The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom

In this meandering but often insightful look at the human condition, Gray (The Silence of Animals) offers a number of predictions. Among them is the extended syllogism that begins with his major premise that all matter thinks, moves through the minor premise that machines are matter, and concludes that machines (along with plants and jellyfish) are—or someday will be—self-aware. As the march of scientific knowledge leads to thinking machines, the upshot for us carbon-based life forms “might well be human redundancy.” Gray’s thesis is disturbing but hardly groundbreaking, bringing to mind Isaac Asimov’s 1956 story “The Last Question.” Gray’s musings on politics can be equally disturbing and are at times less convincing, such as his pronouncement that “the military-industrial complex no longer has the centrality it once did.” Still, with examples that include ancient Greeks, early Christians, Aztecs, Jeremy Bentham, and Philip K. Dick, to name but a few, this remains an intelligently written, thought-provoking book. Agent: Tracy Bohan, Wylie Agency. (May)