Loss and Grief

Andrew’s life has been marked by many instances of personal loss and grief, and thus a fundamental element of his personal journey and identity is centered around the struggle to manage and make sense of that grief. For example, as a cognitive scientist, Andrew often thinks about existential questions in terms of the relationship between brain science and human consciousness. However, the connection between the brain and consciousness is very difficult to understand and reconcile, and similarly, Andrew’s struggle to confront his personal grief and loss is equally fraught. When thinking about his deceased child and the deceased Briony, Andrew talks about a hypothetical supercomputer that could hold all biological information. The computer could be used to “recover our lost lovers, our lost selves, bring them back from the dead, reunite in a kind of heaven on earth” (44). However, the purely hypothetical...