What do you think?
Rate this book
The Transhumanist Wager
A Top 5 Amazon book
#1 BESTSELLER SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
#1 BESTSELLER PHILOSOPHY
"WINNER" Visionary Fiction - International Book Awards
Leading futurist, philosopher, and former National Geographic journalist Zoltan Istvan presents his award-winning, bestselling visionary novel, The Transhumanist Wager, as a seminal statement of our times.
His philosophical thriller has been called "revolutionary," "life-changing," and "a masterpiece" by readers, scholars, and critics. The novel debuts a challenging original philosophy, which rebuffs modern civilization by inviting the end of the human species—and declaring the onset of something greater.
Set in the present day, the novel tells the story of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. Fighting against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life, whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute. Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world's largest seastead, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating libertarian city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever changed.
#1 BESTSELLER SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
#1 BESTSELLER PHILOSOPHY
"WINNER" Visionary Fiction - International Book Awards
Leading futurist, philosopher, and former National Geographic journalist Zoltan Istvan presents his award-winning, bestselling visionary novel, The Transhumanist Wager, as a seminal statement of our times.
His philosophical thriller has been called "revolutionary," "life-changing," and "a masterpiece" by readers, scholars, and critics. The novel debuts a challenging original philosophy, which rebuffs modern civilization by inviting the end of the human species—and declaring the onset of something greater.
Set in the present day, the novel tells the story of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. Fighting against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life, whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute. Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world's largest seastead, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating libertarian city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever changed.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 2013
About the author
Zoltan Istvan
17 books232 followersBestselling visionary author Zoltan Istvan, an American-Hungarian, began a solo, multi-year sailing journey around the world at the age of 21. His main cargo was 500 handpicked books, mostly classics. He's explored over 100 countries—many as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel—writing, filming, and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts. His work has also been featured by The New York Times, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, Vice, Wired UK, BBC Radio, CBS, CNN, RT, FOX News, Animal Planet, and the Travel Channel. In addition to his award-winning coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Back in America, he started various successful businesses, from real estate development to filmmaking to viticulture, joining them under ZI Ventures. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University and resides in San Francisco with his daughter and physician wife. Zoltan recently published The Transhumanist Wager, a visionary novel describing apatheist Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. Zoltan writes futurist and transhumanist-themed columns for The Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and Vice's Motherboard.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews
February 15, 2015
Hi,
I realize it's a bit strange for an author to comment or to review his own novel, however, since my fictional thriller involves a storyline that presents an original philosophy, I think a few comments are appropriate.
The first is that I have been carefully thinking about this book for almost 20 years. The second is the amount of hours that went into the actual writing of The Transhumanist Wager: almost 7000 hours.
In short, much effort and care have been put into every sentence. I hope all readers of The Transhumanist Wager find something special in the story and its ideas.
Thank you for reading it, Zoltan Istvan
I realize it's a bit strange for an author to comment or to review his own novel, however, since my fictional thriller involves a storyline that presents an original philosophy, I think a few comments are appropriate.
The first is that I have been carefully thinking about this book for almost 20 years. The second is the amount of hours that went into the actual writing of The Transhumanist Wager: almost 7000 hours.
In short, much effort and care have been put into every sentence. I hope all readers of The Transhumanist Wager find something special in the story and its ideas.
Thank you for reading it, Zoltan Istvan
August 26, 2013
Kill all extremists!
The science Fictionwriter Robert E. heinlein once had his hero choose between impregnating his own daughter or letting man-kind die out. He choose the humanitarian road, and saved humanity. One can sympathize with his great sacrifice only as long as one does not reflect over the fact that he was placed in the dilemma by the same writer that provided his reflections towards his solution. The incest was not actually the solution to the problem of human extinction, but the other way around: human extinction is the litterary solution to making incest a sane choise.
Why would he ever do that, one might think? In that case, you are breaking the contract with the writer. You are stepping out of the world he created, and questioning the imagined world itself, and it's reasons for beeing the way it is. It would be an indecent question. It would be like hinting towards that maybe Heinein himself is actually a pedofile. And you wouldnt want to do that! He is a great writer! Famous and renown! You actually like some of his books, too, I'm sure of it! We all do!
the novel "the iron dream" (Norman Spinrad) might also be a relevant referance. It is a story that is written as it could have been if Hitler wasn't a political leader, but instead came to the US and became a science fiction writer. The hero of the book starts a political party and begins a campain to exterminate all people with lower genetical traits. He eradicates the sub-spiecies, and a new, prosperious age of progress can begin.
This is what springs to mind upon reading Zoltan Istwans book "the transhumanist wager". the book seems to carry two important messages to the world
1) transhumanism! Human kind needs to put technology to work on bettering ourselves, replace the weak biology of our bodies with strong, artificial bodyparts, and ensure eternal life and perfect health.
2) mass-killings, dictatorship, elitism, anti-egalitariansm, cruelty and cynicism.
It is actually quite the page-turner of a book. Well written and well constructed. In form it reads like a modern day Ayn Rand, but with less stupid love stories, and even more stupid and cruel philosophy. Our hero Jethro Knights is the founder of Transhumanist Citizen, a radical organisation directed at scientifically ensuring eternal life for it's members. They are beeing attacked by the bad guys, the conservative Redeem church and arch-enemy reverend Belinas. After beeing chased out of the USA and persecuted in all other developed countries, Transhumanist Citizen forms the floating state of Transhumania, populated with the best scientists in the world. The rest of the world initiates an all out military attack on transhumania, and Transhumania are forced to kill their soliders, destroy the religious and political buildings all over the world, and colonizing all countries, making them part of Transhumania: a dictatorship by the best and smartest. It is necessary to kill all weak individuals that does not contribute to the goals of transhumanism.
Whenever someone comes around suggesting to kill a part of the human population, they will have a system to divide the population into the worthy and the unworthy. Some dividing line has to be made. I am willing to take the argument serious, when the person making the argument will place herself or himself on the wrong side of the line: in the group that does not deserve the right to live.
I am tempted to make a simular suggestion: let's devide humanity into a group that does not want genocide, and one who do. Then let's exterminate the genocidal group!
Note that this suggestion places me safely with the group that deserves to die. That means you can safely consider my suggestion. Istwan, however, does not deserve consideration.
I have read both Hitler, Behring Breivik, litterary Hitler, and Ayn Rand. This reminds me of all of them. But beside Any Rand, this is by far the most readable of them. It also reminds me of a great computergame called Bioshock! The bad guys of Bioshock didn't go as far as to forcing the rest of the world into submission by military means, it still has a pretty good presentation of... what should you call it? Totalitarian libertarianism, perhaps? "think for yourselfs! Or we will kill you!", and "join our cause! Give up your petty dreams and goals of life for ours: anti-collectivist individualism!"
It is about science and transhumanism. Sometimes, however, it presents some consepts that, as fas as I am able to properly evaluate this stuff, is more pseudo-science, misunderstandings or old fashioned world wiews. The first of those are the way the author uses quantum mechanics. In this book, quantum mechanics is pseunonymus for metaphysics. The hero can ask if his dead loved one is still out there in the quantum world. I have never seen anyone use the term this way. This seems very weird. The other thing is how he uses darwinism and evolutionary theory. He actually quotes "survival of the fittest" as a proper way to run society! Now! When its been obious for a 100 years that cooperation and mutal aid is as much a part of the evolutionary process as fierce competition.
In conclution, this book is A good read. Engaging and exiting. But politically totally gruesome.
The science Fictionwriter Robert E. heinlein once had his hero choose between impregnating his own daughter or letting man-kind die out. He choose the humanitarian road, and saved humanity. One can sympathize with his great sacrifice only as long as one does not reflect over the fact that he was placed in the dilemma by the same writer that provided his reflections towards his solution. The incest was not actually the solution to the problem of human extinction, but the other way around: human extinction is the litterary solution to making incest a sane choise.
Why would he ever do that, one might think? In that case, you are breaking the contract with the writer. You are stepping out of the world he created, and questioning the imagined world itself, and it's reasons for beeing the way it is. It would be an indecent question. It would be like hinting towards that maybe Heinein himself is actually a pedofile. And you wouldnt want to do that! He is a great writer! Famous and renown! You actually like some of his books, too, I'm sure of it! We all do!
the novel "the iron dream" (Norman Spinrad) might also be a relevant referance. It is a story that is written as it could have been if Hitler wasn't a political leader, but instead came to the US and became a science fiction writer. The hero of the book starts a political party and begins a campain to exterminate all people with lower genetical traits. He eradicates the sub-spiecies, and a new, prosperious age of progress can begin.
This is what springs to mind upon reading Zoltan Istwans book "the transhumanist wager". the book seems to carry two important messages to the world
1) transhumanism! Human kind needs to put technology to work on bettering ourselves, replace the weak biology of our bodies with strong, artificial bodyparts, and ensure eternal life and perfect health.
2) mass-killings, dictatorship, elitism, anti-egalitariansm, cruelty and cynicism.
It is actually quite the page-turner of a book. Well written and well constructed. In form it reads like a modern day Ayn Rand, but with less stupid love stories, and even more stupid and cruel philosophy. Our hero Jethro Knights is the founder of Transhumanist Citizen, a radical organisation directed at scientifically ensuring eternal life for it's members. They are beeing attacked by the bad guys, the conservative Redeem church and arch-enemy reverend Belinas. After beeing chased out of the USA and persecuted in all other developed countries, Transhumanist Citizen forms the floating state of Transhumania, populated with the best scientists in the world. The rest of the world initiates an all out military attack on transhumania, and Transhumania are forced to kill their soliders, destroy the religious and political buildings all over the world, and colonizing all countries, making them part of Transhumania: a dictatorship by the best and smartest. It is necessary to kill all weak individuals that does not contribute to the goals of transhumanism.
Whenever someone comes around suggesting to kill a part of the human population, they will have a system to divide the population into the worthy and the unworthy. Some dividing line has to be made. I am willing to take the argument serious, when the person making the argument will place herself or himself on the wrong side of the line: in the group that does not deserve the right to live.
I am tempted to make a simular suggestion: let's devide humanity into a group that does not want genocide, and one who do. Then let's exterminate the genocidal group!
Note that this suggestion places me safely with the group that deserves to die. That means you can safely consider my suggestion. Istwan, however, does not deserve consideration.
I have read both Hitler, Behring Breivik, litterary Hitler, and Ayn Rand. This reminds me of all of them. But beside Any Rand, this is by far the most readable of them. It also reminds me of a great computergame called Bioshock! The bad guys of Bioshock didn't go as far as to forcing the rest of the world into submission by military means, it still has a pretty good presentation of... what should you call it? Totalitarian libertarianism, perhaps? "think for yourselfs! Or we will kill you!", and "join our cause! Give up your petty dreams and goals of life for ours: anti-collectivist individualism!"
It is about science and transhumanism. Sometimes, however, it presents some consepts that, as fas as I am able to properly evaluate this stuff, is more pseudo-science, misunderstandings or old fashioned world wiews. The first of those are the way the author uses quantum mechanics. In this book, quantum mechanics is pseunonymus for metaphysics. The hero can ask if his dead loved one is still out there in the quantum world. I have never seen anyone use the term this way. This seems very weird. The other thing is how he uses darwinism and evolutionary theory. He actually quotes "survival of the fittest" as a proper way to run society! Now! When its been obious for a 100 years that cooperation and mutal aid is as much a part of the evolutionary process as fierce competition.
In conclution, this book is A good read. Engaging and exiting. But politically totally gruesome.
May 22, 2013
Title: Ubiquitous Vacuity Obfuscated
Description: Inconsistant and unconvincing
Addendum: Full blown Hollywood low-budget "love"story
Intro
Was asked by Mr. Istvan himself to read this. I was promised a revolutionary novel destined to become an instant cult classic. It was described to me as a philosophical scifi thriller, which would galvanize a new generation of scifi readers. That's a whole lot of fancy words and high praise. As I replied to the author, such an approach, containing said praise, will definately subject the novel to thorough scrutiny. I have now read the book, and below you'll find my verdict.
SPOILERS BELOW.
Buildup, story and pacing
To begin with, the first chapter, which reads like a prologue, is just forgotten, casually mentioned in a sentence later in the book. I found this strange and somewhat annoying.The first 20% of the book was decent enough - too many rants and bad pacing, but still decent. Mr. Istvan's writing reminds me more of an article and less of a novel. That all changed at 20%, when I was introduced to the love-at-first-sight-mediocre-Hollywood-drivel "love"story. It was Way out of character, and written more like a fantasy than reality. The suicide-scene was absolutely terrible, run-of-the-mill Hollywood "dramatic" action. If a girl ever gave me such an ultimatum, I'd knock her out and deliver her to a mental institution.
As for the rest of the story, generally there's very little content. There's a whole LOT of endless political views and rants, the author obviously trying to change my view on these matters. I found it utterly unconvincing, and more often than not, inconsistent and downright appaling. The entire premise of the story, with the extreme anti-religion and anti-science just doesn't seem real to me. I'm almost 30 years old and have Never met anyone even remotely resembling these people and their views.
Now for a short list of some of the annoying facets of the story.
USA is in economic trouble, near bankruptcy - despite this, a New governmet security agency is founded, with a starting price of a 100 billion dollars... The entire process of its creation was thoroughly unbelievable to me. Next they proclaim the "War on Transhumanism".. Last I checked, the Afghan war was estimated to have cost the US ~600 billion dollars...
And speaking of the NFSA. They're an agency created to target transhumanists, Jethro Knights being one of their prime targets. Yet they have NO surveilance what so ever. In fact, Jethro is able to build an entire floating city without anyone knowing................... Just like Peter F. Hamilton, Zoltan Istvan seems to think government agencies are utterly retarded.
The entire process of Jethro building his floating city was laughable. Billionaire giving a total stranger 10 billion dollars?? It only cost 5 bill to build the floating-city-island??? With all its amenities and luxuries and wages and bonuses, there is no way in Hell it could have been covered with 5 bill...
Describing a person dying: Ok.
Describing an unborn baby being shredded by shrapnel: Not Ok.
I could go on and on with this, there are so many shortcomings in this book and its story that I'm not at all surprised that 500 publishers chose not to publish it.
Characters
I didn't like any of the characters in this book. They are all either crazy, insane or completely broken - and not the kind you can sympathise with. Couple of examples below.
Jethro
Goes to island, sees poor people, scoffs at flawed/faulty government - sails off in luxury mansion, drinking scotch and reading books.........
Fact and reason guidelines to life - doesn't "like" death and don't want to believe in it..
Egosentric shitheel claiming ignorance is killing his world, carries 50 pounds of rice to village of ignorants..
Mantra in life is "I" - falls madly in love, at first sight..
Love is a badly abused and mangled word, which Hollywood has devolved into something vile and reeking..
Starts organisation that condones violence and extremism - authorities don't care..
Throws rock at crowd of people with press and police watching - nobody cares..
Building falling down, has to fight enemy, jumps out of building as it collapses - typical Hollywood "action".. (several scenes Just like it)
Belinas
One of his main tenets: To treat your neighbor as you'd have your neighbor treat yourself. Condones terrorism and supression of other people.. As well as torture, killing and blackmail..
