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Informationen zum Autor Chris Abel is an independent scholar and member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) Klappentext In his wide-ranging study of architecture and cultural evolution, Chris Abel argues that, despite progress in sustainable development and design, resistance to changing personal and social identities shaped by a technology-based and energy-hungry culture is impeding efforts to avert drastic climate change. 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 motorized cities spreading around the world, whose uncontrolled effects are fast changing the planet itself. Advancing a new concept of the meme, called the 'technical meme,' as the primary agent of cognitive extension and technical embodiment, Abel 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 explains, encompasses material and spatial as well as psychological and social elements, including the built environment and artifacts, and now reaches out into the virtual world of cyberspace. Drawing upon research into extended cognition and embodied minds from philosophy, psychology and the neurosciences, the book presents a new approach to environmental and cultural studies. Written in a clear and engaging manner, it addresses a broad readership searching for insights into the origins of the environmental crisis. Zusammenfassung Refuting popular concepts of the self as separate beings, the author proposes a new theory of the “extended self” as a product of the coevolution of humankind and technology, comprising both social and material elements -- . Inhaltsverzeichnis IntroductionPART I1. The common bond2. The body nucleus 3. Embodied minds PART II4. Technics and the human 5. Rethinking evolution 6. From genes to memes PART III7. Types and taxonomies 8. Technical memes and assemblages 9. Combinatorial design PART IV10. Recasting the extended self 11. Appropriating cyberspace PostscriptBibliographyIndex...
