To Be a Machine

To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death
First edition
AuthorMark O'Connell
LanguageEnglish
SubjectTranshumanism
PublisherGranta Publications
Publication date
2017
Media typePrint
ISBN9781783781973
Followed byNotes from an Apocalypse 
Websitegrantabooks.com/to-be-a-machine

To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death is a 2017 nonfiction book by Slate columnist[1] and literary journalist[2] Mark O'Connell, his debut work. Published by Granta, the book is a breezy, but skeptical, gonzo-journalistic tour of transhumanism and radical life extension.[3] It chronicles O'Connell's travels around the world to interview prominent transhumanists.[4]

Description

Interviewees range from mainstream figures, such as computer scientist Stuart J. Russell, to more colorful individuals, such as Zoltan Istvan, who ran for the American Presidency on the "Immortality Ticket".[5] Much of the book focuses on radical life extension (the desire to engineer immortality); in addition, O'Connell visits a group of "grinders" in Pittsburgh who surgically implant sensors into themselves.[6]

O'Connell makes it clear that he personally chooses to reject transhumanist philosophy, stating that his child playing horsy with his wife could not be "rendered in code... Their beauty was bodily, in the most profound sense, in the saddest and most wonderful sense."[3] The book also examines existential risk from artificial general intelligence, the fear that superintelligent machines will destroy the human race. An oversimplified example would be a machine that is asked to eliminate human cancer, and does so by eliminating all humans.[7]

In the book's conclusion, O'Connell declines to offer any predictions about whether the hopes or fears of the transhumanists will come to pass, instead stating: "I have seen the present, and the present is strange enough to be getting along with: filled with strange people, strange ideas, strange machines."[8]

To Be a Machine was described by Publishers Weekly as "a stimulating overview of modern scientific realities once thought to be the exclusive purview of science fiction"[1] and in The New York Times review it was characterised as "a wonderful, breezy romp filled with the beginnings of philosophical reflections on the meaning of the techno-utopians’ search for immortality, or as O’Connell puts it, 'solving death.'"[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Nonfiction Book Review: To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O'Connell". PublishersWeekly.com. February 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  2. ^ Moody, Oliver (1 April 2017). "To Be a Machine by Mark O'Connell". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Emanuel, Ezekiel J. (16 March 2017). "Tinkers and Tailors: Three Books Look to the Biomedical Frontier". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  4. ^ "TO BE A MACHINE by Mark OConnell (Kirkus Reviews)". 28 February 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Book review: To Be A Machine, by Mark O'Connell". The Scotsman. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  6. ^ Heller, Jason (28 February 2017). "'To Be A Machine' Digs Into The Meaning Of Humanity". NPR.org. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  7. ^ Self, John (8 April 2017). "To Be a Machine review: can technology help us cheat mortality?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  8. ^ "Project eternal life: a journey into transhumanism". Financial Times. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.

To Be a Machine (author interview by bookseller) on YouTube


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