Spent early years in Africa: saw poverty, ignorance, lack of medical services and technology up close - wants to remove all technology..
Conclusion
Started out okay, ended up terrible.
This is supposed to be a book that will galvanize new readers to scifi - basically, there's nearly no scifi involved at all, except for being totally unbelievable.
The rants, the endless repetitious boring rants, goes on for page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page.......... I get it, you think religion is bad and transhumanism is hip, or some such..
Had Mr. Istvan cut down the rants by a whole Lot, changed some of the more unbelievable scenes, and instead focused on the birth of the transhuman society, the technologies involved and the fate of the world, this might have been a decent read. Alas, he did not.
In the end, there is just no way I will suggest this book to anyone.
Description: Inconsistant and unconvincing
Addendum: Full blown Hollywood low-budget "love"story
Intro
Was asked by Mr. Istvan himself to read this. I was promised a revolutionary novel destined to become an instant cult classic. It was described to me as a philosophical scifi thriller, which would galvanize a new generation of scifi readers. That's a whole lot of fancy words and high praise. As I replied to the author, such an approach, containing said praise, will definately subject the novel to thorough scrutiny. I have now read the book, and below you'll find my verdict.
SPOILERS BELOW.
Buildup, story and pacing
To begin with, the first chapter, which reads like a prologue, is just forgotten, casually mentioned in a sentence later in the book. I found this strange and somewhat annoying.The first 20% of the book was decent enough - too many rants and bad pacing, but still decent. Mr. Istvan's writing reminds me more of an article and less of a novel. That all changed at 20%, when I was introduced to the love-at-first-sight-mediocre-Hollywood-drivel "love"story. It was Way out of character, and written more like a fantasy than reality. The suicide-scene was absolutely terrible, run-of-the-mill Hollywood "dramatic" action. If a girl ever gave me such an ultimatum, I'd knock her out and deliver her to a mental institution.
As for the rest of the story, generally there's very little content. There's a whole LOT of endless political views and rants, the author obviously trying to change my view on these matters. I found it utterly unconvincing, and more often than not, inconsistent and downright appaling. The entire premise of the story, with the extreme anti-religion and anti-science just doesn't seem real to me. I'm almost 30 years old and have Never met anyone even remotely resembling these people and their views.
Now for a short list of some of the annoying facets of the story.
USA is in economic trouble, near bankruptcy - despite this, a New governmet security agency is founded, with a starting price of a 100 billion dollars... The entire process of its creation was thoroughly unbelievable to me. Next they proclaim the "War on Transhumanism".. Last I checked, the Afghan war was estimated to have cost the US ~600 billion dollars...
And speaking of the NFSA. They're an agency created to target transhumanists, Jethro Knights being one of their prime targets. Yet they have NO surveilance what so ever. In fact, Jethro is able to build an entire floating city without anyone knowing................... Just like Peter F. Hamilton, Zoltan Istvan seems to think government agencies are utterly retarded.
The entire process of Jethro building his floating city was laughable. Billionaire giving a total stranger 10 billion dollars?? It only cost 5 bill to build the floating-city-island??? With all its amenities and luxuries and wages and bonuses, there is no way in Hell it could have been covered with 5 bill...
Describing a person dying: Ok.
Describing an unborn baby being shredded by shrapnel: Not Ok.
I could go on and on with this, there are so many shortcomings in this book and its story that I'm not at all surprised that 500 publishers chose not to publish it.
Characters
I didn't like any of the characters in this book. They are all either crazy, insane or completely broken - and not the kind you can sympathise with. Couple of examples below.
Jethro
Goes to island, sees poor people, scoffs at flawed/faulty government - sails off in luxury mansion, drinking scotch and reading books.........
Fact and reason guidelines to life - doesn't "like" death and don't want to believe in it..
Egosentric shitheel claiming ignorance is killing his world, carries 50 pounds of rice to village of ignorants..
Mantra in life is "I" - falls madly in love, at first sight..
Love is a badly abused and mangled word, which Hollywood has devolved into something vile and reeking..
Starts organisation that condones violence and extremism - authorities don't care..
Throws rock at crowd of people with press and police watching - nobody cares..
Building falling down, has to fight enemy, jumps out of building as it collapses - typical Hollywood "action".. (several scenes Just like it)
Belinas
One of his main tenets: To treat your neighbor as you'd have your neighbor treat yourself. Condones terrorism and supression of other people.. As well as torture, killing and blackmail..
Spent early years in Africa: saw poverty, ignorance, lack of medical services and technology up close - wants to remove all technology..
Conclusion
Started out okay, ended up terrible.
This is supposed to be a book that will galvanize new readers to scifi - basically, there's nearly no scifi involved at all, except for being totally unbelievable.
The rants, the endless repetitious boring rants, goes on for page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page after page.......... I get it, you think religion is bad and transhumanism is hip, or some such..
Had Mr. Istvan cut down the rants by a whole Lot, changed some of the more unbelievable scenes, and instead focused on the birth of the transhuman society, the technologies involved and the fate of the world, this might have been a decent read. Alas, he did not.
In the end, there is just no way I will suggest this book to anyone.
February 25, 2014
This is the worst book I've ever read; to address what is wrong with it in full would take more space than the book itself, so I'll just hit the highlights.
First, it's a transparent plagiarism of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, starring Howard Roark and John Galt as Jethro Knights, Ellsworth Toohey as Reverend Belinas, and Peter Keating as Gregory Michaelson. In an interview, Mr. Istvan states that, had he gone through a publishing house, “It would be difficult to get a story like The Transhumanist Wager past the lawyers...” Probably so, Mr. Istvan had better hope that Ayn Rand's estate doesn't get wind of this book.
While we're on Ayn Rand, it's fair to mention that, while she liked her Mary Sues, Jethro Knights (yes, Knights, plural. There's also a Dr. Whalefish and Mexican gentleman named Katril Bentoven) leaves all of her supermen in the dust. A college philosophy major, he's able to spend a mere four weeks in the library, plus some time chatting up an old sailor, and design a thirty five foot yacht which is capable of being sailed round the world, weathering a typhoon, and even being flipped by a 70 foot tall rogue wave, all because he, and he alone, with no help, welded it together from “six thousand dollars of rusty recycled steel”. He's also an incredible coder, capable of creating “dozens” of web pages in a four week stretch while simultaneously adding his organization to all the local phone books *and* internet search engines. He's largely immune from explosions. His senior thesis, which, incidentally, is the first thing his academic program allows him to write, is so compelling it eventually forms the basis of a worldwide utopia. He's an amazing explorer who is able to discover uncontacted tribes in strange lands in a matter of days and achieve rapport with the Japanese “Samaria” clans.
Samaria? Samurai, I guess. Mr. Istvan's command of vocabulary is not as impressive as his hero's command of, well, everything. In the above mentioned interview, he admits to not having had an editor, and opines that his book is more “indie” and “raw” because of it. True, very true. He throws words around without really seeming to know what they mean, based on similarities of sounds or collocations that he's heard before. One of the characters has “Arian” looks, there are those Japanese “Samaria,” there's a guy who is a “nationalized” American citizen, and his fighting robot comes equipped with a “canon.” His dictator announces that ignorance “is...a crime that will be punishable by excessive fines...” There are quantum thoughts and clairvoyant Zen bombs, “ethnic and religious imperatives,” plus the assurance that transhumanists “don't hinder ethnic or religious people from reaching their supposed immortality.”
Wait, ethnic people? Is that like that Mexican who became a “nationalized citizen”? Or perhaps the “drug induced shamans” that pop up later are ethnic people, I'm not sure. Perhaps the people that issued the “three million dollar fatwa” could help me out, they could fly over in a “megasonic airplane.” I'm “ghostly serious” here, “the muse on the transhuman city [would be] festive” if I could only understand what Mr. Istvan thinks he's trying to say.
And then there's the elephant, or elephants, or over a thousand elephants, in the room. Transhumanism. Yes, the book is called The Transhumanist Wager, and yes, it is about transhumanism, so we can expect that the word will pop up fairly often. According to my Kindle Reader, the word “transhuman” or one of its variants (transhuman, transhumanist, transhumanism, and Transhumania, the name of his utopia) occurs 1,189 times. In 298 pages. That's almost four times per page. I'm so sick of that damn word that I'm about ready to take up homeopathy just to not have to read it again. For all that, for the first two-thirds of the book or so, he rarely touches on what transhumanism is, or why it's a good thing, it's just something the bad guys hate for religious reasons, and the good guys love because, well, transhumanism.
Every time the book mentions something factual, it merely exposes the author's ignorance. I suppose you could defend some things by saying that it takes place in an alternate reality very similar to our own, but the ideas that a “Presidential seal” is some sort of legal trump card, or that people who wish to remain anonymous are allowed to simply not put license plates on their cars, are just ludicrous. His understanding of the military is confused at best; in his world a fifth of the United States' active military is stationed in Washington, D.C., to protect it from a terrorist attack. His modern naval engagement takes place at a distance of 20 miles. The concept of money in the book has its own idiosyncrasies. In order to carry out an assassination, a $50,000 bribe is necessary to induce a couple of maintenance men to allow entrance to a conference hall. On the other hand, Jethro Knights is able to build a floating island with the most modern facilities for 10,000 scientists and their families (let's say 30,000 people) for a mere 5 billion dollars. There are to be three main towers, one of them fifty-two stories high, the second sixty-six, and the third eighty stories. In the real world, One World Trade Center is going to cost about $4bn dollars, and it doesn't have to float.
The budget for this undertaking comes from a ten billion dollar donation from an oil magnate, which is divided, more or less, as follows:
Cost of construction: $5bn
Defense budget: “one third of his ten billion dollar budget”: $3.3bn
Recruitment bonuses for the scientists: $1m dollars each x 10,000 scientists= $10bn
So we're at $18bn plus now. To be fair, he does mention that there were other donors, and that the scientists, once recruited, were encourage to buy, rather than rent, in order to bring some of their bonus money back into the budget, but the math is still pretty shaky.
In the end, Knights becomes dictator of the world (seriously, he does) by, like a malevolent Santa Claus, destroying all the major religious and political buildings in the world (including that navel of power and influence, the Imperial Palace in Tokyo), all in one night. Then he finally delivers his “This is John Galt” speech, but by that time, I was so tired that I was just skimming. And skimming. And skimming. For fifteen pages. Pretty sure most of it was cribbed from Rand, but I could be wrong, like I said, I was skimming.
I too could go on and on, but I'm tired. Don't read this book. Don't waste your time or your money. I never thought I'd say this, but if you'd like to read a much better work, I'd recommend either “The Fountainhead,” or “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. You'll get most of the same ideas, but in a much more fluid and readable form. Yes, this makes Ayn Rand look fluid.
One final quote, the best lines in the book, delivered by the hero's hostile philosophy teacher, Prof. Rindall, serves quite well as a review of the whole book:
“[T]his rant of a thesis, this is not philosophy. Maybe, this is art. No, not even art. This is science fiction. Bad science fiction. B-rated science fiction.”
First, it's a transparent plagiarism of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, starring Howard Roark and John Galt as Jethro Knights, Ellsworth Toohey as Reverend Belinas, and Peter Keating as Gregory Michaelson. In an interview, Mr. Istvan states that, had he gone through a publishing house, “It would be difficult to get a story like The Transhumanist Wager past the lawyers...” Probably so, Mr. Istvan had better hope that Ayn Rand's estate doesn't get wind of this book.
While we're on Ayn Rand, it's fair to mention that, while she liked her Mary Sues, Jethro Knights (yes, Knights, plural. There's also a Dr. Whalefish and Mexican gentleman named Katril Bentoven) leaves all of her supermen in the dust. A college philosophy major, he's able to spend a mere four weeks in the library, plus some time chatting up an old sailor, and design a thirty five foot yacht which is capable of being sailed round the world, weathering a typhoon, and even being flipped by a 70 foot tall rogue wave, all because he, and he alone, with no help, welded it together from “six thousand dollars of rusty recycled steel”. He's also an incredible coder, capable of creating “dozens” of web pages in a four week stretch while simultaneously adding his organization to all the local phone books *and* internet search engines. He's largely immune from explosions. His senior thesis, which, incidentally, is the first thing his academic program allows him to write, is so compelling it eventually forms the basis of a worldwide utopia. He's an amazing explorer who is able to discover uncontacted tribes in strange lands in a matter of days and achieve rapport with the Japanese “Samaria” clans.
Samaria? Samurai, I guess. Mr. Istvan's command of vocabulary is not as impressive as his hero's command of, well, everything. In the above mentioned interview, he admits to not having had an editor, and opines that his book is more “indie” and “raw” because of it. True, very true. He throws words around without really seeming to know what they mean, based on similarities of sounds or collocations that he's heard before. One of the characters has “Arian” looks, there are those Japanese “Samaria,” there's a guy who is a “nationalized” American citizen, and his fighting robot comes equipped with a “canon.” His dictator announces that ignorance “is...a crime that will be punishable by excessive fines...” There are quantum thoughts and clairvoyant Zen bombs, “ethnic and religious imperatives,” plus the assurance that transhumanists “don't hinder ethnic or religious people from reaching their supposed immortality.”
Wait, ethnic people? Is that like that Mexican who became a “nationalized citizen”? Or perhaps the “drug induced shamans” that pop up later are ethnic people, I'm not sure. Perhaps the people that issued the “three million dollar fatwa” could help me out, they could fly over in a “megasonic airplane.” I'm “ghostly serious” here, “the muse on the transhuman city [would be] festive” if I could only understand what Mr. Istvan thinks he's trying to say.
And then there's the elephant, or elephants, or over a thousand elephants, in the room. Transhumanism. Yes, the book is called The Transhumanist Wager, and yes, it is about transhumanism, so we can expect that the word will pop up fairly often. According to my Kindle Reader, the word “transhuman” or one of its variants (transhuman, transhumanist, transhumanism, and Transhumania, the name of his utopia) occurs 1,189 times. In 298 pages. That's almost four times per page. I'm so sick of that damn word that I'm about ready to take up homeopathy just to not have to read it again. For all that, for the first two-thirds of the book or so, he rarely touches on what transhumanism is, or why it's a good thing, it's just something the bad guys hate for religious reasons, and the good guys love because, well, transhumanism.
Every time the book mentions something factual, it merely exposes the author's ignorance. I suppose you could defend some things by saying that it takes place in an alternate reality very similar to our own, but the ideas that a “Presidential seal” is some sort of legal trump card, or that people who wish to remain anonymous are allowed to simply not put license plates on their cars, are just ludicrous. His understanding of the military is confused at best; in his world a fifth of the United States' active military is stationed in Washington, D.C., to protect it from a terrorist attack. His modern naval engagement takes place at a distance of 20 miles. The concept of money in the book has its own idiosyncrasies. In order to carry out an assassination, a $50,000 bribe is necessary to induce a couple of maintenance men to allow entrance to a conference hall. On the other hand, Jethro Knights is able to build a floating island with the most modern facilities for 10,000 scientists and their families (let's say 30,000 people) for a mere 5 billion dollars. There are to be three main towers, one of them fifty-two stories high, the second sixty-six, and the third eighty stories. In the real world, One World Trade Center is going to cost about $4bn dollars, and it doesn't have to float.
The budget for this undertaking comes from a ten billion dollar donation from an oil magnate, which is divided, more or less, as follows:
Cost of construction: $5bn
Defense budget: “one third of his ten billion dollar budget”: $3.3bn
Recruitment bonuses for the scientists: $1m dollars each x 10,000 scientists= $10bn
So we're at $18bn plus now. To be fair, he does mention that there were other donors, and that the scientists, once recruited, were encourage to buy, rather than rent, in order to bring some of their bonus money back into the budget, but the math is still pretty shaky.
In the end, Knights becomes dictator of the world (seriously, he does) by, like a malevolent Santa Claus, destroying all the major religious and political buildings in the world (including that navel of power and influence, the Imperial Palace in Tokyo), all in one night. Then he finally delivers his “This is John Galt” speech, but by that time, I was so tired that I was just skimming. And skimming. And skimming. For fifteen pages. Pretty sure most of it was cribbed from Rand, but I could be wrong, like I said, I was skimming.
I too could go on and on, but I'm tired. Don't read this book. Don't waste your time or your money. I never thought I'd say this, but if you'd like to read a much better work, I'd recommend either “The Fountainhead,” or “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. You'll get most of the same ideas, but in a much more fluid and readable form. Yes, this makes Ayn Rand look fluid.
One final quote, the best lines in the book, delivered by the hero's hostile philosophy teacher, Prof. Rindall, serves quite well as a review of the whole book:
“[T]his rant of a thesis, this is not philosophy. Maybe, this is art. No, not even art. This is science fiction. Bad science fiction. B-rated science fiction.”
May 6, 2014
This book is fucking painful to read. I would describe it as Flower For Algernon, as written by an emotionally disturbed 15 year old autist.
Here's an excerpt: transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism
Here's an excerpt: transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism transhumanism
April 5, 2013
"The Transhumanist Wager" was shocking, compelling, and, above all, fascinating. What other book could introduce the Humanicide Formula and get away with it. If you're into the future or science fiction, then this is a sure hit for you.
However, the book is dark and serious, and at times scary in its implications. The author--a fabulous writer by the way--goes out of his way to make sure the moral conundrums and twists are extreme and in your face. It makes for great, contemplative reading! I had to stop every few chapters to think about the ideas I was reading about. It's a book I'm sure to read again.
However, the book is dark and serious, and at times scary in its implications. The author--a fabulous writer by the way--goes out of his way to make sure the moral conundrums and twists are extreme and in your face. It makes for great, contemplative reading! I had to stop every few chapters to think about the ideas I was reading about. It's a book I'm sure to read again.
June 8, 2014
4.5 stars, rounded up....
I finished this book last night but had to gather my thoughts. First, I must say that although I don't completely agree with the philosophy touted by the author, I did enjoy his riveting story.
Refreshingly thought-provoking, The Transhumanist Wager tells the tale of Jethro Knights, a defiant young man with great ambition and determination. He envisions a world where humans are replaced by transhumans (super humans, in effect, able to live longer, healthier, higher-quality lives). During his final year at the university, Jethro writes a senior thesis describing a radical new philosophy he calls TEF--Teleological Egocentric Functionalism. Basically, he urges people to work tirelessly toward scientific advancement so that they will ultimately achieve immortality. Jethro becomes an omnipotender, an individual who strives for as much power as possible and surpasses biological limitations to evolve into an indestructible life form.
Needless to say, Jethro's vision is highly criticized as insane, immoral and evil, particularly by Reverand Belinas, the Christian leader of the powerful Redeem Church in America. With a vast following and strong ties to government and financial leaders, Belinas is an influential man who declares a war against Jethro and the Transhumanist movement.
Terrorist attacks, at the behest of the "righteous" Reverand Belinas, ultimately cause Jethro and thousands of other loyal Transhumanists to leave America for life in Transhumania, a seastead (floating community) where scientists, futurists and technologists can conduct unhindered research in state-of-the-art laboratories.
Now, with so many brilliant scientists concentrated in one isolated place...
...not subject to any scrutiny or regulations, leaders of advanced nations begin to grow concerned about the possibility that they will acquire greater nuclear capabilities.
These new Transhumanians just want to be left in peace so that they can work on defying death and attaining immortality.
But eventually, ultimatums force them into action and the entire world is crippled by their powerful display of technological advances. A new era of mankind begins...the evolution of the human race.
This book will have you philosophically questioning what it means to be human and pondering your perspectives on science and religion, morality and the lack thereof, freedom versus oppression and even good versus evil.
There are a couple of reasons I withheld half a star. First, I was bothered by the colloquial language in an otherwise exceptionally written piece of literature. Here are a few examples:
"He looked out over the White House lawn and saw his Golden Cocker Spaniel taking a shit."
"They want to implement a global mandate forcing everyone to receive a rigorous secular education that disses faith and religion."
"Being a scientist, a futurist, an engineer or a technologist was the new state of cool."
Second, I found certain parts quite repetitive, especially during Jethro's speeches where he rehashes the same agenda ad nauseam. I suspect the author is trying to brainwash people into embracing the Transhumanist ideology. I'm kidding...am I? :-)
Overall, I did enjoy reading this engaging novel and learning about a movement I had no knowledge of heretofore. I think the visions and aspirations of Transhumanists are impressive and worthy of pursuit. Yet their goals should not be realized at the expense of innocent lives and the annihilation of basic human rights, at least in my humble opinion....
-------------------------------------------------
Further rambling from my agitated, overly-stimulated brain (not really a spoiler, per se):
I finished this book last night but had to gather my thoughts. First, I must say that although I don't completely agree with the philosophy touted by the author, I did enjoy his riveting story.
Refreshingly thought-provoking, The Transhumanist Wager tells the tale of Jethro Knights, a defiant young man with great ambition and determination. He envisions a world where humans are replaced by transhumans (super humans, in effect, able to live longer, healthier, higher-quality lives). During his final year at the university, Jethro writes a senior thesis describing a radical new philosophy he calls TEF--Teleological Egocentric Functionalism. Basically, he urges people to work tirelessly toward scientific advancement so that they will ultimately achieve immortality. Jethro becomes an omnipotender, an individual who strives for as much power as possible and surpasses biological limitations to evolve into an indestructible life form.
Needless to say, Jethro's vision is highly criticized as insane, immoral and evil, particularly by Reverand Belinas, the Christian leader of the powerful Redeem Church in America. With a vast following and strong ties to government and financial leaders, Belinas is an influential man who declares a war against Jethro and the Transhumanist movement.
Terrorist attacks, at the behest of the "righteous" Reverand Belinas, ultimately cause Jethro and thousands of other loyal Transhumanists to leave America for life in Transhumania, a seastead (floating community) where scientists, futurists and technologists can conduct unhindered research in state-of-the-art laboratories.
Now, with so many brilliant scientists concentrated in one isolated place...
...not subject to any scrutiny or regulations, leaders of advanced nations begin to grow concerned about the possibility that they will acquire greater nuclear capabilities.
These new Transhumanians just want to be left in peace so that they can work on defying death and attaining immortality.
But eventually, ultimatums force them into action and the entire world is crippled by their powerful display of technological advances. A new era of mankind begins...the evolution of the human race.
This book will have you philosophically questioning what it means to be human and pondering your perspectives on science and religion, morality and the lack thereof, freedom versus oppression and even good versus evil.
There are a couple of reasons I withheld half a star. First, I was bothered by the colloquial language in an otherwise exceptionally written piece of literature. Here are a few examples:
"He looked out over the White House lawn and saw his Golden Cocker Spaniel taking a shit."
"They want to implement a global mandate forcing everyone to receive a rigorous secular education that disses faith and religion."
"Being a scientist, a futurist, an engineer or a technologist was the new state of cool."
Second, I found certain parts quite repetitive, especially during Jethro's speeches where he rehashes the same agenda ad nauseam. I suspect the author is trying to brainwash people into embracing the Transhumanist ideology. I'm kidding...am I? :-)
Overall, I did enjoy reading this engaging novel and learning about a movement I had no knowledge of heretofore. I think the visions and aspirations of Transhumanists are impressive and worthy of pursuit. Yet their goals should not be realized at the expense of innocent lives and the annihilation of basic human rights, at least in my humble opinion....
-------------------------------------------------
Further rambling from my agitated, overly-stimulated brain (not really a spoiler, per se):
October 25, 2013
Given that everyone who reads for pleasure more or less self-selects the texts they are going to engage with, I've sometimes wondered how it would be possible for me to read a book that I would consider giving only one star. Not anymore. Zoltan Istvan's The Transhumanist Wager is possibly the worst book I've ever read, and certainly the worst I've come across in years. This piece of neo-liberal, ultra-capitalistic schlock sets a new bar for linguistic ineptitude and intellectual shortsightedness.
Before I get into the reasons why I consider this book profoundly dull and unintelligent, two quick points. First, the good news: this book isn't dangerous. It's so bad that I can't imagine anyone of even moderate intelligence falling victim to its staggeringly simplistic worldview. I hope I'm right about this. The second point is that I consider myself a transhumanist. I believe it is scientifically and ethically viable for humans to carefully experiment with the further integration of human bodies with machine entities, to seek out reasonable forms of life extension, and to fight for the equal rights of augmented humans. I'm one of those folks champing at the bit to see what's just over the horizon, even if I'm also intimidated by the risks of climate change, globalization, radical religion, and all the other major problems facing modern human societies. I certainly don't reject the transhumanist outlook on principle. I don't think we have much choice at this point but to boldly (and responsibly) experiment with new ways to help people be more creative and resilient in the face of unprecedented challenges.
All of that said, I'd rather be dead than living in Zoltan Istvan's near-future vision. Having read a lot of science fiction recently, I have become accustomed to two features that are typically a part of the genre: brilliant ideas and stilted prose. Istvan has the latter on lock-down. It's hard to imagine a book that could be less creative in its use of language. Simple prose in itself isn't a problem––it's when the writing is completely lifeless that things get boring. Istvan constantly tells the reader exactly what is happening, leaving no room for mystery or interpretation. He gets his points across, but it's a painful experience for the reader. Although many scifi authors aren't great writers, they usually make up for it with their awesome imaginations and great ideas. In Istvan's case, however, I found this key component entirely lacking. There was not a single idea in this book that made me curious to hear more, or that I hadn't already thought of on my own or read about in much greater detail in the work of another author. This story is a barren, unimaginative desert populated by painfully thin characters with offensive, alienating values.
I don't have the time or patience to expound on the myriad reasons I have come to hate this book, so I'll just stick with a few of the major highlights. First off, if you're going to write a book about a transhumanist philosopher, he ought to act like one. That means carefully defining terms in a nuanced way, at the very least. Jethro Knights, Istvan's protagonist, repeatedly defines transhumanism as simply wanting to live forever at all costs; this bland, flimsy definition is insulting to anyone invested in dealing with real philosophical problems. Beyond this tawdry and excruciatingly childish notion, Istvan does very little to develop the idea of transhumanism, which is too bad considering how fascinating the concept truly is (many authors have addressed the matter in delightful ways). Knights seems too preoccupied with taking over the world and making people submit to his version of reality to accomplish any critical thinking. His attitudes and behaviors never evolve and are antithetical to those of a real philosopher in almost every conceivable way. Knights starts out as an arrogant jerk and blossoms into a full-blown megalomaniac with dreams of world domination.
Knights' attitude toward the world is relentlessly filtered through a horrendously egocentric and puerile fear of death. Istvan does his very best to make Knights seem heroic and sympathetic, but such efforts fall completely flat as Knights continues to pig-headedly insist that the entire world get on board with his personal quest for immortality. Any potential for an emotional connection to Knights vanishes as we observe his overtly violent behavior towards others, his willingness to destroy human life and cultural heritage in the name of "reason," and the fact that he teams up with an ultra-wealthy oil baron in order to use cheap third world labor to build his floating "utopian" city, which he names, you guessed it: Transhumania. It's not that Knights is wrong about everything, but that his unrelenting inability to compromise his "rational integrity" renders him a caricature rather than someone who could seem real. One of his most revealing qualities is that he wants to extend human life not in order to bring people more happiness or time with their loved ones, but rather to produce an increased number "life hours" so that the journey toward immortality can progress ever faster. Istvan has penned a story in which a neo-liberal, violent dictator is somehow portrayed as a hero. Even the deaths of his wife (the only remotely interesting character in the whole novel) and unborn child fail to have any noticeable effect on his ideas or behaviors. This pseudo-tragic event actually makes it easier for Jethro to accomplish his goals, since he no longer has to worry about caring for other people.
To make Jethro Knights seem like someone the reader might want to root for, Istvan throws in a couple of awkward, cookie-cutter villains: a power-hungry preacher and a spineless senator. These two straw men are just as unlikeable as Jethro, and Istvan unwittingly includes a few conversations in which the "bad guy" sometimes makes more sense than the "good guy." Unless he was going for a weird kind of irony, Istvan didn't seem to realize that all of his characters were equally undesirable as world leaders.
Jethro Knights wants to insist on a world where ultimate power lies either with God or with humankind, with no middle ground. Any future Earth would be much better off without a species dominated by his detestable methods. Knights proves himself an absolutist of the worst order, and I'd rather the human race be extinct than for us to have to deal with one of his ilk as our "savior."
Before I get into the reasons why I consider this book profoundly dull and unintelligent, two quick points. First, the good news: this book isn't dangerous. It's so bad that I can't imagine anyone of even moderate intelligence falling victim to its staggeringly simplistic worldview. I hope I'm right about this. The second point is that I consider myself a transhumanist. I believe it is scientifically and ethically viable for humans to carefully experiment with the further integration of human bodies with machine entities, to seek out reasonable forms of life extension, and to fight for the equal rights of augmented humans. I'm one of those folks champing at the bit to see what's just over the horizon, even if I'm also intimidated by the risks of climate change, globalization, radical religion, and all the other major problems facing modern human societies. I certainly don't reject the transhumanist outlook on principle. I don't think we have much choice at this point but to boldly (and responsibly) experiment with new ways to help people be more creative and resilient in the face of unprecedented challenges.
All of that said, I'd rather be dead than living in Zoltan Istvan's near-future vision. Having read a lot of science fiction recently, I have become accustomed to two features that are typically a part of the genre: brilliant ideas and stilted prose. Istvan has the latter on lock-down. It's hard to imagine a book that could be less creative in its use of language. Simple prose in itself isn't a problem––it's when the writing is completely lifeless that things get boring. Istvan constantly tells the reader exactly what is happening, leaving no room for mystery or interpretation. He gets his points across, but it's a painful experience for the reader. Although many scifi authors aren't great writers, they usually make up for it with their awesome imaginations and great ideas. In Istvan's case, however, I found this key component entirely lacking. There was not a single idea in this book that made me curious to hear more, or that I hadn't already thought of on my own or read about in much greater detail in the work of another author. This story is a barren, unimaginative desert populated by painfully thin characters with offensive, alienating values.
