Nataliya's Reviews > Upgrade

“We were a monstrous, thoughtful, selfish, sensitive, fearful, ambitious, loving, hateful, hopeful species. We contained within us the potential for great evil, but also for great good. And we were capable of so much more than this.”

As genetic manipulation is slowly but surely leaving the science-fictional realm and possibility of genetically enhanced humans is close enough to start raising real ethical issues (the idea of unenhanced genetically “inferior” class vs superhuman rich who can afford it, raising inequalities to cellular levels, for instance), books like Blake Crouch’s Upgrade make me consider where I’d fall on that spectrum. What would I do or want to see done? We all would probably embrace eradicating genes that cause diseases, especially in kids, but where is the stopping point? When does enhancement stop being good enough and becomes too much? And how better would the world be if we had means to fix things that cause us problems? After all, we all know humans are imperfect, so why wouldn’t you want to improve things and help fix the screw-ups we did to our world?

“I had extraordinary dreams and an ordinary mind,” a character thinks. But why do we have to hang onto the ordinary? We as a society have been fascinated by the idea of superhuman, superheroes for a while - certainly long enough for Marvel to create a whole profitable universe of them - but what if we had the means to try to upgrade us all?

Is hanging on to the present imperfect genetic status quo really just plain old fear of changes?

“Put simply: Our situation was fucked, and we weren’t doing enough to un-fuck it.”

And another issue here is: how far can we go for the sake of population benefit? How much can be sacrificed individually for the benefit of the many if it means sacrifice of the few? Saving the majority at the expense of the minority — should we be thinking individualism vs species survival? Maybe the answer will depend on which side of that divide you fall — but do you have a choice in that? And who gets to decide and police that?

And can we actually solve our problems if we all were just better at being us? Would we be smart enough to stop screwing up, or would we just start screwing up on a more epic scale? Being brilliant does not after all make you any less of an asshole; it may actually have a very much opposite effect.

“What if this isn’t the solution? What if you end up killing a billion people for no reason? What if you just end up creating a world of Miriam Ramsays—all convinced they know what’s best, all capable of inflicting unimaginable harm if they’re wrong? What if you create a bunch of people who are just drastically better at what they already were. Soldiers. Criminals. Politicians. Capitalists.”

There are no correct answers here, but Blake Crouch presents one possible scenario, and he does it well. Certainly entertaining, easy to read, very accessible, and zipping along at a frantic pace which nevertheless is easy to follow. The science is explained at a very simple level, so no genetic upgrades are necessary for it all to be crystal-clear.

“I could read a book with my eyes while simultaneously listening to an audiobook, and comprehend each one to a seventy percent degree of accuracy.”

Yes, please. That would make Goodreads even more fun.

It’s an entertaining and a fast-paced adventure, but although I had tons of fun reading it, zipping through it in a few hours, I anticipate that it will fall out if my memory relatively fast, too. But it can make a fun summer blockbuster movie if ever put to film. And ultimately it stops short of being unsettling or digging too deep, instead feeling like an eventual comfort read. It’s language and the entire story cadence seem made for a pleasant and fast summer read, a few hours well-spent but perhaps not that memorable in the longer run.

“Being smart doesn’t make people infallible. It just makes them more dangerous.”

I’m curious to try more Blake Crouch though. Even if not life-changing, this was interesting and fun enough.

3.5 stars.

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Also posted on my blog.