Customer Reviews

Mindscan

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book shows why Robert Sawyer is today's pre-eminent science fiction writer. Always keeping speculation in tight rein, he nevertheless exhibits a wide-ranging imagination. His stories are always a good read, yet filled with information. He understands the human condition, displaying that insight with a variety of characters. Even the protagonist-narrator isn't entirely predictable. Others, who seem understandable [but never a stereotype!], spring surprises. He builds the episodes of this story with finesse - no small feat given the characters are 400 thousand kilometres apart.

Jake Sullivan, scion of a Toronto brewery fortune, has a problem. The blood vessels in his brain might unexpectedly explode. It happened to his father during a family fight. The result isn't terminal. It leaves the victim in a vegetative state. Jake decides to take advantage of a new technology to bypass the threat. He'll have his mind scanned and his consciouness copied into an almost indestructible artificial body. Immortality, that quest so long followed by fragile humanity, may be imminent. His "shed skin", the original, flawed body, will be shipped to the far side of the Moon to live luxuriously until "natural causes" prevail. The relocation abandons a lonely dog, a confused girlfriend and a concerned mother.

As might be expected, a threat looms. Give a lawyer an opening and another courtroom drama enfolds. What says the law on two minds of one person? Sawyer has done courtroom scenes before in "Illegal Alien". He surpasses himself with this one as the concepts of consciousness are thoroughly explored by the contending sides. Sawyer is at his best in having characters explain philosophical or scientific stances. Thankfully, in this examination of determining who we are, Sawyer manages to shift the issue of the "soul" out of the hands of the clergy. His defender of that concept would seem inappropriate, but the character expresses the idea fervently.

The resolution of these issues is, amazingly, left for the reader. Sawyer has always avoided absolutes. He has his passions - the Toronto Blue Jays and enjoying Fate's gift of being Canadian, among others. While those are important and worthy of admiration and satisfaction, the issue of humanity in general looms significantly in his work. He is outstanding in dealing with controversies in a balanced narrative. And the story line itself will keep you reading to the end. A true "page-turner". [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Robert J. Sawyer's "Mindscan" tackles the human dream of immortality with a twist. Think for a moment what you would do if you could upload your mind, your very being, into a durable, android-like body. In Sawyer's futuristic world, the Immortex Company allows the wealthy to do that. However, your human body is shipped to the dark side of the moon to live out your natural life in luxury. When you die, your uploaded self can live on for an eternity back on earth.

Immortex doesn't bother with informing the uploaded copy that the real one has died. But due to a bizarre coincidence, the death of prominent writer Karen Bessarian (who uploaded her mind due to old age)is reported to her flesh and blood son, who didn't particular care for her uploaded form. He forces the matter into Probate Court for the reading of the will. The uploaded Karen says, "No way, I'm still alive" and the matter becomes what amounts to the trial of the 21st Century.

In the meantime Jake Sullivan uploads his mind because he had a rare, incurable disease. Wouldn't you know it? They find a cure and he demands to go back to Earth and continue his life but Immortex puts the kibosh on that idea.

Sawyer writes great Science Fiction and presents it in such a way that it sounds almost plausible. His characters are real and believable. His plots move along smoothly and are easy to read. The trial scene is gripping. It's no wonder that he has won Hugo's and Aurora's and has been nominated for Nebulas. "Mindscan," which is actually an embellished version of his Analog short story "Shed Skin," fits right into the award-winning category. Highly recommended.

Robert J. Sawyer returns to his most typical format: a novel that digs into the human consequences of a plausible technological innovation. And very good it is! _Mindscan_ is SF in the classic mode of Asimov, Heinlein, early Niven, and those guys--a thorough and involving speculation, a good story, and a novel that will get you to ask some interesting questions. The setup has been used before (Greg Egan, for instance, is a recent practitioner), but Sawyer gives us a much better look at how real people might really feel than any other example I've seen.

