Toward Eternity

A Novel

English language

Published 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-334448-8
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4 stars (1 review)

In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.

Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore?

When Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences. …

3 editions

reviewed Toward Eternity by Anton Hur

Tech-spiritual page-turner fable

4 stars

(em português → sol2070.in/2025/03/livro-toward-eternity-estoria-tecno-espiritual/ )

Reading Anton Hur's science fiction “Toward Eternity” (2024, 256 pgs), I thought about how genuinely interesting futuristic stories end up being spoiled by the ideals of today's techno-economic domination.

The book is a page-turner that would have sounded perfect 20 or 30 years ago, about transhumanist immortality. I read it in two days, stimulated by the fantastic narrative power. The problem is that transhumanist technologies, and all the cargo that comes with them, are being worshipped and sought after especially among technobillionaires and their associated futurist sects ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL ).

Last week I listened to a great episode of the podcast Tech Won't Save Us ( techwontsave.us/episode/151_dont_fall_for_the_ai_hype_w_timnit_gebru.html ), with AI researcher Timnit Gebru — it was she who coined, with Émile P. Torres, the term “Tescreal” to refer to these sects. Reading the novel, I was reminded several times of something they mentioned in this …