Dialogues on the Human Ape

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Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452958297
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis Dialogues on the Human Ape by : Laurent Dubreuil

Download or read book Dialogues on the Human Ape written by Laurent Dubreuil and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2018-12-25 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A primatologist and a humanist together explore the meaning of being a “human animal” Humanness is typically defined by our capacity for language and abstract thinking. Yet decades of research led by the primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has shown that chimpanzees and bonobos can acquire human language through signing and technology. Drawing on this research, Dialogues of the Human Ape brings Savage-Rumbaugh into conversation with the philosopher Laurent Dubreuil to explore the theoretical and practical dimensions of what being a “human animal” means. In their use of dialogue as the primary mode of philosophical and scientific inquiry, the authors transcend the rigidity of scientific and humanist discourses, offering a powerful model for the dissemination of speculative hypotheses and open-ended debates grounded in scientific research. Arguing that being human is an epigenetically driven process rather than a fixed characteristic rooted in genetics or culture, this book suggests that while humanness may not be possible in every species, it can emerge in certain supposedly nonhuman species. Moving beyond irrational critiques of ape consciousness that are motivated by arrogant, anthropocentric views, Dialogues on the Human Ape instead takes seriously the continuities between the ape mind and the human mind, addressing why language matters to consciousness, free will, and the formation of the “human animal” self.

Nature, Culture and Society

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107085845
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Nature, Culture and Society by : Gísli Pálsson

Download or read book Nature, Culture and Society written by Gísli Pálsson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting upon the changing human condition, Palsson addresses various conflated zones of life at particular times and scales. Engaging with topical issues on the public agenda, from personal genomics to human-animal relations to the global environment, the book sets out a compelling case for meaningful change.

Planet Without Apes

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674071662
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Planet Without Apes by : Craig Stanford

Download or read book Planet Without Apes written by Craig Stanford and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-05 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Planet Without Apes demands that we consider whether we can live with the consequences of wiping our closest relatives off the face of the Earth. Leading primatologist Craig Stanford warns that extinction of the great apes—chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans—threatens to become a reality within just a few human generations. We are on the verge of losing the last links to our evolutionary past, and to all the biological knowledge about ourselves that would die along with them. The crisis we face is tantamount to standing aside while our last extended family members vanish from the planet. Stanford sees great apes as not only intelligent but also possessed of a culture: both toolmakers and social beings capable of passing cultural knowledge down through generations. Compelled by his field research to take up the cause of conservation, he is unequivocal about where responsibility for extinction of these species lies. Our extermination campaign against the great apes has been as brutal as the genocide we have long practiced on one another. Stanford shows how complicity is shared by people far removed from apes’ shrinking habitats. We learn about extinction’s complex links with cell phones, European meat eaters, and ecotourism, along with the effects of Ebola virus, poverty, and political instability. Even the most environmentally concerned observers are unaware of many specific threats faced by great apes. Stanford fills us in, and then tells us how we can redirect the course of an otherwise bleak future.

Thinking Plant Animal Human

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Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452960860
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis Thinking Plant Animal Human by : David Wood

Download or read book Thinking Plant Animal Human written by David Wood and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collected essays by a leading philosopher situating the question of the animal in the broader context of a relational ontology There is a revolution under way in our thinking about animals and, indeed, life in general, particularly in the West. The very words man, animal, and life have turned into flimsy conceptual husks—impediments to thinking about the issues in which they are embroiled. David Wood was a founding member of the early 1970s Oxford Group of philosophers promoting animal rights; he also directed Ecology Action (UK). Thinking Plant Animal Human is the first collection of this major philosopher’s influential essays on “animals,” bringing together his many discussions of nonhuman life, including the classic “Thinking with Cats.” Exploring our connections with cats, goats, and sand crabs, Thinking Plant Animal Human introduces the idea of “kinnibalism” (the eating of mammals is eating our own kin), reflects on the idea of homo sapiens, and explores the place of animals both in art and in children’s stories. Finally, and with a special focus on trees, the book delves into remarkable contemporary efforts to rescue plants from philosophical neglect and to rethink and reevaluate their status. Repeatedly bubbling to the surface is the remarkable strangeness of other forms of life, a strangeness that extends to the human. Wood shows that the best way of resisting simplistic classification is to attend to our manifold relationships with other living beings. It is not anthropocentric to focus on such relationships; they cast light in complex ways on the living communities of which we are part, and exploring them recoils profoundly on our understanding of ourselves.

