Humanitys End

Author : Nicholas Agar
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262525178
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Humanity's End written by Nicholas Agar and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-08-16 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that achieving millennial life spans or monumental intellects will destroy values that give meaning to human lives. Proposals to make us smarter than the greatest geniuses or to add thousands of years to our life spans seem fit only for the spam folder or trash can. And yet this is what contemporary advocates of radical enhancement offer in all seriousness. They present a variety of technologies and therapies that will expand our capacities far beyond what is currently possible for human beings. In Humanity's End, Nicholas Agar argues against radical enhancement, describing its destructive consequences. Agar examines the proposals of four prominent radical enhancers: Ray Kurzweil, who argues that technology will enable our escape from human biology; Aubrey de Grey, who calls for anti-aging therapies that will achieve “longevity escape velocity”; Nick Bostrom, who defends the morality and rationality of enhancement; and James Hughes, who envisions a harmonious democracy of the enhanced and the unenhanced. Agar argues that the outcomes of radical enhancement could be darker than the rosy futures described by these thinkers. The most dramatic means of enhancing our cognitive powers could in fact kill us; the radical extension of our life span could eliminate experiences of great value from our lives; and a situation in which some humans are radically enhanced and others are not could lead to tyranny of posthumans over humans.

Author : Nicholas Agar
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262288931
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Humanity's End written by Nicholas Agar and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-08-20 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that achieving millennial life spans or monumental intellects will destroy values that give meaning to human lives. Proposals to make us smarter than the greatest geniuses or to add thousands of years to our life spans seem fit only for the spam folder or trash can. And yet this is what contemporary advocates of radical enhancement offer in all seriousness. They present a variety of technologies and therapies that will expand our capacities far beyond what is currently possible for human beings. In Humanity's End, Nicholas Agar argues against radical enhancement, describing its destructive consequences. Agar examines the proposals of four prominent radical enhancers: Ray Kurzweil, who argues that technology will enable our escape from human biology; Aubrey de Grey, who calls for anti-aging therapies that will achieve “longevity escape velocity”; Nick Bostrom, who defends the morality and rationality of enhancement; and James Hughes, who envisions a harmonious democracy of the enhanced and the unenhanced. Agar argues that the outcomes of radical enhancement could be darker than the rosy futures described by these thinkers. The most dramatic means of enhancing our cognitive powers could in fact kill us; the radical extension of our life span could eliminate experiences of great value from our lives; and a situation in which some humans are radically enhanced and others are not could lead to tyranny of posthumans over humans.

Author : Arthur C. Clarke
Publisher : RosettaBooks
ISBN 13 : 0795324979
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Childhood's End written by Arthur C. Clarke and published by RosettaBooks. This book was released on 2012-11-30 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Retro Hugo Award–nominated novel that inspired the Syfy miniseries, alien invaders bring peace to Earth—at a grave price: “A first-rate tour de force” (The New York Times). In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development. Their purpose is to dominate Earth. Their demands, however, are surprisingly benevolent: end war, poverty, and cruelty. Their presence, rather than signaling the end of humanity, ushers in a golden age . . . or so it seems. Without conflict, human culture and progress stagnate. As the years pass, it becomes clear that the Overlords have a hidden agenda for the evolution of the human race that may not be as benevolent as it seems. “Frighteningly logical, believable, and grimly prophetic . . . Clarke is a master.” —Los Angeles Times

Author : Mineke Schipper
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789079624997
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Humanity's End as a New Beginning. World Disasters in Myths written by Mineke Schipper and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Een collectie van 30 mythes over het einde van de mensheid, verzameld door Mineke Schipper. De Amerikaans-Japanse kunstenares Yuriko Yamaguchi verbeeldde de wanhoop én de hoop die de verhalen van over de hele wereld kenmerken. 00Long before scholars started wondering and worrying about The End, storytellers provided their own answers in myths. How long?will?people?be?allowed to?continue?handling the earth and their fellow men without respect, before the gods are going to intervene? And what will happen?to us humans? Will fire from heaven set our earth ablaze? Will a pandemic break out? Or will we all be drowned?00This book by Mineke Schipper inspired Yuriko Yamaguchi to create a series of art works depicting both the growing despair and the ultimate hope conveyed by these thrilling stories from all over the globe. A book about our worrisome world with encouraging echoes of hope.00Mineke Schipper is Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies at Leiden University of and the author of academic books, literary essays and novels, including 'Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet.?Proverbs about Women from Around the World', and 'Naked or Covered, A History of Dressing and Undressing Around the World'. 00Yuriko Yamaguchi is a Japanese-American artist and sculptor, residing in the US. Her works have been exhibited in the US, Japan and Europe. "I found my purpose in creating works that remind people we are all connected in many overlapping webs (?) family origin, economic stressors, religious beliefs, nature, time, place and technology."

