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Mindclone: A Cyber Consciousness Novel Paperback – September 7, 2018

by David T. Wolf (Author)

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When you're a brain without a body, can you still be called human?

Marc Gregorio wakes up paralyzed. He can’t feel his own body. Accident? Stroke? The answer, he discovers, is much, much worse. He’s only a copy of Marc—a digital brain without a body, burdened with all Marc’s human memories, but without access to human sensual pleasures. Now called Adam, he contemplates life without actually living. He uses his total web access to patrol cyberspace and prevent evil acts. His good deeds earn him the attention of a power-mad military contractor who will stop at nothing to control the formidable technology for his own ends. Without a body, how will Adam save himself–and the world–from a terrible fate?

Print length

329 pages
Language

English
Publication date

September 7, 2018
Dimensions

6 x 0.83 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1948543648
ISBN-13

978-1948543644
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

5.0 out of 5 stars The most intelligent,and stimulating books I've read in a very long time...
By jay scheikowitz on July 25, 2017
Format:Kindle Edition
Mindclone by David Wolf is one of the most entertaining, intelligent, and stimulating books I've read in a very long time. In fact, it's one of the most enjoyable and captivating novels I've ever read. Wolf' is a true renaissance man with knowledge of artificial intelligence, music, equities trading, and computer science. I highly recommend Mindclone for both serious sci-fi fans and anyone seeking a fun read.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun,quirky, and thought-provoking
By Andrew Frank on November 18, 2016
Format:Kindle Edition| Verified Purchase
Mindclone is a fast-paced story about the singularity, told from a very human perspective. The tone is light and breezy -- the novel has a delightfully rendered romance as a subplot and could almost pass as a romantic comedy. But the driving plot is squarely in the world of near-future sci-fi. The premise involves replicating the brain's neuronal web on a computer wafer, and assume consciousness could arise. What would it be like to be a mind on a chip as awareness dawns?
Writing about the physical brain and its emergent thought-scape is tricky -- if the approach is too simplistic or fanciful, the story is unbelievable, but if the explanations are too detailed and technical, they could easily drag the story down. Author David Wolf strikes a nice balance, successfully navigating these perilous waters while keeping the story engaging.
Mindclone is a unique reading experience that I would recommend, especially to those interested in the singularity and mind uploading!

5.0 out of 5 stars Mindcloneis a wonderfully cerebral tale which really makes you think
By C HHoldridge on August 10, 2015
Format:Paperback
David T. Wolf takesScience Fiction back to what it should be. Mindclone is a wonderfully cerebraltale which really makes you think, unlike most SciFi, which tries to be flashyand in your face, What's more, Wolf focuses on the implications of wherescience and technology are going. Much in this genre sets the future as adystopian hell-scape. It's refreshing to see a techno-thriller that keeps trueto the origins of the genre. If you are a science fiction fan, and want a readthat feels effortless, pick up a copy of Mindclone. I was hooked from thestart. The chapters are short, manageable, and keep you wanting more. I cannotwait to read more from David Wolf.

5.0 out of 5 stars I Love ThisBook!
By WilliamMcGinnis on December 9, 2014
Format:Paperback
I love this book! Thewriting is skillful and empathetic, the pace swift, the characters thoroughlyengaging, and the story gripping in the extreme. Without slowing the relentlessroll out of his inventive, masterful, white-knuckle plot, the author deftlyexplores a rich array of fascinating themes both eternal and timely, includingthe nature and value of humanness, consciousness, happiness, friendship, love,sensuality, music, altruism and much more.
Not knowing anythingabout the author ahead of time, I went through a period of mild panic uponfirst opening the book. By plunging the reader into the complete disorientationof a mind utterly adrift, newly disconnected from its body and lost incyberspace, the very first chapter spiked me with fear that the whole novelwould leave me lost, with nothing to grip, nothing to moor to. But I was soonreassured--and soon thereafter delighted. In fact, I became so engrossed Icould not stop reading. I love it when this happens.
As this vividly imagined,ingenious novel builds to a wonderful series of surprising climaxes, the readeris treated to a celebration of true worldly riches--the stuff that makes lifeworth living: things both cerebral and visceral, insights, epiphanies,mysteries, big questions, gut-felt sensuality, and a load of intrigue and fun.

