Technology And Cultural Tectonics Shifting Values And Meanings

"What impact has technology had on cultural meanings, values, and symbols? This anthropological exploration shows how technologies produce novel and sometimes jarring realignments among cultural institutions. Contemporary reproductive, medical, genetic, and information technologies forge unprecedented family relationships, produce a new mode of thinking based on the confluence of artificial and human intelligence, and reconfigure conventional scales of time and space. Taken together, they redefine what it is to be human"-- "This book is a uniquely original assessment of the consequences of recent technologies for the conventional meanings, shared values and symbols that constitute culture. As with the geological shifts generated by the earth's tectonic plates, technologies produce novel and sometimes jarring realignments among cultural institutions. Lucid prose featuring vivid examples and insightful analysis describes how contemporary reproductive, medical, genetic, and information technologies forge unprecedented family relationships, produce a new mode of thinking based on the confluence of artificial and human intelligence, and reconfigure conventional scales of time and space. Taken together, they redefine what it is to be human"--