I don't have the time or patience to expound on the myriad reasons I have come to hate this book, so I'll just stick with a few of the major highlights. First off, if you're going to write a book about a transhumanist philosopher, he ought to act like one. That means carefully defining terms in a nuanced way, at the very least. Jethro Knights, Istvan's protagonist, repeatedly defines transhumanism as simply wanting to live forever at all costs; this bland, flimsy definition is insulting to anyone invested in dealing with real philosophical problems. Beyond this tawdry and excruciatingly childish notion, Istvan does very little to develop the idea of transhumanism, which is too bad considering how fascinating the concept truly is (many authors have addressed the matter in delightful ways). Knights seems too preoccupied with taking over the world and making people submit to his version of reality to accomplish any critical thinking. His attitudes and behaviors never evolve and are antithetical to those of a real philosopher in almost every conceivable way. Knights starts out as an arrogant jerk and blossoms into a full-blown megalomaniac with dreams of world domination.
Knights' attitude toward the world is relentlessly filtered through a horrendously egocentric and puerile fear of death. Istvan does his very best to make Knights seem heroic and sympathetic, but such efforts fall completely flat as Knights continues to pig-headedly insist that the entire world get on board with his personal quest for immortality. Any potential for an emotional connection to Knights vanishes as we observe his overtly violent behavior towards others, his willingness to destroy human life and cultural heritage in the name of "reason," and the fact that he teams up with an ultra-wealthy oil baron in order to use cheap third world labor to build his floating "utopian" city, which he names, you guessed it: Transhumania. It's not that Knights is wrong about everything, but that his unrelenting inability to compromise his "rational integrity" renders him a caricature rather than someone who could seem real. One of his most revealing qualities is that he wants to extend human life not in order to bring people more happiness or time with their loved ones, but rather to produce an increased number "life hours" so that the journey toward immortality can progress ever faster. Istvan has penned a story in which a neo-liberal, violent dictator is somehow portrayed as a hero. Even the deaths of his wife (the only remotely interesting character in the whole novel) and unborn child fail to have any noticeable effect on his ideas or behaviors. This pseudo-tragic event actually makes it easier for Jethro to accomplish his goals, since he no longer has to worry about caring for other people.
To make Jethro Knights seem like someone the reader might want to root for, Istvan throws in a couple of awkward, cookie-cutter villains: a power-hungry preacher and a spineless senator. These two straw men are just as unlikeable as Jethro, and Istvan unwittingly includes a few conversations in which the "bad guy" sometimes makes more sense than the "good guy." Unless he was going for a weird kind of irony, Istvan didn't seem to realize that all of his characters were equally undesirable as world leaders.
Jethro Knights wants to insist on a world where ultimate power lies either with God or with humankind, with no middle ground. Any future Earth would be much better off without a species dominated by his detestable methods. Knights proves himself an absolutist of the worst order, and I'd rather the human race be extinct than for us to have to deal with one of his ilk as our "savior."
August 13, 2016
-En tierra de nadie, a su pesar.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Jethro Knights se enfrenta con éxito a una gigantesca ola en el Pacífico mientras navega a bordo de un barco construido por el mismo mediante su voluntad e inteligencia, dos valores que a este joven interesado por el Transhumanismo le sobran, a diferencia de las habilidades sociales. Gregory Michaelson es un joven de familia muy acomodada y perfectamente entroncada entre las fuerzas políticas y sociales de Estados Unidos, con el que Jethro compartió clase en la Universidad. Zoe Bach es una inteligente joven residente de cirugía muy interesada en trabajar en países en vías de desarrollo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Jethro Knights se enfrenta con éxito a una gigantesca ola en el Pacífico mientras navega a bordo de un barco construido por el mismo mediante su voluntad e inteligencia, dos valores que a este joven interesado por el Transhumanismo le sobran, a diferencia de las habilidades sociales. Gregory Michaelson es un joven de familia muy acomodada y perfectamente entroncada entre las fuerzas políticas y sociales de Estados Unidos, con el que Jethro compartió clase en la Universidad. Zoe Bach es una inteligente joven residente de cirugía muy interesada en trabajar en países en vías de desarrollo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
April 5, 2013
A powerful, thrilling, provocative novel! Highly original and unlike anything I've come across recently. One is afraid to love or hate the main character. One is afraid to agree or disagree with the book. Is science and technology a liberator or destroyer? The central character of the book, Jethro Knights, tackles all these questions on his quest to achieve immortality. His morality is defined by his needs. The love story rocks too. A solid 5-star book that many will find controversial and anti-mainstream.
July 10, 2013
This book was rejected by 500 publishers. Well done them. Though the premise of the book was good it was let down by a rather pedestrian writing style. Chunks of text were given over to preachy self serving monologues that had to be waded through. it was very hard to feel for the one dimensional characters. If you get half way through this book, quit. It gets a lot less believable and more annoying. You also get the impression that the author thinks a lot of himself.
August 28, 2013
An Epic Declaration of Transhumanist Values
Full disclosure: I LOVE this book…
If you want a dispassionate, unbiased, detached, "objective" examination of the book's plot, character development, literary style, form, etc., look elsewhere. I will not give you a synopsis of the plot and describe all the main personalities and relationships between the characters. Many other reviewers have done this already. I AM going to tell you a bit of what I love about the story and characters, but MOSTLY I will help you to modulate your expectations so that you will be clear as to what this book IS and IS NOT. Armed with this information, you may be able to get more out of it than you would have, had you approached it with whatever set of expectations you would have brought to it prior to reading this "review."
I am a serious transhumanist, so I am primed to like the point of view and content of the story. Each transhumanist will undoubtedly have "issues" with certain aspects of the plot and actions of some characters, but it will, nevertheless, provide them with plenty of food for thought and debate with other transhumanists. But this is largely beside the point. The author has said in interviews that this book was written primarily with a person unfamiliar with transhumanism in mind and this is why I am indulging in the GRAND PRESUMPTION to provide the uninitiated reader with a few things to look for that will make the challenge of "getting it" go much more smoothly.
No, I don't think, condescendingly, that you are too dumb to grasp it all on your own. Rather, it is because transhumanist ideas tend to challenge many fundamental and intuitively held cultural beliefs about "life, the universe and EVERYTHING" and, because of certain plot elements, these ideas get presented in a very forceful and in-your-face sort of way, a bit of "conceptual foreplay" is in order before consenting to the full Transhumanist Wager "consummation"…as it were. It is better to think of this "review" as more of a "guide," wherein I'll point out the most interesting "conceptual landmarks" and emphasize certain contextual features that will enable you to traverse the terrain of this dense novel while avoiding certain foreseeable hazards of thought and interpretation.
The first thing to know about The Transhumanist Wager, is that this novel is, above ALL, a BOOK OF IDEAS…Yes, the ideas are embedded in a gripping story full of conflict, action, climaxes, (yes, the rumors you've heard about it being an addictive "page turner" are CERTAINLY true) but it is always the IDEAS that provide the fuel to propel the action forward.
Rather than presenting transhumanist ideas in a dry textbook, laden with detailed scientific and technological information and idiosyncratic futuristic philosophy, Zoltan Istvan has chosen to present these ideas in novel form whereby they have additional impact because of the human relationships that provide windows into the motivations behind the actions and convictions. Plot-tensions serve to test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the characters' commitment to them.
Don't complain about long speeches. Instead, stretch your attention span and pay close attention to the CONTENT rather than the WORD COUNT. There are certain places in the story where the action must pause and certain people need to be read the proverbial "Riot Act." There are A LOT of ideas that need to be presented…did I mention that this is a book of IDEAS? If you are looking for a story with a lot of action but with little interruption in the form of challenging ideas, this is NOT the book for you. Novels with plenty of action that require a minimum exposure to uncomfortable new ideas are not hard to find. I dare say they are the RULE rather than the EXCEPTION.
Many people, myself included, have expressed misgivings, and MORE, about some of the actions taken by the lead character, Jethro Knights. The important thing to focus on is the context that drives those actions. The world in which this story takes place is a relatively near-future earth, but one in which many examples of push-back against transhumanism, that are just beginning to emerge today, have grown TREMENDOUSLY in response to future successes of transhumanist technologies and ideas.
Individuals and governments are using force of law and ACTUAL force to inhibit scientific progress, to the point of LITERALLY declaring war on transhumansts, who are being killed, imprisoned, assets seized and declared to be criminals simply for working in the field of transumanism. And don't fail to note the most extreme incident that happens to Knights personally that colors his subsequent responses.
The Transhumanist Wager, has often been compared to Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. Among the several general similarities between the two stories, is the fact that both are set in a future time wherein there is great economic and cultural upheaval. The governments in both books go into an extreme fear-based, monkey-brained, tribalistic, them-or-us, fight-or-flight mode that engenders extreme responses from those who are on the receiving end of the governments' mindless temper tantrums.
The point is NOT that every tactic that Knights employs in this war is therefore justified, but rather, his extremely strident and authoritarian attitude and actions are not indicative of the default modus operandi of transhumanists under "normal" circumstances. To the contrary, transhumanists merely want to be able to work on advancing the human condition through technology and new scientific discoveries to the future benefit of everyone who would like to partake of them.
This is a CAUTIONARY TALE about what COULD happen in the future if religious extremists and others who are very averse to change and even to the mere EXISTENCE of points of view that conflict with their own worldviews begin to take more forceful actions to stifle these changes and ideas.
The first goal of transhumanists is to extend their life as long as possible; to ensure the "continuity of their consciousness," eventually, beyond the limitations of a biological body and into some other, more sturdy, medium when available. We are in a race against our dwindling lifespans, of which, we currently have little ability to extend very far at all. If we can live just long enough to make it to the next few major life-extension breakthroughs, we may be able to, as Ray Kurzweil proposes, "live long enough to live forever."
In the book, the First Law of Transhumanism is: "A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else." This is the sine qua non of transhumanism and yes, it is the words "all else" that can conjure up extreme hypothetical ethical dilemmas in one's mind and can strain the limits of each transhumanist's willingness to consistently adhere to this principle.
It is this prime value that makes the stakes so high when others threaten it or even DELAY the next potential life/health-extending breakthrough. These kinds of shenanigans tend to cause transhumanists to become QUITE "cross" and Jethro Knights is putting the world ON NOTICE as to this fact.
One of the most overused criticisms, one that seems to be almost OBLIGATORY if a reviewer wants to appear sophisticated and discerning is that a character is, "one-dimensional." And there has been no shortage of this criticism being leveled against Istvan's novel. I would propose that all novels are not created equal, in that some are more character-driven; some are action-driven; and a few are idea-driven. I put it to you that the revealed details of a character's life are on a "need to know basis."
Take one of my favorite novels, William Styron's, Sophie's Choice, for example. This book is ALL ABOUT the tremendously quirky and complex characters and the way that they respond to events, both mundane and cataclysmic. Styron informs us about their histories, families, etc. in GREAT detail, not because all books MUST present multi-dimensional characters in all their fully fleshed-out human-esqe glory and complexity, but because this book is about the characters, PERIOD.
In Istvan's novel, granted we don't know Jethro's favorite color, his mom's name, and we're not privy to ANY of his iTunes playlists, but we are given access to his IDEAS and books that reads and his attitudes about a great many things, because in THIS book, IDEAS ARE KING. The characters are vehicles for the actualization of the IDEAS. The plot is in service of creating tensions that will test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the degree to which the characters consistently embody the ideas under duress. Yes, Istvan could have included some details about Jethro's formative years, but what is most important in this idea-driven story is that fact that Jethro IS what he IS. And there will be room in the inevitable sequels to explore more about WHY he is that way.
The function of Jethro's love interest, nay, SOULMATE, Zoe Bach, is to show another side of Jethro…dare I say, "other dimensions?" Zoe is the Yin to his Yang. She challenges his ideas and instincts. And his EXTREME love and respect for her forces him to consider things that he might just brush aside as unworthy of consideration if they had come from anyone BUT Zoe.
Some would-be literary critics have even said that Jethro's love for Zoe is contradictory to his character or hypocritical. After all, Jethro is a ROCK, an ISLAND UNTO HIMSELF. It makes no sense that he would care for someone like Zoe, ESPECIALLY given her proclivity for a more mystical worldview. But this is exactly that human dimension that people look for in their fictional characters. Zoe and Jethro share the same values and "sense of life." The differing details of their worldviews based on their backgrounds only go to temper some readers' view of Jethro as a heartless, rigid, transhumanist automaton.
Finally, a personal speculation about the effect this book has on a lot of people. I have an intuition or hunch that the majority of the negative feelings people have for Jethro just may be for his words more than his deeds. I have a suspicion that if all the same actions were taken, but with FAR FEWER explicit, in-your-face explanations, the negativity toward Jethro might be much less intense.
Just as in Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Roark/Galt make very long speeches that basically sum up to: "I don't recognize your authority to judge or interfere with my ideas or actions because I completely reject nearly all that you hold dear and have replaced it all with my own ideas and values." And particularly when quite a bit of what they are rejecting is the belief in, and submission to, no less than THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, well, one just doesn't say that kind of thing. People should respect other people's beliefs, after all.
To the contrary, Knights/Roark/Galt hold these beliefs up to the scrutiny of reason and test their values as to their functionality and consequences just as they would any other ideas. This "arrogant blasphemy," I believe, is their primary crime in the eyes of many.
As a result of my own passions and values, I love this book. It is my new favorite novel. I love Zoe's spirit and grit and Jethro's passion and strength. I would love nothing more than to hang out with all the scientists and engineers as they bring their world-changing creations to life. Yes, I am a serious nerd and transhumanist and these are MY PEOPLE. I am from their TRIBE. We are comrades in the same "struggle." Not a "class struggle" but a struggle to take charge of human evolution and see it through to the next level. Not as a post-HUMAN, but as a post-BIOLOGICAL being, while retaining the human qualities we choose to and leaving our bio-limitations behind. All our resource-scarcity problems and our body's ULTRA-FRAGILE-NESS are rooted in our biological "platforms" and their need for carbon-based food, water, oxygen. The sooner we can move past these limitations, the better...toward a SUBSTRATE INDEPENDENT, CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
I have no doubt that this book will inspire many who didn't even previously realize they WERE transhumanists to follow this path.
Transhumanists of the world, UNITE!!!
We've got some serious TRANSFORMING to do…
Full disclosure: I LOVE this book…
If you want a dispassionate, unbiased, detached, "objective" examination of the book's plot, character development, literary style, form, etc., look elsewhere. I will not give you a synopsis of the plot and describe all the main personalities and relationships between the characters. Many other reviewers have done this already. I AM going to tell you a bit of what I love about the story and characters, but MOSTLY I will help you to modulate your expectations so that you will be clear as to what this book IS and IS NOT. Armed with this information, you may be able to get more out of it than you would have, had you approached it with whatever set of expectations you would have brought to it prior to reading this "review."
