Living with the Genie: Essays On Technology And The Quest For Human Mastery - Softcover

Alan Lightman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a physicist and novelist. His books include Einstein's Dreams, The Diagnosis, and Reunion.

Daniel Sarewitz was founding director of Columbia University's Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes, and is author of Frontiers of Illusion.

Christina Desser directs the Funder's Working Group on Emerging Technologies, an association of foundations concerned about the environmental, cultural, and political implications of new technology.

The premise for this stellar essay collection is the observation that although technology is clearly a double-edged sword, an exponentially increasing force rich in promise and rife with peril, we rarely question the necessity or consider the consequences of technological innovations. A group of remarkably penetrating, frank, and expert scientists, technowizards, activists, and writers raise provocative questions about what is gained and what is lost in a world enthralled by technology in this wonderfully soulful forum on life in the "wired world." Novelist Richard Powers offers a brilliant, witty, and unnerving journey into AI. Multitalented Ray Kurzweil analyzes the implications of rapidly evolving computational and miniaturization technologies in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics. Richard Rhodes ponders the link between technology and violence. Others, including Christina Dresser, warn against reducing the human endeavor to mere information and intellect, thus devaluing sensory experience, feelings, memory, and dreams. Coeditor Lightman, a physicist and a novelist, reminds us of our deep need for silence, solitude, and stillness. There is much to contemplate here, which means that the book has accomplished its mission to kindle critical thinking about our relationship with our technologies, each other, and the natural world. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved