Picture a dystopian future following a global nuclear holocaust in which the world’s inhabitants have fled to underground facilities where all the humans are sleeping in pods, living virtual lives in an A.I. generated unreality.
If this theme sounds vaguely familiar, it should. It was the film The Matrix that was the inspiration for the novel “All the Humans are Sleeping,” according to its author and our guest John C.A. Manley.
What does it mean to be ‘human’? At the heart of this question lies the theme, plot, and philosophy of John’s novel. Are we mere intellects, able to exist separately from our biological bodies? Or is being human both an intellectual and physical enterprise?
It’s not as if these questions have not plagued humanity throughout its existence; how one perceives the nature of humans lies at the core of everything that an individual believes to how he behaves. Continue reading »