To Be a Machine

Mark O'Connell

2017 • Granta Publications

Writing the book felt like writing about a very particular cultural moment. It’s a very specific cultural phenomenon that has gained quite a foothold in Silicon Valley for reasons that seem quite obvious. My sense is that there are a lot of people out there who would never call themselves transhumanists but share a lot of these ideas about the possibilities for the human future. Silicon Valley has generated this amazing amount of money and cultural power and this sense of possibility around technology. We think we can fix anything with technology, so the idea that we would be able to solve death — the human condition — seems to be the natural outflow of that.

— Mark O'Connell

Non-Fiction English Language

To Be a Machine

Mark O'Connell

2017 • Granta Publications

Writing the book felt like writing about a very particular cultural moment. It’s a very specific cultural phenomenon that has gained quite a foothold in Silicon Valley for reasons that seem quite obvious. My sense is that there are a lot of people out there who would never call themselves transhumanists but share a lot of these ideas about the possibilities for the human future. Silicon Valley has generated this amazing amount of money and cultural power and this sense of possibility around technology. We think we can fix anything with technology, so the idea that we would be able to solve death — the human condition — seems to be the natural outflow of that.