Superhumanity

Author: Nick Axel
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452957886
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 650

Book Description
A wide-ranging and challenging exploration of design and how it engages with the self The field of design has radically expanded. As a practice, design is no longer limited to the world of material objects but rather extends from carefully crafted individual styles and online identities to the surrounding galaxies of personal devices, new materials, interfaces, networks, systems, infrastructures, data, chemicals, organisms, and genetic codes. Superhumanity seeks to explore and challenge our understanding of “design” by engaging with and departing from the concept of the “self.” This volume brings together more than fifty essays by leading scientists, artists, architects, designers, philosophers, historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists, originally disseminated online via e-flux Architecture between September 2016 and February 2017 on the invitation of the Third Istanbul Design Biennial. Probing the idea that we are and always have been continuously reshaped by the artifacts we shape, this book asks: Who designed the lives we live today? What are the forms of life we inhabit, and what new forms are currently being designed? Where are the sites, and what are the techniques, to design others? This vital and far-reaching collection of essays and images seeks to explore and reflect on the ways in which both the concept and practice of design are operative well beyond tangible objects, expanding into the depths of self and forms of life. Contributors: Zeynep Çelik Alexander, Lucia Allais, Shumon Basar, Ruha Benjamin, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Daniel Birnbaum, Ina Blom, Benjamin H. Bratton, Giuliana Bruno, Tony Chakar, Mark Cousins, Simon Denny, Keller Easterling, Hu Fang, Rubén Gallo, Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Rupali Gupte, Andrew Herscher, Tom Holert, Brooke Holmes, Francesca Hughes, Andrés Jaque, Lydia Kallipoliti, Thomas Keenan, Sylvia Lavin, Yongwoo Lee, Lesley Lokko, MAP Office, Chus Martínez, Ingo Niermann, Ahmet Ögüt, Trevor Paglen, Spyros Papapetros, Raqs Media Collective, Juliane Rebentisch, Sophia Roosth, Felicity D. Scott, Jack Self, Prasad Shetty, Hito Steyerl, Kali Stull, Pelin Tan, Alexander Tarakhovsky, Paulo Tavares, Stephan Trüby, Etienne Turpin, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Eyal Weizman, Mabel O. Wilson, Brian Kuan Wood, Liam Young, and Arseny Zhilyaev.

Superhumanity: Post-Labor, Psychopathology, Plasticity

Author: Nick Axel
Publisher: Actar D, Inc.
ISBN: 1638409455
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
Focused on post-labor, psychopathology, and plasticity of human mind and body, this book introduces insight, critiques, and propositions in the area of “self-design,” ranging from design and architecture to science, media, history, philosophy, and contemporary art. The field of design has radically expanded. As a practice, design is no longer limited to the world of material objects, but rather extends from carefully crafted individual looks and online identities, to the surrounding galaxies of personal devices, new materials, interfaces, networks, systems, infrastructures, data, chemicals, organisms, and genetic codes. Faced with the fourth industrial revolution, this book shed light on the necessity to recognize that manmade, artificial objects are continuously reshaping our daily lives, and thus to rethink the intimate and fundamental relationship between design and what it means to be human. Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea, MMCA, organized the Superhumanity Symposium in Korea, consisting of lectures and panel discussions by experts from diverse disciplines. With contributions by Chin Jungkown, Common Accounts (Igor Bragado & Miles Gertler), Arisa Ema, Hong Sungook, Yuk Hui, Kim Jaehee, Catherine Malabou, Hannah Proctor, Erik Rietveld, Mark Wasiuta

The Superhumanities

Author: Jeffrey J. Kripal
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226820246
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
A bold challenge to rethink the humanities as intimately connected to the superhuman and to “decolonize reality itself.” What would happen if we reimagined the humanities as the superhumanities? If we acknowledged and celebrated the undercurrent of the fantastic within our humanistic disciplines, entirely new cultural worlds and meanings would become possible. That is Jeffrey J. Kripal’s vision for the future—to revive the suppressed dimension of the superhumanities, which consists of rare but real altered states of knowledge that have driven the creative processes of many of our most revered authors, artists, and activists. In Kripal’s telling, the history of the humanities is filled with precognitive dreams, evolving superhumans, and doubled selves. The basic idea of the superhuman, for Kripal, is at the core of who and what the human species has tried to become over millennia and around the planet. After diagnosing the basic malaise of the humanities—that the truth must be depressing—Kripal shows how it can all be done differently. He argues that we have to decolonize reality itself if we are going to take human diversity seriously. Toward this pluralist end, he engages psychoanalytic, Black critical, feminist, postcolonial, queer, and ecocritical theory. He works through objections to the superhumanities while also recognizing the new realities represented by the contemporary sciences. In doing so, he tries to move beyond naysaying practices of critique toward a future that can embrace those critiques within a more holistic view—a view that recognizes the human being as both a social-political animal as well as an evolved cosmic species that understands and experiences itself as something super.

