Research Catalog
Automation and utopia : human flourishing in a world without work
- Title
- Automation and utopia : human flourishing in a world without work / John Danaher.
- Author
- Danaher, John
- Publication
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019.
- ©2019
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 20-1424 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- 325 pages; 25 cm
- Summary
- Human obsolescence is imminent. The factories of the future will be dark, staffed by armies of tireless robots. The hospitals of the future will have fewer doctors, depending instead on cloud-based AI to diagnose patients and recommend treatments. The homes of the future will anticipate our wants and needs and provide all the entertainment, food, and distraction we could ever desire. To many, this is a depressing prognosis, an image of civilization replaced by its machines. But what if an automated future is something to be welcomed rather than feared? Work is a source of misery and oppression for most people, so shouldn't we do what we can to hasten its demise? Automation and Utopia makes the case for a world in which, free from need or want, we can spend our time inventing and playing games and exploring virtual realities that are more deeply engaging and absorbing than any we have experienced before, allowing us to achieve idealized forms of human flourishing. The idea that we should "give up" and retreat to the virtual may seem shocking, even distasteful. But John Danaher urges us to embrace the possibilities of this new existence. The rise of automating technologies presents a utopian moment for humankind, providing both the motive and the means to build a better future.--
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- The autumn of humanity -- Part I. Automation: The case for technological unemployment -- Why you should hate your job -- Giving techno-pessimism its due -- Part II. Utopia: In search of utopia -- The cyborg utopia -- The virtual utopia -- The unending quest.
- Call Number
- JFE 20-1424
- ISBN
- 9780674984240
- 0674984242
- LCCN
- 2019010210
- 40029360844
- OCLC
- 1090007013
- Author
- Danaher, John, author.
- Title
- Automation and utopia : human flourishing in a world without work / John Danaher.
- Publisher
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019.
- Copyright Date
- ©2019
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Other Standard Identifier
- 40029360844
- Research Call Number
- JFE 20-1424