The best part of _Mindscan_ is its fair-minded and articulate presentation of both sides of the issue. (This almost counts as a Sawyer trademark; other authors should take note.) This is a great technique in a what-if novel. It brings you, the reader, into the story, and makes you wonder: What do I believe? Would it really work that way? Is that a valid argument? And, most fundamentally, what would *I* do?

If _Mindscan_ has a weakness--or, at least, a lack of strength--it's in the resolution. It's not that it's badly done; a lesser writer, for instance, would introduce a technological fix that makes everything come out happy, and Sawyer doesn't do that. However, the ending neither (a) resolves the questions raised in the book, nor (b) demonstrates that they're fundamentally unresolvable. Instead, the characters are allowed to postpone dealing with them. They avoid the issues, instead of either deciding them or coming into conflict over them. After such a strong set-up, I'd have liked a more thought-provoking climax.

There *is* a little bit of a surprise ending. However, it concerns a subplot which is a minor contributor to the rest of the book. It would have been stronger if the subplot were either strengthened and integrated with the main story, or excised entirely. It's certainly not the case that the book is too long! (Sawyer has tried to do a little too much with his books before now. His _Frameshift_, for instance, is a very fine novel, but it has about one idea too many wedged into it.)

All the same, that still leaves _Mindscan_ as very good science fiction. Sawyer won some awards for his recent "Neanderthal" trilogy. I don't think that's his best work; the contrast between the (good) Neanderthals and (bad) us is too black-and-white. _Mindscan_, on the other hand, really does merit some awards, particularly compared to most of what shows up on the ballots. This is the stuff that gets 13-year-olds reading SF in the first place, but written with a fully adult sensibility. We need more of it.

I got this book because I was completely intrigued by the concept.

The primary character (both of him!) is sympathetic and believable. His leading lady is written almost as well, although her character seems a a little bit more formulaic. The story line develops quickly through the first half of the book, and raises some compelling and thought-provoking issues in the telling, without beating them into the ground.

Both of the protagonists' stories (the biological and the Mindscan) are told in first person, but the writing and editing are so well done that the reader has no trouble whatsoever keeping up with who's telling his story at any given time.

Then there comes a development that leads to a civil trial to determine whether a "Mindscan" is a person, is conscious, is alive, in the legal senses of the words. In my opinion, at that point the forward motion of the story suddenly comes to a crawl. While there are unquestionably really intriguing issues on both sides of the question, the author devotes too much time to the court arguments which are presented in so voluminously that they come off as thinly veiled self-congratulation on his exhaustive research.

Nonetheless, I do recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the mind-stretching aspects of it when they were integrated into the story. When the courtoom parts started to drag on, I just skimmed, and found that I didn't miss a thing.

The strengths of Sawyer's novels have been the combination of strong, science fiction storylines coupled with complex characters.

Unfortunately, MINDSCAN, fails on the latter point.

The premise has been discussed at length, so there's no need to cover ground that other reviewers have described.

But, if you're interested in consciousness and the philosophical debate about the existence of a soul, then you should find this novel quite enjoyable.

The characters, on the other hand, were not very enjoyable.
Despite Sawyer's own words admonishing writers who intrude upon the narrative with soapbox issues, I couldn't help but feel that the characters of Jacob and Karen reflected Sawyer's own feelings with respect to liberal politics and intellectual property.

There's certainly nothing wrong with a protagonist with liberal political views; nor is there anything wrong with one who's a strong advocate of artists' rights.

The problem with this novel is that there is no balance. The protagonist has no sympathetic counterpart (e.g., a well-meaning, politically conservative or moderate character).

All that being said, this novel is very educational.
That, combined with the "page-turning" trial scene, make this novel well worth the read.

And be sure to spend some time with Sawyer's appendix, which describes his research sources for consciousness studies.

I'll give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars and "round up."

Mindscan has a great idea at its core in exploring the Philip K Dick theme of "What it means to be human" in the context of copying one's mind to an android and then discussing which one is more real but it falls well short, especially as compared to Dick, in the execution department. The first third of the book is great but then it proceeds to fall apart. The story becomes a long diatribe/essay in which the author isn't nearly as clever as he thinks he is. In fact, I found his tone insulting. If you read the afterward and the about the author, this is consistent with him overestimating himself. Don't get me wrong, the idea of the book is great but the execution of the last 2/3rds of the book as a story isn't. It isn't believable and the logic is quite faulty.

