Books & Talks: Discussion of the Novel We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

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When: 5 September at 14:00
Where: Knyharnia Ye bookstore (39 Heroiv ATO Street)

What remains of a person if their consciousness can be copied? Can artificial intelligence consider itself a person? And what happens when a single human consciousness gains almost unlimited possibilities — and an entire universe to explore? As part of Books & Talks, we will discuss Dennis E. Taylor’s science-fiction novel We Are Legion (We Are Bob), the first book in the popular Bobiverse series.
The novel’s protagonist, Bob Johansson, is a programmer who, after his death, unexpectedly “wakes up” more than a century later. He no longer exists in a human body, but as a digital copy of his own consciousness — an artificial intelligence designed to control a spacecraft.
His mission is to travel beyond the Solar System, explore potentially habitable planets, and create copies of himself to continue expanding into space. But what begins as a mission of exploration quickly develops into a far more complex story about humanity’s survival, competition for resources, and the responsibility of a being who is no longer entirely human, yet not simply a machine either.
Behind the light, ironic form of a space adventure, the novel raises serious questions: where is the boundary between humans and technology? Does identity survive when consciousness is copied? Can a copy be considered the same person? And what kind of responsibility comes with an artificial intelligence’s freedom to make its own decisions?
At this Books & Talks meeting, we will discuss the novel not only as an engaging work of science fiction, but also as a way of imagining a future in which technology forces us to redefine consciousness, identity, freedom, and what it means to be human.
Books & Talks is a joint project of the Kryvyi Rih Center for Contemporary Culture and Knyharnia Ye, where we come together to discuss books, ideas, and the questions that remain after the final page.
The event will take place as part of the KRCC Culture Talks project, implemented in partnership with the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House — a programme carried out jointly by the Danish Cultural Institute and the Danish Youth Council with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

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