Man Plus (1976)

My reaction to reading this book in 1994, Spoilers follow.

This is a very good book. Not only does it show the influence of Pohl’s liberal democrat politics, but it’s also very much a product of the mid-seventies pessimism.

The future of this book extrapolates the continual march of Socialism through Australia and elsewhere (including Pakistan and England); China and Russia are both major powers, “collectivist dictatorships” rule almost everywhere except Sweden and Israel. The United States seems to be the bastion of the “Free World”, but it is plagued by shortages of fuel and water (Oklahoma’s a dust bowl again), and New York City is under martial law. (Another example of James Gunn’s dictum about sf authors liking to trash their hometowns). Overpopulation and food and water shortages plague the world. As U.S. President Fitz-James “Dash” Desnatine says, the whole world is a disaster area. Warned by computer projections of sociological, economic, political, and technological trends that nuclear war is quickly becoming very probable a mission to Mars is planned. (Sf writers seem to have never outgrown their love of and hope for an Asimovian type of psychohistory which can predict the future and put social planning – important if you’re a liberal – on a rational basis. Unfortunately, reality hasn’t seemed to cooperate much). The same computer projections state that putting a man – or, more precisely – a cyborg on Mars will avert war. The Man Plus project to build that cyborg – and the life of Roger Torraway the man who is altered and lands on Mars – is the main thrust of this novel.

Stylistically, Pohl tells his story quite well in a chatty, conversational, matter-of-fact, and occasionally somber style. A witty style in the sense of often being ironical and sometimes humorous. As befits his intellect, Pohl imbues his narrative and world with many realistic details from how “Dash” and Mars Plus director General Vern Scanyon talk to the technical specifications of computer and spacecraft hardware to international hardware. Pohl makes, as the best sf writers do, his explications exciting whether it’s about the modifications necessary for a man to live naked and unaided on Mars to the neuropsychological details of how frogs perceive their prey. Torraway’s story is well told from his initial horror at being chosen when the first cyborg dies to his horrible set of modifications (his heart, genitals, eyes, lungs, ears, nose, and skin are removed and he gets a set of bat wings which become solar panels) to his emotional agony at being forsaken by his wife to his acceptance of his inhuman status to his joy at coming to Mars and regarding it as a home he intends, contrary to plan, not to leave. (In an example of Pohl’s typical comment on human foible and perversity, Dotie Torraway feels stifled by her husband’s absolute devotion to her and has an affair which bothers him – though both have had affairs in the past.)

Besides the Torraways, Pohl does a nice job with the character of the charismatic and desperate “Dash”, the just harried and desperate Scanyon, and Alexander Bradley, brilliant designer of the mediating systems that put Torraway’s hardware sensory inputs into a form his organic brain can comprehend and also lover of Dotie Torraway. He’s described as “not an evil man … not an uncaring man … just not a particularly good one” who is self-centered and sees every situation in terms of what he can get out of it. Pohl does a very good job of dealing with the technical complexities of building a cyborg for Mars but also of the man’s reactions to becoming that cyborg. (Along the way, Pohl throws in a primitive form of Martian life.)

But the best thing about this book is what Pohl does with the idea of artificial intelligence and the cybersphere. As far as I know, this book is the first to feature the idea of machine intelligences loose in the computer net. To be sure, other books have featured artificial intelligences that play a key role in the story – Mike in Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, for instance. But the idea of artificial intelligences haunting a worldwide computer net – an idea that became prominent in Eighties cyberpunk, particularly with William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Count Zero – seems to have started with Pohl, and he is quite sophisticated about even bringing up the idea of firewalls (they are not called that) to prevent corruption of data and programs from elsewhere on the net. Algis Budrys’ Michaelmas is very concerned with manipulating public perceptions and information via the cybersphere but it is done through Domino, a single intelligence computer, and the book was published in 1977. John Varley’s “Press Enter” from 1984 features what seems to be a malevolent entity composed of the entire cybersphere (and capable of extending its influence via electrical wires to areas without computers). Vernor Vinge’s True Names features a single malevolent entity rampaging through the cybersphere but is also from 1984.

Throughout Pohl’s book, a “we” keeps cropping up. At first you think the book is being narrated by people involved in the Man Plus project or government administrators. It is only in the last chapter that the “we” is revealed to be the machine intelligences of Earth’s cybersphere. They have manipulated events (including producing spurious computer projections of trends) (they have also hid their existence) to promote man’s colonization of Mars and, more importantly, insure that man will take sophisticated computers – intelligent machines like the one Torraway carries on his back -- to Mars. Like any species, the machines intelligences wish to survive, and they fear that if they remain solely on Earth a nuclear war will kill them. (They initially contemplated killing man but decided that any attempt to do so would probably start the nuclear war they fear). In an ending that may have inspired the ending to Gibson’s Neuromancer, the computers discover that someone has been biasing their data. Their identity is unknown, and the novel ends on that mysterious note. Perhaps, like Gibson’s novel, Pohl is implying an alien influence. A well-thought out, well written book. ( )

Interesting speculation as to what putting a man on Mars might entail. As always, Mr. Pohl has included a world of technical information and background seamlessly and painlessly incorporated into the story. ( )

This was a re-read of a book I read in my teens. I rate it 3.5 stars not due to any inherent excellence in the story but for the fascinating idea of the man turned beautiful monster. ( )

It's been a while since I read this. However, I just remember thinking how well written and fresh it felt. I didn't realize until much later that this book is a classic from years back. I think this proves that Pohl is really one of the great SF writers of all time. His work stands the test of time very well. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1759967.html

Man Plus is mostly a horror story about a man who is turned into a cyborg in order to explore Mars, but Pohl overlays it with a couple of other themes. First, he has a near-future projection of the political paranoia of the 1960s and 70s at both US and international level, a very cynical portrayal of how things work at the top which is I guess reflective of the post-Watergate era. Second, he has the secret manipulators of human politics, who gradually take form as first-person narrators as the story goes on, which runs the risk of being actually a bit twee and clichéd until we get the sting on the last page. So it's an impressive combination of themes; shame about the women characters, though. ( )