Joseph R. Carvalko Jr. - Conserving Humanity at the Dawn of Posthuman Technology

Joseph R. Carvalko Jr.

Conserving Humanity at the Dawn of Posthuman Technology

FromHomo sapienstoHomo futuro, Carvalko tracks our posthuman trajectory beginning with everything that defines us as being.Whoorwhatwill remain given our insatiable desire to keep innovating, even at the expense of our very selves? He asks that vital question: is this path what we claim as our humanity? A gripping depiction of a technological roadmap based on confluence incorporating societal repercussions, and the role of policy and ethics. Carvalko is an engineer and lawyer who interweaves his practice with wisdom and storytelling. A must read.

Katina Michael,Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering at Arizona State University, USA, and Founding Editor-in-Chief ofIEEE Transactions on Technology and Society

Joseph Carvalko offers the reader a masterfully presented monograph, bringing together philosophical, historical, scientific and technological perspectives of post-human in an engaging and illuminating fashion. Through a multi-disciplinary treatment of the subject matter, the author guides the reader through the changing nature of creativity and technologys effects on human dignity as we inch toward a trans- and post-human existence that is akin to a science fiction novel, in which trans-humans, cyborgs and humanoid robots are commonplace. This book is a must-read for practitioners, scholars, students and those interested in the tensions between technological progress, creativity and ethics. Highly recommended!

Roba Abbas,Lecturer in Operations and Digital Business, School of Management, and Operations and Marketing at the University of Wollongong, Australia, and Associate Editor of theIEEE Technology and Society Magazine

This is a deeply inspiring book, written by a technologist who is truly a humanist, a professor who talks simply like your dear friend drinking coffee with you, and a lawyer who doesnt let laws muddy your mind, making the legal concepts simple. But most importantly Carvalkos astonishing writerly hands gift us a book about major issues of our time, ones that can be easily understood in one sentence: My son, the answer to that question is in your hands.

Da Chen, New York Timesbestselling author ofColors of the Mountain,a memoir (1999)

This is an important book. The author, Joseph Carvalko, understands the technical, legal and cultural aspects of our burgeoning high technology based on his experience as an engineer, an attorney, and a musician of uncommon talent. He brings his polymathic perspective to issues that are more commonly addressed from only a single point of view. He wrestles with deep questions of our identity as human beings, and our future when our capacity to change our genome, our brains, and our bodies have increased beyond anything conceivable in prior eras. The future may be unknowable in detail, but it is certainly something we need to prepare for, so that we may steer in the direction of human freedom and flourishing. This book will help you ponder how we might accomplish that.

Michael LaTorra,former Professor of English at New Mexico State University, USA, member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and former Chair of Humanity Plus

Carvalko brings a pragmatic look at the co-shaping entanglement of people and technologies characteristic of our age. In this timely contribution, he considers the various implications of this productive entanglement, including the ethical ones: what personhood means, what it means to be human is redefined by the technologies around. Carvalkos message is cautiously optimistic: technologies will never take away our humanity. But it is only in reflecting on the productive impact of technologies on people and drawing on our creativity that we can continuously rediscover the value of humanity in the technological age.

Olya Kudina,postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didnt stop to think if they should (Jurassic Park). Jeff Goldblums famous line precisely sums up the premise of Carvalkos book: scientists never consider the second and third order of effects that arise from their discoveries. But new technologies always present a double-edged sword of promise and danger. His well-researched book tackles the dilemma of how genetic engineering and artificial intelligence may fundamentally change what it means to be considered human, and whether creativity is a trait exclusive to the non-technically enhanced human.

Deborah Carr,DVM, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, M.P.H., Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and M.F.A., Fairfield University, USA