An eye-opening account of how robotics, computing and AI are altering what it means to be human - from the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Soldier
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 BARBELLION PRIZE*
*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*
As seen on Sky Arts Book Club with Elizabeth Day and Andi Oliver
An eye-opening account of disability, identity, and how robotics and technology are changing what it means to be human - from the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Soldier
Harry Parker's life changed overnight, when he lost his legs to an IED in Afghanistan. That took him into an often surprising landscape of a very human kind of hacking, and he wondered, are all humans becoming hybrids?
Parker introduces us to the exhilarating breadth of human invention - and intervention. Grappling with his own new identity and disability, he discovers the latest robotics, tech and implants that might lead us to powerful, liberating possibilities for what a body can be.
'I loved Hybrid Humans. A way of looking at the future without nostalgia for the past' - Jeanette Winterson
"Fascinating ... Parker's writing is elegant and often lyrical ... As someone who has lived as a "hybrid" for more than a decade, Parker never forgets the realities of everyday life, which encompass both pain and beauty. This may be a tour of the scientific avant garde, but the focus is always on the human heart and mind" - Observer
"Hybrid Hymans is an argument for the work of salvage ... The cracks - the brokenness intimating precarity and mortality - create value and even beauty, as well as ways to connect with others" - Times Literary Supplement
"Absorbing ... Parker takes us on a tour of the weird and wonderful world where man and machine meet" - Daily Mail