Transhumanism and Transcendence

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Publisher : Georgetown University Press
ISBN 13 : 1589017943
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism and Transcendence by : Ronald Cole-Turner

Download or read book Transhumanism and Transcendence written by Ronald Cole-Turner and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.

Technology and Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher : Columba Press (IE)
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Technology and Transcendence by : Michael Breen

Download or read book Technology and Transcendence written by Michael Breen and published by Columba Press (IE). This book was released on 2003 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays represents the work of fifteen scholars in four disciplines: philosophy, theology, sociology, and cultural studies. It offers an interdisciplinary reflection on the role and impact of technology in society, focusing on the i

Films from the Future

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Publisher : Mango Media Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1633539067
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (335 download)

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Book Synopsis Films from the Future by : Andrew Maynard

Download or read book Films from the Future written by Andrew Maynard and published by Mango Media Inc.. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Deftly shows how a seemingly frivolous film genre can guide us in shaping tomorrow’s world.” —Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Institute Artificial intelligence, gene manipulation, cloning, and interplanetary travel are all ideas that seemed like fairy tales but a few years ago. And now their possibilities are very much here. But are we ready to handle these advances? This book, by a physicist and expert on responsible technology development, reveals how science fiction movies can help us think about and prepare for the social consequences of technologies we don’t yet have, but that are coming faster than we imagine. Films from the Future looks at twelve movies that take us on a journey through the worlds of biological and genetic manipulation, human enhancement, cyber technologies, and nanotechnology. Readers will gain a broader understanding of the complex relationship between science and society. The movies mix old and new, and the familiar and unfamiliar, to provide a unique, entertaining, and ultimately transformative take on the power of emerging technologies, and the responsibilities they come with.

The Great Knowledge Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137527943
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (375 download)

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Book Synopsis The Great Knowledge Transcendence by : Dengjian Jin

Download or read book The Great Knowledge Transcendence written by Dengjian Jin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book illustrates the unnaturalness of modern science and technology by tracing their cognitive, evolutionary, and religious origins. It elaborates that all premodern knowers faced inherent limits, and the West was able to develop modern science and technology because of its inherent contradictions forcing the transcendence of limitations.

The Religion of Technology

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Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0307828530
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The Religion of Technology by : David F. Noble

Download or read book The Religion of Technology written by David F. Noble and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Great Knowledge Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137527943
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (375 download)

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Book Synopsis The Great Knowledge Transcendence by : Dengjian Jin

Download or read book The Great Knowledge Transcendence written by Dengjian Jin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book illustrates the unnaturalness of modern science and technology by tracing their cognitive, evolutionary, and religious origins. It elaborates that all premodern knowers faced inherent limits, and the West was able to develop modern science and technology because of its inherent contradictions forcing the transcendence of limitations.

Soft Machines

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191567248
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis Soft Machines by : Richard A. L. Jones

Download or read book Soft Machines written by Richard A. L. Jones and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2004-08-26 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enthusiasts look forward to a time when tiny machines reassemble matter and process information with unparalleled power and precision. But is their vision realistic? Where is the science heading? As nanotechnology (a new technology that many believe will transform society in the next one hundred years) rises higher in the news agenda and popular consciousness, there is a real need for a book which discusses clearly the science on which this technology will be based. Whilst it is most easy to simply imagine these tiny machines as scaled-down versions of the macroscopic machines we are all familiar with, the way things behave on small scales is quite different to the way they behave on large scales. Engineering on the nanoscale will use very different principles to those we are used to in our everyday lives, and the materials used in nanotehnology will be soft and mutable, rather than hard and unyielding. "Soft Machines" explains in a lively and very accessible manner why the nanoworld is so different to the macro-world which we are all familiar with. Why does nature engineer things in the way it does, and how can we learn to use these unfamiliar principles to create valuable new materials and artefacts which will have a profound effect on medicine, electronics, energy and the environment in the twenty-first century. With a firmer understanding of the likely relationship between nanotechnology and nature itself, we can gain a much clearer notion of what dangers this powerful technology may potentially pose, as well as come to realise that nanotechnology will have more in common with biology than with conventional engineering.

The Singularity Is Near

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101218886
Total Pages : 672 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singularity Is Near by : Ray Kurzweil

Download or read book The Singularity Is Near written by Ray Kurzweil and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-09-22 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Startling in scope and bravado.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.” —Los Angeles Times “Elaborate, smart and persuasive.” —The Boston Globe “A pleasure to read.” —The Wall Street Journal One of CBS News’s Best Fall Books of 2005 • Among St Louis Post-Dispatch’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2005 • One of Amazon.com’s Best Science Books of 2005 A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Nearer who Bill Gates calls “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence” For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.

