The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

A book on the fear of death from a psychoanalytic and philosophical perspective. A bit too dense in parts. There were sections where I felt every sentence was giving an important message and I needed time to process. I also felt some messages were a bit too repetitive. I struggled to get to the end of the book and didn’t quite get everything, but here my take:

We humans are the only conscious animals, the only ones who understand our mortality. We are a duality, part physical (and mortal), part spiritual/intellectual/conscientious which imagines way beyond our physical world and which cannot cope with the knowledge that everything has to end at some point. This knowledge translates into fear of death and affects every aspect of our lives even if we do not know it consciously. From childhood when we discover everything about our bodies to adulthood when we know the clock is ticking. 

We make up and construct concepts or institutions which are defences “against the knowledge that we are mortal beings.” Religion is one of them. Cities and culture are too. However the most discussed was science. One problem in our days is that science is taking religion’s place explaining what reality is about. This is giving us anxiety as science, so blunt on our faces, tells us how mortal we are and how even the universe will have an end. (This book was written in 1973 and does not mention any scientific research on transhumanism.)

Something I enjoyed reading was the discussion on Sigmund Freud's life and work. Especially the references to his death anxiety which made an interesting read. Becker however did not agree with Freud's view of sex as driver for human behaviour. Instead, Becker drew heavily on work by Carl Jung and mostly Otto Rank to argue that not sex but fear of death was our main motivation for everything.

Come with me by Ronald Malfi

I grabbed this novel from the library when I saw it was a Stoker award finalist. Gripping and fun to read, but not horror. It was a well written crime mystery with some rather ambiguous fantastic elements which you could interpret as supernatural or psychological (as happening in the protagonist's head). I went the psychological way and enjoyed the ride.

Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain by Susan Schneider

I recently read Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer, which is about a man who decides to upload his consciousness into an artificial body to avoid certain death. This essay, by Schneider, uses this story to explore about how the idea of uploading our minds would realistically (or not) help us become immortal. The essay starts discussing the topic of transhumanism and its philosophy. Transhumanists believe that humans can enhance all aspects of themselves (intelligence, illness free, etc.) using technology. But if we can improve (change) every aspect of ourselves, would we be still the same person? To explore this, Schneider discusses the psychological continuity theory “according to which the holding of some psychological relation is necessary or sufficient (or both) to persist” (In Personal Identity, Olson, 2010,). The psychological continuity theory is related to Kurzweil’s “Patternism”. Kurzweil (2005) states that “we are a pattern of matter and energy that persists overtime.” In the introduction of this book Schneider also explains that “this pattern is construed in computational terms: the pattern is the pattern of information-processing that your brain engages in  - the particular numerical values and nodes characterizing your neural network down to the last detail.”   

This essay raises important questions about the beliefs of transhumanists, particularly about the compatibility (or incompatibility) between “patternism” and transhuman “enhancement”. As the novel Mindscan shows, a person could make a “copy” of themselves and as a result both copies would share the same pattern. What then, could make any of them unique, an individual person? 

Super interesting and thought provoking read.

The Department of Thruth Vol 3 by James Tynion IV

 

My Library just got Volume 3 of The Department of Truth and I couldn't not read it, although it's an electronic version and it is killing my eyes.

This volume has different art, each issue was drawn and coloured by different people. The story follows Lee (Harvey Oswald) before he became the Head of the Department of Truth.

Leonardo 2 by Stéphane Levallois

B E A U T I F U L.

Don't expect epic science fiction or space battles but a homage to da Vinci's life and legacy. Levallois explores the concepts of post-apocalipsys, cloning and human survival alternating two stories. That one of the clone and that one of the original Master. We can see that both lives are connected and wonder what would've been Leonardo's life if he had been born centuries in the future.

The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas

Some of my favourite quotes from this essay:

"Immortality without purpose is also hollow."

“The Crusades, the voyage of Columbus, and the slaughters of the Spanish conquistadors who followed, are powerful examples of human exploration and human encounters with the unknown.  They teach us that the realm of human dominance can be radically enlarged by human imagination and courage. Equally importantly,  they teach us that without a belief in human dignity and equality, the cost of such dominance is genocidal human rights violations. They also caution us to be suspicious of stated motives and cover stories; although filled with missionary zeal, most of these adventurers and explorers sought primarily fame and fortune.“

“We could use our technology to explore outer space with such robots, but our current fascination is focused on inner space. Instead of expanding our minds and our perspectives as a species by pondering the mysteries of outer space with its possibilities of other life forms, we are turning inward and contemplating ourselves at a microscopic level. The bew biology perhaps better described as the new genetics or the “genetics age”, suggests a biology-based immortality alternative to a digital brain in a body of metal and plastic: changing and “enhancing” our human capabilities by altering our genes at a molecular level. Or, as James Watson, the discoverer of the structure of DNA, famously put it, ‘We used to think our future was in our stars, now we know our future is in our genes.’”

“… in the face of the Holocaust and nuclear weapons, genetic engineering appears almost benign. But this is deceptive because genetic engineering has the capacity to change the meaning of what it is to be human. There are limits to how far we can go in changing our nature without changing our humanity and our basic human values. Because it is the meaning of humanness (our distinctness from other animals) that has given birth to our concepts of both human dignity and human rights, altering our nature threatens to undermine our concepts of both human dignity and human rights.” 

> Regarding the last 2 paragraphs, I read a book titled CRISPR People by Henry Greely which I found super informative on issues related to gene editing. Worth a read!

The Department of Truth Vol 1&2 by Tynion, Simmonds and Bidikar

A comic about conspiracy theories, all of them together, with a touch of X Files. Liked the stories. The artwork is OK and fits the stories but at points it felt like reading without glasses when you need them. Like reading through fog. I guess reading an electronic version didn't help. Vol1&2 were the only ones available at my Library but Vol 3 has already been released. I'm curious to see how the story follows.