Caution SPOILERS.

Here are some examples of the logic being weak and the "clever" not being clever.

Definition of the start of life, and therefore the definition of an individual, being when the potential for multiplicity ends. This is pretty funny given the central idea of Immortex being able to copy minds. This would mean that when the Mindscan process came on line that all humans ceased to be individuals as the potential for multiplicity would now exist for all humans. Since this is one of the central arguments in the trial, the story isn't self consistent.

Idea that Karen wasn't the real Karen and therefore couldn't have her estate would have been easily dealt with ahead of time and so probate would never be an issue. With that much money involved, you can be sure it wouldn't have been left up to "just happening". To cover the bases, simple estate planning could have easily set things up such that in the event of the death of the biological body that a foundation would be set up to benefit the "copy". I know it wouldn't have made for an interesting story, but the suspension of disbelief was just too much.

The last part, of sending the "consciousness", didn't really wrap up the story or make sense. It was painfully obvious it was shoe horned in for the Author to communicate one last cool idea. Once again, the idea was cool but it didn't help the story. In fact, it added more to inconsistency. The idea that the copies could communicate with each other due to the quantum entanglement was stretched very thin by this point. After 100+ years, the relationship in the networks between Jake and a newly brought on line consciousness would be almost non-existent. Since the link only exists at bringup due to the similarity (according to the author) it actually wasn't even self consistent within the book as Jake ever linking makes no sense as he has progressed past bringup himself.

Mindscan by Robert Sawyer is an exploration of consciousness, self-awareness, and raises the question of where, exactly, does an individual's core essence that makes her or him a unique individual lie? He cleverly doesn't answer the question, but leaves much food for thought.

The set up for this exploration is the character, one Jake Sullivan, an independently wealthy heir of a Canadian brewing company. Jake's father has become incapacitated from a rare disease that causes a mass brain hemorrhage and Jake discovers he too carries this rare disease that could leave him completely incapacitated or dead, unexpectedly, at any moment. He carries this burden with him, fearing to become too close to people. And while sociable, he has no real intimate friends, even the woman he's in love with.

But Jake finds hope in the form of a new technology. A company has developed a technique where they can transfer an individual's consciousness into a life like mechanical body that offers the possibility of immortality because the body is almost indestructible and as advances are made in the technology, the consciousness can be moved to new and improved models. So Jake takes the plunge and has his consciousness transferred. But there's a catch - there are now two Jakes, one the mechanical body that contains Jake's consciousness, and the "original" or cleverly named "skin" as in shed skin. The original Jake signs a contract that forces him to go to retirement community on the moon. Being a young fellow, this becomes unsettling for the original Jake.

Now enter a famous author, Karen Bessarian - an aging writer who also has her consciousness transferred and heads for the moon while her "other" consciousness continues on in a new body and goes on with life. This sets up a situation where Karen's consciousness in her artificial body winds up in court to determine whether she, indeed, is Karen Bassarian. Meanwhile, the original Jake broods on the moon, with explosive consequences as the story unfolds.

Sawyer does a commendable job of exploring what is consciousness and the novel has plenty of plot twists keeping the story moving at a rapid, entertaining pace. It's an entertaining story to read. There are a few drawbacks, however. First, Sawyer uses a court case to raise questions about what constitutes consciousness and individuality. The courtroom scenes are a little too obviously contrived for my tastes - although overall it is well done and somewhat seamless with the story. Secondly, he uses some unfortunate near future predictions about American politics and future presidents that I found overwrought and a detraction from the story. It was hard to suspend my disbelief when I found this near future America unlikely and it will certainly undermine the ability of the book to have much resonance ten or twenty years from now.

That said, overall I found the novel very worthwhile and interesting, as all of Sawyer's novels tend to be.

