinism and how those deny free will. He finally presents a deduction which proves free will (got a bit lost here) and concludes that the abolishment of the Precrime system in Minority Report was right but for the wrong reasons.

11. Excerpt from “The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment” by Alvin I. Goldman – a one page story following Goldman in a library where he finds a book about his own life.

Nine Lives - Ursula K Le Guin

Nine Lives is a novelette published in 1968. The story takes place in a remote planet (Libra) where Martin and Pugh are the only inhabitants. Having asked several times for more support in their mining jobs, they receive the help in the form of 10 clones. The 10 clones are an interesting construct. There are 5 female and 5 male all clones of one original John Chow. All of them are called John Chow but have different middle names. They are so similar, in appearance, voice and behaviour that Martin and Pugh cannot tell the difference. Although they all have different specialisations they act as a unity, coordinated and efficient. They depend on each other not only to carry out their tasks but to define themselves. Here Le Guin draws a comparison, I think, between individualistic (Martin and Pugh) and group based societies. The two original miners struggle to understand the clones collective behaviour and thinking.

 

(Spoiler Alert)

At some point 9 of the clones are killed in a accident and the only survivor struggles to stay alive. He feels incomplete and fights his individuality. As he dies the deaths of his fellow clones he wishes to join them. Fortunately Martin and Pugh manage to save him and learn how the very collectivistic nature of the clones had led them to their death.

 

Topics to think about individuality, collectivity, cloning, consciousness, identity.

The Shadow of a Man by François Schuiten and Benoit Peeters. ❤💙💜💖

This is the 4th volume of the Obscure Cities series released by IDW. As with the other 3 volumes I have read (Samaris, The Theory of the Grain of Sand and The Leaning Girl) this story takes place in a dark, mysterious, steampunk-esque city. It follows a newly married man who suffers from nightmares. The missus is fed-up with him and gives him an ultimatum, go to the doctors or she'll leave him. The man goes to the doctor and gets his medicine. Nightmares are gone but the side effect threatens his sanity, now he's got a coloured shadow! Excellent read and art!!

The Righteous Mind. Why Good People are divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. 💙💜💖💗

I got this book to help me understand about the culture battles I see around on public and social media. Perhaps, because I haven’t been a regular user for years, I am able to catch only fragmented narratives which I struggle to put together. I have a list of other books to read but I decided to start with this one, because, first, I found it in my local bookshop and second, I thought that instead of reading about ideologies and positions I should first understand humans nature. The Righteous Mind tries to explain why we struggle to get along, understand and respect a diversity of political positions, from a biological point of view to psychological and sociological perspectives. 

The book is divided in three parts following the 3 Principles of Moral Psychology: 1) Intuitions come first, Reasoning second 2) There is More to Morality than Harm and Fairness 3) Morality Binds and Blinds. 

In part 1 Haidt explains how we form our judgements. Having carried out numerous psychological experiments to test reactions to harmless but offensive situations he concludes that the parts of the brain which manage our Intuitions (triggered by disgust, disrespect, etc.) are the first ones to react, deciding whether we like something or not. The Reasoning aspect of our Moral Judgement comes after, not to scrutinize or correct but to confirm. Haidt compares Intuitions and Reasoning with a Small Rider on an Elephant. When the elephant (Intuitions) leans toward one side of an argument the Rider leans with it, and it is hard, if not impossible to change the elephants way. Having said that, Haidt also states that cultures influence our morals. He defines 3 Clusters of Moral Themes: Ethics of autonomy predominant in educated, individualistic, western societies, Ethics of Community and Divinity predominant in the rest of the world and which give people a wider spectrum of morals foundations. Finally, Haidt defines a Social Intuitionist model which states that in order to influence other people we have to aim to their elephant, that is their intuitions not their reasoning.

In part 2 Haidt presents his Moral Foundations Theory which defines 5 moral foundations which are innate to humans. This is a pluralistic approach to morality, that is, it is not based on 1 single rule but many. The initial 5 Moral Foundations are: Care/Harm, Fairness/Cheating, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion and Sanctity/Degradation. Later, after several studies, he added a sixth foundation: Liberty/Oppression. In a separate chapter Haidt discusses the first 5 foundations in the context of US politics and based on his test based studies. He arrives at 2 conclusions. First is that both extremes of the political spectrum rely on different combinations of the foundations. For Haidt Left Wing or Progressive rely primarily on the Care/Harm, the Fairness/Cheating and Liberty/Oppression foundations, whereas the Conservatives rely on all 5. From this he concludes that Progressive are at a disadvantage compared to Conservatives as the latter are able to appeal to a wider range of moralities.

Part 3 includes discussions about why humans are so groupish. Haidt discusses Darwin, individual and group level selection and opposes Dawkins view that we are selfish beings. Haidt says human culture has evolved alongside our genes. He presents some studies which show how behaviour could be adapted with breeding control in foxes for individual changes and with chickens for group changes. He then discusses the role of religion in our cultures and how they have been an important factor to keep communities alive. He doesn’t discuss or support religious dogma but their capacity to bring people together under shared moral foundations. The final chapter was my least favourite perhaps because it was too much embedded into the US political landscape. One thing I appreciate though is the authors sincerity in briefly relating his personal journey and how his own studies have affected his personal political position. Anyway, this was a great read to me. It opened my eyes to dimensions of morality I have never considered and most importantly it has given me much food for thought.

Negatives: Endnotes instead of Footnotes.