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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Death & dying > General
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Understanding Grief
(Paperback)
Brenda C Smith; Designed by G Michael Allen; Edited by G Michael Allen
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R316
Discovery Miles 3 160
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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A gripping account of the Russian visionaries who are pursuing
human immortality As long as we have known death, we have dreamed
of life without end. In The Future of Immortality, Anya Bernstein
explores the contemporary Russian communities of visionaries and
utopians who are pressing at the very limits of the human. The
Future of Immortality profiles a diverse cast of characters, from
the owners of a small cryonics outfit to scientists inaugurating
the field of biogerontology, from grassroots neurotech enthusiasts
to believers in the Cosmist ideas of the Russian Orthodox thinker
Nikolai Fedorov. Bernstein puts their debates and polemics in the
context of a long history of immortalist thought in Russia, with
global implications that reach to Silicon Valley and beyond. If
aging is a curable disease, do we have a moral obligation to end
the suffering it causes? Could immortality be the foundation of a
truly liberated utopian society extending beyond the confines of
the earth-something that Russians, historically, have pondered more
than most? If life without end requires radical genetic
modification or separating consciousness from our biological
selves, how does that affect what it means to be human? As vividly
written as any novel, The Future of Immortality is a fascinating
account of techno-scientific and religious futurism-and the ways in
which it hopes to transform our very being.
Zombies: A Cultural History, now available in paperback, sifts
materials from anthropology, folklore, travel writing, colonial
histories, long-forgotten pulp literature, B-movies, medical
history and cultural theory to give a definitive short introduction
to the zombie, exploring the manifold meanings of this compelling,
slow-moving yet relentless monster.
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