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The Revolt Against Humanity

Imagining a Future Without Us

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural communes to academic philosophy departments, a seemingly inconceivable idea is being seriously discussed: that the end of humanity’s reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it. Anthropocene antihumanism has been inspired by revulsion at humanity’s destruction of the natural environment, and transhumanism, by contrast, glorifies some of the very things that antihumanism decries—scientific and technological progress, the supremacy of reason. But it believes that the only way forward for humanity is to create new forms of intelligent life that will no longer be Homo sapiens. If rational thought leads to the conclusion that a world without human beings in it is superior to one where we exist, then is doing away with humanity the consummation of humanism?
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 26, 2022
      Poet and critic Kirsch (The Blessing and the Curse) delivers an intense study of the various schools of thought on “the end of humanity’s reign on Earth.” On one hand is the “Anthropocene antihumanist” camp, who assert that humans aren’t “Earth’s protagonists” but rather are to blame for making the planet nearly uninhabitable; as a result, their disappearance should be welcomed. Transhumanists, meanwhile, believe technology will ease the way for a new and improved species, posthumans, who some theorists believe will live past 170 years and will think “more rapidly and deeply” than Albert Einstein. Kirsch suggests that the main difference between these two perspectives is that transhumanists believe the universe “would be meaningless without minds to experience and understand it,” while antihumanists propose that the universe “doesn’t need to include consciousness for its existence to be meaningful.” Kirsch defers to scientists, philosophers, and activists rather than taking a side himself, but the expert perspectives, paired with anecdotes from sci-fi films and literature, make for a fascinating look at the “profound civilizational changes” that may come. The result is a nice lay of the post-human land.

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  • English

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