Mindscan

There is an unspoken contract between writer and reader.

Everybody knows it but nobody talks about it, because we all instinctively know it and recognize it. The writer promises us well-crafted entertainment and in return we let the author sneak in a few personal views. As long as that?s not too much on the surface. Many writers have made use of that. Heck in the latest Stephen King, The Institute, you can read anti-Trumpism through some of the pages, but he has read the contract and he balances it out with some pro-Trump sentiments and of course plenty of thrills and entertainment.

Robert J. Sawyer has not read the contract and if he has, he willfully ignores it. We?re barraged by pages and pages of what the author wants us to think show more about person-hood, identity and property. This is done by pages and pages of what the author must think is infallible logic all dressed up as a court case. Below that overt litany of views lies a more subtle message: look at how smart I am. At the end I wasn?t just sick of the novel, I was sick and tired of Robert J. Sawyer. Never has an author made me not want to read any of his other works. Not even to verify if this novel is a one-off.

At the very end I didn?t care about the characters, they are as two-dimensional as the robot body they inhabit. The most interesting character in the entire book is the main character?s old girlfriend and we never hear from her again. What I did care about was the strangely gaping plot hole that would have annihilated the entire novel, which brings us to the shaky plot.

The main character pays to have his mind copied into a physical structure that will make the robotic copy identical to the original with the perk that it lives forever. That leaves the problem that there are now two identities, two things that can claim to be the same person. Would a company that provides these services not have thought about all the problems that could arise with that scenario? Apparently not. It never crossed any of the executives? mind to perhaps have the original person create a specific living will in which the ?copy? is made the primary or sole beneficiary. Or even an airtight contract which presages all the thorny ?philosophical? questions brought up in the novel. In fact, throughout the lawsuit, this novel is about, nobody from the evil corporation is questioned, consulted or even mentioned. But that?s not important, because what is important is all massive amounts of thinking done by Robert J. Sawyer. That?s what this book is really about, Robert J. Sawyer. show less

Sawyer siempre tiene historias interesantes que contar, y esta es la prueba. En este caso se trata de trasladarse a un probable (y más que posible) futuro cercano, más concretamente al año 2045, en el que una empresa canadiense, Inmortex, ha logrado lo que parecía imposible: copiar la conciencia de un ser humano para trasladarla a un cerebro de nanogel, que a su vez está acoplado a un cuerpo sintético, pero que posee toda la movilidad de un cuerpo normal. Esta tecnología, llamada mindscan, sólo está al alcance de unos pocos ricos, la gran mayoría de ellos personas muy mayores que están en sus últimos años de vida y que desean que su vida y legado continúe. Pero si se trata de una copia de tu mente, ¿qué pasa con el show more original? Inmortex lo tiene todo pensado. Ha creado un hotel de superlujo en la cara oculta de la Luna, fuera de cualquier jurisdicción, donde todas los "originales" pueden pasar sus últimos años como si de unas vacaciones se tratase, sabiendo que van a continuar "viviendo" a través de su otro "yo", y así lo han dejado todo preparado legalmente. Además, al tratarse de un lugar con microgravedad, su salud no se vería nada perjudicada, todo lo contrario.

Este es el escenario en el que se mueve nuestro protagonista, Jacob Sullivan, de 44 años de edad, el cuál sabe que puede morir en cualquier momento, ya que ha heredado una grave enfermedad vasovascular que afecta a su cerebro. Su padre ya la sufrió, pero no ha muerto, sino que vive como un vegetal desde hace años. Ante esta situación, Jacob opta por someterse al mindscan. Los primeros capítulos son muy buenos, porque en ellos asistimos a todo el proceso de copiado, pero no tanto desde una óptica hard, sino desde una visión más personal, en la que vamos sintiendo, junto con Jacob, a todas sus nuevas sensaciones y pensamientos.

La historia me ha gustado bastante, sobre todo la primera parte. Sawyer empieza muy fuerte, pero su novela va de más a menos, y la parte final es menos interesante. Lo mejor es asistir al debate moral y ético que se plantea. La copia, que contiene todas las vivencias hasta el mismo momento de la transferencia, ¿es un ser humano? Es decir, sabiendo que es una mente en el cuerpo de un androide, que no necesita dormir, ni comer, ni beber, ni respirar (es prácticamente inmortal), ¿estaríamos dispuestos a tratarlo como a un ser humano? A lo largo de la novela, se plantean argumentos a favor y en contra, y tú mismo te formas tu propia opinión. Ésto es lo que mejor sabe hacer Sawyer.

