Context Blindness: Digital Technology and the Next Stage of Human Evolution (Understanding Media Ecology, 10)

Arts & Photography

Berger, Eva

Business of Art

Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers

Review\n"In this provocative and highly accessible book, Eva Berger identifies caetexia as a major malady of today's times, one that bears a wide array of personal, social and political symptoms. Her abundant examples and theoretical connections allow readers to see key patterns across many different changes occurring throughout the contemporary world. In identifying context blindness as an unanticipated evolutionary consequence of digital media, Berger makes our fragmented, disconnected, and perplexing world more intelligible and more understandable. Tom Wolfe famously asked of Marshall McLuhan's work, 'What if he is right?' I could not help but think along the same lines regarding Berger's bold and sobering work here: 'What if she is right?'" --Corey Anton, Vice-President of the Institute of General Semantics, Professor of Communication Studies, Grand Valley State University\n"This is an urgent, stirring, and relevant book. It revives media theory that has been unjustly pushed aside in the digital age and focuses on some of the most interesting challenges we face." --Siva Vaidhyanathan, Author, Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy\n"At once a penetrating social analysis and an eloquent lament for where we are now and where we may be headed, this book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the source of our failings and delusions. Dr. Berger presents a clear, cogent, and concise diagnosis of the ills of present-day culture, one that is essential if we are to begin to seek healing by reclaiming our real, human contexts once more."--Douglas Rushkoff, Author, Present Shock and Team Human\n"In Context Blindness, Dr. Eva Berger presents a persuasive case that human beings, shaped by the media environments we have created, are evolving to a species that will not or cannot attend to the contexts we inhabit. Our ever-present connection to the internet that first intruded upon our sacred spaces (family dinner, classrooms, and churches) has now simply erased our understanding of how behaviors and spaces might differ. This erasure has replaced questions about what subjects and actions are appropriate in a specific context with arguments about trigger warnings and safe spaces--ultimately making no space safe. The algorithms that rule our lives are encouraging cancel culture and blinding us to the very idea of perspective. With an artful and passionate prose, Berger has issued a warning that the toxic human behaviors we are observing may be a natural selection provoked by our own inventions."--Missy Alexander, Provost, Western Connecticut State University\nAre people with autism giving us a glimpse into our future human condition? Could we be driving our own evolution with our technology and, in fact, be witnessing the beginning of the next stage of human evolution? The thesis at the center of this book is that since we have delegated the ability to read context to contextual technologies such as social media, location, and sensors, we have become context blind. Since context blindness-or caetextia in Latin-is one of the most dominant symptoms of autistic behavior at the highest levels of the spectrum, people with autism may indeed be giving us a peek into our human condition soon. We could be witnessing the beginning of the next stage of human evolution-Homo caetextus. With increasingly frequent floods and fires and unbearably hot summers, the human footprint on our planet should be evident to all, but it is not because we are context blind. We can now see and feel global warming. We are witnessing evolution in real-time and birthing our successor species. Our great-grandchildren may be a species very distinct from us. This book is a must for all communication and media studies courses dealing with digital technology, media, culture, and society. And a general reading public concerned with the polarized public sphere, difficulties in sustaining democratic governance,

¿Las personas con autismo nos permiten vislumbrar nuestra futura condición humana? ¿Podríamos estar impulsando nuestra propia evolución con nuestra tecnología y, de hecho, estar asistiendo al inicio de la siguiente etapa de la evolución humana? La tesis central de este libro es que, desde que hemos delegado la capacidad de leer los contextos en tecnologías como las redes sociales, la localización y los sensores, nos hemos vuelto ciegos al contexto. Dado que la ceguera al contexto -o caetextia en latín- es uno de los síntomas más dominantes del comportamiento autista en los niveles más altos del espectro, es posible que las personas con esa condición nos den un vistazo a nuestra propia evolución en el corto plazo. Podríamos estar asistiendo al inicio de la siguiente etapa de la evolución humana: el Homo caetextus. Con inundaciones e incendios cada vez más frecuentes y veranos insoportablemente calurosos, la huella humana en nuestro planeta debería ser evidente para todos, pero no lo es porque estamos ciegos al contexto. Ahora podemos ver y sentir el calentamiento global. Estamos siendo testigos de la evolución en tiempo real y dando a luz a nuestras especies sucesoras. Nuestros bisnietos pueden resultar una especie muy distinta a la nuestra. Este libro es imprescindible para todos los cursos de comunicación y estudios de los medios de comunicación que se ocupan de tecnologías digitales, los medios de comunicación, la cultura y la sociedad. También resultará esclarecedor para un público lector general preocupado por la polarización de la esfera pública, las dificultades para sostener la gobernanza democrática, las conspiraciones desenfrenadas y fenómenos como la cultura de la cancelación y la necesidad de avisos de contenidos sensibles y espacios seguros.

Ceguera contextual: La tecnología digital y la siguiente etapa de la evolución humana (Understanding Media Ecology, 13) (Spanish Edition)

Computers & Technology

Langst eingetreten und fur jeden bereits deutlich spurbar ist der Klimawandel. Begrunungen bieten gerade im stadtisch dicht verbauten Gebiet messbare, ausgleichende Wirkungen an: Parks und Garten, Strassenbegleitgrun, Vorgarten, begrunte Platze und Hofe, Fassadengrun und Dachgrun erhalten in unser sich verandernden Umwelt einen neuen Stellenwert. Als kleine Wiener Geschichte des Dachgartens und der Dachterrasse tragt das Buch zum besseren Verstandnis dieses speziellen Bereiches der Freiraumgestaltung bei. In einem Ruckblick auf die Prototypen von Dachgarten und Dachterrassen ab der Antike bis hin zu Beispielen des 20. Jahrhunderts werden die vielfaltigen Spielarten von Raumen zum Aufenthalt hoch oben im Freien in Wort und Bild aufgezeigt. Von den "Hangenden Garten" der Konigin Semiramis im antiken Babylon, uber zahlreiche Wiener Beispiele bis zum "Terrassenwaldchen", das dem Dissidenten Bogdan Bogdanovic (1922-2010) ermoglichte, sich trotz verhangtem jahrelangen Hausarrests in seiner Belgrader Wohnung im Freien aufzuhalten, reichen diese oft erstaunlichen und bisweilen beruhrenden Moglichkeiten.

Flachdach, Dachterrasse, Dachgarten: Eine Kleine Wiener Geschichte Des Wohnens Im Freien 'Zwischen Himmel Und Erde (Osterreichische Gartengeschichte) (German Edition)

Architecture

Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht

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