Here Be Monsters: Is Technology Reducing Our Humanity?

Technology is developing fast – so fast that it threatens to overwhelm the very species whose genius lies in its technological cunning: us. From the metaverse to genetic engineering and mood-altering pharmaceuticals, to cybersex and cyberwar and the widespread automation of work, new technologies are rewriting the terms of our existence, not in a neutral spirit of ‘ progress’ but in line with the priorities of power and profit, and in ways that often work against the grain of our fundamental being. In this timely, provocative book, Richard King argues that we need to evolve a more critical attitude to new technologies if we are to avoid a world in which humans are no different in kind from algorithmic machines. The stakes could not be higher. As science, technology and capitalism fuse into a single system, and activists and entrepreneurs talk of a ‘ post-human’ future in which individuals will transform themselves using powerful computers and biotechnologies, we are entering unchartered territory – a territory marked with the mapmaker’ s warning, Here Be Dragons ... Here Be Monsters.