Download or read book The Ex Human written by Michael Bérubé and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-28 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Facing threats like climate change and nuclear warfare, science fiction authors have conjured apocalyptic scenarios of human extinction. Can such gloomy fates help us make sense of our contemporary crises? How important is the survival of our species if we wind up battling for an Earth that has become an unhabitable hellscape? What other possible futures do narratives of the end of humanity allow us to imagine? Michael Bérubé explores the surprising insights of classic and contemporary works of SF that depict civilizational collapse and contemplate the fate of Homo sapiens. In a lively, conversational style, he considers novels by writers including Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, Liu Cixin, Philip K. Dick, and Octavia Butler, as well as films that feature hostile artificial intelligence, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and the Terminator and Matrix franchises. Bérubé argues that these works portray a future in which we have become able to see ourselves from the vantage point of something other than the human. Though framed by the possibility of human extinction, they are driven by a vision of the “ex-human”—a desire to imagine that another species is possible. For all science fiction readers worried about the fate of humanity, The Ex-Human is an entertaining yet sobering account of how key novels and films envision the world without us.
Download or read book Tales of the Ex Apes written by Jonathan Marks and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we think about when we think about human evolution? With his characteristic wit and wisdom, anthropologist Jonathan Marks explores our scientific narrative of human origins—the study of evolution—and examines its cultural elements and theoretical foundations. In the process, he situates human evolution within a general anthropological framework and presents it as a special case of kinship and mythology. Tales of the Ex-Apes argues that human evolution has incorporated the emergence of social relations and cultural histories that are unprecedented in the apes and thus cannot be reduced to purely biological properties and processes. Marks shows that human evolution has involved the transformation from biological to biocultural evolution. Over tens of thousands of years, new social roles—notably spouse, father, in-laws, and grandparents—have co-evolved with new technologies and symbolic meanings to produce the human species, in the absence of significant biological evolution. We are biocultural creatures, Marks argues, fully comprehensible by recourse to neither our real ape ancestry nor our imaginary cultureless biology.
Download or read book Deus Ex Black Light Deus Ex Mankind Divided prequel written by James Swallow and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ILLUMINATE THE SHADOWS The year is 2029, and the shining promise of a new age of human augmentation is in ruins in the wake of the devastating ‘Aug Incident’ – a horrific catastrophe triggered by a cabal of shadowy power brokers, where millions of cybernetically-enhanced people suffered a forced psychotic break. Awakening in the aftermath of a changed world, with gaps in his memories and suspicion on all sides, augmented ex-cop and former security operative Adam Jensen struggles to piece his life back together, in a new reality where ‘Augs’ have become the targets of hatred, fear and violent discrimination. Now the dark forces behind the Incident are gathering once again, reaching out to manipulate the course of global events through terror and intimidation. To find the answers that he seeks and the people who destroyed everything he knew, Jensen must return to the ashes of the past, reconnect with old allies, and risk all to expose a deadly conspiracy – but in a world shattered by secrets, can the truth be brought into the light? A brand-new official Deus Ex novel, bridging events between Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the brand-new game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Download or read book Deus Ex Human Revolution the Official Guide written by Future Press and published by Future Press Verlag Und Marketing Gmbh. This book was released on 2011-08-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choice is everything in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Choosing your own approach is at the heart of the game, and the official guide reflects this in every way. Multiple route walkthroughs are provided for each and every section of the game, so wherever you are you’ll be able to see all of the possible approaches and their rewards and consequences. See what the game truly has to offer and get the complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution experience. Multi-route Walkthrough The walkthrough features a unique multi-route structure. Whether you play stealthily, hack your way through, or simply shooting everyone down, there’s a route to follow that suits your playstyle. Augmentations Exposed Understanding and combining the Augmentations is where the real fun lies in Deus Ex. The dedicated Augmentation chapter covers each Augmentation in exhaustive detail. Quick-look Item Maps For each section in the game we provide highly detailed maps. The Optional Exploration sections of the guide ensure you’ll never miss an item or secret. Use of Weapons Learn everything there is to know about the game’s arsenal of weapons, grenades and mines. A staggering amount of information is divulged about each one. Side Quest Mastery Ensure that you don’t miss a single Side Quest and experience the complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution story. We provide a separate walkthrough for each Side Quest and all rewards are outlined. Everything Uncovered Our comprehensive Completion Guide is designed with a single goal in mind: unlocking every single Achievement/Trophy in a single play through.