An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793619719
Total Pages : 243 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood by : Gregory F. Tague

Download or read book An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood written by Gregory F. Tague and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gregory F. Tague’s An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood argues that great apes are moral individuals because they engage in a land ethic as ecosystem engineers to generate ecologically sustainable biomes for themselves and other species. Tague shows that we need to recognize apes as eco-engineers in order to save them and their habitats, and that in so doing, we will ultimately save earth’s biosphere. The book draws on extensive empirical research from the ecology and behavior of great apes and synthesizes past and current understanding of the similarities in cognition, social behavior, and culture found in apes. Importantly, this book proposes that differences between humans and apes provide the foundation for the call to recognize forest personhood in the great apes. While all ape species are alike in terms of cognition, intelligence, and behaviors, there is a vital contrast: unlike humans, great apes are efficient ecological engineers. Therefore, simian forest sovereignty is critical to conservation efforts in controlling global warming, and apes should be granted dominion over their tropical forests. Weaving together philosophy, biology, socioecology, and elements from eco-psychology, this book provides a glimmer of hope for future acknowledgment of the inherent ethic that ape species embody in their eco-centered existence on this planet.

Posthumous Life

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231544324
Total Pages : 540 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Posthumous Life by : Jami Weinstein

Download or read book Posthumous Life written by Jami Weinstein and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Posthumous Life launches critical life studies: a mode of inquiry that neither endorses nor dismisses a wave of recent "turns" toward life, matter, vitality, inhumanity, animality, and the real. Questioning the nature and limits of life in the natural sciences, the essays in this volume examine the boundaries and significance of the human and the humanities in the wake of various redefinitions of what counts as life. They explore the possibility of theorizing life without assuming it to be either a simple substrate or an always-mediated effect of culture and difference. Posthumous Life provides new ways of thinking about animals, plants, humans, difference, sexuality, race, gender, identity, the earth, and the future.

The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674660323
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (746 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition by : Michael Tomasello

Download or read book The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition written by Michael Tomasello and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ambitious and elegant, this book builds a bridge between evolutionary theory and cultural psychology. Michael Tomasello is one of the very few people to have done systematic research on the cognitive capacities of both nonhuman primates and human children. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition identifies what the differences are, and suggests where they might have come from. Tomasello argues that the roots of the human capacity for symbol-based culture, and the kind of psychological development that takes place within it, are based in a cluster of uniquely human cognitive capacities that emerge early in human ontogeny. These include capacities for sharing attention with other persons; for understanding that others have intentions of their own; and for imitating, not just what someone else does, but what someone else has intended to do. In his discussions of language, symbolic representation, and cognitive development, Tomasello describes with authority and ingenuity the "ratchet effect" of these capacities working over evolutionary and historical time to create the kind of cultural artifacts and settings within which each new generation of children develops. He also proposes a novel hypothesis, based on processes of social cognition and cultural evolution, about what makes the cognitive representations of humans different from those of other primates. Lucid, erudite, and passionate, The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition will be essential reading for developmental psychology, animal behavior, and cultural psychology.

Moral Origins

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Publisher : Soft Skull Press
ISBN 13 : 0465020488
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Moral Origins by : Christopher Boehm

Download or read book Moral Origins written by Christopher Boehm and published by Soft Skull Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A noted anthropologist explains how our sense of ethics has changed over the course of human evolution. By the author of Hierarchy of the Forest.

The Educational Significance of Human and Non-Human Animal Interactions

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137505257
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (375 download)

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Book Synopsis The Educational Significance of Human and Non-Human Animal Interactions by : Suzanne Rice

Download or read book The Educational Significance of Human and Non-Human Animal Interactions written by Suzanne Rice and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Educational Significance of Human and Non-Human Animal Interactions explores human animal/non-human animal interactions from different disciplinary perspectives, from education policy to philosophy of education and ecopedagogy. The authors refute the idea of anthropocentrism (the belief that human beings are the central or most significant species on the planet) through an ethical investigation into animal and human interactions, and 'real-life' examples of humans and animals living and learning together. In doing so, Rice and Rud outline the idea that interactions between animals and humans are educationally significant and vital in the classroom.

