Download or read book Our Grandchildren Redesigned written by Michael Bess and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic overview of biotechnologies that can endlessly boost human capabilities and the drastic changes these “superhuman” traits could trigger Biotechnology is moving fast. In the coming decades, advanced pharmaceuticals, bioelectronics, and genetic interventions will be used not only to heal the sick but to boost human physical and mental performance to unprecedented levels. People will have access to pills that make them stronger and faster, informatic devices will interface seamlessly with the human brain, and epigenetic modification may allow people to reshape their own physical and mental identities at will. Until recently, such major technological watersheds—like the development of metal tools or the industrialization of manufacturing—came about incrementally over centuries or longer. People and social systems had time to adapt: they gradually developed new values, norms, and habits to accommodate the transformed material conditions. But contemporary society is dangerously unprepared for the dramatic changes it is about to experience down this road on which it is already advancing at an accelerating pace. The results will no doubt be mixed. People will live longer, healthier lives, will fine-tune their own thought processes, and will generate staggeringly complex and subtle forms of knowledge and insight. But these technologies also threaten to widen the rift between rich and poor, to generate new forms of social and economic division, and to force people to engage in constant cycles of upgrades and boosts merely to keep up. Individuals who boost their traits beyond a certain threshold may acquire such extreme capabilities that they will no longer be recognized as unambiguously human. In this important and timely book, prize-winning historian Michael Bess provides a clear, nontechnical overview of cutting-edge biotechnology and paints a vivid portrait of a near-future society in which bioenhancement has become a part of everyday life. He surveys the ethical questions raised by the enhancement enterprise and explores the space for human agency in dealing with the challenges that these technologies will present. Headed your way over the coming decades: new biotechnologies that can powerfully alter your body and mind. The possibilities are tantalizing: • Rejuvenation therapies offering much longer lives (160 and even beyond) in full vigor and mental acuity • Cognitive enhancement through chemical or bioelectronic means (the rough equivalent of doubling or tripling IQ scores) • Epigenetic tools for altering some of your genetically influenced traits at any point in your lifetime (body shape, athletic ability, intelligence, personality) • Bioelectronic devices for modulating your own brain processes, including your “pleasure centers” (a potentially non-stop high) • Direct control of machines by thought, and perhaps direct communication with other people, brain-to-brain (a new dimension of sharing and intimacy) But some of the potential consequences are also alarming: • A growing rift between the biologically enhanced and those who can’t afford such modifications • A constant cycle of upgrades and boosts as the bar of “normal” rises ever higher—“Humans 95, Humans XP, Humans 8” • The fragmentation of humankind into rival “bioenhancement clusters” • A gradually blurring boundary between “person” and “product” • Extreme forms of self-modification, with some individuals no longer recognized as unambiguously human
Download or read book Our Grandchildren Redesigned written by Michael Bess and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic overview of biotechnologies that can endlessly boost human capabilities and the drastic changes these “superhuman” traits could trigger Biotechnology is moving fast. In the coming decades, advanced pharmaceuticals, bioelectronics, and genetic interventions will be used not only to heal the sick but to boost human physical and mental performance to unprecedented levels. People will have access to pills that make them stronger and faster, informatic devices will interface seamlessly with the human brain, and epigenetic modification may allow people to reshape their own physical and mental identities at will. Until recently, such major technological watersheds—like the development of metal tools or the industrialization of manufacturing—came about incrementally over centuries or longer. People and social systems had time to adapt: they gradually developed new values, norms, and habits to accommodate the transformed material conditions. But contemporary society is dangerously unprepared for the dramatic changes it is about to experience down this road on which it is already advancing at an accelerating pace. The results will no doubt be mixed. People will live longer, healthier lives, will fine-tune their own thought processes, and will generate staggeringly complex and subtle forms of knowledge and insight. But these technologies also threaten to widen the rift between rich and poor, to generate new forms of social and economic division, and to force people to engage in constant cycles of upgrades and boosts merely to keep up. Individuals who boost their traits beyond a certain threshold may acquire such extreme capabilities that they will no longer be recognized as unambiguously human. In this important and timely book, prize-winning historian Michael Bess provides a clear, nontechnical overview of cutting-edge biotechnology and paints a vivid portrait of a near-future society in which bioenhancement has become a part of everyday life. He surveys the ethical questions raised by the enhancement enterprise and explores the space for human agency in dealing with the challenges that these technologies will present. Headed your way over the coming decades: new biotechnologies that can powerfully alter your body and mind. The possibilities are tantalizing: • Rejuvenation therapies offering much longer lives (160 and even beyond) in full vigor and mental acuity • Cognitive enhancement through chemical or bioelectronic means (the rough equivalent of doubling or tripling IQ scores) • Epigenetic tools for altering some of your genetically influenced traits at any point in your lifetime (body shape, athletic ability, intelligence, personality) • Bioelectronic devices for modulating your own brain processes, including your “pleasure centers” (a potentially non-stop high) • Direct control of machines by thought, and perhaps direct communication with other people, brain-to-brain (a new dimension of sharing and intimacy) But some of the potential consequences are also alarming: • A growing rift between the biologically enhanced and those who can’t afford such modifications • A constant cycle of upgrades and boosts as the bar of “normal” rises ever higher—“Humans 95, Humans XP, Humans 8” • The fragmentation of humankind into rival “bioenhancement clusters” • A gradually blurring boundary between “person” and “product” • Extreme forms of self-modification, with some individuals no longer recognized as unambiguously human
Download or read book Choices Under Fire written by Michael Bess and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II was the quintessential “good war.” It was not, however, a conflict free of moral ambiguity, painful dilemmas, and unavoidable compromises. Was the bombing of civilian populations in Germany and Japan justified? Were the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials legally scrupulous? What is the legacy bequeathed to the world by Hiroshima? With wisdom and clarity, Michael Bess brings a fresh eye to these difficult questions and others, arguing eloquently against the binaries of honor and dishonor, pride and shame, and points instead toward a nuanced reckoning with one of the most pivotal conflicts in human history.
