(Alistair) Canadians: get over it.

I guess I should expand on that, huh?

Well, Mindscan is a perfectly good book, in theory. While not the most exciting exploration of the possible consequences of workable human-uploading technology, it's a decent - not excellent, but decent; I will confess I was distinctly surprised afterwards that it had picked up a Hugo and a Nebula - exploration of the possible near-term social and legal aspects - especially since in this universe it is not a mind-moving technology so much as a mind-copying technology, which leaves the originals alive and perfectly viable - with some interesting thoughts concerning the nature of consciousness.

Granted, a couple of times, the biochauvinism of some of the characters annoyed me considerably, but that is realistic, and probably a sign that the writer did a good job. That, and some of the arguments presented by the anti-side were weak to the point of being straw men, in the sense than I, an atheist, could put the theist argument much better than that.

However, it is most flawed - and I mean hugely flawed - by the fact that the author simply has to take annoying and plot-irrelevant swipes at the US what seems like every couple of pages.

This seems to be at least somewhat endemic among Canadians, if a small and statistically invalid sample is anything to go by - I know five Canadians personally, of whom three have a GIANT national chip on their shoulder with regard to us. I have no idea why. While I have no particular desire to live there myself, for much the same reasons as I have no particular desire to live in Europe, by those standards and their own standards it's a perfectly respectable country, and most of those that have any self-confidence manage to stick to "WE'RE awesome!" rather than having to expend a lot of time on "And YOU suck!". Anyway, it's really damned annoying, and Sawyer takes it to extremes.

And I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I hadn't been continually interrupted by the desire to hunt up a Canadian and punch them in the face, you know?

Recommended for anti-Americans and damn commies who live in this world view; not recommended for anyone else.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... ) ( )

In Mindscan Jake Sullivan, heir to a Canadian brewing empire, has a birth defect that could leave him a vegetable at any time. He's seen the horror that can ensue; his father is a vegetable from the same defect. Jake uses a new technology to copy his consciousness into an android body. The birthed and doomed Jake heads off to the moon to live in Eden intil his physical death while the new Jake takes over his life on Earth.

New Jake has some difficult moments. His dog doesn't accept him, his mother rejects him, and his lover can't look him in the eyes. He finds friendship and solace with the New copy of a famous scifi writer, Karen. It looks like Jake is getting together a good life when things start to go wrong (doesn't something ALWAYS happen?).

Karen's son sues her claiming that his mother is dead (her body on the moon has died) and a cure is found for the original Jake Sullivans physical defect. On the moon Jake now is healthy and realizes that he could return to Earth and claim his love and life. When the PTB declare that he has signed away his rights to an earth life, Jake takes matters into his own hands.

Much of the questions and thinking about consciousness and what makes a person (along with debate about souls) is set in the courtroom with testimony by experts. The political world in the US in this novel is shockingly repressive - Buchanan has been President! Yes, Pat Buchanan. Think of a slightly less obvious Handmaid Tale with a sharp line between Canada and the US.

I really like this book, I believe it gives good insight to the type of social issues that will arise when machines will claim to have awareness and claim personhood. ( )

Mindscan is part philosophy novel, part courtroom drama, part thriller. This is a standard Sawyer trick, knitting together a variety of genres in the service of his yarn.

(Read the full review at Fourth-Rate Reader.) ( )

Mindscan is the latest from Mississauga author Robert J. Sawyer, and continues with his tradition of using cutting-edge science to deal with contemporary moral issues.
Telling the story of a near-future where a process is discovered that can 'scan' a person's brain and download a perfect copy of it into an artificial body. The artificial body then takes over the person's life, and the 'shed skin' of the original person is sent off to a retirement community on the far side of the moon.
As always, Sawyer writes a tale here that uses science to further its plot and resolve some of the central issues of the book; however, at the same time, he does it in a way that remains accessible to people who aren't fans of science fiction. Much in the same way that George R.R. Martin is said to "write fantasy for people who aren't fantasy fans", Sawyer writes for the mainstream reader as much as he does for the science fiction fan. ( )