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The cover of To Be a Machine

To Be a Machine

Mark O'Connell

Why do some people want to escape the human body and death through technology, and what does that wish reveal?

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At a glance

Author
Mark O'Connell

Why read it

  • You will see transhumanism as the latest chapter of an old story that begins with Gilgamesh seeking a cure for mortality
  • You will question the Singularity, whose foundations the author finds obviously religious
  • You will understand why Arendt read the yearning to escape as a rebellion against human existence as it has been given

Who it is for

  • A reader unsettled by tech promises of immortality
  • Someone curious about transhumanists and AI risk debates
  • A tech worker uneasy about the industry's dreams of beating death

Contents

  1. System Crash
  2. An Encounter
  3. A Visitation
  4. Once Out of Nature
  5. A Short Note on the Singularity
  6. Talkin’ AI Existential Risk Blues
  7. A Short Note on the First Robots
  8. Mere Machines
  9. Biology and Its Discontents
  10. Faith
  11. Please Solve Death
  12. The Wanderlodge of Eternal Life
  13. A Short Note on Endings and Beginnings
  14. A Partial List of Works Consulted

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