Download or read book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood Revised Edition written by John Piper and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-01-11 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say. In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.
Download or read book The Light Green Society written by Michael Bess and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2003-11-15 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The accelerating interpenetration of nature and culture is the hallmark of the new "light-green" social order that has emerged in postwar France, argues Michael Bess in this penetrating new history. On one hand, a preoccupation with natural qualities and equilibrium has increasingly infused France's economic and cultural life. On the other, human activities have laid an ever more potent and pervasive touch on the environment, whether through the intrusion of agriculture, industry, and urban growth, or through the much subtler and more well-intentioned efforts of ecological management. The Light-Green Society limns sharply these trends over the last fifty years. The rise of environmentalism in the 1960s stemmed from a fervent desire to "save" wild nature-nature conceived as a qualitatively distinct domain, wholly separate from human designs and endeavors. And yet, Bess shows, after forty years of environmentalist agitation, much of it remarkably successful in achieving its aims, the old conception of nature as a "separate sphere" has become largely untenable. In the light-green society, where ecology and technological modernity continually flow together, a new hybrid vision of intermingled nature-culture has increasingly taken its place.
Download or read book Comforts from the Cross written by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daily comforts from the gospel of Christ provide busy Christian women with brief but deep reminders of how his truths powerfully connect to their daily lives. Nothing comforts a woman's soul more than a fully understood and embraced gospel. But many women aren't finding solace in their relationship with Christ because they don't see how his life, death, and resurrection connect with soccer practices and swim lessons. Besides, they just don't have time to sit down and read a theology book, no matter how much they might hunger for God's truths. That's where Elyse Fitzpatrick's latest book comes in. Comforts from the Cross provides those well-intentioned women with bite-sized readings to remind them of their place in Christ and of his love and ministry in their busy lives. It also dusts off the facts of the gospel to show how ancient truths such as justification, sanctification, and redemption can free and enliven their souls every day. Even more, these five-minute celebrations of the gospel relieve readers of legalistic condemnation and empower them for joyful obedience by engendering fresh love for the Savior. A perfect choice for gift-giving or personal encouragement, Fitzpatrick's book helps active women grasp the practicality of the gospel message and experience its deep comforts.