Sin duda, se trata de un libro entretenido e interesante. show less

After reading Robert J. Sawyer’s latest novel, The Downloaded, I thought it might be time to reread his Mindscan, another book in which he explores issues around uploading human consciousness into quantum computers and downloading them back into their bodies or into android replacements. In Mindscan, Sawyer explores the notion of the personhood of replaced or duplicated minds. If a mind is uploaded from a dying body that is then cured, who gets the estate? Are consciousnesses entangled at a quantum level? Could the same technology produce philosophical zombies—intelligences without self-awareness? It is fun stuff and still fresh.

In Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer, Jake Sullivan lives with the knowledge that he has the same rare, hereditary disease that resulted in his father's long time vegetative state. He feels doomed until he discovers with his hereditary wealth he can be mindscanned, a process where his entire brain is scanned and downloaded into a technologically superior mechanical body that doesn't breathe, eat, or sleep and is theoretically immortal. The process, however, results in two Jake Sullivans.

While the flesh-and-blood Jake must renounce all ties to his earthly existence and live out the rest of his days in a deluxe retirement village on the dark side of the moon, the mindscanned Jake ends up starting a relationship with Karen Bessarian, a show more wealthy author who has also been mindscanned. When the original Karen dies, her son sues to inherit her estate. Meanwhile, the original Jake has cause to rethink his exiled status and the mindscanned Jake begins to hear voices in his head from other Jakes.

Mindscan speculates on the ethics of bio-technology, the nature of consciousness, and the meaning of life. In Sawyer's future socially liberal Canada contrasts sharply with the fundamental Christian-controlled USA. I felt Sawyer is, as usual, taking some swipes at the USA, which readers in the USA will have to overlook.

In general Mindscan is tightly plotted at the beginning and stays focused, until the trial begins and Jake starts hearing voices. The trial dragged out a little long, becoming mostly Sawyer having a philosophical discussion on the meaning of life, bringing in abortion and the question of when life starts. In reality, the question of the rights of the mindscanned "person" would have been addressed by teams of company legal experts ahead of time and a resolution would be in place. The voices sub-plot didn't work for me - it needed to be either better developed or left out.

But Sawyer also has some brilliant moments and funny passages that make you forgive him for some of his problems and excesses. Highly recommended - It would make a good movie with some editing. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/ show less

So, the first Sawyer I read, Flashforward, explored the concept of Destiny vs. Free Will. This explores the concept of Consciousness. Not a whole lot of action, some depressing ideas about the direction we're headed in the near future, characters more as role-players and less as authentic people... but still, a heck of a read, imo. I will keep reading Sawyer, as Ideas is what I read SF for.

In questo affascinante romanzo, Sawyer non smentisce la sua vena di hard sci-fi unita ad una buona dose di temi sociali, che da sempre caratterizzano i suoi riusciti romanzi.In questo caso il tema portante è: cosa fa di una coscienza una persona? Ai suoi occhi? E a quelli della società? Il tutto ruota attorno alla vicenda del protagonista che per sfuggire ad una morte certa causata da una malformazione congenita, decide di duplicare la sua mente in un corpo sintetico. Da qui una serie di vicissitudini che sfociano in un vero e proprio processo sulla dignità di essere viventi dei duplicati, che ritenendosi in tutto e per tutto la continuazione delle entità biologiche che erano, si scontrano con una società che per esempio, non vuole show more riconoscere loro i diritti d'autore o di successione. Sorpresa inattesa di ferragosto! show less

In questo affascinante romanzo, Sawyer non smentisce la sua vena di hard sci-fi unita ad una buona dose di temi sociali, che da sempre caratterizzano i suoi riusciti romanzi.In questo caso il tema portante è: cosa fa di una coscienza una persona? Ai suoi occhi? E a quelli della società? Il tutto ruota attorno alla vicenda del protagonista che per sfuggire ad una morte certa causata da una malformazione congenita, decide di duplicare la sua mente in un corpo sintetico. Da qui una serie di vicissitudini che sfociano in un vero e proprio processo sulla dignità di essere viventi dei duplicati, che ritenendosi in tutto e per tutto la continuazione delle entità biologiche che erano, si scontrano con una società che per esempio, non vuole show more riconoscere loro i diritti d'autore o di successione. Sorpresa inattesa di ferragosto! show less