To be a Machine
Mark O'Connell
Explore the ambitious, often eerie world of transhumanism as Mark O’Connell investigates the scientists and dreamers striving to "solve" death through high-tech evolution. This journey challenges you to reconsider the boundaries between biology and machinery, forcing a vital reflection on whether our mortality is a technical flaw to be fixed or the very essence of the human experience.
The Immortalists and the Ice
Journalist Mark O'Connell visits the Alcor Life Extension Foundation to explore the fringe world of cryonics and the philosophical drive to escape biological expiration.
The Ice-Cold Gamble
The Extropian Creed
The Preservation of the Self
Ghosts in the Silicon
A deep dive into the quest for mind uploading and the belief that consciousness is merely a sophisticated form of software.
Brains as Binary
The Carboncopies Project
Is the Map the Territory?
Engineering the Fountain of Youth
O'Connell meets the figures treating aging as a manageable disease and biological decay as a technical error.
The Apostle of Longevity
The Seven Sins of Decay
The Ageless Society
The Grinder Rebellion
Investigating the underground world of biohackers who use DIY surgery to augment their senses and merge with hardware.
Upgrading the Senses
DIY Transhumanism
Pain as a Gateway
The Silicon Valley Gospel
A look at the intersection of extreme wealth, technological accelerationism, and the dread of existential risk.
The Billionaire's Quest
The Singularity Near
The Doom-Sayers
The Mechanical Vanguard
Examining the cutting edge of robotics and the military-industrial complex's role in the transhumanist future.
The DARPA Dream
Replacing the Flesh
The Automation of Being
The Human Residue
O'Connell reflects on the paradox of trying to be a machine while being defined by the very fragility transhumanists despise.
The Poetry of Mortality
To Be a Machine or a Man?
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Interactive Socratic dialogue, level by level