Avid reader, mostly sf, but also science, politics, memoir, history, queer studies, cultural studies, literary fiction
This link opens in a pop-up window
In an Indian village in the 1950s, a precocious child is born into a family of Dalit coconut farmers. King …
In an Indian village in the 1950s, a precocious child is born into a family of Dalit coconut farmers. King …
“It’s no coincidence that transhumanism has taken off in the early twenty-first century at just the same time as the concept of the Anthropocene. Both ideas rest on the intuition that human life can’t continue the way it is now, that our world is on the brink of a fundamental transformation. This gives them the appeal of all apocalyptic thinking, which endows the present with extraordinary significance by seeing it as the hinge of history, the most important time of all.”
— The Revolt Against Humanity by Adam Kirsch (Page 42)
So far, this book has been a nuanced and well researched analysis and critique of antihumanism and transhumanism — two views of an apocalyptic turning point in human history.
A mix of real science and fabulist bullshit. Most of the predictions it made for the coming decade failed to materialize. But in places it’s a tantalizing window into the decadent and morally decrepit worldview of the transhumanists.
So far, not impressed. This book is trashy pop sci with ridiculous claims, little science and no skepticism. In the first couple of chapters the authors conflate deterministic software automatons with artificial life and artificial intelligence. I’m sorry, chatbots that do technical “support” are not intelligent, the Game of Life is not synthetic biology, IBM’s Watson is just a very fast computer chess game. And no, we’re not giving Alzheimer’s patients neural implants to help them recover their memories by 2025.
Book Details "[A] magnificent and wide-ranging anthology . . . A must-read for all genre fans."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
From …
Book Details "[A] magnificent and wide-ranging anthology . . . A must-read for all genre fans."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
From …
