Mind + Body, Aaron Dunlap [smart books to read TXT] 📗

Whichever philosopher you subscribe to, there is almost always a consensus in that whatever makes you you is some kind of balance between your mind and your body. When you die, they will say that you cease to exist, even though your body will still be there — where ever you were the moment you died. You refer to it as “your body,” as if it is simply something you own. If you catch the flu, however, you’ll probably find yourself saying, “I’m sick.”

There may never be an answer to the question of self. It may just be a contrivance of spoken language or a representation of the feebleness of our minds, but it’s certainly worth considering.

I wondered how this debate would be affected if there was a person whose mind and body were ostensibly not his own. If your body was designed by somebody else, and your mind was formed by somebody else, what would there be left to be your own?

In the story, when Chris and Amy discus this concept (on the way to Costco), they altogether take the positions of three very prominent philosophical figures.

Chris begins by echoing the words of René Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes boiled down the essence of reality to one simple fact. The only thing anybody can ever know for certain is that they can think. Anything we see, touch, hear, smell, or taste could be a hallucination or a trick upon our senses, so basically anything we experience might as well be a dream. Thought is the only universal constant, he insinuates, so anything beside it is peripheral. Following that reasoning, we might not even have bodies — at least there’s no way to really prove it.

Amy first takes the position of Aristotle, that the soul of something is defined by its purpose. It is from him that the allegory of the knife comes. If the purpose of a knife is to cut, then cutting is the soul of the knife. A person, being able to control what he does, is then defined by his actions.

Amy then switches to the conclusion of David Hume, that your mind, body, and experiences basically exist in an intangible bundle and that a person is whoever he thinks he is. If you think of yourself as a body with a mind inside, that’s what you are. If you think of yourself as a mind using a body as a mode of transportation, that’s what you are.

This is the theory that Chris prefers, as it is independent of such problems of mind/body ownership. He can be whatever he chooses to think of himself as, be it a teenager or a killer.

If I had to choose a theory, I would like to think that we all exist as our minds and that our bodies are simply avatars of our selves that we can use to interact with the world.

Pulling away from philosophy, the sad fact is that we are all just animals roaming the surface of the planet we developed on. Our minds are just something we’ve developed to protect ourselves and to allow us to better appreciate and dominate our environment. That is, if you believe the things you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.

ON THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF MIND+BODY

I feel it is important to note that nearly everything in this story is possible. As a connoisseur of technology, nothing bothers me more in any type of fiction than when the function and capabilities of computers and other gadgets are altered for the sake of a plot.

Anything done with a computer in the story is possible, and can be done with off-the-shelf equipment. I happen to own a Linksys wireless web-camera that can do everything mentioned in the story, and the USB drive used by Chris to copy files from another computer is often referred to as a “USB Switchblade.” Though they’re usually made to install a hidden mail server onto a computer so keystrokes or files can be recorded and secretly emailed to you, it would certainly be possible to script a program to just search for files and copy them onto the drive.

To prevent this from happening to your own computer, make sure Auto-Run is disabled for any type of media inserted. Alternatively, holding down the Shift key after inserting a CD or USB device will usually prevent it from automatically launching a program, if you’re using Windows.

Also, the “phishing” trick used to get Nathan Comstock’s email password is very possible and it happens daily to hundreds of people who are duped into giving away passwords, banking info, and credit card numbers.

Whether or not the various social engineering methods used by Chris throughout the story are likely to work is anybody’s guess. Remember, though, that people are very likely to believe anything that they think is coming from somebody who should know it. If your bank called you to verify your personal details, would you really stop and wonder if the caller is who he says he is?

Hypnosis is presented within the story as accurately as possible. The realities of hypnosis are often stretched (or mutilated) in fiction and I strove to maintain as much realism as I could. It is not possible to hypnotize somebody and instruct him to kill a person or do anything they don’t want to; it isn’t brainwashing. Training and education via hypnosis are certainly possible, and by establishing code words and by using subconscious memory control, it could be performed as described herein.

The only area where I took liberties was with the genetic engineering elements of the story. While in-vitro fertilization is real and the human genome has been mapped, there’s still no reliable way to switch on and off certain attributes.

Austrian Sparbuch accounts do exist as described, though they are now impossible to open with complete anonymity. Obtaining an already-opened account is possible, and there are a few online firms that sell them (though their legitimacy is certainly in question).

Strychnine affects the body as described, assuming the dosage is reasonably low. In a series of rhythmic spasms, motor control is lost as every skeletal muscle in the body contracts at once. Death is usually caused by one breaking his own spine with the convulsions or suffocating from the loss of diaphragm control. Treatment should also be given as described; activated carbon to absorb the remaining poison in the stomach and tranquilizers to reduce the muscle spasm. A victim should be placed on the ground and held still to prevent any blunt traumatic injury, and a victim should not be moved as movement is what typically triggers the spasms. Get medical help immediately. They’ll probably do exactly what happened in this book.

I hope you enjoyed this story, that you learned something, and maybe laughed a few times too. I’d love to hear any feedback from readers, good or bad. You can contact me and find out about myself and my other projects at www.aarondunlap.com

AARON DUNLAP