Blood Music, My Favorite Book So Far

 Blood Music is a science fiction book written by Greg Bear in 1985. It is an expanded version of a short story of the same name. The short story won Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novelette. It begins as a story about bio/nanotechnical horror and the grey goo hypothesis (here it is green goo) and ends up being a beautiful meditation on the nature of reality, consciousness, and the future of humanity. 

The grey goo hypothesis is a global catastrophic scenario where out of control self-replicating machines consume the Earth and every living thing while continuing to replicate themselves. In Blood Music, the self-replicating beings are biological self-aware cells called noocytes. They were created in a lab by an irresponsible scientist named Vergil Ulam. 

Vergil Ulam was working for the Genetron labs trying to develop MABs- Medically Applicable Biochips, microscopic computer that could be useful in fighting diseases and cancer.  Vergil went too far when he made the cells too advanced by mixing in his own lymphocytes, calling them noocytes, The lab fired Vergil and shut down his work. As Vergil cleaned his office, he secretly injected the noocytes into his body so he can research them later. The noocytes quickly reproduce, growing more intelligent and self-aware as the generations continue. At first, the noocytes improve Vergil's life. Before he was an overweight nerd. Now he no longer needed glasses, has a fit body, and no longer has allergies. He gets a girlfriend and begins to look for a new job where he can continue to do research on his noocytes. The noocytes never stop reproducing, expanding, and advancing. This turns into a horror story for Vergil Ulam. 

The books starts out using a straightforward narrative about Vergil Ulam dealing with the consequences of playing god. You see different characters represent different aspects of the scientific community. Then the book becomes more experimental in the second half. It becomes more thoughtful and philosophical. 

At first, I thought that the book was an allegory for AIDS as the book was written during the epidemic and the main characters discuss things like safe sex. The conversation about safe sex ended up foreshadowing something even worse. Then, I thought it was going to be a body horror book that could inspire a David Cronenberg movie. The first half of the book was horrifying, but then it slowly turned into something beautiful.  The book reflects on future the evolution of humanity, Singularity, and consciousness.  It also talks about information theory and the Noosphere towards the end of the book.  I could not put the book down as it took me on this philosophical journey. I might discuss those topics later in a non-spoiler post.  It is possible that as a religious person, I read something into the story that the author did not intend.

This was one of the first books to deal with the Grey Goo hypothesis and nanotechnology. It was one of the earliest works to use the term Singularity though he wasn't the first to come up with the concept. His conclusions are similar to the 1953 book Childhood's End though he describes more of what it would be like to be a part of the "incomprehensible future" rather than just observing it. 

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