Superhumanity

Author: Andrew Gladman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781520609799
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

Book Description
Superheroes - individuals with incredible powers and incredible lives, dedicated to protecting the world, no matter what the cost. Superhumanity offers seven tales that delve into the conflict-ridden lives of humanity's defenders, taking an intense look into the soul of the superhero.The collection includes:Boom - An origin tale in a dystopian world.How to Save the Day and Screw up Everything Else - A day in the troubled life of a teenage superhero.He Saved, She Saved - Can a double life be a shared life?The Light in the Shadows - A dark adventure for a spectral hero.Old Fashioned Values - A retired superhero struggles to find his place in the modern world.Sunset - A gruelling battle that will push one hero to her limits and beyond.Giants Walk Among Us - A powerless crusader must learn what it means to be a hero.

The Transhumanism Handbook

Author: Newton Lee
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030169200
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 837

Book Description
Modern humanity with some 5,000 years of recorded history has been experiencing growing pains, with no end in sight. It is high time for humanity to grow up and to transcend itself by embracing transhumanism. Transhumanism offers the most inclusive ideology for all ethnicities and races, the religious and the atheists, conservatives and liberals, the young and the old regardless of socioeconomic status, gender identity, or any other individual qualities. This book expounds on contemporary views and practical advice from more than 70 transhumanists. Astronaut Neil Armstrong said on the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Transhumanism is the next logical step in the evolution of humankind, and it is the existential solution to the long-term survival of the human race.

Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics

Author: Arvin M. Gouw
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498584144
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 489

Book Description
"In this book, the contributors examine how various religious traditions engage with transhumanism and its vision for the future"--

Are We Human?

Author: Beatriz Colomina
Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
ISBN: 9783037785119
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The question Are We Human? is both urgent and ancient. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley offer a multilayered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design and rethink the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outside space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains. Even the planet itself has been completely encrusted by design as a geological layer. There is no longer an outside to the world of design. Colomina's and Wigley's field notes offer an archaeology of the way design has gone viral and is now bigger than the world. They range across the last few hundred thousand years and the last few seconds to scrutinize the uniquely plastic relation between brain and artifact. A vivid portrait emerges. Design is what makes the human. It becomes the way humans ask questions and thereby continuously redesign themselves.

The Transhumanist Reader

Author: Max More
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118555996
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
The first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature.

Gladiator

Author: Philip Wylie
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Gladiator, first published in 1930, tells the story of Hugo Danner, who is given superhuman speed, endurance, strength, and intelligence by his father as an experiment in creating a better human. We follow Hugo throughout his life viewed from his perspective, from childhood, when Hugo first discovers he’s different from others, to adulthood, as Hugo tries to find a positive outlet for his abilities around the time of the first World War. Gladiator has been made into a 1938 comedy movie, and is thought to be the inspiration for the Superman comic books—though this has not been confirmed.

The Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Exploration

Author: Steven S. Gouveia
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1622739574
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
With worldwide spending estimates of over $97 billion by 2023, it is no surprise that Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is one of the hottest topics at present in both the private and public spheres. Comprising of vital contributions from the most influential researchers in the field, including Daniel Dennett, Roman V. Yampolskiy, Frederic Gilbert, Stevan Harnad, David Pearce, Natasha Vita-More, Vernon Vinge and Ben Goertzel, ‘The Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Exploration’ discusses a variety of topics ranging from the various ethical issues associated with A.I. based technologies in terms of morality and law to subjects related to artificial consciousness, artistic creativity and intelligence. The volume is organized as follows: Section I is dedicated to reflections on the Intelligence of A.I., with chapters by Soenke Ziesche and Roman V. Yampolskiy, Stevan Harnad, Daniel Dennett and David Pearce. Next, Section II discusses the relationship between consciousness, simulation and artificial intelligence, with chapters by Gabriel Axel Montes and Ben Goertzel, Cody Turner, Nicole Hall and Steven S. Gouveia. Section III, dedicated to aesthetical creativity and language in artificial intelligence, includes chapters by Caterina Moruzzi, René Mogensen, Mariana Chinellato Ferreira and Kulvinder Panesar. The subsequent Section IV is on the Ethics of the Bionic Brain with the participation of Peter A. DePergola II, Tomislav Miletić and Frederic Gilbert, Aníbal M. Astobiza, Txetxu Ausin, Ricardo M. Ferrer and Stephen Rainey and Natasha Vita-More. Finally, Section V follows on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence with chapters by Federico Pistono and Roman V. Yamploskiy, Hasse Hämäläinen, Vernon Vinge and Eray Özkural. The Age of Artificial Intelligence is imminent, if not here already. We should ensure that we invest in the right people and the right ideas to create the best possible solutions to the problems of the present and prepare for those of the future. This edited volume will be of particular interest to researchers in the field of A.I. as well of those in Cognitive Science (Philosophy of the Mind, Neuroscience, and Linguistics), Aesthetics and Arts, Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy / Law. Students studying the aforementioned topics can also benefit from its contents.