Wake by Robert J Sawyer

Wake

Robert J Sawyer

A page-turning thriller, a novel of ideas and the moving story of a once-blind girl who makes a very unusual friend: something for every reader! You will really enjoy it if you are fascinated by artificial intelligence, the nature of consciousness and the ways we can communicate with other species.

Extract
Jaynes makes an intriguing case that our sense of self emerged only after the left and right sides of the brain became integrated into a single thinking machine. Me, I think being self-aware emerges when you realize that there's someone other than you. For most of us, that happens at birth (but for an exception, see The World I Live In by one H Keller, also a five-star read). Anyway, Jaynes's theory is fascinating, but I can't think of a way to test it empirically, so I guess we'll never know if he was right ....
Parallels
  • 2001, a Space Odyssey by A C Clarke
  • I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury