Visions Of Technological Transcendence
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Visions Of Technological Transcendence
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Author : James A. Herrick
language : en
Publisher: Parlor Press LLC
Release Date : 2017-03-03
Visions Of Technological Transcendence written by James A. Herrick and has been published by Parlor Press LLC this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2017-03-03 with Social Science categories.
This book examines key narratives animating the techno-progressive rhetoric of the human enhancement movement, arguing that enhancement and transhumanist discourse performs a variety of distinctly mythic functions. Principal among these is to cast a vision of a technological future involving enhanced posthumans, immortality, human merger with machines and space colonization.
Visions Of Technological Transcendence
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Author : James A. Herrick
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2017
Visions Of Technological Transcendence written by James A. Herrick and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2017 with Human-machine systems categories.
Perfecting Human Futures
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Author : J. Benjamin Hurlbut
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 2016-02-22
Perfecting Human Futures written by J. Benjamin Hurlbut and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-02-22 with Philosophy categories.
Humans have always imagined better futures. From the desire to overcome death to the aspiration to dominion over the world, imaginations of the technological future reveal the commitments, values, and norms of those who construct them. Today, the human future is thrown into question by emerging technologies that promise radical control over human life and elicit corollary imaginations of human perfectibility. This interdisciplinary volume assembles scholars of science and technology studies, sociology, philosophy, theology, ethics, and history to examine imaginations of technological progress that promises to transcend the constraints of human body and being. Attending in particular to transhumanist and posthumanist visions, the volume breaks new ground by exploring their utopian and eschatological dimensions and situating them within a broader context of ideas, institutions, and practices of innovation. The volume invites specialists and general readers to explore the stakes of contemporary imaginations of technological innovation as a source of progress, a force of social and historical transformation, and as the defining essence of human life.
The Singularity Is Near
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Author : Ray Kurzweil
language : en
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date : 2005-09-22
The Singularity Is Near written by Ray Kurzweil and has been published by Penguin this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2005-09-22 with Social Science categories.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil, hailed by Bill Gates as “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence,” presents an “elaborate, smart, and persuasive” (The Boston Globe) view of the future course of human development. “Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.”—Los Angeles Times “Startling in scope and bravado.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “An important book.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near presents a radical and optimistic view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.
The Mantra Of Efficiency
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Author : Jennifer Karns Alexander
language : en
Publisher: JHU Press
Release Date : 2008-03-03
The Mantra Of Efficiency written by Jennifer Karns Alexander and has been published by JHU Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-03-03 with Business & Economics categories.
Winner, 2010 Edelstein Prize, Society for the History of Technology Efficiency—associated with individual discipline, superior management, and increased profits or productivity—often counts as one of the highest virtues in Western culture. But what does it mean, exactly, to be efficient? How did this concept evolve from a means for evaluating simple machines to the mantra of progress and a prerequisite for success? In this provocative and ambitious study, Jennifer Karns Alexander explores the growing power of efficiency in the post-industrial West. Examining the ways the concept has appeared in modern history—from a benign measure of the thermal economy of a machine to its widespread application to personal behaviors like chewing habits, spending choices, and shop floor movements to its controversial use as a measure of the business success of American slavery—she argues that beneath efficiency's seemingly endless variety lies a common theme: the pursuit of mastery through techniques of surveillance, discipline, and control. Six historical case studies—two from Britain, one each from France and Germany, and two from the United States—illustrate the concept's fascinating development and provide context for the meanings of, and uses for, efficiency today and in the future.
Virtual Reality
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Author : Melanie Chan
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Release Date : 2014-01-16
Virtual Reality written by Melanie Chan and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-01-16 with Social Science categories.
The idea of virtual realities has a long and complex historical trajectory, spanning from Plato's concept of the cave and the simulacrum, to artistic styles such as Trompe L'oeil, and more recently developments in 3D film, television and gaming. However, this book will pay particular attention to the time between the 1980s to the 1990s when virtual reality and cyberspace were represented, particularly in fiction, as a wondrous technology that enabled transcendence from the limitations of physical embodiment. The purpose of this critical historical analysis of representations of virtual reality is to examine how they might deny, repress or overlook embodied experience. Specifically, the author will contend that embodiment is a fundamental aspect of immersion in virtual reality, rather than something which is to be transcended. In this way, the book aims to challenge distorted ideas about transcendence and productively contribute to debates about embodiment and technology.