Download or read book Realism Utopia and the Mushroom Cloud written by Michael Bess and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1993-12 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Two world wars, concentration camps, the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and continued preparations for nuclear war illustrate the modern world's propensity for mass destruction. . . . Yet there have been important signs of resistance to this trend. These have included not only the emergence of mass-based peace and disarmament movements but activist intellectuals grappling with the growing problem posed by mass violence among nation-states. . . . Bess examines the lives and ideas of four of these intellectuals: Leo Szilard of Hungary and (later) the United States, E. P. Thompson of England, Danilo Dolci of Italy, and Louise Weiss of France. . . . Realism, Utopia, and the Mushroom Cloud is a powerful, important scholarly work, casting new light upon some of the great issues of modern times. Readers will learn much from it."—Lawrence S. Wittner, Peace and Change "Bess seeks to understand the way in which the creation of the atomic bomb has changed the social and political situation of humankind. Are we to be held hostage by military forces or can we transform our situation? He describes the lives of four very different activists, each with different views on what causes conflict and how best to address conflict. . . . Overall, this book offers an interesting perspective on life after the atomic bomb. . . . In asking ourselves what the possibilities of our future are, we can turn to these lives for some guidance. . . . This book is informative, provocative, and encourages one to consider carefully how s/he chooses to live."—Erin McKenna, Utopian Studies "These four lives, researched and skillfully presented by historian Michael Bess, make fascinating stories in themselves. They also serve as useful vehicles for examining major cross-currents of Cold War resistance. . . . From Weiss the cynical pragmatist to Szilard the high-level fixer to hompson the social reformer to Dolce the spiritual street organizer, Michael Bess has woven an illuminating tapestry of human efforts to cope with life under the mushroom cloud."—Samuel H. Day Jr., The Progressive
Download or read book Genetically Engineered Foods written by Armando Mills and published by Scientific e-Resources. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genetically modified foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. The main aim of genetically modified crops is to produce a food that is able to survive even if any harmful chemicals or pesticides or herbicides are sprayed. Genetically engineered foods have had their DNA changed using genes from other plants or animals. Scientists take the gene for a desired trait in one plant or animal, and they insert that gene into a cell of another plant or animal. Genetic engineering can be done with plants, animals, or bacteria and other very small organisms. Genetic engineering allows scientists to move desired genes from one plant or animal into another. Genes can also be moved from an animal to a plant or vice versa. Genetic engineering also helps speed up the process of creating new foods with desired traits. Genetically modified material sounds a little bit like science fiction territory, but in reality, much of what we eat on a daily basis is a genetically modified organism. Whether or not these modified foods are actually healthy is still up for debate-and many times, you don't even know that you are buying something genetically modified. The book will be of help to researcher in the field of agriculture, crop improvement, biotechnology etc. It will also be helpful to teachers and students for better understanding of the subject.
Download or read book Planet in Peril Planetary Dangers Planetary Solutions written by Michael D. Bess and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-13 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by an award-winning historian of science and technology, Planet in Peril describes the top four mega-dangers facing humankind – climate change, nukes, pandemics, and artificial intelligence. It outlines the solutions that have been tried, and analyzes why they have thus far fallen short. These four existential dangers present a special kind of challenge that urgently requires planet-level responses, yet today's international institutions have so far failed to meet this need. The book lays out a realistic pathway for gradually modifying the United Nations over the coming century so that it can become more effective at coordinating global solutions to humanity's problems. Neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but pragmatic and constructive, the book explores how to move past ideological polarization and global political fragmentation. Unafraid to take intellectual risks, Planet in Peril sketches a plausible roadmap toward a safer, more democratic future for us all.
Download or read book Planet in Peril written by Michael D. Bess and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-13 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploration of the top four mega-dangers facing humankind and plots a hopeful path to dealing with them through global governance.
Download or read book Original Sin in the Twenty First Century written by Richard J. Coleman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-08-11 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Original Sin in the 21st Century begins with a cold, hard fact: Christians, we have a problem! No one is listening to us when we talk about original sin. That will change as you follow an exploration of original sin as an enduring truth about human nature. This book is not another exposition of either the history or the doctrine of original sin. Rather, it opens up new avenues of consideration, such as original goodness as a counterweight to original sin, a contemporary interpretation of the Adam-Eve narrative, the new relevancy of Reinhold Niebuhr's recognition that we are not as good as our ideals, and a soul-searching inquiry into whether original sin is too dark or perhaps not dark enough. The twenty-first century is far more than a backdrop. This book invites us to rethink what sin looks like when the world warms, when AI is created in our own image, and when sin thrives on indifference and willful ignorance. The author will quickly convince you this century is both an opportunity and an imperative to rethink original sin for what lies ahead.
Download or read book Make Way for the Superhumans written by Michael Bess and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2016-07-07 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biomedical research is changing the both the format and the functions of human beings. Very soon the human race will be faced with a choice: do we join in with the enhancement or not? Make Way for the Superhumans looks at how far this technology has come and what aims and ambitions it has. From robotic implants that restore sight to the blind, to performance enhancing drugs that build muscles, improve concentration, and maintain erections, bio-enhancement has already made massive advances. Humans have already developed the technology to transmit thoughts and actions brain-to-brain using only a computer interface. By the time our grandchildren are born, they will be presented with the option to significantly alter and redesign their bodies. Make Way for the Superhumans is the only book that poses the questions that need answering now: suggesting real, practical ways of dealing with this technology before it reaches a point where it can no longer be controlled.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Schopenhauer written by Robert L. Wicks and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of thirty-one essays encompasses Schopenhauer's central contributions, his influences, and the scope of his impact, especially on the arts and philosophy. Six sections cover the wide range of his thought, including its connection to religion, ethics, and art, as well as his influence and legacy.
Download or read book How to be Childless written by Rachel Chrastil and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In How to Be Childless: A History and Philosophy of Life Without Children, Rachel Chrastil explores the long and fascinating history of childlessness, putting this often-overlooked legacy in conversation with the issues that childless women and men face in the twenty-first century. Eschewing two dominant narratives, that the childless are either barren and alone, or that they are carefree and selfish, How to Be Childless instead argues that the lives of childless individuals from the past can help all of us expand our range of possibilities for the good life. In uncovering the voices and experiences of childless women from the past five hundred years, Chrastil demonstrates that the pathways to childlessness, so often simplified as "choice" and "circumstance," are far more complex and interweaving. Balanced, deeply researched, and richly realized, How to be Childless will empower readers, parents and childless alike, to navigate their lives with purpose.