What Technology Wants

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143120174
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis What Technology Wants by : Kevin Kelly

Download or read book What Technology Wants written by Kevin Kelly and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-09-27 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Inevitable— a sweeping vision of technology as a living force that can expand our individual potential In this provocative book, one of today's most respected thinkers turns the conversation about technology on its head by viewing technology as a natural system, an extension of biological evolution. By mapping the behavior of life, we paradoxically get a glimpse at where technology is headed-or "what it wants." Kevin Kelly offers a dozen trajectories in the coming decades for this near-living system. And as we align ourselves with technology's agenda, we can capture its colossal potential. This visionary and optimistic book explores how technology gives our lives greater meaning and is a must-read for anyone curious about the future.

The Singularity

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781731320285
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singularity by : Emma Pullar

Download or read book The Singularity written by Emma Pullar and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-14 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Somewhere around the middle of this century, artificial intelligence will evolve beyond its human architects, vastly superior in every way. Technology will become independent of us, rapidly evolving beyond our wildest dreams... or nightmares.This science fiction anthology that is set over the fifty years leading to the Singularity explores this idea.

Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction: Embodiment, Technology, Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319669427
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (196 download)

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Book Synopsis Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction: Embodiment, Technology, Transcendence by : Frank Schalow

Download or read book Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction: Embodiment, Technology, Transcendence written by Frank Schalow and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-11 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses an epidemic that has developed on a global scale, and, which under the heading of “addiction,” presents a new narrative about the travails of the human predicament. The book introduces phenomenological motifs, such as desire, embodiment, and temporality, to uncover the existential roots of addiction, and develops Martin Heidegger’s insights into technology to uncover the challenge of becoming a self within the impulsiveness and depersonalization of our digital age. By charting a new path of philosophical inquiry, the book allows a pervasive, cultural phenomenon, ordinarily reserved to psychology, to speak as a referendum about the danger which technology poses to us on a daily basis. In this regard, addiction ceases to be merely a clinical malady, and instead becomes a “signpost” to exposing a hidden danger posed by the assimilation of our culture within a technological framework.

Transcendent

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Publisher : Del Rey
ISBN 13 : 0345457935
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (454 download)

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Book Synopsis Transcendent by : Stephen Baxter

Download or read book Transcendent written by Stephen Baxter and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2005-11-29 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Breathtaking . . . brilliantly conducted . . . Far-future philosophic space opera and near-future eco-thriller combine effectively.”—Locus It is the year 2047, and nuclear engineer Michael Poole is mourning the death of his beloved wife and doubting his own sanity. But he must stave off a looming catastrophe: vast reservoirs of toxic gases lie beneath the melting poles, threatening to contaminate the atmosphere and destroy all life on Earth. Though born five hundred thousand years after the death of Michael Poole, Alia knows him intimately. Every person in Alia’s world is entrusted with Witnessing one life from the past by means of a technology able to traverse time. Alia’s subject is Michael Poole. Chosen to become a Transcendent, a member of the group mind that is shepherding humanity toward an evolutionary apotheosis, Alia discovers a dark side to the Transcendent’s plans. Somehow, Michael holds the fate of the future in his hands, and to save that future, Alia must undertake a desperate journey into the past. “Stunning . . . engaging . . . a contrasting mix of Baxter’s customary skill at presenting a very realnear future, and his talent for high-level hardscience fiction.”—Starburst

The Techno-Human Condition

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262294400
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis The Techno-Human Condition by : Braden R. Allenby

Download or read book The Techno-Human Condition written by Braden R. Allenby and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-04-22 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative analysis of what it means to be human in an era of incomprehensible technological complexity and change. In The Techno-Human Condition, Braden Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz explore what it means to be human in an era of incomprehensible technological complexity and change. They argue that if we are to have any prospect of managing that complexity, we will need to escape the shackles of current assumptions about rationality, progress, and certainty, even as we maintain a commitment to fundamental human values. Humans have been co-evolving with their technologies since the dawn of prehistory. What is different now is that we have moved beyond external technological interventions to transform ourselves from the inside out—even as we also remake the Earth system itself. Coping with this new reality, say Allenby and Sarewitz, means liberating ourselves from such categories as “human,” “technological,” and “natural” to embrace a new techno-human relationship. Contributors Boris Barbour, Mario Biagioli, Paul S. Brookes, Finn Brunton, Alex Csiszar, Alessandro Delfanti, Emmanuel Didier, Sarah de Rijcke, Daniele Fanelli, Yves Gingras, James R. Griesemer, Catherine Guaspare, Marie-Andrée Jacob, Barbara M. Kehm, Cyril Labbé, Jennifer Lin, Alexandra Lippman, Burkhard Morganstern, Ivan Oransky, Michael Power, Sergio Sismondo, Brandon Stell, Tereza Stöckelová, Elizabeth Wager, Paul Wouters

