Leiber, Justin
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1938-2016) US academic philosopher from 1962 at various universities and author, son of Fritz Leiber; he used sf as a medium for speculation in his field of interest, the philosophy of the mind. Thus his first novel, Beyond Rejection (1980), which begins the Beyond sequence, deals in considerable detail with the problems of acclimatization associated with transplanting the recorded mind of a man into the body of a woman (see Identity Transfer) who incidentally has a prehensile tail, a physical modification to aid activity in free-fall environments. In Beyond Humanity (1987) Leiber contrasts human Intelligence with those of Computers and enhanced-intelligence chimpanzees (see Apes as Human; Uplift) as humans, computer and chimpanzee cooperate to contact Extraterrestrial intelligence (see First Contact). The sequence concludes with Beyond Gravity (1988), set in twenty-second-century Houston and Oxford. Leiber also wrote a number of academic books on similar themes, including Can Animals and Machines Be Persons? (1985), which explores an sf scenario – a legal case between a space-exploration company and a Civil Liberties Union over whether a chimpanzee and a computer used on a Space Station should be treated as tools or as employees. [TA]
Justin Fritz Leiber
born Chicago, Illinois: 8 July 1938
died Tallahassee, Florida: 22 March 2016
works
series
Saga of the House of Eigin
- The Sword and the Eye (New York: Tor, 1984) [Saga of the House of Eigin: pb/Kevin Johnson]
- The Sword and the Tower (New York: Tor, 1985) [Saga of the House of Eigin: pb/Kevin Johnson]
Beyond
- Beyond Rejection (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1980) [Beyond: hb/Martin Hoffman]
- Beyond Humanity (New York: Tor, 1987) [Beyond: pb/Angus McKie]
- Beyond Gravity (New York: Tor, 1988) [Beyond: pb/Mark Maxwell]
nonfiction (selected)
- Can Animals and Machines Be Persons? (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Hackett Publishing, 1985) [nonfiction: hb/]
links
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