A quotation:
"If we are machines, we can only do as we are bidden to do by the mechanical laws of our mechanical nature....But suppose we don't subscribe to this determinism. Suppose we don't believe that creatures are machines....To confuse or conflate creatures with machines not only makes it impossible to see the differences between them; it also masks the conflict between creatures and machines that under industrialism has resulted so far in an almost continuous sequence of victories of machines over creatures....It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines." - Wendell Berry, Life Is a MiraclePosted by tripp at June 24, 2009 09:21 AM
What is the date of this quote? I understand there is a genre of Science Fiction that posits precisely this future. I think it falls under the term "post-humanist". Some even depicting the people living as machines as the ideal future, or at least a positive thing. I unfortunately do not know authors or books, I know this only because some students at Columbia I know recently took a post-humanist literature course.
I'd have to take a peek and see. You know, Scandal of Particularity (someone who attends Reconciler) has written and read a lot about post-humanism. She'd be able to lead you to some good resources.
Or you could read Azimov.
Posted by: Tripp at June 25, 2009 11:29 AMI have read Azimov, not all but a bit of both his fiction and non-fiction and I am not sure I'd place him in the post-humanist camp, at least not the sort of post-humanism I have been hearing about,that is the one that sees it as a positive thing that there would be "people who wish to live as machines."
This I had not realized about Scandal of Paritcularity.
Posted by: Larry at June 26, 2009 07:48 AM