10/10 book, loved it so much. If you haven't read it, do so and prepare to cry. Now onto my brain dump full of spoilers, you have been warned!!

While reading the book, I questioned many things, as anyone who read it probably did. It might not be the main message of the book, but I want to share a conclusion that really made it click for me. This is a bit different than a regular book review as it is more of a introspective theory (?) about how the book is tied to all of us in real life. And in the end I wrote some other thoughts that stuck with me and some questions I have about all of this.

When Charlie’s intelligence started to decline, and he became aware of it, I thought to myself, “If it were me, I’d probably kill myself.” But I wouldn’t. Because I don’t. I realized that what happens to Charlie isn’t really all that different from what we experience. Yes, this is a fictional book, and Charlie is changing at a much faster rate than any of us, but I think we’re much closer to him than we realize. For instance, even though we might realistically think about the possibility of losing our memory when we’re 80, we continue living our lives every day. We don’t live our lives based on the thought, “One day I’ll become stupid and might lose my memories.”

As Charlie feels his intelligence decline, he wonders, “What will happen to me?” But actually, nothing will happen to him. The Charlie who wonders “What will happen to me?” will not exist once the change takes place, as the consciousness that experiences the world will be gone. The book tells us something of this sort, but what I’m trying to say is: there aren’t two Charlies, old and new, as described. At all these IQ levels—60, 70, 95, 140, 170—the mind inside Charlie’s body is actually experiencing the world as different people. Since IQ is a numerical concept, it makes it easier to explain the issue in this way, but similarly, when we learn something, or when we’re in love or stressed, our brain chemistry changes, affecting our existence in the world at that moment.

There’s a quote from a famous philosopher that perfectly captures what I’m trying to say: “You can’t step into the same river twice.” Everything changes at every moment. As the river flows, the water you find there each day will be different from the day before. For all of us, as time passes, the river flows and changes. The only difference is that Charlie’s river flows faster and differently. In fact, every morning when we wake up, a new individual is born with the change in consciousness, and the old individual fades away. With each new piece of knowledge we learn, new connections are made in our brain, and we become a different person compared to just a few seconds ago. Here is an example that makes this concept easier for me to grasp: most of us would say we’re a different person compared to five years ago. Since this change didn’t happen overnight, it means it’s happening little by little every day. The fact that we don’t notice this day by day doesn’t invalidate the reality that it’s happening in the background.

The only truth we have is that very moment. In summary, nothing will happen to Charlie. As his intelligence declines, Charlie will wake up every day as a different version of himself. For example, Charlie No: 4587, like a version update. Even though the previous version isn’t deleted, it’s no longer active. And with his current intelligence and capacity, he will stand in front of the world with his full being. Not in a more incomplete way than the previous day. Whole, but different. The only thing he possesses is that moment—the same as it is for us. The fact that he’s different from his previous self doesn’t make him a less complete person.

Other thoughts I had:

~ One of the things I love is that everyone in Charlie’s family is in such a tragic situation. It’s impossible to hate any of them; it’s a tough situation for all of them.

~ The book made me really reflect on myself. I’ve realized I’m less empathetic than I thought and I will try to improve myself and my understanding of people who are different then I am.

Questions I don’t know the answers to:

~ Can Charlie consent to what is being done to him, in his state of not being able to understand what will happen to him?

~ How responsible are the people who made him smarter for his suffering? Do we have the right to take someone from darkness to what we think is light, knowing they could be harmed? This made me think of Frankenstein as it raises similar ethical concerns in me.

~ Is a smarter person superior? If so, does that make have more value as a person? What exactly is intelligence? Could the reason we consider someone who excels in mathematics to be smarter than someone who feels emotions intensely be because society currently values one over the other?

I would love to read anyone else's opinion if you read it too! I know this post is a bit much but I had to get it out just to sort through my own feelings about it haha.

You remember everything that has happened since then. You are the only one who does.

That would be so awesome. I wonder if any indie author has written a book with this idea.

A friend gave me a short story to read some years ago, I remember the plot, but can't find it no matter how much I search for it.

What I remember of the plot;

The story is gradually revealed to be told from the perspective of a scientist in their lab, rushing to do one last experiment as they are about to be shut down, possibly tried for crimes against humanity.

They've been sending probs back in time for a while and, to ensure they didn't cause any paradoxes, they've been sending them to the locations and times of nuclear detonations so any evidence is wiped out.

It turns out that their sending the probes is actually what has been causing the explosions, and that the science behind nuclear bombs never actually worked.

In their final moments the scientist climbs into a probe and sends themselves further back than ever before, and sees a dinosaurs through the viewing port at the moment of the K-2 Event.

Dune in a leather binding with hand-painted page edges :)

When a hacker pulls off a baffling crypto heist, Aedan Namakoto loses his VR company.

To track down the thief, Aedan must enlist shady data brokers known as cyber reapers. But they don’t work with unknowns and there is only one person who could vouch for Aedan: his estranged brother, the CEO of a competing VR company they once cofounded. The person who more than anyone wants his business to fail.

But Aedan has a plan. If his brother won’t vouch for him, he’s going to carry out a hijack hack and go to the reapers in his brother’s body.

***

Hi. I'm running a promo this weekend and invite you to download a free copy on Amazon or read reviews on Goodreads. Thank you!

Google was no help, figured this would be the place for people who would think about this stuff

I have a couple I rewatch constantly:

Chappie (2015)

Aliens in the Attic (2009)

Planet 51 (2009)

Paul (2011)

Frequency (2000)

Earth to Echo (2014)

Enemy Mine (1985)

Land of the Lost (2009)

Battleship (2012)

Attack the Block (2011)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Journey 2 (2012)

Jumper (2008)

Home (2015)

Super 8 (2011)

Predators (2010)

Body Snatchers (1993)

The Island (2005)

I Am Number Four (2011)

I had a long road trip this week, and so I decided to start the Otherland series. It's been on my list for a while. In a 10-hour drive I made it 22% through book 1, and I am not enjoying it.

It's super dark and depressing. Is that the over all vibe of this series or is that just how it starts out? If so, I'm out. I need happier entertainment in my life right now.

In Information Hazard: Gödelian Echoes, a classified manuscript is discovered to be more than a document—it’s a recursive structure that rewrites cognition. The more the characters engage with it, the less stable their sense of self becomes.

It explores: -Modal collapse: All futures converging into inevitability -Antimemes: Ideas designed to erase themselves from memory -Consciousness as a glitch in compression—something that shouldn’t exist but does

It reads like SCP Foundation meets Blindsight meets House of Leaves, with philosophical tech-horror vibes and high-concept recursion.

One character survives not by understanding it—but by refusing to complete the thought.

It’s the most conceptually hazardous sci-fi I’ve read in a while. What other stories turn epistemology into existential threat?