I am a serious transhumanist, so I am primed to like the point of view and content of the story. Each transhumanist will undoubtedly have "issues" with certain aspects of the plot and actions of some characters, but it will, nevertheless, provide them with plenty of food for thought and debate with other transhumanists. But this is largely beside the point. The author has said in interviews that this book was written primarily with a person unfamiliar with transhumanism in mind and this is why I am indulging in the GRAND PRESUMPTION to provide the uninitiated reader with a few things to look for that will make the challenge of "getting it" go much more smoothly.
No, I don't think, condescendingly, that you are too dumb to grasp it all on your own. Rather, it is because transhumanist ideas tend to challenge many fundamental and intuitively held cultural beliefs about "life, the universe and EVERYTHING" and, because of certain plot elements, these ideas get presented in a very forceful and in-your-face sort of way, a bit of "conceptual foreplay" is in order before consenting to the full Transhumanist Wager "consummation"…as it were. It is better to think of this "review" as more of a "guide," wherein I'll point out the most interesting "conceptual landmarks" and emphasize certain contextual features that will enable you to traverse the terrain of this dense novel while avoiding certain foreseeable hazards of thought and interpretation.
The first thing to know about The Transhumanist Wager, is that this novel is, above ALL, a BOOK OF IDEAS…Yes, the ideas are embedded in a gripping story full of conflict, action, climaxes, (yes, the rumors you've heard about it being an addictive "page turner" are CERTAINLY true) but it is always the IDEAS that provide the fuel to propel the action forward.
Rather than presenting transhumanist ideas in a dry textbook, laden with detailed scientific and technological information and idiosyncratic futuristic philosophy, Zoltan Istvan has chosen to present these ideas in novel form whereby they have additional impact because of the human relationships that provide windows into the motivations behind the actions and convictions. Plot-tensions serve to test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the characters' commitment to them.
Don't complain about long speeches. Instead, stretch your attention span and pay close attention to the CONTENT rather than the WORD COUNT. There are certain places in the story where the action must pause and certain people need to be read the proverbial "Riot Act." There are A LOT of ideas that need to be presented…did I mention that this is a book of IDEAS? If you are looking for a story with a lot of action but with little interruption in the form of challenging ideas, this is NOT the book for you. Novels with plenty of action that require a minimum exposure to uncomfortable new ideas are not hard to find. I dare say they are the RULE rather than the EXCEPTION.
Many people, myself included, have expressed misgivings, and MORE, about some of the actions taken by the lead character, Jethro Knights. The important thing to focus on is the context that drives those actions. The world in which this story takes place is a relatively near-future earth, but one in which many examples of push-back against transhumanism, that are just beginning to emerge today, have grown TREMENDOUSLY in response to future successes of transhumanist technologies and ideas.
Individuals and governments are using force of law and ACTUAL force to inhibit scientific progress, to the point of LITERALLY declaring war on transhumansts, who are being killed, imprisoned, assets seized and declared to be criminals simply for working in the field of transumanism. And don't fail to note the most extreme incident that happens to Knights personally that colors his subsequent responses.
The Transhumanist Wager, has often been compared to Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. Among the several general similarities between the two stories, is the fact that both are set in a future time wherein there is great economic and cultural upheaval. The governments in both books go into an extreme fear-based, monkey-brained, tribalistic, them-or-us, fight-or-flight mode that engenders extreme responses from those who are on the receiving end of the governments' mindless temper tantrums.
The point is NOT that every tactic that Knights employs in this war is therefore justified, but rather, his extremely strident and authoritarian attitude and actions are not indicative of the default modus operandi of transhumanists under "normal" circumstances. To the contrary, transhumanists merely want to be able to work on advancing the human condition through technology and new scientific discoveries to the future benefit of everyone who would like to partake of them.
This is a CAUTIONARY TALE about what COULD happen in the future if religious extremists and others who are very averse to change and even to the mere EXISTENCE of points of view that conflict with their own worldviews begin to take more forceful actions to stifle these changes and ideas.
The first goal of transhumanists is to extend their life as long as possible; to ensure the "continuity of their consciousness," eventually, beyond the limitations of a biological body and into some other, more sturdy, medium when available. We are in a race against our dwindling lifespans, of which, we currently have little ability to extend very far at all. If we can live just long enough to make it to the next few major life-extension breakthroughs, we may be able to, as Ray Kurzweil proposes, "live long enough to live forever."
In the book, the First Law of Transhumanism is: "A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else." This is the sine qua non of transhumanism and yes, it is the words "all else" that can conjure up extreme hypothetical ethical dilemmas in one's mind and can strain the limits of each transhumanist's willingness to consistently adhere to this principle.
It is this prime value that makes the stakes so high when others threaten it or even DELAY the next potential life/health-extending breakthrough. These kinds of shenanigans tend to cause transhumanists to become QUITE "cross" and Jethro Knights is putting the world ON NOTICE as to this fact.
One of the most overused criticisms, one that seems to be almost OBLIGATORY if a reviewer wants to appear sophisticated and discerning is that a character is, "one-dimensional." And there has been no shortage of this criticism being leveled against Istvan's novel. I would propose that all novels are not created equal, in that some are more character-driven; some are action-driven; and a few are idea-driven. I put it to you that the revealed details of a character's life are on a "need to know basis."
Take one of my favorite novels, William Styron's, Sophie's Choice, for example. This book is ALL ABOUT the tremendously quirky and complex characters and the way that they respond to events, both mundane and cataclysmic. Styron informs us about their histories, families, etc. in GREAT detail, not because all books MUST present multi-dimensional characters in all their fully fleshed-out human-esqe glory and complexity, but because this book is about the characters, PERIOD.
In Istvan's novel, granted we don't know Jethro's favorite color, his mom's name, and we're not privy to ANY of his iTunes playlists, but we are given access to his IDEAS and books that reads and his attitudes about a great many things, because in THIS book, IDEAS ARE KING. The characters are vehicles for the actualization of the IDEAS. The plot is in service of creating tensions that will test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the degree to which the characters consistently embody the ideas under duress. Yes, Istvan could have included some details about Jethro's formative years, but what is most important in this idea-driven story is that fact that Jethro IS what he IS. And there will be room in the inevitable sequels to explore more about WHY he is that way.
The function of Jethro's love interest, nay, SOULMATE, Zoe Bach, is to show another side of Jethro…dare I say, "other dimensions?" Zoe is the Yin to his Yang. She challenges his ideas and instincts. And his EXTREME love and respect for her forces him to consider things that he might just brush aside as unworthy of consideration if they had come from anyone BUT Zoe.
Some would-be literary critics have even said that Jethro's love for Zoe is contradictory to his character or hypocritical. After all, Jethro is a ROCK, an ISLAND UNTO HIMSELF. It makes no sense that he would care for someone like Zoe, ESPECIALLY given her proclivity for a more mystical worldview. But this is exactly that human dimension that people look for in their fictional characters. Zoe and Jethro share the same values and "sense of life." The differing details of their worldviews based on their backgrounds only go to temper some readers' view of Jethro as a heartless, rigid, transhumanist automaton.
Finally, a personal speculation about the effect this book has on a lot of people. I have an intuition or hunch that the majority of the negative feelings people have for Jethro just may be for his words more than his deeds. I have a suspicion that if all the same actions were taken, but with FAR FEWER explicit, in-your-face explanations, the negativity toward Jethro might be much less intense.
Just as in Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Roark/Galt make very long speeches that basically sum up to: "I don't recognize your authority to judge or interfere with my ideas or actions because I completely reject nearly all that you hold dear and have replaced it all with my own ideas and values." And particularly when quite a bit of what they are rejecting is the belief in, and submission to, no less than THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, well, one just doesn't say that kind of thing. People should respect other people's beliefs, after all.
To the contrary, Knights/Roark/Galt hold these beliefs up to the scrutiny of reason and test their values as to their functionality and consequences just as they would any other ideas. This "arrogant blasphemy," I believe, is their primary crime in the eyes of many.
As a result of my own passions and values, I love this book. It is my new favorite novel. I love Zoe's spirit and grit and Jethro's passion and strength. I would love nothing more than to hang out with all the scientists and engineers as they bring their world-changing creations to life. Yes, I am a serious nerd and transhumanist and these are MY PEOPLE. I am from their TRIBE. We are comrades in the same "struggle." Not a "class struggle" but a struggle to take charge of human evolution and see it through to the next level. Not as a post-HUMAN, but as a post-BIOLOGICAL being, while retaining the human qualities we choose to and leaving our bio-limitations behind. All our resource-scarcity problems and our body's ULTRA-FRAGILE-NESS are rooted in our biological "platforms" and their need for carbon-based food, water, oxygen. The sooner we can move past these limitations, the better...toward a SUBSTRATE INDEPENDENT, CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
I have no doubt that this book will inspire many who didn't even previously realize they WERE transhumanists to follow this path.
Transhumanists of the world, UNITE!!!
We've got some serious TRANSFORMING to do…
March 9, 2015
I didn't approach this book with any particularly high expectations. But only a few dozen pages into it and my skepticism that the best-selling action-imbued novel could be quite so penetrating and dense seemed unjustified. One could say that the number of stars I would rate the book increased per the page, as I found myself hooked and unwilling to put the novel down.
At the beginning, the book is that little bit facetious, that little bit unimaginative. The tone is naive and as if designed to impress rather than express, descriptions depending more on quantity than on quality.
Everything good about the book in those first pages is directly taken from Ayn Rand. If you have read the Fountainhead, for example, it would be extremely hard not to have the feeling that you are reading a simplified, cut-down version of Rand's novel. Jethro Knights as Howard Roark; Gregory Michaelson as Peter Keating. From the opening scene, featuring the main protagonist all by himself, down to the specific literary description devices, such as Knights saying one thing, but his interlocutor hearing another, the novel owes much to Rand's writing and the characters she created.
But of course, most importantly, the entire book owes tons to Rand's philosophy. It basically embraces objectivism as it directly exposes issues of the individual and the collective, of selfishness and altruism. The main protagonist's philosophy - Teleological Egocentric Functionalism - seems unequivocally inspired by Rand. And this is of course great (not only because objectivism is great) because it makes it clear from the first pages that the book is not some escapist fiction about some dreamt-up fancy world but about our world here and now, just as Rand's philosophy is - philosophy for living on Earth.
As the story unfolds, The Transhumanist Wager gets more imaginative, complicated, and thrilling. It becomes more obvious that some good deal of effort and thought had gone into writing the book. Of course, in a sense, in terms of ideas there is nothing shockingly novel about the book, there never is this 'wow' moment of revelation as it were. The book is a mixture of known philosophies, long-talked-about emerging technologies and a very original intricate plot. And it is a magnificent mixture, made truly invaluable by the gravity of the issues it is tackling with.
I am grateful that this book was written. Because if it wasn't I think that maybe I would have had to sit down and write it myself. The Transhumanist Wager is a celebration of what human will-power can achieve, and of what it owes itself to achieve. It realistically portrays many features of our societies and cultures, our mindsets, and our potential, in a captivating albeit slightly unlikely story.
At the beginning, the book is that little bit facetious, that little bit unimaginative. The tone is naive and as if designed to impress rather than express, descriptions depending more on quantity than on quality.
Everything good about the book in those first pages is directly taken from Ayn Rand. If you have read the Fountainhead, for example, it would be extremely hard not to have the feeling that you are reading a simplified, cut-down version of Rand's novel. Jethro Knights as Howard Roark; Gregory Michaelson as Peter Keating. From the opening scene, featuring the main protagonist all by himself, down to the specific literary description devices, such as Knights saying one thing, but his interlocutor hearing another, the novel owes much to Rand's writing and the characters she created.
But of course, most importantly, the entire book owes tons to Rand's philosophy. It basically embraces objectivism as it directly exposes issues of the individual and the collective, of selfishness and altruism. The main protagonist's philosophy - Teleological Egocentric Functionalism - seems unequivocally inspired by Rand. And this is of course great (not only because objectivism is great) because it makes it clear from the first pages that the book is not some escapist fiction about some dreamt-up fancy world but about our world here and now, just as Rand's philosophy is - philosophy for living on Earth.
As the story unfolds, The Transhumanist Wager gets more imaginative, complicated, and thrilling. It becomes more obvious that some good deal of effort and thought had gone into writing the book. Of course, in a sense, in terms of ideas there is nothing shockingly novel about the book, there never is this 'wow' moment of revelation as it were. The book is a mixture of known philosophies, long-talked-about emerging technologies and a very original intricate plot. And it is a magnificent mixture, made truly invaluable by the gravity of the issues it is tackling with.
I am grateful that this book was written. Because if it wasn't I think that maybe I would have had to sit down and write it myself. The Transhumanist Wager is a celebration of what human will-power can achieve, and of what it owes itself to achieve. It realistically portrays many features of our societies and cultures, our mindsets, and our potential, in a captivating albeit slightly unlikely story.
September 26, 2013
Ok, it took me a while to finally get to this book. I can see where controversy would surround it. Transhumanists are a minority, just like any other. The difference is, they're a minority of scientists and philosophers openly admitting to what many wish to achieve, immortality. They want to become immortal. They don't want to die in hopes of some glorious afterlife. They want to extend their lives infinitely. They are mostly met with scorn, especially by America and Judeo-Christian cultures. For some reason, they take offense to the experiments to elongate life. And of course one evangelist takes the lead to cast them down as the scum of society.
Jethro is an extremist. There's really no other way to describe him. He doesn't do the moderation thing. He's aggressive and at times, I like him because he doesn't concern himself with the superficial idea of modern man, but at other times I hate him because he's so unyielding. Zoe is a nice counterpart for him. She believes in transhumanism, but she also believes in death. She's a bit more realistic and clearly spiritual. She believes there is a possibility of an afterlife, and should she die she's ready to meet it. Jethro cannot accept death. It just feels wrong to him and it tends to make him a bit of an asshole, to put it nicely.
The story itself interest me. Because honestly this is the way humans react to what they don't understand. This is especially true in America. If a movement like this gained widespread fame here, I could see this book being the way we would react. This book had me quite angry in some points, to the point that I had to remind myself it was fiction and not current events. Very absorbing, very thought provoking.
Jethro is an extremist. There's really no other way to describe him. He doesn't do the moderation thing. He's aggressive and at times, I like him because he doesn't concern himself with the superficial idea of modern man, but at other times I hate him because he's so unyielding. Zoe is a nice counterpart for him. She believes in transhumanism, but she also believes in death. She's a bit more realistic and clearly spiritual. She believes there is a possibility of an afterlife, and should she die she's ready to meet it. Jethro cannot accept death. It just feels wrong to him and it tends to make him a bit of an asshole, to put it nicely.
The story itself interest me. Because honestly this is the way humans react to what they don't understand. This is especially true in America. If a movement like this gained widespread fame here, I could see this book being the way we would react. This book had me quite angry in some points, to the point that I had to remind myself it was fiction and not current events. Very absorbing, very thought provoking.
April 20, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's the best sci-fi book I've read in a long time. This is a profoundly thought provoking book and I would highly recommend it.
