Who on Earth are You? – Book Spotlight
Who on Earth are You? A Field Guide to Identifying and Knowing Yourself
by Nick Inman
When Nick Inman was asked by his bank to identify himself (for the purpose of preventing fraud) he was struck by the difficulty and absurdity of the task. How do any of us know who we are let alone prove it to a remote stranger? All the proofs we can offer are second-hand and detached: none of them are connected to the real, inner self, the “me” that we know intimately but which has no bridge to the outside world.
We treat the question “Who are you?” as a routine enquiry but it is far from simple. Normally, we content ourselves with a few superficial facts but there is so much more to any human being than name, address and occupation. Who on Earth are You? peels away the layers of each and every one of the 7.1 billion individuals on the planet, showing what a rich conglomerate a human being is.
Five Vital Reasons to Know Who You Are:
- you can’t know anything if you don’t know who you are
- knowing yourself sets you free
- knowing yourself is the source of ethics, tolerance, understanding and empathy
- knowing yourself is the source of originality and creativity
- knowing yourself is the antidote to alienation and dystopia
This thoughtful guide takes the reader through all the many ways there are of answering the question “Who am I?” from the basic to the transcendental. It explores philosophical and scientific views of human nature; underlines the way in which we shape our identities in response to technology; and asks who we will become in the future.
Who on Earth are You? also asks:
- is it wise to share our identities so promiscuously online?
- will the booming identification industry ever achieve perfect results?
- who will we be when we share the world with software pretending to be human?
A vital detective story into the fascinating territory of the inner-self, memory, mind and the soul.
About the Author
Nick Inman is a writer and translator. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 40 books, including Eyewitness Travel Spain, The Optimist’s Handbook and Politipedia. Visit his website here.
