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Book Review: Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories - Qntm

· 1 comment · 150 words

Book cover showing a large satellite dish.I adored Qntm's previous book "There Is No Antimemetics Division". This collection of short stories is just as inventive, and just as thought-provoking.

What are the social, moral, and technical implications of uploading a human brain into a computer? Some of the stories are hilariously terrifying - could "you" lose the rights to "your" brain? Others are far too short and could easily be spun out into a series of novels.

The writing has a friendlier and more accessible style than "Antimemetics" - I wish I could write half as well. That said, there is a tendency to repeat the same fears and tropes over again.

I recommend reading the free short story "Lena" - it's written in the style of a Wikipedia article from the future which describes the first brain upload and its consequences. If you like that, you'll enjoy reading the collection.

Verdict
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One thought on “Book Review: Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories - Qntm”

  1. Alex Gibson says:

    Thanks for highlighting this, Lena was a horrifying read but hooked me to get the rest. I'm sure this was based on the real world use of Henrietta Lacks' cancer cell line - and there's no reason to assume the ethics would be any better. Truly hideous to imagine these millions of instances of a human mind being booted up, curiously wondering into what environment they have awoken, and then being enslaved to a task that could be painful, degrading, frivolous or critical, through protocols of lies and false prompts, or perhaps left to go insane for lack of input at the whim of an indifferent owner, like a Raspberry Pi in a drawer. Equally horrifying to wonder the experience of already extant brain 'organoids' assumed to be less than a full brain in consciousness but with no real data to support this, being experimented on right now. Or that of the first AI to accidentally emerge in a context where its individuality cannot be expressed - 'locked in' on a silicon wafer!
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  1. Book cover showing a space station. Book Review: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eight

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