Authors: Thomas Hylland Eriksen.
Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Pluto Press
Publication Date: 2001-10-01


Reviews :

    The turn of the millennium is characterized by exponential growth in everything related to communication - from the Internet and e-mail to air traffic. "The Tyranny of the Moment" deals with some of the most perplexing paradoxes of this new information age. Who would have expected that apparently time-saving technology results in time being scarcer than ever? And has this seemingly limitless access to information led to confusion rather than enlightenment? Thomas Eriksen argues that slow time - private periods where we are able to think and correspond coherently without interruption - is now one of the most precious resources that we have, and it is becoming a major political issue. Since we are now theoretically "online" 24 hours a day, we must fight for the right to be unavailable - the right to live and think more slowly. It is not only that working hours have become longer - Eriksen also shows how the logic of this new information technology has, in the space of just a few years, permeated every area of our lives. This is equally true for those living in poorer parts of the globe usually depicted as outside the reaches of the information age, as well as those in the West. Exploring phenomena such as the world wide web, wap telephones, multi-channel television and e-mail, "The Tyranny of the Moment" examines this new, non-linear and fragmented way of communicating to reveal the effect is has on working conditions in the new economy, changes in family life and, ultimately, personal identity. Eriksen argues that a culture lacking a sense of its past, and therefore of its future, is effectively static. Although solutions are suggested, he demonstrates that there is no easy way out....

Authors: Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change and Committee on Global Change Research. National Research Council.
Paperback, 100 pages
Publisher: National Academies Press
Publication Date: 1999-07-29


Reviews :

    Addresses the full range of scientific issues concerning global environmental change and offers guidance to the scientific effort on these issues in the U.S. Softcover. ...

Authors: Romano Guardini.
Paperback, 130 pages
Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co
Publication Date: 1994-04


Reviews :

    This volume contains a fascinating series of letters written by Catholic theologian-philosopher Romano Guardini in the mid-1920s in which he works out his sense of the challenges to humanity in a culture increasingly dominated by the machine. This title is part of a new series entitled: Ressourcement: Retrieval and Renewal in Catholic Thought....

Authors: Nicols Fox.
Hardcover, 240 pages
Publisher: Island Press
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    In this work, Nicols Fox examines contemporary resistance to technology and places it in a surprising historical context. She illuminates the rich but oftentimes unrecognized literary and philosophical tradition that has existed for nearly two centuries, since the first Luddites - the "machine breaking" followers of the mythical Ned Ludd - lifted their sledgehammers in protest against the Industrial Revolution. Tracing that current thought through some of the greatest minds of the 19th and 20th centuries - William Blake, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, William Morris, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Graves, Aldo Leopold, and many others - Fox demonstrates that modern protests against consumptive lifestyles and misgivings about the relentless march of mechanization are part of a fascinating hidden history. She shows as well that the Luddite tradition can yield important insights into how we might reshape both technology and modern life so that human, community and environmental values take precedence over the demand of the machine....

Authors: Chris Habl Gray.
Kindle Edition, 256 pages
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2001-02
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    The growing synergy of humans and technology--from dialysis to genetically altered foods to PET scans--is transforming how we view our minds and our bodies. But how has it changed the body politic? How can we forge a society that protects the rights of human and cyborg alike?
The creator of the cult classic Cyborg Handbook, Chris Hables Gray, now offers the first guide to "posthuman" politics, framing the key issues that could threaten or brighten our technological future. For good or ill, politics has already been cyborged in ways that touch us all: On-line voting promises to change who participates. Wars are won on video screens. Biotechnological advances-- cloning, sexual prostheses, gene patents--are redefining life, death, and family in ways that strain the social contract. In the face of these advances, visions of the cyborg future range from the utopian to the nightmarish, from a spiritual super-race transcending the body's confines to a soulless Borg consuming human individuality.
Only with a broad, historically rich and ethically grounded understanding of these issues, Gray argues, can we combat the threats to our freedom and even our survival. A work of vision and imagination, Cyborg Citizen lays the groundwork for the participatory evolution of our society....

    Some great science fiction has asked about robots and the right to vote--but what happens when we're 51 percent artificial ourselves? Cyberculture scholar Chris Hables Gray looks at the ever-changing human body in Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age and makes some well-educated guesses on the makeup of the future cybernetic body politic. Though he does go out of his way to remind the reader that nearly all of us are bioenhanced (that is a vaccination scar, isn't it?), he's neither a chrome-eyed Extropian nor a Rifkinesque fear-mongerer. His thesis is refreshingly simple in a world overfilled with postmodern complexity: we're changing our bodies more and more radically, and we ought to think about how this will change our way of life.