Jake Sullivan is a relatively young man with an uncertain future. He has inherited his father's rare brain disorder, creating a high risk of a fatal hemorrhage. A company called Immortex comes along with a new technology, involving the transferrence of human consciousness into a mechanical body. Marketed primarily at older adults nearing the end of their lives, it offers centuries of continued life (or more). Sullivan sees it as a stable future, free of his incurable condition. The catch is that once the transfer is complete, the new being remains on earth, and the biological original is shipped to the moon to live out its remaining days in a sort of retirement center with others like them.

Sullivan endures the procedure, and befriends an elderly woman who does likewise. Together, the two "Mindscans" begin a new life on earth. Legal issues arise concerning what rights (if any) the new beings retain, and the two of them struggle with their new identities among a sometimes skeptical and prejudiced society. This is not a drama, and it doesn't aim for predictable paths or outcomes. While there are some dramatic moments, questions are raised without any feel that the reader must reach any one conclusion. The debates and ideas about human consciousness and what makes us individuals are the strengths of the book, and they are developed well and told with intelligence. The biological Sullivan's life on the moon concludes in a rather disappointing end, at least for me, because the reader is never told definitively what caused his behavior. One can speculate, but a possible explanation is never confirmed. The epilogue was rather weak, and seemed tacked on as an afterthought.

Although individual characters are not that strongly developed, a surprising degree of emotion is elicited at various points in the story. Sawyer manages to capture very real human relevance out of the story itself, without the need to relate to the characters. That has been his greatest ability with many of his books, and it is so here. The book reads smoothly, and entertains from start to finish. Overall, it is well worth the time, and time well spent.

Imagine a future where you don't need sleep, where you don't lose any part of your memory, your body doesn't age and you are never prone to any disease. You keep all your mental and intellectual capacities, even your emotional ones. You can still identify your "self". All this is achieved by having your mind "uploaded" into a perfect body of chosen age and live happily ever after. You have become a Mindscan. Not, so fast, though! What about your consciousness, your "soul"? Can it really be copied? And what is going to happen to the original biological self? What about the reactions of family and friends; how do they take this technological wonderwork?

What drives people to take this extreme step? The two protagonists make this choice for different reasons. Karen Bessarian, a highly successful writer in her eighties, doesn't accept the fast approaching end of her life. She has more books to write and life to enjoy, so she chooses a younger body. Jake, the rich forty-something heir to a Canadian brewery, carries his father's genetic marker for a brain defect. The older Sullivan collapsed into a vegetative state after a row between father and son when Jake was 17. Jake had put his life on hold to avoid stress and other triggers for brain damage. Meeting at a sales event for the Mindscan technology, Karen and Jake develop their relationship in different ways - as biological selves and as mind "instantiations" with new perfect bodies.

Once the "uploads" have passed their first examinations they are let loose on their family and community with varying results. Tongue in cheek, Sawyer cannot resist some small political stabs contrasting US society at the time [as projected from present conditions] with an increasingly broadminded and left-leaning Canadian one. Jake doesn't fare well as an uploaded new self. His mother refuses to accept his new identity, his love doesn't even look at him. Sawyer presents a realistic scenario for his exploration of the reaction of the "loved ones" resulting in most of the story playing out in and around a US court room. Karen's son, expecting a rich inheritance, challenges the "thing" that has taken over from her. "I don't care whether copied consciousnesses are in fact persons in their own right. The issue is whether they are the same person as the original." His lawyer, of course, argues that "it" is not and brings various scientists as witnesses. The other side also has ample expertise on its side and a lot riding on success.

Sawyer has created an intriguing speculative fiction world some 40 years hence where mind scans are possible. In his version of 2045, the technology for cloning humans has not been mastered. Instead, the brain is copied - completely and accurately - in a moment of "quantal entanglement" of the biological brain. The process creates a quantum fog that congeals into one artificial replacement brain. The new "you" takes over from that point. To avoid the problems of sudden doubles or clones, the original, now a "shed skin", has to disappear. Conveniently, lunar explorations have advanced so that a retirement home can provide for the cast-offs - most of whom are old and expect to die within a short span of time anyway. They are mostly rich and content with their lot. Given the costs involved in the whole process, overcrowding is not a problem and any luxury desired can be provided. However, Jake is not finished with earth life yet...