The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us

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Publisher : The Experiment, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1615195327
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (151 download)

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Book Synopsis The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us by : Adam Rutherford

Download or read book The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us written by Adam Rutherford and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Rutherford describes [The Book of Humans] as being about the paradox of how our evolutionary journey turned ‘an otherwise average ape’ into one capable of creating complex tools, art, music, science, and engineering. It’s an intriguing question, one his book sets against descriptions of the infinitely amusing strategies and antics of a dizzying array of animals.”—The New York Times Book Review Publisher’s Note: The Book of Humans was previously published in hardcover as Humanimal. In this new evolutionary history, geneticist Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the human animal. Looking for answers across the animal kingdom, he finds that many things once considered exclusively human are not: We aren’t the only species that “speaks,” makes tools, or has sex outside of procreation. Seeing as our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee’s, our DNA doesn’t set us far apart, either. How, then, did we develop the most complex culture ever observed? The Book of Humans proves that we are animals indeed—and reveals how we truly are extraordinary.

The Probiotic Planet

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Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452963428
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis The Probiotic Planet by : Jamie Lorimer

Download or read book The Probiotic Planet written by Jamie Lorimer and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assesses a promising new approach to restoring the health of our bodies and our planet Most of us are familiar with probiotics added to milk or yogurt to improve gastrointestinal health. In fact, the term refers to any intervention in which life is used to manage life—from the microscopic, like consuming fermented food to improve gut health, to macro approaches such as biological pest control and natural flood management. In this ambitious and original work, Jamie Lorimer offers a sweeping overview of diverse probiotic approaches and an insightful critique of their promise and limitations. During our current epoch—the Anthropocene—human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment, leading to the loss of ecological abundance, diversity, and functionality. Lorimer describes cases in which scientists and managers are working with biological processes to improve human, environmental, and even planetary health, pursuing strategies that stand in contrast to the “antibiotic approach”: Big Pharma, extreme hygiene, and industrial agriculture. The Probiotic Planet focuses on two forms of “rewilding” occurring on vastly different scales. The first is the use of keystone species like wolves and beavers as part of landscape restoration. The second is the introduction of hookworms into human hosts to treat autoimmune disorders. In both cases, the goal is to improve environmental health, whether the environment being managed is planetary or human. Lorimer argues that, all too often, such interventions are viewed in isolation, and he calls for a rethinking of artificial barriers between science and policy. He also describes the stark and unequal geographies of the use of probiotic approaches and examines why these patterns exist. The author’s preface provides a thoughtful discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to the probiotic approach. Informed by deep engagement with microbiology, immunology, ecology, and conservation biology as well as food, agriculture, and waste management, The Probiotic Planet offers nothing less than a new paradigm for collaboration between the policy realm and the natural sciences.

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

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Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452967393
Total Pages : 123 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis The Owls Are Not What They Seem by : Arnaud Gerspacher

Download or read book The Owls Are Not What They Seem written by Arnaud Gerspacher and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Toward a posthumanist art and ethology The Owls Are Not What They Seem is a selective history of modern and contemporary engagements with animals in the visual arts and how these explorations relate to the evolution of scientific knowledge regarding animals. Arnaud Gerspacher argues that artistic knowledge, with its experimental nature, ability to contain contradictions, and more capacious understanding of truth-claims, presents a valuable supplement to scientific knowledge when it comes to encountering and existing alongside nonhuman animals and life worlds. Though critical of art works involving animals that are unreflective and exploitative, Gerspacher’s exploration of aesthetic practices by Allora & Calzadilla, Pierre Huyghe, Agnieszka Kurant, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Martin Roth, David Weber-Krebs, and others suggests that, alongside scientific practices, art has much to offer in revealing the otherworldly qualities of animals and forging ecopolitical solidarities with fellow earthlings.

