Nihilism and Technology - 2nd Edition by Nolen Gertz (Paperback)

About the Book

Investigating how human values mediate the design and use of new technologies, the updated edition of Nolen Gertz's Nihilism and Technology explores the ramifications of artificial intelligence. Gertz searches for current meanings of "truth" and "progress" in the age of AI, an...

Book Synopsis

Artificial intelligence. Robot workers. Commercial space travel. These are no longer ideas of science fiction. They are increasingly the headlines in the daily news. From Hollywood to higher education, everyone is racing to figure out how to exploit these new technologies and use them to solve all our problems--especially problems related to another subject dominating headlines: the climate change crisis.

Given the existential threat of environmental disaster, we now look to the technologies we once thought impossible to do the impossible, to save us from climate change. Of course, looking to superhuman beings to save us from ourselves is nothing new. This is why turning to Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of nihilism can help us to understand our current predicament, to understand the danger of trying to escape from reality by embracing technological fantasies.

This updated edition expands the investigation into the relationship between nihilism and technology to include new topics like why AI doesn't exist, why ChatGPT shouldn't exist, and why climate change can't be solved by nihilism.

Review Quotes

A hugely engaging book. Gertz manages to both provide a compelling and rich introduction to Friedrich Nietzsche and nihilism as well as avoid the all too common reductionism of popular discourse around technology. The book is a lively and convincing read, which thanks to its wide appeal and accessible and often dryly funny prose, deserves to find a wide audience far outside the often-narrow confines of academic philosophical discourse.

A provocative and unsettling philosophical inquiry into our increasingly compulsive technological practices, revealing how our nihilism and our technologies have been raveled in a twist.

At times uncanny, yet thoroughly unsettling, Nihilism and Technology is an unquestionable synthesis of Nietzschean philosophy of nihilism brought to bear on our often overlooked uses and co-construction of technologies. A timely and original text that should be given exposure beyond the walls of the academy. Its philosophical rigour and treatment of human-technology relations makes it widely readable. It comes highly recommended.

Nolen Gertz is remarkably adept at translating Nietzche's analysis of nihilistic living--which looks at how we develop strategies for coping with a way of life that undermines our very humanity--into instantly recognizable terms.

About the Author

Nolen Gertz is associate professor of applied philosophy at the University of Twente, and a senior researcher at the 4TU Centre for Ethics and Technology. He is the author of The Philosophy of War and Exile and Nihilism. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Forbes, and on ABC Australia.