Gilgamesh in the 21st Century: A Personal Quest to Understand Mortality - Softcover

Bracken, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0615953158 ISBN 13: 9780615953151

Publisher: Paul Bracken, 2013

Synopsis

"Must I die?" asked Gilgamesh. Forty five centuries later, we're still asking the same question. Science writer Paul Bracken embarks on a lighthearted assessment of the human condition, to explore what it means to be mortal, and what our fate may be. This scientific reimagining of the ancient Gilgamesh quest delves into a multitude of topics including the origin of life, the workings of the human mind, and the possibilities for life prolongation. The ancient Gilgamesh was so distraught at the death of his friend Enkidu, and so sickened by the knowledge that he too would die, that he rebelled against his fate and set out on a search for salvation. Likewise, at the age of eleven, Bracken wondered if there might be a way to bring his grandfather back from the dead and has been pondering this question ever since. Is death a problem to be solved, or is it an essential aspect of our humanity?

"We human beings instinctively resist the notion of personal extinction. In his thoughtful and hugely readable Gilgamesh in the 21st Century, Paul Bracken canters effortlessly through an amazing range of science to help put this fraught human proclivity in perspective, both for himself and for us."
-- IAN TATTERSALL, American Museum of Natural History, New York City.

About this title

About the Author:

For more than eleven years, Paul Bracken served as Ireland’s Regional Coordinator for The Planetary Society, and worked with Carl Sagan to promote space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He lives in California with his wife and two children.

Review:

"Paul Bracken mixes ancient myth, modern science, and science fiction futurism on an intellectual quest to explore the meaning of human existence by confronting and challenging the inevitability of mortality. This is both a highly personal inquiry into the uniquely human knowledge of personal finitude . . . and a scientifically motivated investigation into the dreams and schemes to extend life."
-- Professor TERRENCE W. DEACON, Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
   Author of The Symbolic Species and Incomplete Nature.

"Bracken provides readers with meaningful food for thought, not to mention a positive starting point for discussion concerning the fate of humanity. He doesn't fall prey to naysayers or doomsday theorists, believing that humans have the ability, and the attributes, to survive and evolve."
-- Kirkus Review.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paul Bracken
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0615953158
• ISBN 13: 9780615953151
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 290