Host - an extropian novel

Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Thu, 22 Aug 1996 22:43:46 -0700 (MST)


Actually I'm not sure it's an extropian novel yet, since I've only read a
quarter way through. But it certainly presents cryonics and uploading ideas
very accurately and sympathetically. The author, Peter James, obviously did
considerable research, consulting with the Alcor Foundation, and most of you
will recognize several names among the acknowledgments, including - on this
list - Marvin Minsky (if he's still reading the list) and Russell Whitaker.

I can't help like a book with the following paragraph. The context: Our
hero, uploading researcher, brilliant scientist Prof. Joe Messenger, has
returned to his lab in England from Los Angeles, and is opening his
accumulated mail:

"He cheered a little as he came across one that bore the frank of one of his
publishers, and might contain reviews of his most recent book, The Computer
That Loved Ben-Hur. He slit open the envelope and was pleased to see a group
of clippings: an interview he'd done with the Guardian; a review in New
Scientist; a more lengthy review in The Sunday Times, which he scanned and
was reasonably happy with, even though the reviewer appeared to have totally
missed the fundamental point of the book. And there was what looked like a
rave write-up in a small California magazine he much admired, called
Extropy, which pleased him more than anything."

Host, by Peter James
(1993 Victor Gollancz, Great Britain, 1995 Villard, Random House, USA) 469
pages. 0-679-43733-9

Upward and Outward!

Max

Max More, Ph.D.
maxmore@primenet.com
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President: Extropy Institute (ExI)
Editor: Extropy
310-398-0375
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore/extropy.htm