The Soul of the Marionette
A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Compared with that of humans, the life of the marionette looks more like an enviable state of freedom
In his brilliantly enjoyable and freewheeling new book, John Gray draws together the religious, philosophic, and fantastical traditions that question the very idea of human freedom. We flatter ourselves about the nature of free will and yet the most enormous forces—logical, physical, metaphysical—constrain our every action. Many writers and intellectuals have always understood this, but instead of embracing our condition we battle against it, with everyone from world conquerors to modern scientists dreaming of a "human dominion" almost comically at odds with our true state.
Filled with wonderful examples and drawing on the widest possible reading (from the Gnostics to Philip K. Dick), The Soul of the Marionette is a stimulating and engaging meditation on everything from cybernetics to the fairground marionettes of the title.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