Sapiens

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062316109
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Sapiens by : Yuval Noah Harari

Download or read book Sapiens written by Yuval Noah Harari and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2015-02-10 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century New York Times Bestseller A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become? Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Volume 1

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Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 0080963935
Total Pages : 12505 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Volume 1 by : Larry R. Squire

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Volume 1 written by Larry R. Squire and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2009-06-12 with total page 12505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of the Neuroscience explores all areas of the discipline in its focused entries on a wide variety of topics in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and other related areas of neuroscience. Each article is written by an expert in that specific domain and peer reviewed by the advisory board before acceptance into the encyclopedia. Each article contains a glossary, introduction, a reference section, and cross-references to other related encyclopedia articles. Written at a level suitable for university undergraduates, the breadth and depth of coverage will appeal beyond undergraduates to professionals and academics in related fields.

The Evolution of Human Cleverness

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000584313
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Human Cleverness by : Richard Hallam

Download or read book The Evolution of Human Cleverness written by Richard Hallam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Evolution of Human Cleverness presents a unique introduction to the way human cognitive abilities have evolved. The book comprises a series of mini-essays on distinct topics in which technical terms are simplified, considering how humans made the long journey from our ape-like ancestors to become capable of higher-level reasoning and problem solving. All the topics are cross-linked, allowing the reader to dip in and out, but certain key concepts run through the underlying reasoning. Chiefly, these are adaptation and selection, the distinction between ultimate and proximate causes of behaviour, gene–culture co-evolution, and domain-general versus domain-specific cognitive processes. The book should help the reader draw lessons for the human species as a whole, especially in view of the environmental threats to its own existence. Entries have been carefully crafted to cut through scientific jargon, providing bite-sized and digestible chunks of knowledge, making the topic accessible for students and lay readers alike. The author draws on research from diverse fields including Psychology, Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, and Neuroscience to provide an unbiased account of the field, making it an ideal text for students of all levels.

Working Memory and Language in the Modular Mind

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000597075
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Working Memory and Language in the Modular Mind by : John Truscott

Download or read book Working Memory and Language in the Modular Mind written by John Truscott and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-06-16 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book explores two fundamental aspects of the human mind and their relation to one another. The first is the way that information is put to use in the mind. When we are doing a mental arithmetic problem, for example, how do we bring the relevant bits of information to mind and hold them there while carrying out the series of calculations? This is working memory, the subject of an enormous research literature in psychology, neuroscience, and a great many other disciplines. Characterizing the working memory process is now a major part of efforts to understand the human mind. How we characterize this process depends of course on how we characterize the human mind as a whole. In particular, is the mind made up of a number of distinct units, each carrying out a specialized function? There is considerable reason to say that it is, and this modular view of the mind has become prominent in a great deal of academic work, notably in cognitive neuroscience, with important implications for our understanding of how working memory works. But these implications have received surprisingly little consideration to this point. The aim of the book is to explore this relation between working memory and modularity, first in general terms and then using a specific modular view of the mind – the Modular Cognition Framework. The ideas are illustrated and further developed through an application to language and especially second language acquisition and use.

Molecular Capture

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Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452964807
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis Molecular Capture by : Adam Nocek

Download or read book Molecular Capture written by Adam Nocek and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How computer animation technologies became vital visualization tools in the life sciences Who would have thought that computer animation technologies developed in the second half of the twentieth century would become essential visualization tools in today’s biosciences? This book is the first to examine this phenomenon. Molecular Capture reveals how popular media consumption and biological knowledge production have converged in molecular animations—computer simulations of molecular and cellular processes that immerse viewers in the temporal unfolding of molecular worlds—to produce new regimes of seeing and knowing. Situating the development of this technology within an evolving field of historical, epistemological, and political negotiations, Adam Nocek argues that molecular animations not only represent a key transformation in the visual knowledge practices of life scientists but also bring into sharp focus fundamental mutations in power within neoliberal capitalism. In particular, he reveals how the convergence of the visual economies of science and entertainment in molecular animations extends neoliberal modes of governance to the perceptual practices of scientific subjects. Drawing on Alfred North Whitehead’s speculative metaphysics and Michel Foucault’s genealogy of governmentality, Nocek builds a media philosophy well equipped to examine the unique coordination of media cultures in this undertheorized form of scientific media. More specifically, he demonstrates how governmentality operates across visual practices in the biosciences and the popular mediasphere to shape a molecular animation apparatus that unites scientific knowledge and entertainment culture. Ultimately, Molecular Capture proposes that molecular animation is an achievement of governmental design. It weaves together speculative media philosophy, science and technology studies, and design theory to investigate how scientific knowledge practices are designed through media apparatuses.