August 23, 2013
Full disclosure: I LOVE this book…
If you want a dispassionate, unbiased, detached, "objective" examination of the book's plot, character development, literary style, form, etc., look elsewhere. I will not give you a synopsis of the plot and describe all the main personalities and relationships between the characters. Many other reviewers have done this already. I AM going to tell you a bit of what I love about the story and characters, but MOSTLY I will help you to modulate your expectations so that you will be clear as to what this book IS and IS NOT. Armed with this information, you may be able to get more out of it than you would have, had you approached it with whatever set of expectations you would have brought to it prior to reading this "review."
I am a serious transhumanist, so I am primed to like the point of view and content of the story. Each transhumanist will undoubtedly have "issues" with certain aspects of the plot and actions of some characters, but it will, nevertheless, provide them with plenty of food for thought and debate with other transhumanists. But this is largely beside the point. The author has said in interviews that this book was written primarily with a person unfamiliar with transhumanism in mind and this is why I am indulging in the GRAND PRESUMPTION to provide the uninitiated reader with a few things to look for that will make the challenge of "getting it" go much more smoothly.
No, I don't think, condescendingly, that you are too dumb to grasp it all on your own. Rather, it is because transhumanist ideas tend to challenge many fundamental and intuitively held cultural beliefs about "life, the universe and EVERYTHING" and, because of certain plot elements, these ideas get presented in a very forceful and in-your-face sort of way, a bit of "conceptual foreplay" is in order before consenting to the full Transhumanist Wager "consummation"…as it were. It is better to think of this "review" as more of a "guide," wherein I'll point out the most interesting "conceptual landmarks" and emphasize certain contextual features that will enable you to traverse the terrain of this dense novel while avoiding certain foreseeable hazards of thought and interpretation.
The first thing to know about The Transhumanist Wager, is that this novel is, above ALL, a BOOK OF IDEAS…Yes, the ideas are embedded in a gripping story full of conflict, action, climaxes, (yes, the rumors you've heard about it being an addictive "page turner" are CERTAINLY true) but it is always the IDEAS that provide the fuel to propel the action forward.
Rather than presenting transhumanist ideas in a dry textbook, laden with detailed scientific and technological information and idiosyncratic futuristic philosophy, Zoltan Istvan, has chosen to present these ideas in novel form whereby they have additional impact because of the human relationships that provide windows into the motivations behind the actions and convictions. Plot-tensions serve to test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the characters' commitment to them.
Don't complain about long speeches. Instead, stretch your attention span and pay close attention to the CONTENT rather than the WORD COUNT. There are certain places in the story where the action must pause and certain people need to be read the proverbial "Riot Act." There are A LOT of ideas that need to be presented…did I mention that this is a book of IDEAS? If you are looking for a story with a lot of action but with little interruption in the form of challenging ideas, this is NOT the book for you. Novels with plenty of action that require a minimum exposure to uncomfortable new ideas are not hard to find. I dare say they are the RULE rather than the EXCEPTION.
Many people, myself included, have expressed misgivings, and MORE, about some of the actions taken by the lead character, Jethro Knights. The important thing to focus on is the context that drives those actions. The world in which this story takes place is a relatively near-future earth, but one in which many examples of push-back against transhumanism, that are just beginning to emerge today, have grown TREMENDOUSLY in response to future successes of transhumanist technologies and ideas.
Individuals and governments are using force of law and ACTUAL force to inhibit scientific progress, to the point of LITERALLY declaring war on transhumansts, who are being killed, imprisoned, assets seized and declared to be criminals simply for working in the field of transumanism. And don't fail to note the most extreme incident that happens to Knights personally that colors his subsequent responses.
The Transhumanist Wager, has often been compared to Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. Among the several general similarities between the two stories, is the fact that both are set in a future time wherein there is great economic and cultural upheaval. The governments in both books go into an extreme fear-based, monkey-brained, tribalistic, them-or-us, fight-or-flight mode that engenders extreme responses from those who are on the receiving end of the governments' mindless temper tantrums.
The point is NOT that every tactic that Knights employs in this war is therefore justified, but rather, his extremely strident and authoritarian attitude and actions are not indicative of the default modus operandi of transhumanists under "normal" circumstances. To the contrary, transhumanists merely want to be able to work on advancing the human condition through technology and new scientific discoveries to the future benefit of everyone who would like to partake of them.
This is a CAUTIONARY TALE about what COULD happen in the future if religious extremists and others who are very averse to change and even to the mere EXISTENCE of points of view that conflict with their own worldviews begin to take more forceful actions to stifle these changes and ideas.
The first goal of transhumanists is to extend their life as long as possible; to ensure the "continuity of their consciousness," eventually, beyond the limitations of a biological body and into some other, more sturdy, medium when available. We are in a race against our dwindling lifespans, of which, we currently have little ability to extend very far at all. If we can live just long enough to make it to the next few major life-extension breakthroughs, we may be able to, as Ray Kurzweil proposes, "live long enough to live forever."
In the book, the First Law of Transhumanism is: "A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else." This is the sine qua non of transhumanism and yes, it is the words "all else" that can conjure up extreme hypothetical ethical dilemmas in one's mind and can strain the limits of each transhumanist's willingness to consistently adhere to this principle.
It is this prime value that makes the stakes so high when others threaten it or even DELAY the next potential life/health-extending breakthrough. These kinds of shenanigans tend to cause transhumanists to become QUITE "cross" and Jethro Knights is putting the world ON NOTICE as to this fact.
One of the most overused criticisms, one that seems to be almost OBLIGATORY if a reviewer wants to appear sophisticated and discerning is that a character is, "one-dimensional." And there has been no shortage of this criticism being leveled against Istvan's novel. I would propose that all novels are not created equal, in that some are more character-driven; some are action-driven; and a few are idea-driven. I put it to you that the revealed details of a character's life are on a "need to know basis."
Take one of my favorite novels, William Styron's, Sophie's Choice, for example. This book is ALL ABOUT the tremendously quirky and complex characters and the way that they respond to events, both mundane and cataclysmic. Styron informs us about their histories, families, etc. in GREAT detail, not because all books MUST present multi-dimensional characters in all their fully fleshed-out human-esqe glory and complexity, but because this book is about the characters, PERIOD.
In Istvan's novel, granted we don't know Jethro's favorite color, his mom's name, and we're not privy to ANY of his iTunes playlists, but we are given access to his IDEAS and books that reads and his attitudes about a great many things, because in THIS book, IDEAS ARE KING. The characters are vehicles for the actualization of the IDEAS. The plot is in service of creating tensions that will test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the degree to which the characters consistently embody the ideas under duress. Yes, Istvan could have included some details about Jethro's formative years, but what is most important in this idea-driven story is that fact that Jethro IS what he IS. And there will be room in the inevitable sequels to explore more about WHY he is that way.
The function of Jethro's love interest, nay, SOULMATE, Zoe Bach, is to show another side of Jethro…dare I say, "other dimensions?" Zoe is the Yin to his Yang. She challenges his ideas and instincts. And his EXTREME love and respect for her forces him to consider things that he might just brush aside as unworthy of consideration if they had come from anyone BUT Zoe.
Some would-be literary critics have even said that Jethro's love for Zoe is contradictory to his character or hypocritical. After all, Jethro is a ROCK, an ISLAND UNTO HIMSELF. It makes no sense that he would care for someone like Zoe, ESPECIALLY given her proclivity for a more mystical worldview. But this is exactly that human dimension that people look for in their fictional characters. Zoe and Jethro share the same values and "sense of life." The differing details of their worldviews based on their backgrounds only go to temper some readers' view of Jethro as a heartless, rigid, transhumanist automaton.
Finally, a personal speculation about the effect this book has on a lot of people. I have an intuition or hunch that the majority of the negative feelings people have for Jethro just may be for his words more than his deeds. I have a suspicion that if all the same actions were taken, but with FAR FEWER explicit, in-your-face explanations, the negativity toward Jethro might be much less intense.
Just as in Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Roark/Galt make very long speeches that basically sum up to: "I don't recognize your authority to judge or interfere with my ideas or actions because I completely reject nearly all that you hold dear and have replaced it all with my own ideas and values." And particularly when quite a bit of what they are rejecting is the belief in, and submission to, no less than THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, well, one just doesn't say that kind of thing. People should respect other people's beliefs, after all.
To the contrary, Knights/Roark/Galt hold these beliefs up to the scrutiny of reason and test their values as to their functionality and consequences just as they would any other ideas. This "arrogant blasphemy," I believe, is their primary crime in the eyes of many.
As a result of my own passions and values, I love this book. It is my new favorite novel. I love Zoe's spirit and grit and Jethro's passion and strength. I would love nothing more than to hang out with all the scientists and engineers as they bring their world-changing creations to life. Yes, I am a serious nerd and transhumanist and these are MY PEOPLE. I am from their TRIBE. We are comrades in the same "struggle." Not a "class struggle" but a struggle to take charge of human evolution and see it through to the next level. Not as a post-HUMAN, but as a post-BIOLOGICAL being, while retaining the human qualities we choose to and leaving our bio-limitations behind. All our resource-scarcity problems and our body's ULTRA-FRAGILE-NESS are rooted in our biological "platforms" and their need for carbon-based food, water, oxygen. The sooner we can move past these limitations, the better...toward a SUBSTRATE INDEPENDENT, CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
I have no doubt that this book will inspire many who didn't even previously realize they WERE transhumanists to follow this path.
Transhumanists of the world, UNITE!!!
We've got some serious TRANSFORMING to do...
If you want a dispassionate, unbiased, detached, "objective" examination of the book's plot, character development, literary style, form, etc., look elsewhere. I will not give you a synopsis of the plot and describe all the main personalities and relationships between the characters. Many other reviewers have done this already. I AM going to tell you a bit of what I love about the story and characters, but MOSTLY I will help you to modulate your expectations so that you will be clear as to what this book IS and IS NOT. Armed with this information, you may be able to get more out of it than you would have, had you approached it with whatever set of expectations you would have brought to it prior to reading this "review."
I am a serious transhumanist, so I am primed to like the point of view and content of the story. Each transhumanist will undoubtedly have "issues" with certain aspects of the plot and actions of some characters, but it will, nevertheless, provide them with plenty of food for thought and debate with other transhumanists. But this is largely beside the point. The author has said in interviews that this book was written primarily with a person unfamiliar with transhumanism in mind and this is why I am indulging in the GRAND PRESUMPTION to provide the uninitiated reader with a few things to look for that will make the challenge of "getting it" go much more smoothly.
No, I don't think, condescendingly, that you are too dumb to grasp it all on your own. Rather, it is because transhumanist ideas tend to challenge many fundamental and intuitively held cultural beliefs about "life, the universe and EVERYTHING" and, because of certain plot elements, these ideas get presented in a very forceful and in-your-face sort of way, a bit of "conceptual foreplay" is in order before consenting to the full Transhumanist Wager "consummation"…as it were. It is better to think of this "review" as more of a "guide," wherein I'll point out the most interesting "conceptual landmarks" and emphasize certain contextual features that will enable you to traverse the terrain of this dense novel while avoiding certain foreseeable hazards of thought and interpretation.
The first thing to know about The Transhumanist Wager, is that this novel is, above ALL, a BOOK OF IDEAS…Yes, the ideas are embedded in a gripping story full of conflict, action, climaxes, (yes, the rumors you've heard about it being an addictive "page turner" are CERTAINLY true) but it is always the IDEAS that provide the fuel to propel the action forward.
Rather than presenting transhumanist ideas in a dry textbook, laden with detailed scientific and technological information and idiosyncratic futuristic philosophy, Zoltan Istvan, has chosen to present these ideas in novel form whereby they have additional impact because of the human relationships that provide windows into the motivations behind the actions and convictions. Plot-tensions serve to test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the characters' commitment to them.
Don't complain about long speeches. Instead, stretch your attention span and pay close attention to the CONTENT rather than the WORD COUNT. There are certain places in the story where the action must pause and certain people need to be read the proverbial "Riot Act." There are A LOT of ideas that need to be presented…did I mention that this is a book of IDEAS? If you are looking for a story with a lot of action but with little interruption in the form of challenging ideas, this is NOT the book for you. Novels with plenty of action that require a minimum exposure to uncomfortable new ideas are not hard to find. I dare say they are the RULE rather than the EXCEPTION.
Many people, myself included, have expressed misgivings, and MORE, about some of the actions taken by the lead character, Jethro Knights. The important thing to focus on is the context that drives those actions. The world in which this story takes place is a relatively near-future earth, but one in which many examples of push-back against transhumanism, that are just beginning to emerge today, have grown TREMENDOUSLY in response to future successes of transhumanist technologies and ideas.
Individuals and governments are using force of law and ACTUAL force to inhibit scientific progress, to the point of LITERALLY declaring war on transhumansts, who are being killed, imprisoned, assets seized and declared to be criminals simply for working in the field of transumanism. And don't fail to note the most extreme incident that happens to Knights personally that colors his subsequent responses.
The Transhumanist Wager, has often been compared to Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. Among the several general similarities between the two stories, is the fact that both are set in a future time wherein there is great economic and cultural upheaval. The governments in both books go into an extreme fear-based, monkey-brained, tribalistic, them-or-us, fight-or-flight mode that engenders extreme responses from those who are on the receiving end of the governments' mindless temper tantrums.
The point is NOT that every tactic that Knights employs in this war is therefore justified, but rather, his extremely strident and authoritarian attitude and actions are not indicative of the default modus operandi of transhumanists under "normal" circumstances. To the contrary, transhumanists merely want to be able to work on advancing the human condition through technology and new scientific discoveries to the future benefit of everyone who would like to partake of them.
This is a CAUTIONARY TALE about what COULD happen in the future if religious extremists and others who are very averse to change and even to the mere EXISTENCE of points of view that conflict with their own worldviews begin to take more forceful actions to stifle these changes and ideas.
The first goal of transhumanists is to extend their life as long as possible; to ensure the "continuity of their consciousness," eventually, beyond the limitations of a biological body and into some other, more sturdy, medium when available. We are in a race against our dwindling lifespans, of which, we currently have little ability to extend very far at all. If we can live just long enough to make it to the next few major life-extension breakthroughs, we may be able to, as Ray Kurzweil proposes, "live long enough to live forever."
In the book, the First Law of Transhumanism is: "A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else." This is the sine qua non of transhumanism and yes, it is the words "all else" that can conjure up extreme hypothetical ethical dilemmas in one's mind and can strain the limits of each transhumanist's willingness to consistently adhere to this principle.
It is this prime value that makes the stakes so high when others threaten it or even DELAY the next potential life/health-extending breakthrough. These kinds of shenanigans tend to cause transhumanists to become QUITE "cross" and Jethro Knights is putting the world ON NOTICE as to this fact.
One of the most overused criticisms, one that seems to be almost OBLIGATORY if a reviewer wants to appear sophisticated and discerning is that a character is, "one-dimensional." And there has been no shortage of this criticism being leveled against Istvan's novel. I would propose that all novels are not created equal, in that some are more character-driven; some are action-driven; and a few are idea-driven. I put it to you that the revealed details of a character's life are on a "need to know basis."
