Nicholas Agar

Nicholas AgarNicholas AgarNicholas Agar
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    • Home
    • Books
    • Opinion Pieces
      • COVID-19 in 2022
      • COVID-19 in 2021
      • COVID-19 in 2020
      • Future of Work
      • Future of the Humanities
      • Technological Change
      • Issues of the Day

Nicholas Agar

Nicholas AgarNicholas AgarNicholas Agar
  • Home
  • Books
  • Opinion Pieces
    • COVID-19 in 2022
    • COVID-19 in 2021
    • COVID-19 in 2020
    • Future of Work
    • Future of the Humanities
    • Technological Change
    • Issues of the Day

Books

How to be Human in the Digital Economy (2019)

The Sceptical Optimist: Why Technology Isn’t the Answer to Everything (2015)

The Sceptical Optimist: Why Technology Isn’t the Answer to Everything (2015)

A book on the challenge of being human in the digital age. I caution against overconfident claims about our collective digital future. It's good that there are a currently many ideas about how humans could live with AI and other digital technologies. What's wrong is the certainly with which too many of these are advanced. This book calls for a social-digital economy., Machines would exile humans from the part of the economy that privileges efficiency. Humans would dominate the social economy that privileges interactions between human minds. You shouldn't marry a machine and nor should you accept a cyber-barista. These are roles for humans.

 

Translated into Italian as Non essere una macchina (2020) https://www.luissuniversitypress.it/pubblicazioni/non-essere-una-macchina

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The Sceptical Optimist: Why Technology Isn’t the Answer to Everything (2015)

The Sceptical Optimist: Why Technology Isn’t the Answer to Everything (2015)

The Sceptical Optimist: Why Technology Isn’t the Answer to Everything (2015)

This book presents a model of the effects of technological progress on well-being. I argue that there is something paradoxical about the effects of technological progress on well-being. We imagine future technologies and suppose that these would make us much happier. But this belief seems difficult to square with seemingly modest improvement in subjective well-being since centuries past. The phenomenon of hedonic normalisation explains this pattern - we accept as normal the technologies that exist as we come to maturity., Those who look to technological advances to bring great collective happiness - cures for cancer and vacation resorts on Mars - overlook this fact.  For a summary of the idea of hedonic normalisation see https://blog.oup.com/2015/07/future-of-technology/

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Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense Of Limits (2014)

The Sceptical Optimist: Why Technology Isn’t the Answer to Everything (2015)

Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense Of Limits (2014)

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Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement (2010)

Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement (2010)

Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense Of Limits (2014)

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Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement (2004)

Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement (2010)

Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement (2004)

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Perfect Copy: Unravelling the Cloning Debate (2002)

Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement (2010)

Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement (2004)

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Life’s Intrinsic Value: Science, Nature and Value (2001)

Life’s Intrinsic Value: Science, Nature and Value (2001)

Life’s Intrinsic Value: Science, Nature and Value (2001)

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List of Publishers

MIT Press

LUISS University Press

LUISS University Press

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LUISS University Press

LUISS University Press

LUISS University Press

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Oxford University Press

Columbia University Press

Columbia University Press

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Columbia University Press

Columbia University Press

Columbia University Press

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