Enchanting Robots

Enchanting Robots
Author: Maciej Musiał
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2019-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030125793

This book argues that robots are enchanting humans (as potential intimate partners), because humans are enchanting robots (by performing magical thinking), and that these processes are a part of a significant re-enchantment of the “modern” world. As a foundation, the author examines arguments for and against intimate relationships with robots, particularly sex robots and care robots. Moreover, the book provides a consideration of human-robot interactions and philosophical reflections about robots through the lens of magic and magical thinking as well as theoretical and practical re-evaluations of their status and presence. Furthermore, the author discusses the abovementioned issues in the context of disenchantment and re-enchantment of the world, characterizing modernity as a coexistence of these two processes. The book closes with a consideration of future scenarios regarding the meaning of life in the age of rampant automation and the possibility that designing robots becomes a sort of new eugenics as a consequence of recognizing robots as persons.

The Enchantments of Technology

The Enchantments of Technology
Author: Lee Bailey
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0252090446

In The Enchantments of Technology, Lee Worth Bailey erases the conventional distinction between myth and machine in order to explore the passionate foundations concealed in technological culture and address its complex ethical, moral and social implications. Bailey argues that technological society does not simply disenchant the world with its reductive methods and mechanical metaphors, then shape machines with political motives, but is also borne by a deeper, subversive undertow of enchantment. Addressing examples to explore the complexities of these enchantments, his thought is full of illuminating examinations of seductively engaging technologies ranging from the old camera obscura to new automobiles, robots, airplanes, and spaceships. This volume builds on the work of numerous scholars, including Jacques Ellul and Jean Brun on the phenomenological and spiritual aspects of technology, Carl Jung on the archetypal collective unconscious approach to myth, and Martin Heidegger on Being itself. Bailey creates a dynamic, interdisciplinary, postmodern examination of how our machines and their environments embody not only reason, but also desires.

Enchanted Objects

Enchanted Objects
Author: David Rose
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2014-07-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1476725659

In the tradition of Who Owns the Future, an MIT Media Lab scientist imagines how everyday objects can intuit our needs, improve our lives, and form “an ethereal interconnection of gadgets and human desires that...will pervade our lives in the very near future” (The Wall Street Journal). We are now standing at the precipice of the next transformative development, a world in which technology becomes more human. Soon, connected technology will be embedded in hundreds of everyday objects we already use: our cars, wallets, watches, umbrellas, even our trash cans. These objects will respond to our needs, come to know us, and even learn to think ahead on our behalf. David Rose calls these devices—which are just beginning to creep into the marketplace—Enchanted Objects. In Rose’s vision of the future, technology atomizes, combining itself with the objects that make up the very fabric of daily living. Such innovations will be woven into the background of our environment, enhancing human relationships, channeling desires for omniscience, long life, and creative expression. The enchanted objects of fairy tales and science fiction will enter real life. Groundbreaking, timely, and provocative, Enchanted Objects is a “delightful” (The New York Times) blueprint for a better future, where efficient solutions come hand in hand with technology that delights our senses. It is essential reading for designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone who wishes to take a glimpse into the future.

An Enchantment of Digital Archaeology

An Enchantment of Digital Archaeology
Author: Shawn Graham
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789207878

The use of computation in archaeology is a kind of magic, a way of heightening the archaeological imagination. Agent-based modelling allows archaeologists to test the ‘just-so’ stories they tell about the past. It requires a formalization of the story so that it can be represented as a simulation; researchers are then able to explore the unintended consequences or emergent outcomes of stories about the past. Agent-based models are one end of a spectrum that, at the opposite side, ends with video games. This volume explores this spectrum in the context of Roman archaeology, addressing the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of a formalized approach to computation and archaeogaming.

Enchanted Looms

Enchanted Looms
Author: Rodney Cotterill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 534
Release: 1998
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780521794626

This beautifully written 1998 book examining consciousness, and which received high praise in the reviews, is now available in paperback.

