The Techno Human Shell

"The author focuses on the technology and the moral implications of the extraordinary technological era that is ahead of us, its influence over culture, personal identity and autonomy, and why we need to begin a national conversation now so that we can prepare for what is inevitably ahead."--

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

The definition of power varies across disciplines. Social scientists tend to deal with social power, philosophers of technology with the relation between technology and society, and ecologists with the relation between natural and social power. Concepts of power and technology are freely used but this relationship is complex and multifaceted. In this analytic and ambitious textbook, Jan van Dijk brings these perspectives together to provide a more comprehensive answer. In attempting to integrate social, technical, and natural power into one framework, he develops a general concept of power which unites all three – the first time such an attempt has been made. The author argues that it is important to look at these concepts together: natural power is not simply a resource for technology and society, and its inclusion is crucial given the ecological impact of technologies. Overall, nine forms of power which comprise the framework are discussed in each chapter – force, construction, coercion, domination, discipline, dependency, information, persuasion, and authority – and at all levels (individuals, organizations, and societies). Van Dijk concludes with some practical implications and asks two key questions: how can automatic and autonomous technology such as AI be controlled by humans? And, how can we find a more sustainable and less exploitive technology? Power and Technology contains many figures, tables and illustrations and is suitable for students and scholars of technology studies and the sociology, philosophy and history of technology.

The book, presenting the proceedings of the 2018 Future Technologies Conference (FTC 2018), is a remarkable collection of chapters covering a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to computing, electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, security and communications and their real-world applications. The conference attracted a total of 503 submissions from pioneering researchers, scientists, industrial engineers, and students from all over the world. After a double-blind peer review process, 173 submissions (including 6 poster papers) have been selected to be included in these proceedings. FTC 2018 successfully brought together technology geniuses in one venue to not only present breakthrough research in future technologies but to also promote practicality and applications and an intra- and inter-field exchange of ideas. In the future, computing technologies will play a very important role in the convergence of computing, communication, and all other computational sciences and applications. And as a result it will also influence the future of science, engineering, industry, business, law, politics, culture, and medicine. Providing state-of-the-art intelligent methods and techniques for solving real-world problems, as well as a vision of the future research, this book is a valuable resource for all those interested in this area.

At once a digital ethnography of smartphones and a classically conceived village-based ethnography, this book relocates the study of digital technologies to rural Melanesia, with a focus on the Lau of Malaita, Soloman Islands. In this ‘technography’, Geoffrey Hobbis studies the materiality and functional attributes of smartphones and their object biographies—modes of acquisition, maintenance, uses, limitations and the problems specific to this region in adopting and adapting smartphones in everyday life. As he examines the various uses of smartphones, as both telephone and multimedia device, Hobbis also explores the social and cultural transformations, the hopes and uncertainties, with which they are associated. Ultimately, in bringing together a study of digital technologies with classical anthropological theory, The Digitizing Family develops a theory of smartphones as kinship technologies and supercompositional objects.

The book investigates the meaning of RRI if little or no valid knowledge about consequences of innovation and technology is available. It proposes a hermeneutical turn to investigate narratives about possible futures with respect to their contemporary meaning instead of regarding them as anticipations of the future.

This book includes refereed papers presented at the Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Power Engineering (AIPE2021), which was held in Moscow, Russia, on December 17–19, 2021. The general scope of the book includes the most recent advances in the development of artificial intelligence systems and their applications in a variety of fields, ranging from power engineering to biology and education. Given the rapid development of artificial intelligence systems, the book emphasizes the importance of intensifying training for a growing number of relevant specialists, particularly in energy and power engineering, in order to improve the effectiveness of the creation and diagnosis of appropriate technical solutions. Scientists are attempting to replicate the innate intellectual abilities of humans and other organisms in digital artificial intelligence systems. In-depth research into biological and self-organizing systems can provide new approaches for developing more and more effective artificial intelligence methods. The papers included in this volume cover thematic materials in the following areas: mathematics and computer algorithms; analysis of some technical solutions; and technological and educational approaches. The book is a collection of cutting-edge papers in the field, covering a wide range of topics relevant to both business managers and engineering professionals. These proceedings are an excellent resource for asset management practitioners, researchers, and academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in artificial intelligence systems and their expanding applications, due to their breadth and depth. The intended readership includes specialists, students, and other groups of readers who want to know where artificial intelligence systems can be used to great advantage in the future.

"Behind the Steel: One Life—Five Epochs": takes the reader on a journey through Twentieth Century America, its cities, its wars, the western prairies, and the poet’s encounter with death, losses of the heart, and old age, when the past stands still and time quickens, when the echoes of the past ricochet and scatter into pure energy. The poet sharply searches for meaning through action, but discovers that only in solitude does he find answers, albeit conditional, bowing to the forces beyond his sensibilities, to the limits of a self-imposed blindness, to the incomprehensibly complicated and absurd events that occur in our midst, yet exceed the human capacity for reason, moral belief and even suffering.

Onco-mice and cloned sheep, drones and auto-automobiles, neuro-enhancement and prosthetic therapy: Is transhumanism a "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity" (Ronald Bailey 2004), or rather "the world's most dangerous idea" (Francis Fukuyama 2009)? This volume attempts to elucidate what we understand by the term "transhumanism", what topics and problems we face, what media are suitable for classroom use, what lesson scenarios seem effective, what benefits we may reap, and what challenges we have to cope with when we teach transhumanism in English language classes.

The Network Society is a clear, engaging guide to the past, consequences and future of digital communication, and forms a comprehensive introduction to how new media functions in contemporary society. Integrating both face-to-face and online communication, the fourth edition explores crucial new issues and challenges in today’s digital media ecology, in doing so exploring the centrality of power to understanding life in the network society. Featuring: The rise of the ‘data economy’ The increasing importance of artificial intelligence. big data and robotics The growth of Internet platforms and how to regulate big tech. New coverage of disinformation and fake news, including deep fake videos Updates to the story of digital youth culture, as a foreshadow of future new media use With examples, cases and real-world applications, this is the essential guide for digital and new media students seeking to understand a diverse, fast-moving field.