Mark O’Connell + Bush Moukarzel | Ireland's Edge 2020

What can the pursuit of immortality tell us about our humanity? In 2017, the writer Mark O’Connell published a book about the transhumanist movement, To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death. Encountering an extraordinary set of people keen to use technology to push the human body past its physical and mortal limits, Mark explored the scientific and ethical questions behind a quest to free human beings from our corporeal cages. At last year’s Dublin Theatre Festival, Mark, along with directors Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, premiered a theatrical adaptation of his book. At Ireland’s Edge, Mark and Bush spoke to Síobhra Quinlan about turning this unusual book into an even more unusual play. Their discussion begins with an excerpt from To Be a Machine (Version 1.0) starring Jack Gleeson. You can also listen to this delectably dystopian discussion in podcast form on Ireland's Edge - The Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3hyeHty Ireland's Edge - Available Light/Solas was made possible thanks to our leading partner Intel Ireland, and supported by Jones Engineering Group, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, The Department of Foreign Affairs, The Irish Times and Kerry County Council