Prometheanism : technology, digital culture and human obsolescence
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Prometheanism : technology, digital culture and human obsolescence
(Critical perspectives on theory, culture and politics)
Rowman & Littlefield International, c2016
- : pb
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Note
Includes a translation of the essay "On Promethean shame" by Günther Anders. Originally published under the title "Über prometheische Scham" in Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen ; Bd. 1: Über die Seele im Zeitalter der zweiten industriellen Revolution (München : C.H. Beck, 2010)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-171) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Gunther Anders's prolific philosophy of technology is undergoing a major revival but has never been translated into English. Prometheanism mobilises Anders's pragmatic thought and current trends in critical theory to rethink the constellations of power that are configuring themselves around our increasingly "smart" machines.
The book offers a comprehensive introduction to Anders's philosophy of technology with an annotated translation of his visionary essay 'On Promethean Shame', part of The Obsolescence of Human Beings 1 published in 1956.The essay analyses feelings of curtailment, obsolescence and solitude that become manifest whilst we interact with machines. When technological solutions begin to make humans look embarrassingly limited and flawed, new emotional vulnerabilities are exposed. These need to be thought, because our wavering confidence leaves us unprotected in an ever more (un)transparent, connected yet fractured world.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments/ Introduction: Thinking Finitude, Digital Technology and Human Obsolescence with Gunther Anders / Part I: On Promethean Shame/ Preface to the Translation of 'On Promethean Shame'/"On Promethean Shame" (by Gunther Anders)/ PART II: Utopia Inverted - Gunther Anders in the Digital Age/1. Better than Human: Promethean Shame and the (Trans)humanist Project/2. The Punishment of Prometheus/Part III: Anaesthetic Lives: Joyful Surrender to Painful Obsolescence/3. The Unsalaried Masses: Working toward a 'World without Us'/ 4. Invisible Monsters: Your Smartphone is an Atom Bomb/ Bibliography/Index
by "Nielsen BookData"