Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age

Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age PDF Author: Jeff Pruchnic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135022666
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the ways that the centrality of new media and technologies — from the global networking of information systems and social media to new possibilities for altering human genetics — seem to make obsolete our traditional ways of thinking about ethics and persuasive communication inherited from earlier humanist paradigms. This book argues that rather than devoting our critical energies towards critiquing humanist touchstones, we should instead examine the ways in which media and technologies have always worked as crucial cultural forces in shaping ethics and rhetoric. Pruchnic combines this historical itinerary with critical interrogations of diverse cultural and technological sites — the logic of video games and artificial intelligence, the ethics of life extension in contemporary medicine, the transition to computer-automated trading in world stock markets, the state of critical theory in the contemporary humanities — along with innovative analyses of the works of such figures as the Greek Sophists, Kenneth Burke, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Gilles Deleuze. This book argues that our best strategies for crafting persuasive communication and producing ethical relations between individuals will be those that creatively replicate and appropriate, rather than resist, the logics of dominant forms of media and technology.

Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age

Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age PDF Author: Jeff Pruchnic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135022666
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the ways that the centrality of new media and technologies — from the global networking of information systems and social media to new possibilities for altering human genetics — seem to make obsolete our traditional ways of thinking about ethics and persuasive communication inherited from earlier humanist paradigms. This book argues that rather than devoting our critical energies towards critiquing humanist touchstones, we should instead examine the ways in which media and technologies have always worked as crucial cultural forces in shaping ethics and rhetoric. Pruchnic combines this historical itinerary with critical interrogations of diverse cultural and technological sites — the logic of video games and artificial intelligence, the ethics of life extension in contemporary medicine, the transition to computer-automated trading in world stock markets, the state of critical theory in the contemporary humanities — along with innovative analyses of the works of such figures as the Greek Sophists, Kenneth Burke, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Gilles Deleuze. This book argues that our best strategies for crafting persuasive communication and producing ethical relations between individuals will be those that creatively replicate and appropriate, rather than resist, the logics of dominant forms of media and technology.

Transhumanism and Transcendence

Transhumanism and Transcendence PDF Author: Ronald Cole-Turner
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1589017943
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
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.

How Startups Can Solve the 21st Century’s Grand ChallengeS

How Startups Can Solve the 21st Century’s Grand ChallengeS PDF Author: Vit Horky
Publisher: Vit Horky, Jan Beranek, David Siska
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
How can the ecosystem of tech startups—utilizing direct access to significant capital and the world’s most cutting-edge technology—make more than just massive profits, but also make a difference to humanity by helping to solve the 21st Century’s Grand Challenges? From healthcare systems unprepared for global pandemics and fossilized education systems, to AI harming people’s privacy and voters misguided by fake news... We wondered how can we help. Six months in, endless nights and weekends buried behind computer or on Google Meets, we have put our learnings on paper and decided them to share with you. Are you a company founder wondering how can you make a positive impact? Or talented expert thinking how can you take part in solving real big problems? Or just simply someone not so sure if others will solve big problems for you? Here’s our report on the main problems, key players and ideas of how can you take part.

Last Flesh

Last Flesh PDF Author: Christopher Dewdney
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
On the brink of the transhuman age: a dazzling, disturbing gaze from one of our most original thinkersLast Flesh is about human transformation. It proposes that we are on the brink of the transhuman age an era that will usher in the next stage in human evolution, the posthuman era. Last Flesh is a personal, Renaissance look at this transitional period, its culture, media and technology.The transhuman epoch will be heralded by an unprecedented expansion of human capabilities. Genetic engineering, cyberneurology and artificial intelligence are about to give humans the keys to their own destiny. Voice-recognition, computer-assisted literature and art will provide a new cultural richness. At the same time nanotechnology, robotics and physics will produce astounding new advances in engineering. Last Flesh explores the impact, both social and moral of these innovations: -- Why the increasing pace of technological obsolescence is good for us -- Why our present concept of privacy must end if we are to flourish in the posthuman era -- How the Internet is really the last flowering of private literature before the advent of voice recognition -- How human consciousness will be uploaded into computersAn eclectic, free-ranging and yet completely accessible interpretation of where we are and where we are going as a species, Last Flesh is both energizing and foreboding, a brilliant melange of culture and technology that will dazzle and disturb.

Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism

Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism PDF Author: Sisman-Ugur, Serap
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522584323
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
As a movement, transhumanism aims to upgrade the human body through science, constantly pushing back the limits of a person by using cutting-edge technologies to fix the human body and upgrade it beyond its natural abilities. Transhumanism can not only change human habits, but it can also change learning practices. By improving human learning, it improves the human organism beyond natural and biological limits. The Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism is an essential research publication that discusses global values, norms, and ethics that relate to the diverse needs of learners in the digital world and addresses future priorities and needs for transhumanism. The book will identify and scrutinize the needs of learners in the age of transhumanism and examine best practices for transhumanist leaders in learning. Featuring topics such as cybernetics, pedagogy, and sociology, this book is ideal for educators, trainers, instructional designers, curriculum developers, professionals, researchers, academicians, policymakers, and librarians.

Transhumanism and the Image of God

Transhumanism and the Image of God PDF Author: Jacob Shatzer
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830865780
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Examining the transhumanist movement, biblical ethicist Jacob Shatzer grapples with the potential for technology to transform the way we think about what it means to be human. Exploring the doctrine of incarnation and topics such as artificial intelligence, robotics, medical technology, and communications tools, he guides us into careful consideration of the future of Christian discipleship in a disruptive technological environment.

Transhuman

Transhuman PDF Author: Ben Bova
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0765332930
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
"Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist who is battling lung cancer, has one joy in life, his ten-year-old granddaughter, Angela. When he learns that Angela has an inoperable brain tumor and is given less than six months to live, Abramson wants to try a new enzyme, Mortality Factor 4 (MORF4), that he believes will kill Angela's tumor. However, the hospital bureaucracy won't let him do it because MORF4 has not yet been approved by the FDA. Knowing that Angela will die before he can get approval of the treatment, Abramson abducts Angela from the hospital with plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon. Luke realizes he's too old and decrepit to flee across the country with his sick granddaughter, chased by the FBI. So he injects himself with a genetic factor that will stimulate his body's production of telomerase, an enzyme that has successfully reversed aging in animal tests. As the chase weaves across the country from one research facility to another, Luke begins to grow physically younger, stronger. He looks and feels the way he did thirty or forty years ago. Yet his lung cancer is not abating; if anything the tumors are growing faster. And Angela is dying"--

Are You a Transhuman?

Are You a Transhuman? PDF Author: FM-2030
Publisher: Grand Central Pub
ISBN: 9780446388061
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Offers a series of self-tests to determine how in tune one is with future trends and life-styles

Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition

Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition PDF Author: Ed Regis
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 9780201567519
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Enter the gray area between overheated imagination and overheated reality, and meet a network of scientists bent on creating artificial life forms, building time machines, hatching plans for dismantling the sun, enclosing the solar system in a cosmic eggshell, and faxing human minds to the far side of the galaxy. With Ed Regis as your guide, walk the fine line between science fact and fiction on this freewheeling and riotously funny tour through some of the most serious science there is.

The Transhuman Code

The Transhuman Code PDF Author: Carlos Moreira
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781626346291
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A Humanitarian Approach to a Technologically Innovative Future ​In The transHuman Code, authors Carlos Moreira and David Fergusson ask, "Are we building a better future for humanity with the help of magnificent technology or are we instead building a better future of better technology at the expense of humanity?" We must learn to put humanity first instead of getting caught up in the promise of technological advancement. Humans have been able to adapt, morph, and compromise in every situation we have faced over the centuries and have been able to maintain dominance. We must approach the promises of technology with the same adaptability. What the authors propose is that if we start the design of the transHuman future from a human perspective, making sure that technology will inspire revolution or evolution, then we can ensure humanity continues to thrive. The transHuman Code tries to center humanity in the emerging tension between a human-controlled or a machine-controlled world. Moreira and Fergusson examine how humans can maintain the uniqueness and the humanity in this brave new world.