‘Upgrade’ is now the third novel I’ve reviewed by author Blake Crouch, the previous two being ‘Recursion’ and ‘Dark Matter’, see my posts of 9February 2022 and 18February 2023 for those reviews. Having written about Time Travel in ‘Recursion’ and the Multiverse in ‘Dark Matter’, in ‘Upgrade’ Couch takes on the science of gene editing and the possibility of using technology like CRISPR-Cas9 and MRNA vaccines to ‘improve’ both individual humans and perhaps even our entire species.
Cover art for ‘Upgrade’ by Blake Crouch. (Credit: Goodreads)
In the not too distant future Logan Ramsey works for the Gene Protection Agency or GPA, a government agency that enforces federal laws prohibiting gene editing, DNA modification, labouratories where such research is conducted as well as any scientist carrying out such activities. It was the disaster called the ‘Great Starvation’ that caused gene editing to become illegal.
We have opened a new world by our ability to modify DNA. The promise, and the threat will soon become obvious! (Credit: Technology Networks)
In an attempt to give rice plants immunity from disease a brilliant genetic researcher named Miriam Ramsey, Logan’s mother by the way, used genetically modified locusts to try to spread beneficial genes throughout China’s rice crop. As you might guess the genetic modifications not only made rice plants healthier but also created a species of ‘Super Locust’ destroying large parts of the world’s food supply and leading to the death of about 200 million people.
Locusts have been a plague for humanity since biblical times. A gene enhanced version could cause the deaths of millions! (Credit: Science News)
For his part in helping his mother in her work, Logan was imprisoned for several years until his expertise got him released, and a job with the GPA investigating and sometimes arresting the people who worked in the same field as his mother. His mother by the way had committed suicide by driving off a cliff on California’s Highway 1 as the magnitude of the disaster she caused became obvious.
The drive along California Highway 1 is perhaps the most beautiful I’ve ever taken. I don’t think I’d pick it as a place to commit suicide however.
On a raid to an illegal, and unattended genetics lab Logan is attacked by a booby-trap, a trap that injects a synthetic flu like virus into him. Within hours he is racked by a fever and placed in isolation. The possibility that he has been subjected to a gene-editing tool is indicated. Logan recovers from his fever and in the days that follow both his mind and body become quicker, faster, more agile. It turns out that his mother is still alive and she has upgraded him! Not only that, she has plans to upgrade the entire human race.
While the idea of a ‘Master Race’ is normally associated with Nazi Germany, it actually has a long history. Of course, I’m always a member of the master race and you’re not! (Credit: IMDb)
I won’t go any further to avoid spoilers. What I would like to discuss is the idea in any Science Fiction story of ‘Suspension of Disbelief’. In brief this is the notion that a reader will allow the author to ‘get away’ with a few plot devices that are not based on reality so long as they are important to a good story. In ‘Recursion’ for example author Crouch allows characters to Time Travel, which is induced mainly by drugs. Now I have problems with Time Travel to start with and induced by Drugs??? However that was the only unlikely idea in the novel, everything else in the story followed pretty logically, and it was a really good story. The same was true in ‘Dark Matter’, where going from one Universe to another similar Universe is the basis of the story, again drugs were involved. Accepting that one, rather unlikely idea however again enabled a really good story.
Science Fiction of course depends on ‘Suspension of Disbelief’ more than other kinds of story. (Credit: Go Teen Writers)
In ‘Upgrade’ author Crouch takes a slightly different approach. Instead of one very unlikely idea that has to be accepted we now have to accept several ideas that could actually be true, but probably aren’t. For example, at the start Logan is a forty something man who has never been a prime physical specimen. After his upgrade however he can take on the entire Seal Team 6 single-handed. The same with his brain, at the start Logan is painfully aware that he is not the mental equal of his mother, smart but no genius. Afterward he can read complex scientific papers as easily as a restaurant menu.
After his upgrade a 40ish, out of shape Logan becomes a powerful warrior, better than any Kung Fu master. I don’t know if even gene editing could do that. (Credit: eBay)
His memory is also greatly improved, he can now clearly remember long forgotten conservations and books he’d forgotten he’d ever read. His senses are also heightened, he can hear another person’s heartbeat from across the room in order to tell if they are lying or not.
Lie detectors, also known as polygraphs, have been used for decades by law enforcement but are still not considered admissible evidence in court. The idea that a person could sense the changes in another person’s heart rate and sweat to be able to tell if they were lying is a bit much! (Credit: The Economist)
Right now the science of gene editing isn’t certain if any of that is possible in an adult animal. Gene editing of a fertilized egg to upgrade it in that fashion probably is achievable, although scary, but such massive changes to a forty year old is almost certainly not possible. However, presently we don’t know just what gene editing is capable of.