Take one of my favorite novels, William Styron's, Sophie's Choice, for example. This book is ALL ABOUT the tremendously quirky and complex characters and the way that they respond to events, both mundane and cataclysmic. Styron informs us about their histories, families, etc. in GREAT detail, not because all books MUST present multi-dimensional characters in all their fully fleshed-out human-esqe glory and complexity, but because this book is about the characters, PERIOD.
In Istvan's novel, granted we don't know Jethro's favorite color, his mom's name, and we're not privy to ANY of his iTunes playlists, but we are given access to his IDEAS and books that reads and his attitudes about a great many things, because in THIS book, IDEAS ARE KING. The characters are vehicles for the actualization of the IDEAS. The plot is in service of creating tensions that will test the limits and extremes of the ideas and the degree to which the characters consistently embody the ideas under duress. Yes, Istvan could have included some details about Jethro's formative years, but what is most important in this idea-driven story is that fact that Jethro IS what he IS. And there will be room in the inevitable sequels to explore more about WHY he is that way.
The function of Jethro's love interest, nay, SOULMATE, Zoe Bach, is to show another side of Jethro…dare I say, "other dimensions?" Zoe is the Yin to his Yang. She challenges his ideas and instincts. And his EXTREME love and respect for her forces him to consider things that he might just brush aside as unworthy of consideration if they had come from anyone BUT Zoe.
Some would-be literary critics have even said that Jethro's love for Zoe is contradictory to his character or hypocritical. After all, Jethro is a ROCK, an ISLAND UNTO HIMSELF. It makes no sense that he would care for someone like Zoe, ESPECIALLY given her proclivity for a more mystical worldview. But this is exactly that human dimension that people look for in their fictional characters. Zoe and Jethro share the same values and "sense of life." The differing details of their worldviews based on their backgrounds only go to temper some readers' view of Jethro as a heartless, rigid, transhumanist automaton.
Finally, a personal speculation about the effect this book has on a lot of people. I have an intuition or hunch that the majority of the negative feelings people have for Jethro just may be for his words more than his deeds. I have a suspicion that if all the same actions were taken, but with FAR FEWER explicit, in-your-face explanations, the negativity toward Jethro might be much less intense.
Just as in Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Roark/Galt make very long speeches that basically sum up to: "I don't recognize your authority to judge or interfere with my ideas or actions because I completely reject nearly all that you hold dear and have replaced it all with my own ideas and values." And particularly when quite a bit of what they are rejecting is the belief in, and submission to, no less than THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, well, one just doesn't say that kind of thing. People should respect other people's beliefs, after all.
To the contrary, Knights/Roark/Galt hold these beliefs up to the scrutiny of reason and test their values as to their functionality and consequences just as they would any other ideas. This "arrogant blasphemy," I believe, is their primary crime in the eyes of many.
As a result of my own passions and values, I love this book. It is my new favorite novel. I love Zoe's spirit and grit and Jethro's passion and strength. I would love nothing more than to hang out with all the scientists and engineers as they bring their world-changing creations to life. Yes, I am a serious nerd and transhumanist and these are MY PEOPLE. I am from their TRIBE. We are comrades in the same "struggle." Not a "class struggle" but a struggle to take charge of human evolution and see it through to the next level. Not as a post-HUMAN, but as a post-BIOLOGICAL being, while retaining the human qualities we choose to and leaving our bio-limitations behind. All our resource-scarcity problems and our body's ULTRA-FRAGILE-NESS are rooted in our biological "platforms" and their need for carbon-based food, water, oxygen. The sooner we can move past these limitations, the better...toward a SUBSTRATE INDEPENDENT, CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
I have no doubt that this book will inspire many who didn't even previously realize they WERE transhumanists to follow this path.
Transhumanists of the world, UNITE!!!
We've got some serious TRANSFORMING to do...
April 18, 2019
This was for an english class but It was actually pretty entertaining.... I don’t really agree with a lot of the things in this book but it wasn’t that bad compared to other college-assigned books. Time to write a 6 page paper on it lol
November 13, 2014
I was drawn to the book based on the pedigree of the author and the summary of a story about the evolution of humanity to transhumans.
True to the book humanity does make the transition. However, the the story is caked in poor forced Hollywood cliche's and characters so deeply flawed as to be unbelievable.
The pace of the book is terrible. Most books have a plot curve, I'm sure you all learned it in school. This book doesn't have a curve it has a long torturous slope ending in a lack luster cliff.
Then there was the over descriptive filler. In almost every descriptive paragraph the author could have stopped one or two sentences earlier and the point would have been clear but he would continue past the obvious and into the no duh territory. I started to believe that his contract for the work had a word count requirement and he was desperately trying to make it.
Lastly, the ranting. Oh, god, the ranting. I wish I could stop at saying that this book was a manifesto wrapped in a shallow story and end it there. I can't though because it's worse than that, it is like having three copies of a manifesto veiled thinly with a shallow story. Full of repetitious, fanatical and extremist views. At the end I literally skipped six pages of ranting.
In the end I tried to like the story but I couldn't. The antagonist was almost a caricature of a tyrant and so was the protagonist. Both so far removed from believability that I almost hated them. I'm sorry but I could not and would not recommend this book to someone new to the sci-fi genre.
True to the book humanity does make the transition. However, the the story is caked in poor forced Hollywood cliche's and characters so deeply flawed as to be unbelievable.
The pace of the book is terrible. Most books have a plot curve, I'm sure you all learned it in school. This book doesn't have a curve it has a long torturous slope ending in a lack luster cliff.
Then there was the over descriptive filler. In almost every descriptive paragraph the author could have stopped one or two sentences earlier and the point would have been clear but he would continue past the obvious and into the no duh territory. I started to believe that his contract for the work had a word count requirement and he was desperately trying to make it.
Lastly, the ranting. Oh, god, the ranting. I wish I could stop at saying that this book was a manifesto wrapped in a shallow story and end it there. I can't though because it's worse than that, it is like having three copies of a manifesto veiled thinly with a shallow story. Full of repetitious, fanatical and extremist views. At the end I literally skipped six pages of ranting.
In the end I tried to like the story but I couldn't. The antagonist was almost a caricature of a tyrant and so was the protagonist. Both so far removed from believability that I almost hated them. I'm sorry but I could not and would not recommend this book to someone new to the sci-fi genre.
May 13, 2018
One part laughter, for how utterly delusional the author is. He thinks that five billion dollars can afford to build a floating city, complete with a particle accelerator, luxury apartments, organic farming, an airstrip, and military installations.
One part groan, for how utterly stupid these characters act, and for how poorly the plot is constructed. Nobody acts rationally, and plot elements are shoehorned in at the moment they're convenient.
One part horror, as the "hero" of the story installs a "systematic humanicide", torches every church and government building in the world, and gives police the power to execute on-site. Jethro Knights, the protagonist, is utterly ruthless and without compassion. The book realizes this, and praises him for it. He's praised for his "integrity" and being "logical". However, he's more than willing to compromise his vision for the sake of military prowess; he's so blind to see that he's no better than what he claims to fight against.
Jethro asks, "Why must your religion insist on so much submission, control, and scaremongering?" And then proceeds to attack the US Congress, the Vatican, the EU Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, and more, demanding the world's governments submit to be controlled by his Transhumanist nation.
One of the most appalling and despicable manifestos I've ever read. It appalls me that people actually believe in this, and that the author is running for governorship of California.
One part groan, for how utterly stupid these characters act, and for how poorly the plot is constructed. Nobody acts rationally, and plot elements are shoehorned in at the moment they're convenient.
One part horror, as the "hero" of the story installs a "systematic humanicide", torches every church and government building in the world, and gives police the power to execute on-site. Jethro Knights, the protagonist, is utterly ruthless and without compassion. The book realizes this, and praises him for it. He's praised for his "integrity" and being "logical". However, he's more than willing to compromise his vision for the sake of military prowess; he's so blind to see that he's no better than what he claims to fight against.
Jethro asks, "Why must your religion insist on so much submission, control, and scaremongering?" And then proceeds to attack the US Congress, the Vatican, the EU Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, and more, demanding the world's governments submit to be controlled by his Transhumanist nation.
One of the most appalling and despicable manifestos I've ever read. It appalls me that people actually believe in this, and that the author is running for governorship of California.
May 9, 2013
This was an excellent read. Not only for it's interesting plot and characters, but for it's delving into the philosophy that could be said to behind some of our most ambitions "near space" sci fi. The whole concept of "transhumanism" is present in many works of scifi today, even if it's not called out by name or expounded upon. This book does an excellent job at looking into some of the root causes and tenants of that concept.
However, at times it's a bit...dense. And wordy. Most times it fits into the plot, and characters, but still feels very verbose. There were a few times where I just wanted the exposition to end, and for the book to get back to the point. Notably Knights' speech to the world, towards the end. It read like a PhD thesis, and I couldn't imagine anyone (even the fictional Knight) talking like that. I would want to punch him.
Overall, and intriguing and interesting work, though a times a bit over bearing.
However, at times it's a bit...dense. And wordy. Most times it fits into the plot, and characters, but still feels very verbose. There were a few times where I just wanted the exposition to end, and for the book to get back to the point. Notably Knights' speech to the world, towards the end. It read like a PhD thesis, and I couldn't imagine anyone (even the fictional Knight) talking like that. I would want to punch him.
Overall, and intriguing and interesting work, though a times a bit over bearing.
March 13, 2018
“The Three Laws: 1) A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else. 2) A transhumanist must strive to achieve omnipotence as expediently as possible—so long as one's actions do not conflict with the First Law. 3) A transhumanist must safeguard value in the universe—so long as one's actions do not conflict with the First and Second Laws.”
Zoltan Istvan gives us The Transhumanist Wager which is reminiscent, when it comes to selfishness or egoism, to Ayn Rand. A focus on prioritising the individual into something also similar to Nietzsche's Übermensch (Beyond-Man/Superman) where humanity proceeds to shape and/or control his/her environment, resources, living space, existential importance and an emphasis on overcoming death, a hunger for longevity. Although prevalent for transhumanists one could say there is almost an abhorrent fear of physical destruction rather than viewing it as a transition or eternal peace. Who doesn't want more time when it comes to longevity and preserving our complex self? Most of us wouldn't hesitate to do more with additional time when it comes to life extension and the question of mortality.
The Transhumanist Wager is set via the present day, telling the tale of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering search for immortality via science and technology. battling against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life (opposites attract?), whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute. Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world's largest seastead, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating libertarian city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever changed.
Overall Zoltan gives us, the readers, an epic tale that is not just a search for meaning but one where the main protagonist strives to shape his surroundings, to breathe life into a utopian and libertarian experiment and to challenge the death cults (challenging any metaphysical manifestations that result in a desire or trend towards an afterlife or even the possibility of a reincarnating scenario... Jethro quite simply put doesn't want to die and is seeking alternatives.)
A very visionary and futuristic story with its twists and turns gives us an adventure which seeks to flesh out humanistic pursuits, not bogged down or halted with dogmatic red tape, and gives a tradition of the future focused on reason, a progressive mindset and technological wonder.
" You need to put your resources into the technology. Into our education system. Into our universities, industries, and ideas. Into the strongest of our society. Into the brightest of our society. Into the best of our society So that we can attain the future."
Zoltan Istvan gives us The Transhumanist Wager which is reminiscent, when it comes to selfishness or egoism, to Ayn Rand. A focus on prioritising the individual into something also similar to Nietzsche's Übermensch (Beyond-Man/Superman) where humanity proceeds to shape and/or control his/her environment, resources, living space, existential importance and an emphasis on overcoming death, a hunger for longevity. Although prevalent for transhumanists one could say there is almost an abhorrent fear of physical destruction rather than viewing it as a transition or eternal peace. Who doesn't want more time when it comes to longevity and preserving our complex self? Most of us wouldn't hesitate to do more with additional time when it comes to life extension and the question of mortality.
The Transhumanist Wager is set via the present day, telling the tale of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering search for immortality via science and technology. battling against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life (opposites attract?), whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute. Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world's largest seastead, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating libertarian city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever changed.
Overall Zoltan gives us, the readers, an epic tale that is not just a search for meaning but one where the main protagonist strives to shape his surroundings, to breathe life into a utopian and libertarian experiment and to challenge the death cults (challenging any metaphysical manifestations that result in a desire or trend towards an afterlife or even the possibility of a reincarnating scenario... Jethro quite simply put doesn't want to die and is seeking alternatives.)
A very visionary and futuristic story with its twists and turns gives us an adventure which seeks to flesh out humanistic pursuits, not bogged down or halted with dogmatic red tape, and gives a tradition of the future focused on reason, a progressive mindset and technological wonder.
" You need to put your resources into the technology. Into our education system. Into our universities, industries, and ideas. Into the strongest of our society. Into the brightest of our society. Into the best of our society So that we can attain the future."
November 8, 2018
Groan worthy. I don’t really have anything to add beyond the other 1-star reviews. This book is like poorly written version of Fountainhead only more narrow minded, militant, and libertarian. Cartoonish characters who luck into large funds, living in a zero sum world that would have been immortal yesterday if only it wasn’t for those lazy religious welfare takers they need to exterminate. Philosophy over science. Arrogance over curiosity. Fails Bechdel test. Not recommended.
Skip this for anything by Alastair Reynolds for a more open view of H+ scifi.
Skip this for anything by Alastair Reynolds for a more open view of H+ scifi.
November 18, 2017
Great ideas
I liked the book, it's obvious animosity towards religion notwithstanding. I think a lot of the ideas are antiquated and that anyone interested in the philosophy ought to watch all of the zeitgeist movies.
I liked the book, it's obvious animosity towards religion notwithstanding. I think a lot of the ideas are antiquated and that anyone interested in the philosophy ought to watch all of the zeitgeist movies.
March 8, 2021
Oh my where to start. Actually it is probably not worth giving it the time to review. We can stick with "not good" and leave it at that.
May 5, 2017
Zoltan Istvan's book "The Transhumanist Wager" is truly an eye opening book. This books leaves you wanting to know more about transhumanist and gets on to contemplate the plausibility of the new world order. The ideas and general philosophy are worth taking a long hard look at. Two things struck me most about reading this book. One, is religion really in the way of progression or is politics? Second, is Zotan Istvans major reason for writing this book to bring about a philosophical dialogue dealing with humanist and religion. As for religion I think God is the first transhumanist. It isn't God that stands in the way of progress it is Mans interpretation of what man thinks God wouldn't want. Politicians are also standing in the way of true progress for fear they will lose their jobs and on a personal level I believe politics is far more dangerous than religion due to greed and power.
It is a fictional portrayal of humanist views involving the prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. More to the point a system of thought being centered on the rational autonomous self and ignoring the unintegrated and conditioned individual especial in this book relying on the sciences to better life that can only come through scientific breakthroughs. It is obvious that Mr. Istvan has given his book a great deal of thought and research if he himself is not a transhumanist. When reading this book one should keep an open mind as it raises issues people do not usually converse openly about. This book raised the hairs on the back of my neck, however let me be clear when I say as I read the book his transhumanist view was very appealing.
