Research Catalog

Title

Singular creatures : robots, rights, and the politics of posthumanism / Mark Kingwell.

Author

Kingwell, Mark, 1963-

Publication

• Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2022]
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 226 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Anxiety about non-human intelligent machines is a longstanding theme of cultural production and consumption. These range from tales of golems and Frankenstein's monster to the evil overlord scenarios of contemporary film and television franchises: Star Trek, the Alien series, and the Terminator sequence, as well as Her, Black Mirror, Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and many, many other less mainstream cultural artifacts. The source of this anxiety is clear. Non-human conscious entities may turn out to be superior to any biological form of life, allowing a stride across human ambition in a moment dubbed "the Singularity" by AI insiders. This is the turning point when non-human entities advance and reproduce in a manner that surpasses and subjugates biological forms of intelligent life. Although today's artificial intelligences fall notably short of this level of sophistication, Mark Kingwell argues that we are already more than human in important ways, and likely to become more so as time goes on. In Singular Creatures Kingwell plumbs the depths of cultural and political meaning in the apparent transition to posthuman life. Our immersion in technology, now comprehensive to the point of invisibility, has altered forever what it means to be alive. The politics of posthumanism flow directly from our own situation, at once dependent on technology and afraid of its effects on current and future experiences. More than a century after playwright Karel Čapek coined the word robot--rooted in the Czech robota, meaning "servitude" or "drudgery"--in his 1920 allegory about the alienation of forced labour leading to a violent workers' revolt, Čapek's central question continues to haunt us still. Can humans and their own creations co-exist in a new cyberflesh world, or is a struggle for superiority inevitable? Singular Creatures is an attempt at sketching the field before any deadly battle is joined."--

Subject

• Technology > Philosophy
• Human beings > Philosophy
• Artificial intelligence
• Posthumanism
• Technology
• Human beings

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-219) and index.

Additional Formats (note)

• Issued also in electronic format.

Contents

Past Imperfect/Status Report: Speculative, Intrepid, Ludic -- The Future Is Always Present/Status Report: Conflicted, Attentive, Liminal -- After Work/Status Report: Reflective, Resentful, Resigning -- Future Imperfect/Status Report: Curious, Disillusioned, Incandescent -- Second Valley/Status Report: Tenacious, Wondering, Playful.

Call Number

JFE 23-1722

ISBN

• 9780228014348
• 0228014344

OCLC

1308795706

Author

Kingwell, Mark, 1963- author.

Title

Singular creatures : robots, rights, and the politics of posthumanism / Mark Kingwell.

Publisher

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2022]

Copyright Date

©2022

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-219) and index.

Additional Formats

Issued also in electronic format.

Other Form:

Online version: Kingwell, Mark, 1963- Singular creatures. Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2022 0228015375 9780228015376 (OCoLC)1313808517

Research Call Number

JFE 23-1722