Download or read book The Art of Deus Ex Universe written by Jonathan Jacques-Belletête and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Art of Deus Ex Universe is the ultimate gallery of art from Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, featuring over 300 images, including sketches and concept art. With commentary throughout from the world-renowned art team, this extraordinary collection of groundbreaking game art depicts a dystopian future where mankind has evolved... at the cost of its humanity,"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Deus Ex written by James Swallow and published by Random House Worlds. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. BUT YOU CAN SEE IT FROM HERE. In the near future, with physical augmentation gaining ground and nano-cybernetics only years away, the dawn of limitless human evolution is just beyond the horizon, and a secret corporate cabal of ruthless men intends to make sure that humankind stays under its control. But two people on opposite sides of the world are starting to ask questions that could get them killed. Secret Service agent Anna Kelso has been suspended for investigating the shooting that claimed her partner's life. Anna suspects that the head of a bio-augmentation firm was the real target, and against orders she's turned up a few leads concerning a covert paramilitary force and a cadre of underground hackers. But the cover-up runs deep, and now there's a target on her back. Meanwhile, Ben Saxon, former SAS officer turned mercenary, joins a shadowy special ops outfit. They say they're a force for good, but Saxon quickly learns that the truth is not so clear-cut. So begins a dangerous quest to uncover a deadly secret that will take him from Moscow to London, D.C. to Geneva, and to the dark truth--if he lives that long. The year is 2027; in a world consumed by chaos and conspiracy, two people are set on a collision course with the most powerful and dangerous organization in history--and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
Download or read book Lingua Ex Machina written by William H. Calvin and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A neuroscientist and a linguist show how evolution could have given rise to structured language. A machine for language? Certainly, say the neurophysiologists, busy studying the language specializations of the human brain and trying to identify their evolutionary antecedents. Linguists such as Noam Chomsky talk about machinelike "modules" in the brain for syntax, arguing that language is more an instinct (a complex behavior triggered by simple environmental stimuli) than an acquired skill like riding a bicycle. But structured language presents the same evolutionary problems as feathered forelimbs for flight: you need a lot of specializations to fly even a little bit. How do you get them, if evolution has no foresight and the intermediate stages do not have intermediate payoffs? Some say that the Darwinian scheme for gradual species self-improvement cannot explain our most valued human capability, the one that sets us so far above the apes, language itself. William Calvin and Derek Bickerton suggest that other evolutionary developments, not directly related to language, allowed language to evolve in a way that eventually promoted a Chomskian syntax. They compare these intermediate behaviors to the curb-cuts originally intended for wheelchair users. Their usefulness was soon discovered by users of strollers, shopping carts, rollerblades, and so on. The authors argue that reciprocal altruism and ballistic movement planning were "curb-cuts" that indirectly promoted the formation of structured language. Written in the form of a dialogue set in Bellagio, Italy, Lingua ex Machina presents an engaging challenge to those who view the human capacity for language as a winner-take-all war between Chomsky and Darwin.
Download or read book Ex Patriots written by Peter Clines and published by Crown. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second novel in Peter Clines' bestselling Ex series. It's been two years since the plague of ex-humans decimated mankind. Two years since the superheroes St. George, Cerberus, Zzzap, and Stealth gathered Los Angeles’s survivors behind the walls of their fortress, the Mount. Since then, the heroes have been fighting to give the Mount’s citizens hope, and something like a real life. But now supplies are growing scarce, the zombies are pressing in . . . and the heroes are wondering how much longer they can hold out. Then hope arrives in the form of a surviving US Army battalion--and not just any battalion. The men and women of the Army's Project Krypton survived the outbreak because they are super-soldiers, created before mankind's fall to be better, stronger, faster than normal humans--and their secure base in Arizona beckons as a much needed refuge for the beleaguered heroes and their charges. But a dark secret lies at the heart of Project Krypton, and those behind it wield an awesome and terrifying power.
