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(More customer reviews)In page after page this provocative and compact volume, Ihde displays unparalleled skill in discerning nuance and subtlety in technological issues of the highest significance that others frame-- to their detriment and our own-- in overly simplistic terms. Rather than joining the chorus of disappointed modernists by demeaning the value of sober deliberation, Ironic Technics crucially contributes to democratic debates about the existentially and culturally transformative capacity of innovation. This contribution occurs through Ihde's surprising and witty revelations of the implicit values, biases, and evidentiary omissions that lend greater cognitive authority to "literal" discourse than is deserved. Simply put, Kierkegaard's ironic legacy lives on in Ihde's variational contrasts between technological expectations and technological reality.
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Even before we humans became modern as homo sapiens we were busy inventing technologies.But our technologies also invent us as humans. And as we reflect upon this process, too often our interpretations have taken utopian or dystopian directions: our technologies will make life infinitely better and lead us into utopian realms, or our technologies will condemn us to alienation or even destroy our humanity itself.This set of essays, however, looks at theironic dimensions of human-technology relations, at unpredicted, unexpected, surprizing outcomes. Are we today in a ‘knowledge society'?And, if so, are we wiser?Can we design' intended uses into our technologies? Or, do theyalways surprise us with the unexpected?Can we ‘technologize' our very bodies? Become ever more Cyborgean?And have we or could we become ‘posthuman'? Here, drawing from a rich history of technologies, Ironic Technics takes a critical look at these contemporary, but also ancientquestions.
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