One of the short books that I really enjoyed is Understand by Ted Chiang: A SF novel about a brain-damaged person who starts increasing his intelligence to hyper-awareness levels through the use of an experimental drug. You can listen to it for free.
I usually write about non-fiction books on my little blog but this one is a worthy exception.
The purpose of Knowledge
To explain the idea that touched me the most I have to, unfortunately, go into spoiler territory. The end of the novel depicts a mental battle between 2 super-humans, individuals enhanced by the same super drug. The duel is not so much an action battle but an ideological debate.
Our hero, Greco, who tells the story, used his newly discovered intelligence to get a deeper understanding of reality. All his actions were selfish in nature, his interests being specifically tied to his curiosity. In the process he realized he needs new industries to help him accelerate the process so he jump-started a new industrial revolution, not to help the normals, but to get components for his future plans.
Raymon, his nemesis, also a super-skilled super-human, had more “altruistic” interests. While Greco ignored the world, focusing on his own, Raymond was only interested in the “normals”. He had a master plan for humanity, one that would elevate and enlighten everyone. A utopian future. But as with all Utopias, sacrifices had to be made, and Raymond was not shy of sacrificing whoever stands in his way.
During their discussion, it’s so easy to think that Greco is the bad guy. After all, he only cared about himself, while Raymond comes through as a Messiah figure, with deep care for his former fellow beings. But I think that’s a mistake. And it’s the other way around. Knowledge seeking can only be selfish in nature. As with anything else in the world. And once knowledge becomes a tool for power and influence, it loses its innocence. Understand makes that conflict apparent through a very short dialogue.
The brain as a computer
A secondary idea that I liked is the analogy between a mind and a computer, more specifically the virtualization of consciousness. As with virtual computers, where a real physical machine can simulate many more “virtual” machines, our hero discovered the ability to spawn virtual consciousness to deal with certain problems. Which he did until the physical brain became a limiting factor. Thus the need for a new industrial revolution.