Gene Editing is a completely new technology. What it may be capable of is just guesswork at present. (Credit: The World Economic Forum)
The payoff for accepting the ideas in ‘Upgrade’ is a very good story. Couch has brought in a lot of elements of today’s world besides gene editing such as Climate Change, growing Fascism and the very idea of whether an intelligent species is capable of not destroying itself.
Couldn’t put it better myself! (Credit: Instagram)
This in now the third Blake Crouch novel I’ve happily recommended and look forward to his next story. By the way, Steven Spielberg has bought the rights to ‘Upgrade’ so in a couple of years from now you may very well be reading my review of the movie version!
When I started this blog back in 2016 I had hoped to confine myself to discussion about science and science fiction, after all that’s what it says right at the top of the page! Above all I wanted to try to steer clear of politics as much as possible, if only to avoid any arguments, which is all it seems that politicians do anymore.
Used to be that politicians argued during election season and then got to work running the country. With 24 hour news however all they seem to do is argue! (Credit: Dreamstime.com)
It didn’t work out that way. Climate Change and Industrial Pollution are two areas that I knew right from the start were both scientifically important and political powder kegs. In the years since then I have also had to discuss the science behind such issues as vaccines and LGBTQ rights. In this post however I’m going to put aside my reluctance to ‘get political’ and instead give my opinion about Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
Murderer’s row, the three main characters at the start of the Iran war, Donald Trump, the ayatollah Khomeini and Bebe Netanyahu. (Credit: International Crisis Group)
Legally I suppose America’s war with Iran began on February 28th of this year as both the US and Israel conducted a series of airstrikes against Iran. One of those attacks actually succeeded in killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini along with other high ranking members of the Iranian government. The attacks against Iran came without warning and without any formal declaration of war and while negotiations were underway in Switzerland, in fact just the day before the attacks the Iranian Foreign Minister stated that the talks were making considerable progress towards a settlement.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meeting with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi the day before the US attacked Iran. In an interview Mr. Araghchi stated that the talks with the Us were making good progress! (Le Mond)
(It’s worth noting that back when I was in school the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbour that pulled America into WW2 was considered a dastardly sneak attack not only because it came without a formal declaration of war but because Japan had sent a ‘special envoy’ to the US in an attempt to negotiate a settlement. But then, I guess in politics your criminal sneak attack is my clever strategy.)
The day of Infamy, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour even while the Japanese were negotiating with the US! And now we’ve done the same to Iran! (Credit: Smithsonian)
In now appears that the whole idea of attacking Iran without warning wasn’t even Trump’s but that of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Israel PM has long desired to destroy the Iranian regime but his military lacked the strength to do so alone. So, Netanyahu convinced Trump that a total victory over Iran would be easy with US might.
Man for man the Israeli Air Force is certainly the best in the world and has led the charge in all of the Israeli-Moslem conflicts. Still, an air force alone cannot conquer a country that refuses to submit! (Credit: History Net)
You can almost imagine the scene, Netanyahu says to Trump, “Mister President this will show the World how strong you are. Other Presidents from Carter to Obama tried to negotiate with the Ayatollah but only you had the courage and muscle to destroy the entire Iranian regime. One devastating blow and you’ll be forever remembered as the President who got America’s revenge on Iran.”
Trump thought that a single ‘knockout blow’ would get him the victory that would prove how strong he is! Instead, he got a diplomatic mess that no one will ever consider a victory! (Credit: International Business Times UK)
Never mind the fact that Trump committed the US to a war against a country of over 93 million people without congressional approval, remember the US Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. In fact this war was started by Trump without his even bothering to inform congress, a congress that his party presently controls. As for informing the American people about his reasons for going to war, aside from some rantings on his social media network the less the American people know the more they have to depend on his lies.
Trump may not like it but the Constitution clearly states that Congress has the power to declare war! Not the President. And taking the American people into your confidence about the reasons for going to war is important as well! (x.com)
Turned out that one blow didn’t do it. Even with their Supreme Leader assassinated the Iranian regime quickly appointed another Ayatollah, who just happened to be the son of the dead Ayatollah. Iran quickly began striking back and the Revolutionary Guard military immediately used its trump card, that of closing the Straight of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which 20% of the World’s oil supply flows.