Surrogate Humanity

Surrogate Humanity
Author: Neda Atanasoski
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2019-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478004452

In Surrogate Humanity Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora trace the ways in which robots, artificial intelligence, and other technologies serve as surrogates for human workers within a labor system entrenched in racial capitalism and patriarchy. Analyzing myriad technologies, from sex robots and military drones to sharing-economy platforms, Atanasoski and Vora show how liberal structures of antiblackness, settler colonialism, and patriarchy are fundamental to human---machine interactions, as well as the very definition of the human. While these new technologies and engineering projects promise a revolutionary new future, they replicate and reinforce racialized and gendered ideas about devalued work, exploitation, dispossession, and capitalist accumulation. Yet, even as engineers design robots to be more perfect versions of the human—more rational killers, more efficient workers, and tireless companions—the potential exists to develop alternative modes of engineering and technological development in ways that refuse the racial and colonial logics that maintain social hierarchies and inequality.

The Enchanted Realm

The Enchanted Realm
Author: H. Adam
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2005-03-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1412044170

An ingenious, brilliant mix of mystic, magic and action-packed adventures. A must-read book!

The Enchanted Screen

The Enchanted Screen
Author: Jack Zipes
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 894
Release: 2011-01-27
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1135853940

The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films offers readers a long overdue, comprehensive look at the rich history of fairy tales and their influence on film, complete with the inclusion of an extensive filmography compiled by the author. With this book, Jack Zipes not only looks at the extensive, illustrious life of fairy tales and cinema, but he also reminds us that, decades before Walt Disney made his mark on the genre, fairy tales were central to the birth of cinema as a medium, as they offered cheap, copyright-free material that could easily engage audiences not only though their familiarity but also through their dazzling special effects. Since the story of fairy tales on film stretches far beyond Disney, this book, therefore, discusses a broad range of films silent, English and non-English, animation, live-action, puppetry, woodcut, montage (Jim Henson), cartoon, and digital. Zipes, thus, gives his readers an in depth look into the special relationship between fairy tales and cinema, and guides us through this vast array of films by tracing the adaptations of major fairy tales like "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Peter Pan," and many more, from their earliest cinematic appearances to today. Full of insight into some of our most beloved films and stories, and boldly illustrated with numerous film stills, The Enchanted Screen, is essential reading for film buffs and fans of the fairy tale alike.

Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen

Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen
Author: Aleksandr Andreas Wansbrough
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1501356402

Myths such as Narcissus' reflection, Pandora's box, and Plato's cave have been used to frame modern technological dangers; often to describe people absorbed in their own digital reflections. Such speculation either purports that technology has a magical power or else that technology merely represents human nature unchanged from the myth's inception. But those accounts ignore the paradoxical understandings of the power relationships allegorized, where people are manipulated by higher forces beyond their comprehension. Working from the assumption that capitalism rather than God is the highest power, this book examines mythic anticipations of the screen and digital technology from European literature, poetry, folklore and philosophy. Digital technology and social media are approached not as reflections of human nature but capitalist ideology's power to enchant. To this end, Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen also surveys a diverse variety of films, digital media and contemporary artworks to understand and critique how myths are reimagined today.

Enchanted Flight

Enchanted Flight
Author: Donijo Ash
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013-04-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1483619125

Surprises, adventures, and intrigue fill this spellbinding story. When a vile 'worse than death two hundred year' spell is cast on Ian and Deborah, it changes their lives forever. They discover an unusual friend and soon learn that their new home will be taken from them by a ruthless greedy banker. With help, and following their hearts, the pair take on a daring magical quest to a strange world beyond the moon to save the farm. Zor Zanger (the evil giant), unexpected events, dragons, dinosaurs, and a boiling volcano add to the earthlings' frightening perils. A simple fairy tale turns into a wild and brave struggle for freedom. The companions learn about friendship, devoted love, and a yearning desire to survive. Tears, smiles, and terror fi ll the pages of this heartwarming tale with its unusual revelations.