Week of March 16, 2009
News Item: In February MIT Professor Ray Kurzweil secured an agreement with NASA and Google to embark on “Singularity University.” SU will offer classes and research programs examining biotechnology, nanotechnology, and Kurzweil’s overall vision of a society where the “artificial intelligence” and decision making powers of computers will eventually surpass and replace similar capacities of humans. Especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, social scientists and self-proclaimed “futurologists” have assessed and ventured predictions on how automation and information technology influence economics, culture, and society. The establishment of SU provokes further concern about the present and future relationships between technology and society.
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After the New Economy: The Binge…And the Hangover That Won’t Go Away
By Doug Henwood. New Press, 2003
Call Number: HC106.83 .H46 2003
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
By Ray Kurzweil. Viking, 1999
Call Number: Q335 .K88 1999
Being Digital
By Nicholas Negroponte. Knopf, 1995
Call Number: TK5103.7 .N43 1995
The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting
By Daniel Bell. Basic Books, 1973
Call Number: HN17.5 .B83
Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education
By David F. Noble. Monthly Review Press, 2001
Call Number: LB2395.7 .N63 2001
The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace
By Vincent Mosco. MIT Press, 2004
Call Number: Available online through NetLibrary
Future Shock
By Alvin Toffler. Random House, 1970
Call Number: HN17.5 .T64
How to Think about Information
By Dan Schiller. U of Illinois Press, 2007
Call Number: HC79 .I22 S35 2007
The Making of a Cybertariat: Virtual Work in a Real World
By Ursula Huws. Monthly Review Press, 2003
Call Number: HD6331 .H89 2003 (At Treasure Coast)
Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence
By Andy Clark. Oxford UP, 2003
Call Number: T14.5 .C58 2003 and NetLibrary
The New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age
By Simon Head. Oxford UP, 2003
Call Number: HC106.83 .H4 2003 (At Jupiter)
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
By Ray Kurzweil. Viking, 2005
Call Number: QP376 .K85 2005 (At Jupiter)