The subject of consciousness and individual self is not a new one for Sawyer. This time, though, he has expanded the complexities beyond what he did, for example, in Factoring Humanity. Using the present-day hot debates around new findings in brain research and the challenges they pose to our understanding of human individuality and functioning into the near future, he confronts our perceptions and belief systems. This opens a new dimension for the philosophical/scientific debate on human consciousness and identity. Professionals as well as interested laypersons grapple with the dividing line between neuron pathways as a result of biochemical reactions and brain functions as expression of thought, argument or emotion, the "soul".

Mindscan, while deeply philosophical, is an absorbing, well written and highly enjoyable story. Current scientific research and its impact on our future societies are front and centre of this novel, yet, it doesn't overwhelm the reader and moves easily along with the narrative's flow. Sawyer has created a complex and very human tale of individuals thriving for their own, unique, personally fulfilling lives. Star Trek: TNG's Data, who always thrives to become more human, would find good role models in the android versions of Karen and Jake.
[Friederike Knabe]

Mindscan is another of Robert J. Sawyer's award winners -- rather inexplicably, to my mind, it won the John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel. The central idea here is upload to robotic bodies. Are such new bodies "human", in a moral or legal sense? And what about the (in this book, still living) "original"? Who gets the property?

Jake Sullivan is a very rich man -- heir to a beer fortune. He is also ever guilty -- afraid he provoked his father's fatal stroke -- and every afraid -- because he shares the genetic malformation that actually led to his father's stroke. Thus he has spent his life afraid of commitment to other people. Then a new process becomes available: one can upload one's mind into a robotic body -- more of an android, really, capable of most things normal bodies can do, though not all (for example, sex: yes, but eating, pretty much no). It's very expensive. Most people who choose the option are quite old, but Jake jumps at it only in his 40s. The kicker is, the company doing the process requires that the "new" person, the android, inherit the identity of the "original", while the "original" is sent to the Moon, to live out what will presumably be a short life -- in conditions of luxury but isolation.

The new Jake quickly finds love, with Karen Bessarion, a fabulously successful novelist (think J. K. Rowling). But Karen soon has a problem -- her original body dies, and her son sues -- he argues that his mother is dead, and he has a right to inherit her estate. But of course the "new" Karen Bessarion feels she is the "real" Karen.

Jake himself represents the opposite side of the debate. His "original" decides he isn't happy stuck on the Moon, especially when a cure for his condition is found. He wants to reclaim is original life. But that would cause problems for the new Jake.

This is, let's be clear, a fascinating setup. And it could address some pretty interesting ideas. But Sawyer bungles the whole thing. Partly, he doesn't consider some fairly elementary dodges to avoid some of these legal problems -- the company offering the uploads could arrange to be paid essentially the entire fortune of the original, but hold it in some sort of trust to be dedicated to the support of the original for the rest of its life, and also to the support of the upload. I think such an arrangement would for the most part sidestep the problem of heirs. But more than that, the basic idea at the core is monstrous: the "original", Sawyer seems to think (or at least this book seems to think -- Sawyer may not necessarily hold these ideas) is really just so much worthless remnant garbage, kept alive in comfort for convenience's sake, but not really a person. My goodness, how horrifying! Of course these are still people! The book argues eloquently enough for the "humanity" of the uploads -- I'm fine with that -- but then totally dismisses any argument that the original is also still human.

Add to these issues some more general plot and character issues. I was never really convinced by Karen Bessarion's love affair with the new Jake (the old Jake was plausibly messed up, could the new Jake really be a better man so soon?). And the plot resolutions -- a hoary courtroom drama plus a thoroughly unconvincing violent standoff with a convenient conclusion -- just didn't work for me. Another frustrating outing from Sawyer.