Zoom

How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics

Name: How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics
Brand: University of Chicago Press
SKU: 9780226321462
Price: 19.99 USD
Availability: InStock

$19.99 $26.00

Discount: $6.01 (24%)

Hurry Up! Only 219 Left in Stock!

Out of stock >

Guarantee safe & Secure checkout

Availability: In Stock

Contributors:

N. Katherine Hayles

Publisher:

University of Chicago Press

Binding:

Paperback

Book Category:

Science, Computers

Book Subcategory:

Philosophy & Social Aspects, History, Computer Science

Edition Description:

74th Edition

Shipping & Return +

The product is eligible for a complimentary return within 30 days from the date of purchase. Furthermore, individual items are shipped within 24 hours of receiving the order.

Rating and Reviews +

Specifications +

Release Date:

1999-02-15

ISBN 13:

9780226321462

Weight:

1.09 lbs

Size:

8.97 x 6.01 x 0.91 inches

Pages:

364

Mint Condition +

product description

Description

In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age.

Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman."

Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems.

Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.

About the Author
Hayles, N. Katherine: - N. Katherine Hayles is a postmodern literary critic and the James B. Duke Professor of Literature at Duke University.

How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics

Description

Recently Viewed Products

Recently viewed products

Secure Payment

Online Offers

Quick Refunds

Curated Items