Connection

How Technology Can Make Us Better Humans
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-0-231-22016-3
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: No Limits

Technology gets a bad rap. It is accused of being a dehumanizing force, a chief culprit in everything from mass commercialization to environmental crisis through the potential collapse of civilization. In Connection, Dan Turello reflects on the origins and limitations of such views. He offers a philosophical and literary meditation on what technology is and can be, arguing that it provides surprising ways to strengthen and deepen what makes us human.

Putting medieval Italian poets and Renaissance artists in conversation with contemporary philosophers and pop culture, this book traces the roots of our fascination with—and aversion to—technology. Turello shows how the moments that shaped Western views of technology offer perspective on our current predicaments, as figures such as St. Francis of Assisi and Dante grappled with problems that are strikingly reminiscent of the ones we face today. Challenging nostalgia for preindustrial innocence, he demonstrates that historically technology has enabled us to develop art, philosophy, religion, and culture. Today, technology can safeguard human creativity—if we choose self-awareness and community over consumption and exploitation. Wide-ranging and inviting, Connection makes a timely case for embodied experience in the age of AI.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Turello, Dan

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Naturwissenschaften, Technik, Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wissenssoziologie, Wissenschaftssoziologie, Techniksoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Romanische Literaturen Italienische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface: How to Read This Book
1. One Day, In a Santa Barbara Bar
2. Making Sense of Dinosaurs and Humans: Technology and the Origin of the Civil
3. Naked Friars: Technology and the Sustenance of Contemplative Life
4. Nostalgic Poets: Technology in Defense of Intimacy
5. Insatiable Artists: Technology and Consumer Identity in the Renaissance
6. Ego, Magnificence, Catastrophe: Technology and the Dilemmas of Postmodern Consumption
7. The Robot and the Philosopher: A Photographic Meditation
Notes
Further Reading
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dan Turello is a writer, cultural historian, and photographer. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Psyche, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others, as well as in scholarly journals.