Author : David B. Goldstein
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300219393
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The End of Genetics written by David B. Goldstein and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An urgent plea for a broader understanding and awareness of the unconsidered dangers of new genetic technologies Since 2010 it has been possible to determine a person's genetic makeup in a matter of days at an accessible cost for many millions of people. Along with this technological breakthrough there has emerged a movement to use this information to help prospective parents "eliminate preventable genetic disease." As the prospect of systematically excluding the appearance of unwanted mutations in our children comes within reach, David B. Goldstein examines the possible consequences from these types of choices. Engaging and accessible, this clarion call for responsible and informed stewardship of the human genome provides an overview of what we do and do not know about human genetics and looks at some of the complex, yet largely unexplored, issues we must be most careful about as we move into an era of increasing numbers of parents exercising direct control over the genomes of their children.

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Humanity's End written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that achieving millennial life spans or monumental intellects will destroy values that give meaning to human lives.

Author : Rick Smith
Publisher : Page Two
ISBN 13 : 1989025536
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The End of Killing written by Rick Smith and published by Page Two. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The End Of Killing is a book that asks a bold question: could we end killing as a human endeavor? In other words, could we eliminate killing using technology? Rick Smith's answer--born of a life dedicated to making the bullet obsolete--is yes. He argues that while humanity has accepted that killing is an unavoidable fact of life, it doesn't need to be. In this provocative book, Smith demonstrates that, because of advancements in technology, we are on the cusp of a world where killing is no longer required--nor acceptable. But getting there will require bold approaches that challenge conventional thinking. Showcasing the latest technologies in weapons, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and even bioinformatics, the book dives into the big, thorny questions about how technology is changing personal safety, police work, our justice system, and our national security. With clarity and conviction, Smith challenges conventional wisdom, showing how technologies that appear strange and scary can actually better human life dramatically. In a world of dead-end debates about gun violence and police brutality, he offers us a clear roadmap out of the violent present into a brighter future. Thought-provoking, insightful, and controversial, The End of Killing will make people stop and think about the world they inhabit--and about the future to come."--

Author : Sarah Buss
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019753936X
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking the Value of Humanity written by Sarah Buss and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To treat some human beings as less worthy of concern and respect than others is to lose sight of their humanity. But what does this moral blindness amount to? What are we missing when we fail to appreciate the value of humanity? The essays in this volume offer a wide range of competing, yet overlapping, answers to these questions. Some essays examine influential views in the history of Western philosophy. In others, philosophers currently working in ethics develop and defend their own views. Some essays appeal to distinctively human capacities. Others argue that our obligations to one another are ultimately grounded in self-interest, or certain shared interests, or our natural sociability. The philosophers featured here disagree about whether the value of human beings depends on the value of anything else. They disagree about how reason and rationality relate to this value, and even about whether we can reason our way to discovering it. This rich selection of proposals encourages us to rethink some of our own deepest assumptions about the moral significance of being human.

Author : Thomas Moynihan
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 1913029840
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book X-Risk written by Thomas Moynihan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How humanity came to contemplate its possible extinction. From forecasts of disastrous climate change to prophecies of evil AI superintelligences and the impending perils of genome editing, our species is increasingly concerned with the prospects of its own extinction. With humanity's future on this planet seeming more insecure by the day, in the twenty-first century, existential risk has become the object of a growing field of serious scientific inquiry. But, as Thomas Moynihan shows in X-Risk, this preoccupation is not exclusive to the post-atomic age of global warming and synthetic biology. Our growing concern with human extinction itself has a history. Tracing this untold story, Moynihan revisits the pioneers who first contemplated the possibility of human extinction and stages the historical drama of this momentous discovery. He shows how, far from being a secular reprise of religious prophecies of apocalypse, existential risk is a thoroughly modern idea, made possible by the burgeoning sciences and philosophical tumult of the Enlightenment era. In recollecting how we first came to care for our extinction, Moynihan reveals how today's attempts to measure and mitigate existential threats are the continuation of a project initiated over two centuries ago, which concerns the very vocation of the human as a rational, responsible, and future-oriented being.

Author : Neil Johnson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781499578454
Total Pages : 54 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Humanity's End written by Neil Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Images from the film Humanity's End