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Wireheads - Mike Jay *****

This book will particularly appeal to a certain class of person (that certainly includes me) - science fiction fans with an interest in psychology and the history of science/pseudo-science. The subtitle 'an unnatural history of technology in the brain' makes it clear that, though the book is definitely about using technology to influence and access the brain, it's not about medical interventions, but rather the weirder stuff that resides as much in science fiction and the human imagination as anything that is real or practical.

Although the book is not about SF per se, it's a constant thread particularly in literature, TV, and film from the mid-sixties onwards and inevitably with a strong link to cyberpunk, which is timely given the Apple TV adaptation of Neuromancer due in 2027. However, there are plenty of surprises in the real world examples from the remarkable story of James Tilly Matthews, encarcerated in Bedlam (the Bethlem Royal Hospital) in the early 1800s who believed his brain was being influenced by a machine called an 'air loom' through a magnet inserted into his brain, through to god helmets, psychotronic warfare and reality simulators.

All too often there is plenty of pseudo-science deployed by those with various devices for interacting with the brain - Mike Jay walks a delicate line, rarely mocking them, but presenting their ideas with a straight face, though making it clear that there is not necessarily a lot more than suggestion happening. There was one small point I would criticise. There is rather too much on the SF writer Philip K. Dick and his mental problems in the 'god helmet' chapter (which is about apparently religious experiences, generated by technology).

In a sense, this is all about a strange meld of wish-fulfilment and horror. Jay points out the big gap between the science fiction version of a metaverse, where the experience is indistinguishable from the real thing, and the poor reality that even our latest technology can enable. Through the years, we see many attempts to stimulate or interact with the brain that are rarely able to deliver what their inventors hope for.

Fundamentally, the science fiction vision of direct electrical connection to the brain or spinal cord to experience a cyber world, control thoughts, stimulate pleasure all feels to be based on a fantasy that ordinary people would be happy to undergo brain surgery for anything other than medical essentials. In the real world this still seems as unlikely as ever, leaving many of the indirect technologies portrayed on the fringes. But this doesn't stop Wireheads from being a fascinating study of psychology and of fantastical attempts to make science fiction tropes real.

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