Skip Nav Destination
Close Modal
Update search
NARROW
Format
Subjects
Date
Availability
1-19 of 19
Christopher J. Preston
Close
Follow your search
Access your saved searches in your account
Would you like to receive an alert when new items match your search?
Sort by
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.001.0001
EISBN: 9780262345293
Imagining a future in which humans fundamentally reshape the natural world using nanotechnology, synthetic biology, de-extinction, and climate engineering. We have all heard that there are no longer any places left on Earth untouched by humans. The significance of this goes beyond statistics documenting melting glaciers and shrinking species counts. It signals a new geological epoch. In The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston argues that what is most startling about this coming epoch is not only how much impact humans have had but, more important, how much deliberate shaping they will start to do. Emerging technologies promise to give us the power to take over some of Nature's most basic operations. It is not just that we are exiting the Holocene and entering the Anthropocene; it is that we are leaving behind the time in which planetary change is just the unintended consequence of unbridled industrialism. A world designed by engineers and technicians means the birth of the planet's first Synthetic Age. Preston describes a range of technologies that will reconfigure Earth's very metabolism: nanotechnologies that can restructure natural forms of matter; “molecular manufacturing” that offers unlimited repurposing; synthetic biology's potential to build, not just read, a genome; “biological mini-machines” that can outdesign evolution; the relocation and resurrection of species; and climate engineering attempts to manage solar radiation by synthesizing a volcanic haze, cool surface temperatures by increasing the brightness of clouds, and remove carbon from the atmosphere with artificial trees that capture carbon from the breeze. What does it mean when humans shift from being caretakers of the Earth to being shapers of it? And in whom should we trust to decide the contours of our synthetic future? These questions are too important to be left to the engineers.
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0001
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0002
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0003
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0004
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0005
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0006
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0007
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0008
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0009
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0010
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0011
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0012
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0013
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0014
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0015
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0016
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0017
EISBN: 9780262345293
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 16 March 2018
DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11466.003.0018
EISBN: 9780262345293