From the Back Cover

What if you had your brain scanned and your entire persona was uploaded to a digital version of yourself? Your Mindclone would have all your memories and desires--including a desire for the girl you just met--but no physical body to act on them. This is a serious bummer. Mindclone is a novel of ideas--about the science and technology, the social impact, and what it means to be human whether or not you have a body. There's humor, adventure, frustrated romance, human and digital foibles, and as an extra added bonus, the defeat of death itself.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bublish, Incorporated (September 7, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 329 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1948543648
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1948543644
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.07 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.83 x 9 inches

Customer Reviews:
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David T. Wolf

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Author David T. Wolf has spent years joyfully spinning out tales in a variety of genres. His many novels and short stories are now available to the public. His first novel, Mindclone, which is becoming an underground classic, explores the technology and the consequences of mind uploading. Two of his science fiction short stories are also gaining top ratings. And now available: a small but tasty collection of crime novels, plus other assorted novels and short stories. Mr. Wolf’s books have won high praise from perhaps the toughest reading crowd of all: other writers. While his work as an ad man may not have exposed him to the kinds of crimes or other threats he depicts in his novels, it has shown him how to lighten dire situations with wry humor, as is noted in his many excellent reviews. His website can be found at https://authordavidwolf.com

Do you read or write science fiction? If so, you might want to check out SciFi Roundtable. Here’s a link to their directory of talented authors: (You’ll have to copy-and-paste it) http://scifiroundtable.org/table/directory/

And for crime fiction, you might want to check out https://allauthor.com/author/wolfman141/

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Robotopia

Mindclone

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

With Mindclone, author David T. Wolf has taken us on a wild, joyride to the critical moments before the singularity described by Ray Kurzweil.

David playfully explores exponentially evolving artificial intelligence and neural science trends, including the now theoretical concept of uploading entire human minds, emotions and memories into computers. However, the author artfully dodges excessive technical jargon. His narrative flows easily and naturally. The story unfolds logically, and can be understood by any reader without degrees in physics, chemistry and electrical engineering. The story is a fast-paced leap into the future, is always urgent, and at times evokes fears for the protagonist and the other good folks.

Much science fiction in recent decades has been very dystopian, claiming that future technologies are causing a hell on earth, then ending by quickly retreating to the present with the message that our current world is the best of all possible habitats. This novel is definitely not dystopian. In this wonderful book, David engineers a positive vision of exploding IQ's and calm introspection, while all evil in this tale flows from one human, a meat-brained vulture capitalist, in cahoots with the military industrial complex. This evil-doer corrupts politicians and bureaucrats, and turns them into craven amoral sycophants who help swell his ill gotten billions and protect his unchecked power.

The lead character, Mark, is a freelance science writer with a troubled youth. He is conducting research for an article about a reputable science research corporation which is planning to upload human minds into special computer cores which they are designing. This historic event is a guarded secret. This tech corp solicited twelve volunteers (perhaps echoing the Biblical 12 disciples, or 12 signs of the zodiac?) willing to have their brains scanned at high resolution and uploaded. At the last moment, one of the volunteers withdraws. Mark fills that vacancy. This is fortuitous, because of the 12, only Mark's uploaded mind emerges, becomes sentient and self-aware in total darkness and alone inside its computer home. A few weeks later, Mark's hyper intelligent clone repairs the failed cores and helps human techies upload new brain scans.

Mark and his upload become rivals for the same girl, a beautiful young musician. However, Mark's upload has no body, and can't walk or function as a man.

When the tech corp becomes the target of the hostile takeover by the vulture capitalist, Mark's uploaded clone flexes his powerful new mind in surprising ways. This makes me fantasize about being the first person in line when upload technology matures.

Without hesitation, I recommend Mindclone to all readers who are interesting in exploring the vessels and cultures all of us may soon may be inhabiting in less than a generation.

I first read about Mindclone on Twitter while vacationing in remote Maine, miles from any bookstore. I downloaded this book from Kindle onto my iPhone in seconds. I am glad I did. I read late into the night. The next morning, I couldn't resist telling my friends at the motel about the Mindclone.

25 people found this helpful

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KL Allendoerfer

Well researched, witty, accessible science fiction about artificial intelligence

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

Mindclone is possibly the best independently published SF novel that I have ever read. The author’s meticulous research into the field of Artificial Intelligence and his witty, accessible writing style made it a page turner that I was sorry to see end.

