Allan's Quest for What it Means to be Human!

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

A book that deals wih it and my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Allan]

LOL, seriously, a book just called “The Humans”??? How could they not describe it that way?

[*Tau*]

Allan, thanks to Miguelular I found another one!
Published on 24.03.2020.

The Bar at the End of the World by Tom Abrahams

A starving city. A renegade bootlegger. A battle for the future of mankind.

Zeke is a bad guy. He didn’t choose to be. It’s just who he is. It’s who has to be to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where trust is as scarce as water.

He's got nobody. No family. No friends. And a woman he left behind for her own good.

But it's time to change. After a brush with death far out in the wasteland, he decides he's done risking his life to help his greedy bosses control who gets to drink water and when.

Now, he's stranded in a bar in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the perfect kind of ruffians who can help him go back and make things right. Armed with renewed purpose and a one-of-a-kind muscle car, Zeke hunts for redemption, seeks retribution and, maybe, just maybe, he can get his girl back while he’s at it.

Take a ride across the wasteland in Tom Abrahams' newest post-apocalyptic, dystopian series, but with a fantasy twist. It will leave you wondering just what it means to be human.

It's perfect for fans of A.G. Riddle, Hugh Howey, and Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

[Joe]

I'm not sure if exists in book form, but the Star Trek: Next Generation episode 'Measure of a Man' is a fantastic look at this.

The story is basically a trial to determine if Data is a person or property.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Joe wrote: "I'm not sure if exists in book form, but the Star Trek: Next Generation episode 'Measure of a Man' is a fantastic look at this.

The story is basically a trial to determine if Data is a person or property."

This is one of my favorite episodes, too!

And this recent post finally made me think Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper. I see it was mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but it is still a good one. One of my faves, on our list, and charming to boot!

Used to be free, but now is 99 cents kindle us https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

[Allan]

When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One: Release 2.0

"HARLIE is the first self-aware intelligence engine. But instead of answers, he has questions - too many questions, and most of his questions have no answers at all.

First published in 1972, When Harlie Was One was immediately hailed as a groundbreaking debut novel, examining the most fundamental question of all: What does it mean to be human?"

[*Tau*]

Allan wrote: "When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One: Release 2.0

"HARLIE is the first self-aware intelligence engine. But instead of answers, he has questions - too many questions, and most of his questions h..."

Nice one, Allan!

[Ed]

I recommend Incomplete Solutions which examines "...what it means to be human in a world of accelerating technology, diverse beliefs, and unlimited potential, from a uniquely Nigerian perspective.:

[Allan]

That meets the qualifications for books I won’t read, but the blurbs for the stories themselves actually sound pretty good!

[Ed]

It is a good book. Don't blame the author for whatever text the publisher puts on the cover. We are reading one of the stories over in "my" group:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Allan]

And there, on the 416th, next-to-last page of Queen of Angels, is the question, "Is this what it means to be human?", asked by an AI. I won't spoil the context, but I literally laughed out loud when I read it.

[Khira]

I think the Murderbot series is very much centred around the theme of 'what it means to be human,' although it is not explicitly spelled out.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Khira wrote: "I think the Murderbot series is very much centred around the theme of 'what it means to be human,' although it is not explicitly spelled out."

Absolutely agree!

[Rebecca]

I’d add A Closed and Common Orbit as well, I loved that aspect of the book.

[Khira]

I've been thinking about how often this question comes up in fiction and how different genres explore it from different perspectives. In science fiction, it's mostly around blending of human and machines, genetic manipulation, and other technology-related issues. But if you take dramatic fiction like Lord of the Flies, the question is still the same - just explored from the perspective of constraints of civilization. Not sure if it happens in romance or historical fiction. I can't quite think of any examples of the top of my head, but then I don't read as much literature in those genres.

[*Tau*]

Allan, here's another book where you can learn about what it means to be human!

The Employees by Olga Ravn

A workplace novel of the 22nd century

The near-distant future. Millions of kilometres from Earth.

The crew of the Six-Thousand ship consists of those who were born, and those who were created. Those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find itself becoming deeply attached to them, and human and humanoid employees alike find themselves longing for the same things: warmth and intimacy. Loved ones who have passed. Our shared, far-away Earth, which now only persists in memory.

Gradually, the crew members come to see themselves in a new light, and each employee is compelled to ask themselves whether their work can carry on as before – and what it means to be truly alive.

Structured as a series of witness statements compiled by a workplace commission, Ravn’s crackling prose is as chilling as it is moving, as exhilarating as it is foreboding. Wracked by all kinds of longing, The Employees probes into what it means to be human, emotionally and ontologically, while simultaneously delivering an overdue critique of a life governed by work and the logic of productivity.

[Cheryl]

Joined the group just to bump this thread. Any new award winners that explicitly deal with the theme?

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Cheryl wrote: "Joined the group just to bump this thread. Any new award winners that explicitly deal with the theme?"

I guess the very question 'what does it mean to be human?' has a lot of facets. Say this year's Hugo nominee for best novelette is I AM AI by Ai Jiang (Shortwave) it plays on the name of heavily cybernitized human named Ai (like the author) and AI that human competes with. or another this year's Hugo nominee for best novelette “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C.L. Polk (Tor.com 8 December 2023) is an urban fantasy, where (view spoiler)[an artificial doll wants to be a real girl (hide spoiler)]

[Allan]

Cheryl wrote: "Joined the group just to bump this thread. Any new award winners that explicitly deal with the theme?"

There are those stories that actually approach the question, as Acorn identifies, and there's stories where the publisher just puts the phrase into the book description as a generic idea to generate interest. It's the latter I make fun of, because I just got tired of seeing it in so many book descriptions. It still happens.

[Stephen]

Just reading a speech by Dr. Andrew Butler, Chair of Judges for the Clarke Award, introducing the Clarke shortlist earlier this year. The speech includes the following:

“ I think that’s a crucial part of science fiction — we define what it is to be human by seeing how characters relate to the not-human: the alien, the clone, the robot, the AI, the computer… That’s the search for a definition of mankind and his status in the universe, that’s the cognitive which we bring to estrangement and the estrangement we bring to cognition, that’s the sf vibe…”

speech text is at https://clarkeaward.medium.com/chair-...