Living with the Genie: Essays On Technology And The Quest For Human Mastery [Paperback]

Alan Lightman (Editor), Daniel Sarewitz (Editor), Christina Desser (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1559635746 | ISBN-13: 978-1559635745 | Publication Date: September 15, 2004 | Edition: 1

"A group of remarkably penetrating, frank, and expert scientists, techno-wizards, 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.' " -BOOKLIST

Biotechnology, Cloning, Robotics, Nanotechnology...

At a time when scientific and technological breakthroughs keep our eyes focused on the latest software upgrades or the newest cell-phone wizardry, a group of today's most innovative thinkers are looking beyond the horizon to explore both the promise and the peril of our technological future.

Human ingenuity has granted us a world of unprecedented personal power -- enabling us to communicate instantaneously with anyone anywhere on the globe, to transport ourselves in both real and virtual worlds to distant places with ease, to fill our bellies with engineered commodities once available to only a privileged elite.

Through our technologies, we have sought to free ourselves from the shackles of nature and become its master. Yet science and technology continually transform our experience and society in ways that often seem to be beyond our control. Today, different areas of research and innovation are advancing synergistically, multiplying the rate and magnitude of technological and societal change, with consequences that no one can predict.

Living with the Genie explores the origins, nature, and meaning of such change, and our capacity to govern it. As the power of technology continues to accelerate, who, this book asks, will be the master of whom?

In Living with the Genie, leading writers and thinkers come together to confront this question from many perspectives, including: Richard Powers's whimsical investigation of the limits of artificial intelligence; Philip Kitcher's confrontation of the moral implications of science; Richard Rhodes's exploration of the role of technology in reducing violence; Shiv Visvanathan's analysis of technology's genocidal potential; Lori Andrews's insights into the quest for human genetic enhancement; Alan Lightman's reflections on how technology changes the experience of our humanness.

These and ten other provocative essays open the door to a new dialogue on how, in the quest for human mastery, technology may be changing what it means to be human, in ways we scarcely comprehend.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A group of remarkably penetrating, frank, and expert scientists, techno-wizards, 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.'"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (September 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559635746
• ISBN-13: 978-1559635745
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > Science & Math > Essays & Commentary

More About the Author

Alan Lightman, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences since 1996, is adjunct professor of humanities at MIT. He is the author of several books on science, including "Ancient Light: Our Changing View of the Universe" (1991) and "Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists" (with R. Brawer, 1990). His works of fiction include "Einstein's Dreams" (1993), "The Diagnosis" (2000), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and, most recently, "Reunion" (2003).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A critical, positive assessment of technology in society, March 1, 2004

By 

Michele Susan (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (Hardcover)

Many critics of writings on the relationship between society and its technologies presume that any "negative" assessment (that a technology is inappropriate, that it is moving too fast, that it is too expensive, etc.) indicates the authors are anti-technology Luddites, or just too dense to "get it." It would not surprise me if this happens with this collection of essays as well, and that is unfortunate, as the feeling one takes away at the end of the book is anything but negative in regard to technology and society.

Each of the essays is individually valuable (and quite well-written; some are quite nuanced and require careful reading), but I found them most powerful taken as a whole: science, technology, engineering, innovation...these are good: both good as values in themselves and good for society as a whole. The message that the authors are collectively trying to communicate is that technology (and thus its creators, scientists and engineers) is *part of* the social fabric, not something outside or overarching. The authors ask us to think critically about the use of specific technologies in society, and about the processes we use to shepherd these technologies into everyday use. This is not a reaction to feeling powerless in the face of technology. It is a positive, proactive approach to outlining what kinds of technologies might best let us realize our potentials, both as inviduals and as society as a whole; and to begin to attack the more difficult problem of determining when a problem can be technologically solved, and when it requires other kinds of expertise.

While the questioning of invention, development, and introduction of new technologies per se into everyday use might never be acceptable to those with an absolute belief that technology, science, engineering, etc., are "good", for everyone else, this kind of questioning should be thought of as a net positive: by introducing the right kinds of technology at the right time in the right place, all technologies are potentially more useful and more readily acceptable. For anyone who has been thinking about the fascinating, complex relationship between society and technology, this book will have you both nodding in agreement and questioning long-held views.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine collection of essays on "the genie", August 8, 2004

By 

L. Feld "lowkell" (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (Hardcover)

"Living with the Genie" is an excellent, important, timely, thought provoking book on human's complex relationship with science and technology. As with any collection of essays, the quality level varies, with a few essays really standing out, although not one of them is bad. The main theme here is not pro-or anti-technology per se, but simply that rapid technological and scientific progress has huge implications for humans, so we'd better give the issue some serious thought. The overarching question, as alluded to by the title, is how we live with the "genie" of rapid technological change, now that it's out of the bottle.

Perhaps my favorite essay is the one by Richard Powers, which actually had me rather rattled. Even at the end of Powers' piece, I couldn't decide if what he described really happened to him, or if it was the basis for a new, Matrix-like sci-fi plot on Artificial Intelligence run amok. In addition to Powers, the chapter by Ray Kurzweil is also fascinating, although a bit repetitive if you've read Kurzweil's book, "The Age of Spiritual Machines." Still, Kurzweil's musings are fascinating, as he ponders whether or not the combination of robotics, biotechnology, and nanotech might be the doom of us all, or whether instead it might lead to a new age in which humans evolve into a hybrid man-machine species like the Borg in Star Trek.

Other chapters in the book present further riffs on various aspects of technology and science. D. Michelle Addington writes an intriguing, if somewhat confusing, chapter on one particular technology -- HVAC -- to illustrate how "our technological world is constructed by our beliefs and not necessarily by progress or science." Lori Andrews discusses genetic engineering of humans and a world in which "people may be treated as products." Gregor Wolbring contributes a well executed chapter on technology and the concept of "disability." Philip Kitcher discusses the types of science that "should be done." Christina Desser's chapter provides a literary meditation on technology and human "connectedness." Finally, Alan Lightman discusses the feeling that technology is intruding into the most private aspects of life, interfering even with the ability to think quietly, to "waste time," and to connect (that word again) with one's soul.

All in all, this is a fine collection of essays, well worth reading in today's world of tremendous technological promise -- and threat.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living with the Genie, March 3, 2004

By 

Beth J Rosenberg (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (Hardcover)

This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking collection of essays of the pros and cons of science and technology, from an interesting range of scientists. Unlike many books on this subject, it's a fast read, because it's beautifully written. You can hear the wise voices of the authors. We should listen to them.