His characters are written so well in their description that you hate and respect them all the same. Jethro Knights comes off as a Mountain Man type with no regard for anyone but himself. He believes himself to be invincible riding through a storm that would test the metal of ten human beings and puts himself in life threatening situations and uses logic and reason that I don't think many people have or what I believe is common sense. Except for one failing in that he rejects the ultimate human experience of death.
Then there is Zoe Bach, half Chinese and half English, with a transhumanist view with a side of Zen. She challenges many stereotypical conventions but is seen as a mix of many cultures which Istvan includes to create a love interest for Jethro Knights. She stands to challenge everything Jethro believes. We have the zealot preacher Reverend Belinas. A person you can truly hate as he is neither a true christian and only interested in greed and power who wants to rid the human race of transhumanists once and for all. We have the politician, Gregory Michaelson who is being groomed for politics and for accepting the Presidency who proves to have the size of a baby boys manhood. You have two extremists.
It isn't everyday you read a book that dismantles civilization as most of us know and creating a whole new world in the way Mr. Istvan did in The Transhumanist Wager. One minute I am agreeing with Jethro Knights philosophy and the next rejecting it. Zoltan Istvan is a genius in making you think and re-evaluate our state of affairs.
Is religion, politics, greed and more keeping us from reaching our full potential? I truly believe that the answer is yes especially after reading this preceptive fictional book.
It is a fictional portrayal of humanist views involving the prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. More to the point a system of thought being centered on the rational autonomous self and ignoring the unintegrated and conditioned individual especial in this book relying on the sciences to better life that can only come through scientific breakthroughs. It is obvious that Mr. Istvan has given his book a great deal of thought and research if he himself is not a transhumanist. When reading this book one should keep an open mind as it raises issues people do not usually converse openly about. This book raised the hairs on the back of my neck, however let me be clear when I say as I read the book his transhumanist view was very appealing.
His characters are written so well in their description that you hate and respect them all the same. Jethro Knights comes off as a Mountain Man type with no regard for anyone but himself. He believes himself to be invincible riding through a storm that would test the metal of ten human beings and puts himself in life threatening situations and uses logic and reason that I don't think many people have or what I believe is common sense. Except for one failing in that he rejects the ultimate human experience of death.
Then there is Zoe Bach, half Chinese and half English, with a transhumanist view with a side of Zen. She challenges many stereotypical conventions but is seen as a mix of many cultures which Istvan includes to create a love interest for Jethro Knights. She stands to challenge everything Jethro believes. We have the zealot preacher Reverend Belinas. A person you can truly hate as he is neither a true christian and only interested in greed and power who wants to rid the human race of transhumanists once and for all. We have the politician, Gregory Michaelson who is being groomed for politics and for accepting the Presidency who proves to have the size of a baby boys manhood. You have two extremists.
It isn't everyday you read a book that dismantles civilization as most of us know and creating a whole new world in the way Mr. Istvan did in The Transhumanist Wager. One minute I am agreeing with Jethro Knights philosophy and the next rejecting it. Zoltan Istvan is a genius in making you think and re-evaluate our state of affairs.
Is religion, politics, greed and more keeping us from reaching our full potential? I truly believe that the answer is yes especially after reading this preceptive fictional book.
September 22, 2013
This story's premise is fairly simple to relate. Jethro Knights is a philosophy educated young man who decides after a sail around the world to challenge society norms like the acceptance of death as an inevitably, religion and/or government's accepted limitations imposed upon scientific experimentation and advancement and even "nice" concepts like equality and the underlying altruistic nature of humans. And he challenges all of these in a huge way by forming a floating city (Transhumania) which he populates with only the best scientists the world has to offer. These scientists are free to experiment with whatever their own home societies may have discouraged them from attempting such as cryonics, cybernetics and basically how to make humans live longer, more productive, healthier and better educated lives. It doesn't sound so bad really...at first. I found myself rooting for Jethro and his cronies for most of the novel.
However, what really made this work stand out for me was the fact I didn't root for Jethro at the end. Somewhere along the way, possibly during his speeches to the world and his attempt to incorporate the world into Transhumania without exception, he kind of became exactly like the very institutions he was fighting against. Instead of saying to people "you are allowed to live as you wish," he coupled that with the "as long as you're useful to me." He even proposed measuring people's productivity and value to determine whether they could continue to live. Survival of the Fittest meets the Nazi party or something. If you aren't a part of advancing Transhumania and humans beyond the flesh, you simply hold no value to the new order of things. Though Jethro raged against religion and governments having used fear to control their folds for centuries, he too whipped out the big guns (unmanned ones even) when necessary and obliterated governments and churches in the world's largest cities to prove his superiority and called it rational. Hmm.
This work definitely leaves me thinking about the ways in which we are all conditioned to behave and how successful a person or group of people would be in attempting something like a new floating city in the present day. Would that group become, as Jethro did, just more of the same only with slightly more impressive weapons of war and immortality? Or would/could there actually be a chance at having true advancement freedom AND equality without nuclear destruction and a quest for world dominance? And also could any different society form via peaceful means at all?
There are times during this read that you'll find yourself thinking "Reverend Belinas isn't that big a douche, really" or some such positive towards the antagonist. And then there are times when you will think "Jethro has gone too far." It's a nice, balanced, mind-screw and I'd recommend it. Just have patience with the fact there are probably more words per a single page here than you'll find in most full chapters of other works. It's never too much, just something to consider should you not have patience for actual quality writing.
However, what really made this work stand out for me was the fact I didn't root for Jethro at the end. Somewhere along the way, possibly during his speeches to the world and his attempt to incorporate the world into Transhumania without exception, he kind of became exactly like the very institutions he was fighting against. Instead of saying to people "you are allowed to live as you wish," he coupled that with the "as long as you're useful to me." He even proposed measuring people's productivity and value to determine whether they could continue to live. Survival of the Fittest meets the Nazi party or something. If you aren't a part of advancing Transhumania and humans beyond the flesh, you simply hold no value to the new order of things. Though Jethro raged against religion and governments having used fear to control their folds for centuries, he too whipped out the big guns (unmanned ones even) when necessary and obliterated governments and churches in the world's largest cities to prove his superiority and called it rational. Hmm.
This work definitely leaves me thinking about the ways in which we are all conditioned to behave and how successful a person or group of people would be in attempting something like a new floating city in the present day. Would that group become, as Jethro did, just more of the same only with slightly more impressive weapons of war and immortality? Or would/could there actually be a chance at having true advancement freedom AND equality without nuclear destruction and a quest for world dominance? And also could any different society form via peaceful means at all?
There are times during this read that you'll find yourself thinking "Reverend Belinas isn't that big a douche, really" or some such positive towards the antagonist. And then there are times when you will think "Jethro has gone too far." It's a nice, balanced, mind-screw and I'd recommend it. Just have patience with the fact there are probably more words per a single page here than you'll find in most full chapters of other works. It's never too much, just something to consider should you not have patience for actual quality writing.
May 23, 2013
This philosophical sci-fi novel follows Ray Kurzweil's views on Singularity and focuses on the morals of upcoming technologies changing what it means to be traditional humans.
The book follows a transhumanist, Jethro Knights, in his quest to attain his dream (a dream he believes every other human should strive to attain) that he clearly describes in his TEF Manifesto, a paper where he suggests the existence of a perfect world where everyone follows transhumanist goals (human enhancement to live as long as possible) and suggests very radical actions in changing the world.
As the book states, following transhumanist goals is not easy in our culture, as merging man and machine is viewed by millions as unethical. Therefore, Jethro fights harder than ever to follow his dream and create his perfect world, going against governments, religion, and basically the whole world.
Jethro is very, very extreme and goes against every moral that has sunk into us since our birth. Therefore, for the first half of the book I struggled to agree with anything he said, mainly because of the shock I had from his straight forward radical thinking. Throughout the book I got used to him and better understood him, so if you struggle at the start, do continue. It's worth it.
The book (almost) finishes with a long speech where Jethro explains why he wanted to change the world, basically because of brainwashing governments pushing us to mass consumerism and loosing our initiative to question our surroundings. Human kind has become stupid and lazy, and things must change.
For the past year I have been researching and discussing the exact same topics with other students of my uni, so it is not the first time I came across this type of thinking.
I believe in WHY Jethro does what he does, but I do not believe in WHAT he does. I have some morals (thoroughly thought over and not just by copying society I might add), and I cannot agree with what he does. I think my philosophy follows Zoe Bach's views (a character of the book), and I wonder what she would of thought of Jethro's actions.
That said, if you have never thought about the problems of religion, capitalism, democracy, society and the government, this will definitely be an eye opener for you. If you do like discussing these things, it is still a great book to read. You can probably see through this review how disturbing this book can be.
Futurists, sci fi freaks, philosophers, sociologists, this book is for you.
The book follows a transhumanist, Jethro Knights, in his quest to attain his dream (a dream he believes every other human should strive to attain) that he clearly describes in his TEF Manifesto, a paper where he suggests the existence of a perfect world where everyone follows transhumanist goals (human enhancement to live as long as possible) and suggests very radical actions in changing the world.
As the book states, following transhumanist goals is not easy in our culture, as merging man and machine is viewed by millions as unethical. Therefore, Jethro fights harder than ever to follow his dream and create his perfect world, going against governments, religion, and basically the whole world.
Jethro is very, very extreme and goes against every moral that has sunk into us since our birth. Therefore, for the first half of the book I struggled to agree with anything he said, mainly because of the shock I had from his straight forward radical thinking. Throughout the book I got used to him and better understood him, so if you struggle at the start, do continue. It's worth it.
The book (almost) finishes with a long speech where Jethro explains why he wanted to change the world, basically because of brainwashing governments pushing us to mass consumerism and loosing our initiative to question our surroundings. Human kind has become stupid and lazy, and things must change.
For the past year I have been researching and discussing the exact same topics with other students of my uni, so it is not the first time I came across this type of thinking.
I believe in WHY Jethro does what he does, but I do not believe in WHAT he does. I have some morals (thoroughly thought over and not just by copying society I might add), and I cannot agree with what he does. I think my philosophy follows Zoe Bach's views (a character of the book), and I wonder what she would of thought of Jethro's actions.
That said, if you have never thought about the problems of religion, capitalism, democracy, society and the government, this will definitely be an eye opener for you. If you do like discussing these things, it is still a great book to read. You can probably see through this review how disturbing this book can be.
Futurists, sci fi freaks, philosophers, sociologists, this book is for you.
September 15, 2013
The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan is a philosophical mind expanding experience. In the pages you are confronted by fictional people and events that represent a culmination of arguments and struggles that had plagued humans for decades. Each pages is filled with choices to be made, metaphors about life lessons and sacrifices that some people make to hold on to an ideal. As you read on you might come to realize that what we believe isn't always so black & white and the lines can easily get blurred as to which is the right path to follow. A good example of just how blurred those ideal can be is the coming-of-age story that weaves its way through the book as we follow Jethro Knights and Gregory Michaelson as they make choices that shape their lives and the consequence that they find go along with those choices.
Mr. Istvan does a great job at making the interactions between his characters believable and with rich dialog that brings richness to his story. One such example are the discussions that take place between Jethro Knights and Dr. Zoe Bach as their relationship blossoms into love, separate to travel their separate path and finally re-united. There are many other such rich interactions, such as, when our protagonist, Jothro Knights, finally comes face-to-face with the antagonist, Reverend Belinas and they get into a long philosophical discussion over their differing beliefs.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is a student of philosophy, science fiction or just wants to understand more about the conflicts that all of us as humans struggle with in our daily lives. Whichever of those categories you fit into there are several lessons to be learned as long as you look at this book as an entanglement of stories and ideals represent the human race as a whole.
Mr. Istvan does a great job at making the interactions between his characters believable and with rich dialog that brings richness to his story. One such example are the discussions that take place between Jethro Knights and Dr. Zoe Bach as their relationship blossoms into love, separate to travel their separate path and finally re-united. There are many other such rich interactions, such as, when our protagonist, Jothro Knights, finally comes face-to-face with the antagonist, Reverend Belinas and they get into a long philosophical discussion over their differing beliefs.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is a student of philosophy, science fiction or just wants to understand more about the conflicts that all of us as humans struggle with in our daily lives. Whichever of those categories you fit into there are several lessons to be learned as long as you look at this book as an entanglement of stories and ideals represent the human race as a whole.
July 21, 2013
I will start by saying that Transhumanism is a philosophy that I agree with. However, I'm not completely sure that I would want to be a part of the socially darwinistic, totalitarian society that the main character of this book wants to build. The story is basically that of Jethro Knights, a sort of determined demigod, who goes on a quest to upend all of human civilization and rebuild it in the philosophy of an Ayn Randian version of Transhumanism. I found myself agreeing much of the time about the transhuman principles described and how tradition, religion and culture holds back technological, biological and moral progress. I even agreed with the underlying selfishness and egotism as the forces that drive us to become better individuals. However the world he wants to build is basically the world of "Atlas Shrugged" with the same power elites and scarcity capitalism only updated with cybernetics and immortality. Having said all of that, I truly enjoyed reading this book. It has been called a philosophical thriller and I think that is probably an accurate description. I think it was well written for its purpose. The characters, while not complex, performed the tasks they were assigned which was basically to illustrate an underlying philosophy that the author was trying to highlight. This book is not so much a primer on Transhumanism as it is an explanation of the underlying philosophy and the obstacles that the current world faces in trying to implement it. I'm giving the book 3 stars because I enjoyed it. I could almost give it 4 stars if I weren't a bit put off by the Social Darwinism.
December 28, 2013
For a novice like me, who has only played with a notion of such a world in my own head, without realizing transhumanism existed, this was a very exciting read. Although I found much of the story line to be unbelievable or unrealistic, surprisingly, I wasn't too bothered by it. It is a fictional book and should be treated as such. I see no reason to judge its contents based on reality when the book makes no claim that it is real. It is a great book to introduce transhumanistic views to a reader, such as me, who knows very little about it. It is a complicated subject and in order to present his notion/dream of this type of society in the length of a book and make it interesting, I think he did an excellent job. He was able to introduce a scientific idea in such a way that any reader would get the point of what it stands for. This reaches more people than just the ones who are seeking scientific books.
...quick and easy to read. If you like moral dilemmas, this book certainly will entertain your moral beliefs, especially if you are for transhumanism. Jethro certainly makes you question how far you are willing to go or what kind of sacrifices you are willing to make in the name of science. This is a world with survival of the fittest, and it made me wonder as well how humane Jethro's ideal society truly is.
...quick and easy to read. If you like moral dilemmas, this book certainly will entertain your moral beliefs, especially if you are for transhumanism. Jethro certainly makes you question how far you are willing to go or what kind of sacrifices you are willing to make in the name of science. This is a world with survival of the fittest, and it made me wonder as well how humane Jethro's ideal society truly is.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews