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SEX ROBOTS AND VEGAN MEAT

ADVENTURES AT THE FRONTIER OF BIRTH, FOOD, AND SEX

Provocative, exuberant perspectives on the “disrupting technologies” primed to enhance the human experience.

Intriguing updates from the protean worlds of food, companionship, death, and beyond.

Chronicling a far-flung, five-year research project, journalist and documentary filmmaker Kleeman provides a vigorous introduction to several inventions poised to alter essential industries. In Southern California, the author visited Abyss Creations, “the home of RealDoll, the world’s most famous hyperrealistic silicone sex doll.” One model, “Harmony” (cost: $15,000), was embroiled in a competitive frenzy to perfect a “synthetic companion convincing enough that you could actually have a relationship with it.” Kleeman also relates her interview with a man who lives with three synthetic playmates, one of whom is his “wife.” In other sections, she creatively spotlights pioneering advancements in the production of sustainable, plant-based food systems and vegan “clean meat” and fish. An unrepentant carnivore, the author addresses six key reasons why an increasing proportion of the populace considers meat and fish production indefensible industries. The author is a focused and charming tour guide, with the kind of breezy writing skills that make each section immensely intriguing. Even readers with no interest in reproduction or childbirth will be intrigued by the section on fertility specialists who offer unique “social surrogacy” options and fetuses incubated in an ectogenetic “biobag.” Besides clinical risks, this particular subject encompasses complex ethical dilemmas, which Kleeman explores. In the morbid yet fascinating concluding section, the author looks at rational euthanasia options like Sarco, described by its developer as a “world-first 3D Printed Euthanasia Machine.” Though most of these initiatives are male-driven, women do appear throughout the narrative, most notably as neonatologists and/or fierce advocates for voluntary euthanasia. Behind Kleeman’s profiles and research lies the belief that life can be vastly enriched with the aid of technology and without discomfort, inconvenience, or sacrifice even as these modernizations remain in development. Fans of Mary Roach will be pleased.

Provocative, exuberant perspectives on the “disrupting technologies” primed to enhance the human experience.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-64313-572-4

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020

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F*CK IT, I'LL START TOMORROW

The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.

The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.

“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”

The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.

Pub Date: April 20, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021

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ELON MUSK

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

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A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.

To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023

ISBN: 9781982181284

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023

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