How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics

· University of Chicago Press
4,0
11 ta sharh
E-kitob
366
Sahifalar soni
Yaroqli

Bu e-kitob haqida

In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age.

Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman."

Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems.

Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.

Reytinglar va sharhlar

4,0
11 ta sharh

Muallif haqida

Please fill in author biography

Bu e-kitobni baholang

Fikringizni bildiring.

Qayerda o‘qiladi

Smartfonlar va planshetlar
Android va iPad/iPhone uchun mo‘ljallangan Google Play Kitoblar ilovasini o‘rnating. U hisobingiz bilan avtomatik tazrda sinxronlanadi va hatto oflayn rejimda ham kitob o‘qish imkonini beradi.
Noutbuklar va kompyuterlar
Google Play orqali sotib olingan audiokitoblarni brauzer yordamida tinglash mumkin.
Kitob o‘qish uchun mo‘ljallangan qurilmalar
Kitoblarni Kobo e-riderlar kabi e-siyoh qurilmalarida oʻqish uchun faylni yuklab olish va qurilmaga koʻchirish kerak. Fayllarni e-riderlarga koʻchirish haqida batafsil axborotni Yordam markazidan olishingiz mumkin.