Download or read book Artificial You written by Susan Schneider and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Humans may not be Earth's most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy! are now all AIs. Given the rapid pace of progress in AI, many predict that it could advance to human-level intelligence within the next several decades. From there, it could quickly outpace human intelligence. What do these developments mean for the future of the mind? In Artificial You, Susan Schneider says that it is inevitable that AI will take intelligence in new directions, but urges that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path forward. As AI technology turns inward, reshaping the brain, as well as outward, potentially creating machine minds, it is crucial to beware. Homo sapiens, as mind designers, will be playing with "tools" they do not understand how to use: the self, the mind, and consciousness. Schneider argues that an insufficient grasp of the nature of these entities could undermine the use of AI and brain enhancement technology, bringing about the demise or suffering of conscious beings. To flourish, we must grasp the philosophical issues lying beneath the algorithms. At the heart of her exploration is a sober-minded discussion of what AI can truly achieve: Can robots really be conscious? Can we merge with AI, as tech leaders like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil suggest? Is the mind just a program? Examining these thorny issues, Schneider proposes ways we can test for machine consciousness, questions whether consciousness is an unavoidable byproduct of sophisticated intelligence, and considers the overall dangers of creating machine minds."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Social Policy for Effective Practice written by Rosemary Kennedy Chapin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 821 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifth edition of Social Policy for Effective Practice offers a rich variety of resources and knowledge foundations to help social work students understand and contend with the continually evolving social policy landscape that surrounds them. The authors have continued their values-based approach and kept the focus on clients’ strengths to help students position themselves for effective engagement on new fronts where policy threats and outcomes affect clients’ lives in myriad ways. The new edition comprehensively covers the process of defining need, analyzing social policy, and developing policy, and each chapter builds on the practical knowledge and skills forged from previous ones. New to this edition: Thorough examination of new policies, including challenges to the Affordable Care Act, voting rights, immigration, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as situations involving substance use, mental health, and economic inequality. Expanded coverage of shifting demographics, including population diversity and aging. Increased connections drawn between historical, present, and potential future policy contexts Updated exercises, exhibits, and social media links in-text and an entire suite of web-based tools found through www.routledgesw.com, including complementary reading suggestions and teaching tips, a full library of lecture slides and exam questions, and EPAS guidelines. For use as a resource in foundations generalist social policy courses, either at the baccalaureate or master’s levels, the new edition of Social Policy for Effective Practice will challenge students to find areas of policy practice that spark their passion and prepare them to think about and use policy practice as a tool that can lead to the changes they care about.
Download or read book The Fragmented Personality written by Dragan M. Svrakic and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fragmented Personality introduces a new model for diagnosing and caring for patients with personality disorder. This book reviews in detail the neuroscience of brain and mind development, including the neuroscience of psychoanalytic concepts, both for normal and disordered personalities. In contrast to the current static classifications of personality pathology, the authors' approach yields a dynamic and personalized diagnosis within a 3D diagnostic space in which each individual is uniquely positioned. In this model, two intersecting dimensions, one vertical, representing the person's qualitative level of mental functioning (the "how" of personality), and the other horizontal, representing his or her adaptive style (the "what" of personality) are cross matched in the unit of time. Such dynamic nosology is inherently sensitive to fluctuations in mental functioning over time and context, and gives the clinician precise milestones for monitoring progress in therapy. In this book, the authors analyze the impact of social transitions on adaptive tasks, personality and psychopathology. They argue that the conservative society, with strict socio-religious norms, favored the psychopathology of neuroses centered around guilt, including guilt for not fitting the preapproved norms. With the postmodern liberalization of normative pressures, the adaptive task has changed from "how to fit" into "what to choose" among many accepted alternatives, creating uncertainty of identity. This uncertainty, together with the non-directive society, favors the psychopathology of personality disorder, and indeed, the prevalence of personality disorder has increased in the postmodern period. Drs. Svrakic and Divac-Jovanovic argue that fragmented personality, a deep and early fragmentation of the mind at its nonconscious core of internalized object relations, represents a common denominator shared by all clinical variants of personality disorder. They conceptualize personality disorder as a homeostatic attempt by the fragmented early mind to heal itself by self-organizing into an unrealistic and fantasized but a more stable self-image, figuratively a "better any than no organization" strategy. In this invaluable text, the authors provide detailed practical guidelines for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with personality disorder and answer practical questions that clinicians frequently ask about etiology, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy of the syndrome.