Into The Image
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Author : Kevin Robins
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2002-11
Into The Image written by Kevin Robins and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2002-11 with Art categories.
First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Temples Of Modernity
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Author : Robert M. Geraci
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Release Date : 2018-08-15
Temples Of Modernity written by Robert M. Geraci and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2018-08-15 with Religion categories.
Temples of Modernity uses ethnographic data to investigate the presence of religious ideas and practices in Indian science and engineering. Geraci shows 1) how the integration of religion, science and technology undergirds pre- and post-independence Indian nationalism, 2) that traditional icons and rituals remain relevant in elite scientific communities, and 3) that transhumanist ideas now percolate within Indian visions of science and technology. This work identifies the intersection of religion, science, and technology as a worldwide phenomenon and suggests that the study of such interactions should be enriched through attention to the real experiences of people across the globe.
Hope And The Longing For Utopia
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Author : Daniel Boscaljon
language : en
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Release Date : 2015-02-26
Hope And The Longing For Utopia written by Daniel Boscaljon and has been published by James Clarke & Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-02-26 with Political Science categories.
At present the battle over who defines our future is being waged most publicly by secular and religious fundamentalists. 'Hope and the Longing for Utopia' offers an alternative position, disclosing a conceptual path toward potential worlds that resist a limited view of human potential and the gift of religion. In addition to outlining the value of embracing unknown potentialities, these twelve interdisciplinary essays explore why it has become crucial that we commit to hoping for values that resist traditional ideological commitments. Contextualized by contemporary writing on utopia, and drawing from a wealth of times and cultures ranging from Calvin's Geneva to early twentieth-century Japanese children's stories to Hollywood cinema, theseessays cumulatively disclose the fundamental importance of resisting tantalizing certainties while considering the importance of the unknown and unknowable. Beginning with a set of four essays outlining the importance of hope and utopia as diagnostic concepts, and following with four concrete examples, the collection ends with a set of essays that provide theological speculations on the need to embrace finitude and limitations in a world increasingly enframed by secularizing impulses. Overall, this book discloses how hope and utopia illuminate ways to think past simplified wishes for the future.
The Religion Of Technology
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Author : David F. Noble
language : en
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date : 2013-01-23
The Religion Of Technology written by David F. Noble and has been published by Knopf this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013-01-23 with Technology & Engineering categories.
Arguing against the widely held belief that technology and religion are at war with each other, David F. Noble's groundbreaking book reveals the religious roots and spirit of Western technology. It links the technological enthusiasms of the present day with the ancient and enduring Christian expectation of recovering humankind's lost divinity. Covering a period of a thousand years, Noble traces the evolution of the Western idea of technological development from the ninth century, when the useful arts became connected to the concept of redemption, up to the twentieth, when humans began to exercise God-like knowledge and powers. Noble describes how technological advance accelerated at the very point when it was invested with spiritual significance. By examining the imaginings of monks, explorers, magi, scientists, Freemasons, and engineers, this historical account brings to light an other-worldly inspiration behind the apparently worldly endeavors by which we habitually define Western civilization. Thus we see that Isaac Newton devoted his lifetime to the interpretation of prophecy. Joseph Priestley was the discoverer of oxygen and a founder of Unitarianism. Freemasons were early advocates of industrialization and the fathers of the engineering profession. Wernher von Braun saw spaceflight as a millenarian new beginning for humankind. The narrative moves into our own time through the technological enterprises of the last half of the twentieth century: nuclear weapons, manned space exploration, Artificial Intelligence, and genetic engineering. Here the book suggests that the convergence of technology and religion has outlived its usefulness, that though it once contributed to human well-being, it has now become a threat to our survival. Viewed at the dawn of the new millennium, the technological means upon which we have come to rely for the preservation and enlargement of our lives betray an increasing impatience with life and a disdainful disregard for mortal needs. David F. Noble thus contends that we must collectively strive to disabuse ourselves of the inherited religion of technology and begin rigorously to re-examine our enchantment with unregulated technological advance.