Devices of the Soul by Talbott, Steve -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Devices of the Soul

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What's Ahead

Credits I. Technology, Nature, and the Human Prospect

1. The Deceiving Virtues of Technology

1.1. Devices of the Mind 1.2. The Man of Many Devices 1.3. Balance and Separation 1.4. Reckoning with the Scoundrel 1.5. Reversals 1.6. Triumph of the Contrivance 1.7. Rousing Ourselves

2. Hold a Blossom to the Light

2.1. On Reading One's Environment 2.2. The Powers of Recognition 2.3. Puzzling Knowledge 2.4. Seeking a New Balance 2.5. The Thrill of Cutting Down Trees 2.6. Don't Bemoan the Loss of Old Skills

3. Toward an Ecological Conversation

3.1. We Converse to Become Ourselves 3.2. Permission and Responsibility 3.3. Approaching Mystery 3.4. Where Does the Wild Live? 3.5. Toward Creative Responsibility 3.6. A Word Unasked For

II. Extraordinary Lives

4. Can Technology Make the Handicapped Whole?

4.1. Hearing with More Than Ears 4.2. Lost Sight, Second Sight 4.3. Dangers 4.4. Attending to the World with New Eyes 4.5. The Human Being as a Developing Potential 4.6. Saving Illnesses 4.7. Addendum: The Living and the Dead 4.8. From And There Was Light

5. The Many Voices of Destiny

5.1. Falling Apart, Coming Together 5.2. At Harvard 5.3. Enjoying Life 5.4. Listening 5.5. Epilogue: Tinkering with Ourselves 5.6. On the New Eugenics

6. On Forgetting to Wear Boots

6.1. Dignity and Laughter 6.2. Trying to Communicate 6.3. Gift-Bearers 6.4. Serving the Other 6.5. Of Accident and Destiny 6.6. A Parent's Disconcerting Revelation

III. From Information to Education

7. Why Is the Moon Getting Farther Away?

6.1. The Loss of Significance 6.2. Living in a Virtual World 6.3. Learning the Language of Horses 6.4. A Chickadee Lesson

8. Failure to Connect

8.1. Looking for the Benefits 8.2. Remembering the Alternatives

9. Educational Provocations 10. Three Notes: On Baby Walkers, Video Games, and Sex

10.1. Beware the Baby Walker 10.2. Pianists and Video Game Players 10.3. Sex, the Internet, and Educational Reform

11. Who's Killing Higher Education?(Or Is It Suicide?)

11.1. When Business Embraces the Academy 11.2. Buying an Education More Cheaply 11.3. The Credentialed Society 11.4. Toward Greater Standardization 11.5. Becoming Qualified 11.6. Nothing to Teach

IV. On Socializing Our Machines

12. Conversing with Ella 13. Flesh and Machines:The Mere Assertions of Rodney Brooks

13.1. Searching for the Bottom 13.2. Order and Form 13.3. Losing Consciousness 13.4. Turnabout Is Fair Play

14. From HAL to Kismet

14.1. The Human Response 14.2. How Do You Simulate Life? 14.3. Invisible Authors 14.4. Learning from Kismet

15. Invisible Tools or Emotionally Supportive Pals?

15.1. We Need to Recognize Our Own Assumptions 15.2. Complementary Errors 15.3. The Computer in Context

V. On Mechanizing Society

16. Evil 17. The Threat of Technology That Works Well

17.1. Press "1" for Frustration 17.2. An Information Arms Race 17.3. Do Cell Phones Make Us Safer? 17.4. Will Lie-Detecting Software Make Us More Trustworthy? 17.5. The Automobile 17.6. Being Positive by Being Negative

18. The Ideal of Ubiquitous Technology

18.1. Digital Servants Everywhere 18.2. There Are No Solutions 18.3. Not Solutions, But a Strengthening of the "I" 18.4. Automating on Principle 18.5. A Strengthened Inner Activity

19. Privacy in an Age of Data

19.1. The Life of a Vibrant Neighborhood 19.2. The Privacy of Community

20. A Taste for Number Magic

20.1. The Importance of Capitalism 20.2. Flights of Abstraction 20.3. All You Need Is Numbers 20.4. Cutting Ourselves Off from Change 20.5. Beyond the Gambling Hall

21. The Internet: Reflections on Our Present Discontents

21.1. Vacant Efficiency 21.2. Personalizing Our Transactions 21.3. Movable Places 21.4. The Virtue of Friction in the Landscape 21.5. Programming Levity 21.6. A Hope Beyond Technology

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