Download or read book The Human Stain written by Philip Roth and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2001-05-08 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral delivers “a master novelist's haunting parable about our troubled modern moment" (The Wall Street Journal). It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small New England town, an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is a lie, but the real truth about Silk would have astonished even his most virulent accuser. Coleman Silk has a secret, one which has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the larger public history of modern America."
Download or read book Exaholics written by Lisa Marie Bobby and published by Union Square & Co.. This book was released on 2016-02-10 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Severing a cherished relationship is one of the most painful experiences in life—and cutting those emotional ties to a loved one can feel almost like ending an addiction. Up till now, people recovering from other problems were able to get real help—like AA and rehab—while those struggling in the aftermath of traumatic breaks dealt with platitudes and friends insisting they should "get over it already." But now Exaholics Anonymous treats getting over an ex like kicking a chemical habit. Written by counselor and therapist Dr. Lisa Bobby, Exaholics offers meaningful support and advice to anyone trapped in the obsessive pain of a broken, or dying, attachment. She helps the brokenhearted heal, showing them, on a deep level, how to develop a conceptual framework for their experience, understand the emotional processes at work inside themselves, find the path to recovery, and free themselves of shame, injured ego, and remorse. In-depth case studies of others' journeys will illuminate the way to future happiness.
Download or read book Ex Libris written by Michiko Kakutani and published by Clarkson Potter. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize–winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani shares 100 personal, thought-provoking essays about books that have mattered to her and that help illuminate the world we live in today—with beautiful illustrations throughout. “A book tailormade for bibliophiles.”—Oprah Winfrey “An ebullient celebration of books and reading.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) In the introduction to her new collection of essays, Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread, Michiko Kakutani writes: “In a world riven by political and social divisions, literature can connect people across time zones and zip codes, across cultures and religions, national boundaries and historical eras. It can give us an understanding of lives very different from our own, and a sense of the shared joys and losses of human experience.” Readers will discover novels and memoirs by some of the most gifted writers working today; favorite classics worth reading or rereading; and nonfiction works, both old and new, that illuminate our social and political landscape and some of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to medicine to the consequences of digital innovation. There are essential works in American history (The Federalist Papers, The Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.); books that address timely cultural dynamics (Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Image, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale); classics of children’s literature (the Harry Potter novels, Where the Wild Things Are); and novels by acclaimed contemporary writers like Don DeLillo, William Gibson, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Ian McEwan. With richly detailed illustrations by lettering artist Dana Tanamachi that evoke vintage bookplates, Ex Libris is an impassioned reminder of why reading matters more than ever.
Download or read book Ex Communication written by Peter Clines and published by Crown. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third novel in Peter Clines' bestselling Ex series. “All of us try to cheat death. I was just better prepared to do it than most folks.” In the years since the wave of living death swept the globe, St George and his fellow heroes haven’t just kept Los Angeles’ last humans alive—they’ve created a real community, a bustling town that’s spreading beyond its original walls and swelling with new refugees. But now one of the heroes, perhaps the most powerful among them, seems to be losing his mind. The implacable enemy known as Legion has found terrifying new ways of using zombies as pawns in his attacks. And outside the Mount, something ancient and monstrous is hell-bent on revenge. As Peter Clines weaves these elements together in yet another masterful, shocking climax, St. George, Stealth, Captain Freedom, and the rest of the heroes find that even in a city overrun by millions of ex-humans... …there’s more than one way to come back from the dead.
Download or read book The Ex Human written by MICHAEL. BRUB and published by . This book was released on 2024-05-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Bérubé explores the surprising insights of classic and contemporary works of SF that depict civilizational collapse and contemplate human extinction.
Download or read book The Human Factor written by Ishmael Jones and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After spending decades as an agent to the CIA, Jones unravels the blunders and grave mistakes the U.S. has made over the years and makes the case for much-needed intelligence reform.
