Perfecting Human Futures
Transhuman Visions and Technological Imaginations
Editors: Hurlbut, J. Benjamin, Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (Eds.)
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- Human Enhancement: New Developments in Science and Technology
- Introduction and Survey
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- About this book
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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.
- About the authors
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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.
- Reviews
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“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)
- Table of contents (15 chapters)
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Introduction: Technology, Utopianism and Eschatology
Pages 1-32
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What Does the Debate on (Post)human Futures Tell Us?
Pages 35-50
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Manifestations of the Posthuman in the Postsecular Imagination
Pages 51-72
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Perfecting the Human: Posthuman Imaginaries and Technologies of Reason
Pages 73-95
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Heidegger on Techno-Posthumanism
Pages 97-117
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Table of contents (15 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Perfecting Human Futures
- Book Subtitle
- Transhuman Visions and Technological Imaginations
- Editors
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- J. Benjamin Hurlbut
- Hava Tirosh-Samuelson
- Series Title
- Technikzukünfte, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft / Futures of Technology, Science and Society
- Copyright
- 2016
- Publisher
- VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-658-11044-4
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-658-11044-4
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-658-11043-7
- Series ISSN
- 2524-3764
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VIII, 380
- Number of Illustrations
- 1 illustrations in colour
- Topics