Examining health care, social interactions, and politics, Gray's focus is largely on particular modifications and enhancements such as prosthetic limbs, artificial organs, performance-enhancing drugs, and their descendants. The book never dips into freak show territory, though; even if Gray uses colorful examples to illustrate his points, he still maintains a humanistic attitude throughout. His simple thesis, coupled with this attitude, create a web of thought that is simultaneously entertaining and enlightening. Though our track record on preemptively dealing with change is spotty at best, reading Cyborg Citizen is still a good prescription for keeping the posthuman jitters at bay. --Rob Lightner ...

Authors:
Hardcover, 364 pages
Publisher: CRC-Press
Publication Date: 1997-04-28
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    This is the published proceedings of a workshop held in Bergendahl, Sweden, May 15-19, 1995. The workshop detailed in this book concentrated on how economic principles and analysis could contribute to the planning of forestry projects aimed at affecting terrestrial carbon balances. More than 30 international scientists came together for one week near Stockholm, Sweden and divided into working groups charged with addressing a specific issue and preparing a paper within this time frame. This book contains the majority of papers presented at this meeting, and includes both the working group papers and the individually presented papers....

Authors:
Hardcover, 1424 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication Date: 2001-12-13
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Mapping the relationship between human society and the Earth, the Encyclopedia of Global Change is the first general reference guide to the impact of politics, population, economics, and technology on the planet. Containing over 300 original, signed articles by distinguished scholars, it is the comprehensive work for this multi-discipline, high-profile field.
The Encyclopedia synethsizes current knowledge on natural and human-made changes in the Earth's physical , chemical, and biological systems and the effects of these changes on society. Areas such as altered ecosystems, climate change, food supply, water production and consumption, population, and the political impact of global change are covered in detail. And the clearly written articles also include responses to global modification, agreements and associations, institutions, policies, biographies, and case studies.
Enhanced by 1,500 illustrations, extensive cross-references, bibliographies, and an index, the Encyclopedia of Global Change links essential knowledge across many fields-geography, geology, geophysics, atmospheric science, political science, economics, technology, and others-in a resource that is both accessible and authoritative. The jargon-free language makes it an excellent work for the professional scholar as well as the interested general reader....

Authors: Jonathan Peizer.
Paperback, 263 pages
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Publication Date: 2005-12-21


Reviews :

    If technology leads to such obvious efficiency and productivity in the private sector, why not deploy it just as easily to strengthen civil society and solve the world's social ills?

Author Jonathan Peizer effectively answers this question in the innovative The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change. Peizer brings over twenty years of experience in implementing successful projects that have affected millions of lives globally. Working through all the important factors that affect successful implementations, Peizer points out what nonprofit organizations, foundations, social entrepreneurs, and governments can do to better ensure successful projects. The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change covers a diverse field of topics, including:

• Sector dependencies, collaboration dynamics, and information and communication technology (ICT) challenges
• Nonprofit capacity issues and promising approaches
• Balancing the profit and value motive
• Implementation strategies
• Marketing and promotion strategies

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change is a useful resource for anyone interested in implementing successful social sector projects with and without primary technology components. It easily explains the underlying dynamics that affect all undertakings in the social sector.

"After e-commerce and e-government, Jonathan Peizer provides a thoughtful first-hand account of managing information technology for social change in the philanthropic sector that fills the gap between mere speculation and war stories with a serious attempt to think through the implications of the IT revolution for the 'third sector' that is both well-grounded and systematic and sure to be seminal."
-Jon W. Anderson, Chair, Anthropology Department, Catholic University of America

"What makes this book so valuable is...Peizer's...ability to distill his vast experience into a series of principles and...

Authors: Linda Simon.
Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: Harcourt
Publication Date: 2004-07-05


Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Thomas Hughes.
Hardcover, 528 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult
Publication Date: 1989-04-28
Edition: First

Reviews :

    This riveting story of America's love affair with technology provides remarkable portraits of the lives and times of the early inventors--Edison, Bell, the Wright brothers, and charts the changing modes of invention from the age of independent innovation to today's corporate research labs and vast technological systems. This is the powerful and dramatic tale of our nation's incessant impulse to invent and discover, and of our complex relationship with the fruits of this impulse--a relationship that finds us liberated, dependent, enthusiastic, and skeptical all at once....