View from space of the Straight of Hormuz. 20% of the world’s oil and much of its fertilizer passes through this narrow waterway, but Trump didn’t think of that! (Credit: NASA)
Experts in international affairs had predicted for decades that if Iran were attacked closing the straight is exactly what they would do. Trump however has little respect for people who know what they’re talking about, he prefers relying on his gut. Within days the price of oil shot up around the world. Apparently Trump thought that since the US was self sufficient in oil production the prices here wouldn’t rise. However, the oil companies, seeing the prices go up in Europe and Asia decided to raise their prices as well and within a week gas in the US went up nearly two dollars a gallon.
As gas prices went higher and higher Trump insisted that they were ‘peanuts’ compared to beating Iran! (Credit: CNN)
So Trump found himself in a mess of his own making, if he launched a full-scale invasion of Iran it would require hundreds of thousands of troops, and thousands of American lives while costing hundreds of billions of dollars. If he just continued the bombing campaign the war would go on for months if not years, all while his rash decision to go to war, and his inability to finish it resulted in his popularity plummeting. No matter how many times he declared that the Iranian military was obliterated, no matter how many times he stated that Iran had no aircraft, no missiles, and no drones left to fight with they just kept on fighting, and the flow of oil through the straight of Hormuz remained only a trickle of what it had been.
Today war is made with drones, and Iran has plenty of them! (Credit: CNN)
After a couple of months even Trump realized that the only way out of his mess was to negotiate a settlement with Iran, but after a sneak attack that killed their Ayatollah the Iranian regime was in little mood to talk peace. To add to the violence Netanyahu had ordered the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to begin yet another invasion of Lebanon in yet another effort to destroy Iran’s ally Hezbollah, complicating any kind of peace talks even further.
Even as the US and Iran continue their on again off again talks the Israeli military continues its attacks on southern Lebanon. (Credit: CNN)
Finally, however, it seemed as though Trump’s seasoned diplomatic team of Nitwit and Nincompoop, also known as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff (seriously have Kushner and Witkoff ever succeeded in any of the diplomatic missions Trump has sent them on?) managed to secure a ceasefire based on a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU itself only calls for an end to the US blockade of Iranian ports while Iran allows ships to freely pass through the Straight of Hormuz.
Does Trump even recognize the irony of his 14 point Memorandum of Understanding with President Wilson’s 14 Points. Wilson’s wanted peace for all time, Trump only wants a victory parade that he can lead! (Credit: Woodrow Wilson House)
There were several other points in the MoU that stunned many GOP members of Congress in disbelief. The US is to organize a $300 billion dollar reconstruction package for Iran to help the country repair the damage done by US and Israeli bombs. Where that money will come from is unknown at present but it is possible that the US taxpayer could end up paying to rebuild a county our President went to war against on nothing but a whim.
So far Trump’s second term consists of nothing but the American taxpayer funded his every whim! (Credit: Reveal News)
The real points of contention, Iran’s nuclear program and the US sanctions on Iran are to be negotiated over a period of sixty days. The chances of the ‘diplomats’ coming up with a working agreement in that time can be judged by the fact that on the first scheduled day of the negotiations in Switzerland Iran refused to meet with the US because Israel was still attacking in Lebanon. Then, when Iran again threatened to close the straight Trump personally called the Iranian diplomats and threatened that they wouldn’t have a country to go back to.
Trump actually thinks that putting all his threats in capital letters somehow makes them more powerful! (Credit: Global News)
Everyone who has looked at the MoU has declared it to be a disaster and any peace treaty that comes out of negotiations based upon it is certain to be a humiliating loss for the US. Trump is so desperate to get out of this war that he started so thoughtlessly that he is willing to see the country he pledged to defend suffer a bitter defeat.
Now Trump has become bored with the whole Iran thing so all he wants is to get it over with. Iran however knows that they can play this out for months or even years making the US look weak, and stupid! (Credit: Washington Post)
Everyone knows that the repressive Iranian regime will come out of this mess stronger than before, even if it does give up its enriched nuclear material. Based on the MoU Trump is going to allow Iran to continue its Ballistic missile program and there is nothing to stop it from threatening to shut off the Straight of Hormuz anytime it wants.
When he started this war Trump stated that Iran could not be allowed a Ballistic Missile program of any kind. Now he thinks that it is only fail for Iran to have ballistic Missiles because other countries have them. (Credit: The Iran Primer)
From his very first casino to his second term as President everything that Trump has touched has turned to crap, just like his recent fiasco at the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Casinos, an airline, Trump magazine, Trump wine, Trump University all have been crap, ideas without planning, without follow through, without thought of any kind.
Yes, there really was a ‘Trump Magazine’. In fact he tried several times to publish a magazine all about him. They all failed after a couple of years. (Credit: Wikipedia)
It is the American people who will have to deal with the crap that comes out of Trump’s thoughtless war with Iran.
