000 03807nam a2200481 i 4500
001 8564055
003 IEEE
005 20220712204929.0
006 m o d
007 cr |n|||||||||
008 190320s2018 mau ob 001 eng d
020 _a9780262345293
_qelectronic bk.
020 _z9780262037617
024 7 _a10.7551/mitpress/11466.001.0001
_2doi
035 _a(CaBNVSL)mat08564055
035 _a(IDAMS)0b000064888fdb88
040 _aCaBNVSL
_beng
_erda
_cCaBNVSL
_dCaBNVSL
050 4 _aT14.5
_b.P75 2018eb
082 0 4 _a303.48/3
_223
100 1 _aPreston, Christopher J.
_q(Christopher James),
_d1968-
_eauthor.
_925496
245 1 4 _aThe synthetic age :
_boutdesigning evolution, resurrecting species, and reengineering our world /
_cChristopher J. Preston.
264 1 _aCambridge :
_bThe MIT Press,
_c2018
264 2 _a[Piscataqay, New Jersey] :
_bIEEE Xplore,
_c[2019]
300 _a1 PDF (224 pages).
336 _atext
_2rdacontent
337 _aelectronic
_2isbdmedia
338 _aonline resource
_2rdacarrier
506 _aRestricted to subscribers or individual electronic text purchasers.
520 _aImagining 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.
530 _aAlso available in print.
538 _aMode of access: World Wide Web
588 0 _aPrint version record.
650 0 _aTechnology
_xSocial aspects.
_95136
650 0 _aTechnological innovations.
_97308
650 7 _aTechnological innovations.
_2fast
_97308
650 7 _aTechnology
_xSocial aspects.
_2fast
_95136
655 4 _aElectronic books.
_93294
710 2 _aIEEE Xplore (Online Service),
_edistributor.
_925497
710 2 _aMIT Press,
_epublisher.
_925498
776 0 8 _iPrint version:
_aPreston, Christopher J. (Christopher James), 1968- author.
_tSynthetic age
_z9780262037617
_w(DLC) 2017029324
_w(OCoLC)1004013008
856 4 2 _3Abstract with links to resource
_uhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/bkabstractplus.jsp?bkn=8564055
942 _cEBK
999 _c73570
_d73570