Download or read book Hybrid Humans written by Harry Parker and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2022-02-17 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 BARBELLION PRIZE* As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week As seen on Sky Arts Book Club with Elizabeth Day and Andi Oliver An eye-opening account of disability, identity, and how robotics and AI are altering our understanding of what it means to be human - from the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Soldier Harry Parker's life changed overnight, when he lost his legs to an IED in Afghanistan. That took him into an often surprising landscape of a very human kind of hacking, and he wondered, are all humans becoming hybrids? Parker introduces us to the exhilarating breadth of human invention - and intervention. Grappling with his own new identity and disability, he discovers the latest robotics, tech and implants that might lead us to powerful, liberating possibilities for what a body can be. 'I loved Hybrid Humans. A way of looking at the future without nostalgia for the past' - Jeanette Winterson
Download or read book Eternal Humans and the Finite Gods written by Theresa Talea and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third edition of Eternal Humans and the Finite Gods is a comprehensive book that brings the reader into journeys within oneself and beyond. It introduces a mother and daughter who genuinely desire truth, and they first utilized religion to find it. What should have been a path of awakening had taken them down a rabbit hole of diminished choice, knowledge, and freedom. This culminated in Talea's mother being used as a tool to spread the "truth" via prophecies she received, and Talea was being groomed toward a similar path. It took great effort and insight to climb out of that hole and stop the manipulation, which Talea shows in her realizations step-by-step. Popular books derived from otherworldly sources rarely if ever critique the gods or angelic guides of those messages. If criticism is found, people often turn to another religion ruled by similar entities. Talea's book is unique in that she not only analyzes her mother's prophecies, the Bible's, and various other sources, but she also brings us outside of mainstream spiritual beliefs to a more complete picture. Figuring out who was spiritually directing Talea and her mother and the reason why were pivotal steps to gaining back themselves. They have learned how to separate truths from lies, which religions and New Age spiritualities are notorious in combining. Research into the roots of Judeo-Christianity shows notable evidence in Egypt, Sumer, Anatolia (pre-Turkey), and Greece. Talea uncovers historical and sometimes otherworldly identities of Judaism's patriarchs and Christianity's demigods, and she uses archaeological and cultural evidence as support. The transition from Judaism to Christianity was feasible because their mainly similar factions interweave almost seamlessly--along with purposeful division--due to a greater agenda. Theories about an Apocalypse and a New Earth are key topics for our current time, and real-world politics play a prevalent role toward a one world order "under God." Talea argues that science and religion share multiple similarities, especially in relation to scientific ideas hindered by fractals and quantum mechanics. Is there really a realm based upon eternal life without death and reincarnation? She says "Yes," showing how she came to that conclusion with investigation into theories about other dimensions and universes. This third and final edition goes where few books have ventured--revealing rational explanations for abstract concepts such as a higher self, transfiguration and ascension, "pole shifts," and the expansion of the cosmos contrary to the religiosity and unrealism perceived in the New Age community. Talea seeks knowledge toward the very beginning of existence; she invites the reader to stretch one's mind and see how our physical reality emerged from a much larger system whose foundation is neither chaos nor a God. Finally, Talea expounds upon key aspects of one's wonderfully multifaceted self, which includes layers of energy "matter" that we can individually experience. With the extraordinary knowledge presented in this book, we can arguably gain more security and sense of self to empower us more than any prevalent religion or spirituality can. We have more abilities and choices than what we have been led to believe, and we can choose our own paths in life, including the afterlife, which this book also explores.
Download or read book Realist Responses to Post Human Society Ex Machina written by Ismael Al-Amoudi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first of a trilogy which investigates, from a broadly realist perspective, the place, and challenges, of the human in contemporary social orders. The authors, all members of the Centre for Social Ontology, ask what is specific about humanity’s nature and worth, and what are their main challenges in contemporary societies? Examining the ways in which recent advances in technology threaten to blur and displace the boundaries constitutive of our shared humanity, Realist Responses to Post-Human Society: Ex Machina explores the philosophical and ethical questions raised by these developments, and discusses the dangers posed by the combination of transhumanism with post-humanist social theories and antihumanist practices, institutions and ideologies.