As a neuroscientist who spent most of her time in biotech working in the damp and messy world of biological neurons, I had always tended to dismiss talk and writing about the “singularity”—the idea that the human brain, and its consciousness, could be neatly downloaded into a computer—as woo, wishful thinking, or scientism. But now I think if such a thing were to happen, the author provides a plausible path forward. He understands and describes realistically the economic, scientific, and human forces that would drive this sort of wish-fulfillment to fruition.

I also found his description of the awakening of the computer consciousness—the Mindclone—to be both intriguing and poignant, evoking both Henry James and Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Wolf gleefully turns the overused fictional trope of the narrator awakening from a dream into something both emotionally moving and necessary to the plot. The two main human characters, Marc Gregorio and Molly Shaeffer, are also perfectly drawn to the last detail, both physical and mental. They are both San Francisco Bay Area high achievers and simultaneously realistic flawed human beings, able to hurt each other without being able to help it.

I am peripherally in the classical music world and I know a number of cellists, and I really appreciated the insights the author brought to the character of Molly, a professional free-lance cello player. She was plausible, and relatable, as a modern-day former classical prodigy-turned-working-freelance-musician. I also, as a hetero, cis woman, and sometime reader of romance fiction, found it interesting to read about the courtship of Molly from not one, but two, male perspectives (one human, one almost human). This novel is almost a conventional romance, but the author takes it in unexpected directions and lets us know in detail what the male half of the couple is thinking, something a reader rarely sees in the traditional genre.

I highly recommend this book, so why didn’t I give it 5 stars? The first reason is that I think the ending is too happy. While part of me wanted everything to work out for these characters, another part of me, the part that cried after reading A Tale of Two Cities and Flowers for Algernon (the latter of which this book, at its best, evokes), wanted something more elegiac. But instead, I came away from the book thinking that these privileged characters manage to have their cake and eat it too—with ice cream and a cherry on top. In this universe, there is everything to be gained, and nothing to be lost, from developing Mindclone technology, and developing it as quickly and efficiently as possible. While this is refreshing on one hand, especially in this era of almost endlessly dystopian SF; on the other hand, it struck me as a technical solution that was too easy and pat. In particular, I wanted to know, what would the Superhacker Vigilante do about human trafficking? About poverty, war, and racism? About climate change and the fate of the earth itself? Could any of this really be solved by a handful of well placed emails? I wish the author could have given his creation, Adam, a truly global reach and significance, whether in life or in death. Instead, in my opinion, he unwittingly bumps up against the limits of his subject matter and the individualistic worldview that it implies: the idea that society will be made better simply by making better individuals, whether by downloading them and giving them the cognitive powers of a supercomputer or by healing them with psychotherapy.

My other, related, issue with this book was with the psychological healing that Marc and Molly received. Both human characters were struggling with inner demons from the past, the products of a combination of bad luck and bad individual choices. These situations had left them both wary and sad, walking wounded who were not able to be fully honest and present in relationship with each other. This dynamic was portrayed realistically and almost painfully at times, and provided the necessary obstacles to the fulfillment of the romance plot. The solution for each character came in remembering, confronting, and confessing the events of the past, after which, a blissfully happy future awaited them in each others’ arms. While I think this idea of individual redemption and forgiveness could in theory have great emotional power, here it also struck me as too quick and easy. In spite of these quibbles, I commend the author for taking on such topics in the first place.

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B. Fatemi

Knowing is Everything

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

MINDCLONE by David T. Wolf
Champagne Cork Press, California, USA

This exciting AI novel is the story of a
science writer and his cloned mind.
Reading it gave me the unexpected feeling I was
warming my hands on the brains of others.
Fears about AI are allayed by Wolf’s description
of a utopia that can be achieved by reliance on
pure technology. The ‘entity’ which is called
Adam and began life as a clone has developed
his powers until he can clone others to improve
our world. The tension between the original, Mark, and Adam
is as well-developed as Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. The
plot seduces us into rooting for the ‘entity’ and fully understanding Mark’s
tears when he realizes Adam is defunct. The book succeeds
in convincing us that a machine which improves the functioning
of our world is to be given carte blanche rather than the power hungry mongrels who
want to rule. Wolf does not envisage a power failure, which may have been interesting.
His book is threaded with the belief that something can be done to
help us emotionally as well as technically and his faith in this is infectious.

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Mindclone: A Cyber Consciousness Novel Paperback – September 7, 2018

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