Perfecting Human Futures: Transhuman Visions and Technological Imaginations

ISBN-13: 9783658110437 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 380 str.

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

Opis

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 throwninto question by emerging technologies that promise radical control over human life and elicit corollary imaginations of human perfectibility. This interdisciplinary volumeassemblesscholars of science and technology studies, sociology, philosophy, theology, ethics, and history toexamine 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 invitesspecialists 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."

Recenzje

"The central aim of this volume is to interrogate social visions that desire to overcome the limitations of human finitude through technological advancement. ... this volume is a valuable resource for specialists and general readers to explore the stakes of imagined technological futures as a source of social, technological, and human transformation and is effective in stimulating further reading on the topic. I would not hesitate in recommending Perfecting Human Futures to my colleagues ... ." (Michael G. Sherbert, Nanoethics, Vol. 10, 2016)

Spis treści

Technological Imaginations.- Ethics and Politics of Envisioned Futures.-The Transhumanist Imagination in Context.

O autorze

J. Benjamin Hurlbut is Assistant Professor of Bioscience Ethics in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism and Director of the Center of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. 

Blurb

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. 

 

Contents
Technological Imaginations.- Ethics and Politics of Envisioned Futures.- The Transhumanist Imagination in Context. 

Target Groups

Scholars and students in science and technology studies, philosophy, utopian studies, science and religion 

 

The Editors

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism and Director of the Center of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. 

J. Benjamin Hurlbut is Assistant Professor of Bioscience Ethics in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.