Transhumanism and the Image of God

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Author :
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830865780
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism and the Image of God by : Jacob Shatzer

Download or read book Transhumanism and the Image of God written by Jacob Shatzer and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We're constantly invited to think about the future of technology as a progressive improvement of tools: our gadgets will continue to evolve, but we humans will stay basically the same. In the future, perhaps even alien species and intelligent robots will coexist alongside humans, who will grapple with challenges and emerge as the heroes. But the truth is that radical technological change has the power to radically shape humans as well. We must be well informed and thoughtful about the steps we're already taking toward a transhuman or even posthuman future. Can we find firm footing on a slippery slope? Biblical ethicist Jacob Shatzer guides us into careful consideration of the future of Christian discipleship in a disruptive technological environment. In Transhumanism and the Image of God, Shatzer explains the development and influence of the transhumanist movement, which promotes a "next stage" in human evolution. Exploring topics such as artificial intelligence, robotics, medical technology, and communications tools, he examines how everyday technological changes have already altered and continue to change the way we think, relate, and understand reality. By unpacking the doctrine of the incarnation and its implications for human identity, he helps us better understand the proper place of technology in the life of the disciple and avoid false promises of a posthumanist vision. We cannot think about technology use today without considering who we will become tomorrow.

Visions of Technological Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher : Parlor Press LLC
ISBN 13 : 160235877X
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Visions of Technological Transcendence by : James A. Herrick

Download or read book Visions of Technological Transcendence written by James A. Herrick and published by Parlor Press LLC. This book was released on 2017-03-03 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Designs on Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781680838466
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (384 download)

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Book Synopsis Designs on Transcendence by : Mark Blythe

Download or read book Designs on Transcendence written by Mark Blythe and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the vast number of people who use technology as a part of their spiritual and transcendental practice, there is little research on the subject of digital transcendence in studies of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This monograph reviews the work that HCI has produced in this area but also draws on related research in psychology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, digital religion, psychopharmacology, and neuroscience. While there are a wide range of perspectives within the literature, transcendent experiences (TXs) are similar across religious and cultural backgrounds but interpretations vary according to world view. Recurring terms describing these experiences are: ineffable, intense, ephemeral, paradoxical, sacred, unity, epiphany, altered perception of time and space, ecstasy, tranquility, gratitude, awe, and reverence. Studies also record benefits of TXs such as substance use recovery and improved mental health. Transcendence and spirituality are deeply subjective experiences and there are many aspects of this topic that academic writing cannot easily approach. For this reason, the authors have combined a traditional academic review with design fiction. They explore the themes in the literature through an illustrated design fiction depicting a near future conference on TX research. This is an extended and illustrated speculation around brain computer interfaces that might evoke TXs. The monograph ends with a manifesto calling for a radically interdisciplinary field that would bridge cultural divides and move beyond models of health and wellbeing to establish new forums and venues for TX research.

Transcendence

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Author :
Publisher : Disinformation Books
ISBN 13 : 9781938875090
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis Transcendence by : R. U. Sirius

Download or read book Transcendence written by R. U. Sirius and published by Disinformation Books. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transhumanism is an international movement that advocates the use of science and technology to overcome the "natural" limitations experienced by humanity through such developments as: the Singularity--the creation of machine intelligences that exceed the capacities of our biological brains the ability to replicate individual minds and put them into solidstate bodies or virtual environments individual control over mental and emotional states for enhancing functionalities and/or ecstasies Some of this is happening now. Some of it is still in the minds of dreamers. In nearly ninety AZ entries, Transcendence provides a multilayered look at the accelerating advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, genomics, information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, space exploration, synthetic biology, robotics, and virtual worlds that are making transhumanism a reality. Entries range from Cloning and Cyborg Feminism to Designer Babies and MemoryEditing Drugs. In addition, the book notes historical predecessors and personalities, both in mythology and history--ranging from Timothy Leary to Michael Jackson to Ray Kurzweil. It also introduces the culture around Transhumanism, covering all the geeky obsessions of the Transhumanist movement.