Mindscan

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he's discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she too is no longer constrained by a worn-out body. Karen's son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance. Even worse, the original version of Jake, consigned to die on the far side of the moon, has taken hostages there, demanding the return of his rights of personhood. In the courtroom and on the lunar surface, the future of uploaded humanity hangs in the balance.

Mindscan is vintage Sawyer - a feast for the mind and the heart.

©2005 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Sawyer lucidly explores fascinating philosophical conundrums." (Entertainment Weekly)

"A tale involving courtroom drama, powerful human emotion and challenging SF mystery. Sawyer juggles it all with intelligence and far-reaching vision worthy of Isaac Asimov." (Starlog)

"Sawyer deftly examines what a future might be like in two neighboring countries that have become polar opposites. And he focuses on the legal and moral ramifications involved in various definitions of humanity in an intriguing and stylistically fine story. Grade: A." (Rocky Mountain News)

Scientific concepts

That are very possible and could be executed in the future, and all well explained and thought provoking. The only downside is the over lengthy court case, I ended up skipping through some of the chapters and if my hands weren't occupied at the time, cleaning bird cages, I would have skipped even more. It became too repetitious, too detailed just tiresome which is why I gave it 4 stars.

Entertaining, but not Sawyer's Best

Would you try another book from Robert J. Sawyer and/or Peter Ganim?

Robert Sawyer is a talented writer, and has a strong grasp of science. His work is definitely worth reading.

Would you recommend Mindscan to your friends? Why or why not?

I can only give this book a lukewarm recommendation. Unlike other books of his, much more of Sawyer's liberal politics creep into this one. I don't have a problem with characters having liberal or conservative politics, but when the author's politics are embedded into the overall fabric of the book, I find it a turn-off. At one point in the book, there is a courtroom trial that is laughable, with both counsels and witnesses given off-topic soliloquies that would never be allowed and seem to have no other purpose than to provide the reader with information that the author wants us to know.

In many ways this is the most Canadian of Sawyer's works:
*Toronto is the center of the universe
*The university of Toronto is Harvard
*Guns are bad, even to touch
*Queue jumping or getting better treatment because you have money is wrong
*Global warming is real and will make Canada uncomfortably hot in just 10-20 years.
*The collective is more important than the individual

Sawyer's favorite topics seem recycled in this book:
*Cellular Automata
*Quantum Entanglement
*Consciousness
*Turing Machines

Minor Spoiler:
The book misses many opportunities to be more interesting and relevant. For example, a character makes a decision based on information that he will die soon. He changes his mind when he finds out he'll live after all. Is it really reasonable that Sawyer treats him like a whiner who's being unreasonable? Also the way things end up seems messy with no clear theme, moral, message, etc. It's a bit like the work of Robin Cook where meaningless conflict is used to give a sense of drama which is rather hollow.It's almost as if Sawyer was on autopilot or lost interest in his story and finished it anyway. Perhaps he retouched some old story he had in a drawer.

To be clear the premise of the story is very interesting and the setup is quite good. It's after that, that the story disappoints. It does remain listenable and entertaining, but in a very insubstantial, fluffy sort of way.

What does Peter Ganim bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator does a great job.

Was Mindscan worth the listening time?

While worth listening, I would read other Sawyer titles first. It's not a 4-star read.

Engaging!

Loved this book. I'm a huge sci-fi geek (really Star Trek) and I heard this book referenced in a Star Trek podcast; and it did not disappoint! I suggested this book for my book club and friends who are not sci-if fans love it as well. Great job!!

it would have been better if ..........

this is a great book, but it would have been better if it had more than just one person reading it

Story Was Copied

The outline for story was copied from a scifi book I read at l about 30 years or more ago… but the writing is different. Can’t remember the author but he should have some acknowledgment because the bones of this story are identical. Story was still great with a lot to think about. I’ve read a lot of RJS books and this one is a bit more philosophical than usual yet still look lots of fun.

Engaging

I liked the story and the characters. I was pleasantly surprised by some turns of events, it kept me interested all the way through.

Transferring consciousness

Robert J Sawyer's Mindscan is a provocative tale dealing with the transfer of consciousness from a human to an artificial body. The simplistic notion is that a person can gain immortality and would occur when the individual is in some terminal state due to old age or a medical condition. The outcome is a bit more complex since the original organic person is still around with no sense of immortality. Furthermore, the notion of what constitutes personhood now comes into play as future inheritance is no longer possible. All these themes and more are explored. Besides an aging bestselling author, another subject is a younger individual with a terminal disease for which a cure comes along after the transfer. There is a thrilling court case regarding such personhood that examines religious and philosophical views on the subject as well as a nail-biting hostage situation.

Sawyer uses the concept of 'philosophical zombie' to explore societal reaction to such technology. Intriguingly, the notion of personhood for such a creature impinges on perspectives on abortion. In addition, legal concepts such as copyrights come into play. While the overall plot is engaging and well crafted, this tale is more cerebral than most sci-fi entries of this type.

The narration is excellent with very good character distinction with a brisk pace.

I HEART RJS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not yet read a Sawyer book that I haven’t absolutely LOVED, and this is a bit of a curse because my standards for his stories have therefore become impossibly high!!

This book lived up to expectations – no question! Yet again he has come up with a riveting and original plot that had me glued to every word; I just can’t get enough!

Another hands down hit.

Another Masterpiece for Sawyer

What if you could download your consiousness into another being--say a robot. Is that still you? What kind of person might choose to defy death by such a transfer? Then, what if you survived both in your body and in the robot? Who is the "real" you? Mindscan explores these issues and more as it takes you through the world of two people who make the choice to download for different reasons, and how their families and biological selves respond to their choices. In the tradition of his WWW series, Sawyer explores what consciousness and self mean, and how we might respond to novel situations.

Great book as with most of sawyer's stuff

Gives you something to think about along with an interesting concept of what the future might hold. Much like his other books in this regard, well worth the listen. Narrator does a great job of portraying every character as an individual.