Widely acclaimed upon its release as a future classic, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 is visually stunning, philosophically profound, and a provocative extension of the story in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Containing specially commissioned chapters by a roster of international contributors, this fascinating collection explores philosophical questions that abound in Blade Runner 2049, including: What distinguishes the authentically "human" person? How might natality condition one's experience of being-in-the-world? How might shared memories feature in the constitution of personal identities? What happens when created beings transcend the limits intended in their design? What (if anything) is it like to be a hologram? Can artificial beings participate in genuinely romantic relationships? How might developing artificial economics impact our behaviour as prosumers? What are the implications of techno-human enhancement in an era of surveillance capitalism? Including a foreword by Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049: A Philosophical Exploration is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, film studies, philosophy of mind, psychology, gender studies, and conceptual issues in cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

Widely acclaimed upon its release as a future classic, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 is visually stunning, philosophically profound, and a provocative extension of the story in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Containing specially commissioned chapters by a roster of international contributors, this fascinating collection explores philosophical questions that abound in Blade Runner 2049, including: What distinguishes the authentically "human" person? How might natality condition one's experience of being-in-the-world? How might shared memories feature in the constitution of personal identities? What happens when created beings transcend the limits intended in their design? What (if anything) is it like to be a hologram? Can artificial beings participate in genuinely romantic relationships? How might developing artificial economics impact our behaviour as prosumers? What are the implications of techno-human enhancement in an era of surveillance capitalism? Including a foreword by Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049: A Philosophical Exploration is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, film studies, philosophy of mind, psychology, gender studies, and conceptual issues in cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

Alongside existing research into the social, political and economic impacts of the Web, there is a need to study the Web from a cognitive and epistemic perspective. This is particularly so as new and emerging technologies alter the nature of our interactive engagements with the Web, transforming the extent to which our thoughts and actions are shaped by the online environment. Situated and ecological approaches to cognition are relevant to understanding the cognitive significance of the Web because of the emphasis they place on forces and factors that reside at the level of agent-world interactions. In particular, by adopting a situated or ecological approach to cognition, we are able to assess the significance of the Web from the perspective of research into embodied, extended, embedded, social and collective cognition. The results of this analysis help to reshape the interdisciplinary configuration of Web Science, expanding its theoretical and empirical remit to include the disciplines of both cognitive science and the philosophy of mind. Minds Online: The Interface between Web Science, Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Mind heeds the call of the early Web Science pioneers by expanding the interdisciplinary scope of Web Science, specifically, to accommodate the disciplines of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind. There is a substantial literature to support this expansionist agenda. Given the centrality of cognition to our species-specific capabilities, as well as the level of public and scientific interest in the Web, now is arguably an appropriate time to review this literature and explicate the nature of the linkages that connect the science of the Web with the sciences of the mind.

With Different Eyes began as as a series of newspaper stories in the late winter of 2020 when the coronavirus began to spread. The author Paul Smart, a veteran Hudson Valley journalist of 30-plus years, reported on the unfolding pandemic. A temporary lockdown, New York on Pause, workers sent home. Schools closed & playgrounds taped off. Vicious politics and then George Floyd was murdered. Protests spread, met by an increasingly belligerent institutional response. Violence spiraled as Trump doubled down on his bid for reelection. Through it all, Smart looks deep into his own bereavement for recently-passed parents, even as the lockdown seemed to offer refuge as well as the hope for real change—an epochal forbearance. In turn, Richard Kroehling, filmmaker, installation artist, and the co-maker of With Different Eyes, started painting, playing with images. He dove into his own stew of loss, regret, and undiminished hopes, even as the national angst deepened his visual take. He shared his evolving imagescape with his longtime friend, who was simultaneously sharing his blog entries. Thus this book arose out of friendship, which proves the glue that makes this work cohere in spite of all.