The extended self: Architecture, memes and minds
Despite local and international efforts promoting sustainable development and design, little progress has been made in reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases and averting catastrophic climate change. In his wide-ranging study of architecture and cultural evolution, the author contends that, underlying the inertia is a general resistance to changing personal and social identities shaped by a technological culture and its energy-hungry products.

The book traces the roots of that culture to the coevolution of Homo sapiens and technology, from the first use of tools as artificial extensions of the human body, to the motorised cities spreading around the world, whose uncontrolled effects are fast changing the planet, and latterly, the Internet, with its own radical impacts. Advancing a new concept of the meme, called the 'technical meme', as the primary agent of cognitive extension and technical embodiment, the author proposes a theory of the 'extended self' as a complex and diffuse outcome of that coevolution. Challenging conventional ideas of the self as a separate and autonomous being, the extended self, he argues, encompasses material and spatial as well as psychological and social elements, including the built environment and artifacts, and now reaches out into the virtual worlds of cyberspace.

Drawing upon research into extended cognition and embodied minds from philosophy, psychology and the neurosciences, together with other relevant fields of knowledge, the book presents a new approach to environmental and cultural studies. Written in a clear and engaging manner, it will also appeal to the general reader searching for insights into the most pressing issues of our time.
1125711551
The extended self: Architecture, memes and minds
Despite local and international efforts promoting sustainable development and design, little progress has been made in reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases and averting catastrophic climate change. In his wide-ranging study of architecture and cultural evolution, the author contends that, underlying the inertia is a general resistance to changing personal and social identities shaped by a technological culture and its energy-hungry products.

The book traces the roots of that culture to the coevolution of Homo sapiens and technology, from the first use of tools as artificial extensions of the human body, to the motorised cities spreading around the world, whose uncontrolled effects are fast changing the planet, and latterly, the Internet, with its own radical impacts. Advancing a new concept of the meme, called the 'technical meme', as the primary agent of cognitive extension and technical embodiment, the author proposes a theory of the 'extended self' as a complex and diffuse outcome of that coevolution. Challenging conventional ideas of the self as a separate and autonomous being, the extended self, he argues, encompasses material and spatial as well as psychological and social elements, including the built environment and artifacts, and now reaches out into the virtual worlds of cyberspace.

Drawing upon research into extended cognition and embodied minds from philosophy, psychology and the neurosciences, together with other relevant fields of knowledge, the book presents a new approach to environmental and cultural studies. Written in a clear and engaging manner, it will also appeal to the general reader searching for insights into the most pressing issues of our time.
36.95 In Stock
The extended self: Architecture, memes and minds

The extended self: Architecture, memes and minds

by Chris Abel
The extended self: Architecture, memes and minds

The extended self: Architecture, memes and minds

by Chris Abel

eBook

$36.95 

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Overview

Despite local and international efforts promoting sustainable development and design, little progress has been made in reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases and averting catastrophic climate change. In his wide-ranging study of architecture and cultural evolution, the author contends that, underlying the inertia is a general resistance to changing personal and social identities shaped by a technological culture and its energy-hungry products.

The book traces the roots of that culture to the coevolution of Homo sapiens and technology, from the first use of tools as artificial extensions of the human body, to the motorised cities spreading around the world, whose uncontrolled effects are fast changing the planet, and latterly, the Internet, with its own radical impacts. Advancing a new concept of the meme, called the 'technical meme', as the primary agent of cognitive extension and technical embodiment, the author proposes a theory of the 'extended self' as a complex and diffuse outcome of that coevolution. Challenging conventional ideas of the self as a separate and autonomous being, the extended self, he argues, encompasses material and spatial as well as psychological and social elements, including the built environment and artifacts, and now reaches out into the virtual worlds of cyberspace.

Drawing upon research into extended cognition and embodied minds from philosophy, psychology and the neurosciences, together with other relevant fields of knowledge, the book presents a new approach to environmental and cultural studies. Written in a clear and engaging manner, it will also appeal to the general reader searching for insights into the most pressing issues of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781526114280
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Publication date: 10/28/2016
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 9 MB

About the Author

Chris Abel is an independent scholar and a member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics (ICAC)

Table of Contents

Introduction
PART I
1. The common bond
2. The body nucleus
3. Embodied minds
PART II
4. Technics and the human
5. Rethinking evolution
6. From genes to memes
PART III
7. Types and taxonomies
8. Technical memes and assemblages
9. Combinatorial design
PART IV
10. Recasting the extended self
11. Appropriating cyberspace
Postscript
Bibliography
Index
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