Peter 2.0

Peter Scott-MorganHunan Literature and Art Publishing House2021

Rating 4.0
Word count
227K words
Chapters
40
ISBN
9787540496845

Tags

Biography General Biography Human-Machine IntegrationMedical TeamRobotsALS PatientTechnology and HumanitiesCyborgsBioethicsMemoirAutobiography

Summary

Peter Scott-Morgan was a British roboticist. In 2017 he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), commonly known as "ALS" or Lou Gehrig's disease; his doctors predicted it would take his life within about two years. Rather than spend the time left simply waiting, he drew on his years of expertise in robotics, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to design a radical "retrofit" for himself: through a series of complex and extremely high-risk operations, mechanical and electronic systems would replace his progressively failing bodily functions—breathing, eating, elimination, speech—so that he could evolve from "Peter 1.0" into "Peter 2.0." This book is his autobiographical memoir. It is structured around "Peter's Three Rules of the Universe": Part One looks back on his childhood, adolescence and youth, recounting how he lived through a gifted but misfit upbringing and candidly discussing his sexual identity, his relationships with his family, and the pain and self-examination of his education; Part Two describes the decisions that followed his diagnosis, his collaboration with his partner and medical team, and the preparations for each stage of his surgical transformation; Part Three sets out his understanding of "human-machine fusion," discussing how technology can restore freedom of movement and expression, and the philanthropic efforts of his foundation. The final part of the book was completed by his digital avatar "Peter 2.0" using eye-tracking and other technologies—a structure of "co-authorship by a man and his digital double" that is itself a practical enactment of the author's ideas. The book interweaves scientific rationality with personal emotion: alongside cool descriptions of technical details and surgical procedures, it confronts questions of love, dignity and death. While offering a rare case study of a life, it hands readers questions such as "Where is the boundary between human and machine?" and "When the body is replaced by technology, is the person still the same person?"

Editor's review

这本回忆录的分量，很大程度上来自作者的“知行合一”。彼得·斯科特-摩根不是旁观技术趋势的评论者，而是把自身当作实验对象的工程师：当“渐冻症”把两年倒计时摆在他面前，他选择用机械、导管、语音合成与人工智能，一块一块地把正在失去的能力重新“接”回来。读他描述手术方案、设备调试与沟通界面搭建的过程，读者会清楚地看到，所谓“赛博格”不是科幻电影里的造型，而是由无数琐碎、昂贵、不体面却极其顽强的技术细节堆叠出来的日常。 同样难得的是它的诚实。书里没有把主人公写成无敌的英雄：少年时代的格格不入、对自我身份的恐惧与压抑、确诊后的崩溃与计算、对伴侣的依赖与愧疚，都被一一写出。前四分之三由彼得本人口述或写作，最后一章交由他的数字化身完成——这个安排本身就是全书论点的延伸：人能否借技术延续自己的声音，延续到什么程度，又付出怎样的代价。 对关注科技伦理、残障议题、生命教育的读者，它提供了一个具体到近乎残酷的样本；对普通读者，它更像一堂关于“如何面对不可控命运”的私人课。即便读者不完全认同作者的选择，也很难不被那份“先把能做的事做完”的劲头打动。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读第一部分了解作者的成长与性格，再读确诊后的抉择，人物的动机才立得起来。
  2. 把“宇宙三条规则”当作全书的三段路标，每读完一部分停一下，回看书名“2.0”的含义。
  3. 对医学与技术细节不必逐字啃，重点关注作者面对不可逆局面时的决策逻辑与情绪变化。
  4. 可配合纪录片《彼得：人类赛博格》一起看，形成文字与影像的互证。

About the publisher

Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1985

Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.

Contents

  1. Peter's First Rule of the Universe
  2. Life Is Unpredictable
  3. A Beautiful Sixteen
  4. The Joys of Life
  5. Disabled
  6. Pain
  7. Astonishing Progress
  8. My Turn
  9. Self-Discovery
  10. Life Choices
  11. The Next Morning
  12. The Bicentennial of American Independence
  13. Nonsense!
  14. Immortality
  15. A Very Particular Motor Neurone Disease
  16. Peter's Second Rule of the Universe
  17. Taking the Initiative
  18. The People I Love
  19. A Fork in the Road
  20. An Unknown Future
  21. More Life Choices
  22. Against the World
  23. Dartmoor
  24. A Crazy Idea
  25. The Triple Stoma
  26. Berkeley Square
  27. Unwritten Rules
  28. The American Dream
  29. Me and Das
  30. At Full Speed
  31. Rainbows and Ghosts
  32. Peter's Third Rule of the Universe
  33. The Highest Height of Love
  34. The Matt Moment
  35. The Perfect Matt Moment
  36. Where Does the Future Come From?
  37. The Allied Eight
  38. The Right to Thrive
  39. Guardian of the Flame
  40. One Last Thing to Say?

FAQ

这本书的作者是谁？中文版由谁翻译？ 作者是英国科学家彼得·斯科特-摩根（Peter Scott-Morgan），简体中文版由赵朝永翻译，湖南文艺出版社（博集天卷出品）2021年11月出版，ISBN 9787540496845。
书里的“彼得2.0”具体指什么？ 指作者在确诊运动神经元病后，借助一系列手术与机械、电子、人工智能系统替代逐渐失效的身体功能，从而形成的“人机结合”状态；也是他对自己数字化生存形态的称呼。
最后一部分真是由“彼得2.0”写的吗？ 据多方资料，全书约前四分之三由彼得本人完成，最后一部分由他的数字化身借助眼动追踪等技术参与完成。这种合写结构是本书的重要内容特色。
这本书和纪录片《彼得：人类赛博格》是什么关系？ 纪录片《彼得：人类赛博格》于2020年播出，记录了他的改造过程；本书是他本人撰写的回忆录，内容更完整，涵盖成长经历、确诊过程与对技术的思考。
需要具备医学或人工智能背景才好读吗？ 不需要。书中技术内容多以个人经历的方式呈现，普通读者可以顺畅阅读；对专业读者而言，它更像一份第一手的案例记录，而非技术手册。

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About the author

Peter Scott-Morgan Author

Peter Scott-Morgan is an author who writes from his own experience, and his representative work Peter 2.0 is a biographical title, often also classified under general biography. Publicly available information is limited, and details of his life, nationality, and dates of birth and death remain unclear; the library holds only one work by him. Judging from the subject matter of Peter 2.0, the book has a strongly personal narrative character: the author draws on his own experience and combines his personal situation with reflections on technology and identity, offering a distinctive perspective within biographical writing. This approach—taking the self as subject while bringing in technological themes—gives the work a certain recognizability in the biography category and provides readers with a direct entry point for understanding the author himself and his writing style.