The Human Age (41 page)

187
“piezoelectrical effect” (literally, “pressing electricity”): using crystals to convert mechanical energy into electricity or vice versa.

Nature, Pixilated

192
mounted shock warfare: Lynn White Jr.,
Medieval Technology and Social Change
(London: Oxford University Press, 1962).

192
“Tinkering with plows and horses”: See Jared Diamond,
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997).

194
Studies also show that Google is affecting our memory in chilling ways: Four studies led by the Columbia University psychologist Betsy Sparrow.

199
“At some medical schools”: In med schools, virtual cadavers aren’t intended to fully replace physical cadavers. McGraw-Hill and many other companies have designed software to use in hospitals, pharmaceutical labs, and Internet courses.

199
Stanford’s Anatomage . . . Virtual Dissection Table: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FFd6VWIPrE.

199
Some days it feels like we’re drowning in a twittering bog of information: The Twitter haiku site is but one example. The “twaikus” appear too fast to contemplate, which rather defeats the original purpose of haikus. But at 140 characters they’re a great way to let off steam, and they’re immensely popular.

When Robots Weep, Who Will Comfort Them?

214
“when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light”: Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein
, chapter 5.

230
On September 14, 2013, the annual Loebner Prize for robots that can pass for human went to a chatbot named Mitsuku. However, it ultimately gave itself away in December with this exchange. Q: “Why am I tired after a long sleep?” A: “The reason is due to my mental model of you as a client.”

231
“Can we live inside a house”: Technological inventions, such as refrigerators and refrigerated train cars, made frozen food possible, including nutritious
out-of-season foods, such as frozen fruits and vegetables. As canning opened up the frontiers and women’s home lives, food production became more and more industrialized. With these and other innovations, between WWI and WWII, a massive change in domesticity took place. And after WWII many changes to the domestic kitchen environment (see Dolores Hayden’s books).

239
complexity is free: Explained especially well in Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman,
Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing
(Indianapolis, IN: Wiley, 2013).

Cyborgs and Chimeras

258
“SyNAPSE” is a backronym (a word chosen and acronym made up to fit it) standing for Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics.

DNA’s Secret Doormen

273
Zdenko Herceg and Toshikazu Ushijima, eds.,
Epigenetics and Cancer, Part B
(San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2010).

273
“China starts televising”: James Nye,
Mail Online
, January 16, 2014.

Meet My Maker, the Mad Molecule

304
Home fecal transplants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLIndT7fuGo.

FURTHER READING

Allen, Robert, ed.
Bulletproof Feathers: How Science Uses Nature’s Secrets to Design Cutting-Edge Technology
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Allenby, Braden.
Reconstructing Earth: Technology and Environment in the Age of Humans
. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005.

Allenby, Braden R., and Daniel Sarewitz.
The Techno-Human Condition
. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.

Alley, Richard B.
Earth: The Operators’ Manual
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Anderson, Walter Truett.
All Connected Now: Life in the First Global Civilization
. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004.

———.
Evolution Isn’t What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World
. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1996.

Anthes, Emily.
Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts
. London: Oneworld, 2013.

Balmford, Andrew.
Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation Success
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Bates, Marston.
Man in Nature
. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964.

Bauerlein, Mark, ed.
The Digital Divide: Arguments for and against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking
. New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 2011.

Benyus, Janine.
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
. New York: William Morrow, 2002.

Berry, Thomas.
The Dream of the Earth
. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990.

Blanc, Patrick.
The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City
. Revised and updated ed. Trans. Gregory Bruhn. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Brand, Stewart.
Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary
. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Brockman, John, ed.
Culture: Leading Scientists Explore Societies, Art, Power, and Technology
. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011.

———. Introduction by W. Daniel Hillis.
Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? The Net’s Impact on Our Minds and Future
. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011.

Brooks, Rodney A.
Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us
. New York: Pantheon, 2002.

Bunce, Michael.
The Countryside Ideal: Anglo-American Images of Landscape
. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Carey, Nessa.
The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance
. London: Icon Books, 2011.

Carr, Nicholas.
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Chaline, Eric.
Fifty Machines That Changed the Course of History
. Buffalo, NY: Firefly, 2012.

Chamovitz, Daniel.
What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.

Church, George, and Ed Regis.
Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves
. New York: Basic Books, 2012.

Cipolla, Carlo M.
Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000–1700
. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.

Clark, Andy.
Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Clegg, Brian.
Inflight Science: A Guide to the World from Your Airplane Window
. London: Icon Books, 2011.

Cochran, Gregory, and Henry Harpending.
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
. New York: Basic Books, 2010.

Cockrall-King, Jennifer.
Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution
. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2012.

Cooper, Jilly.
Animals in War: Valiant Horses, Courageous Dogs, and Other Unsung Animal Heroes
. 1983; rpt. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2002.

Cronon, William, ed.
Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.

Crosby, Alfred W.
Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity’s Unappeasable Appetite for Energy
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

Dake, James.
Field Guide to the Cayuga Lake Region
. Ithaca, NY: Paleontological Research Institution, 2009.

Despommier, Dickson.
The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century
. Foreword by Majora Carter. New York: Picador, 2011.

Diamond, Jared.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
. New ed. with afterword. New York: Penguin, 2011.

———.
The World until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
New York: Viking, 2013.

Dinerstein, Eric.
The Kingdom of Rarities
. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2013.

Dollens, Dennis.
Digital-Botanic Architecture
. Santa Fe, NM: Lumen, 2005.

Drexler, K. Eric.
Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization
. New York: PublicAffairs, 2013.

Dukes, Paul.
Minutes to Midnight: History and the Anthropocene Era from 1763
. New York: Anthem Press, 2011.

Dunn, Rob R.
The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today
. New York: Harper, 2011.

Earle, Sylvia A.
The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One
. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2009.

Edwards, Andres R.
The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift
. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2005.

Fagan, Brian.
The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850
. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Flannery, Tim.
Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet
. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011.

———.
Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future
. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2009.

———.
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
. New York: Grove, 2006.

Forbes, Peter.
The Gecko’s Foot: Bio-inspiration—Engineering New Materials from Nature
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

Francis, Richard C.
Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Fraser, Caroline.
Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution
. New York: Picador, 2010.

Friedel, Robert.
A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium
. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010.

Fukuyama, Francis.
Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
. New York: Picador, 2002.

Gissen, David.
Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environments
. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009.

———, ed.
Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century
. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.

Gore, Al.
The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change
. New York: Random House, 2013.

Gorgolewski, Mark, June Komisar, and Joe Nasr.
Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture
. New York: Monacelli Press, 2011.

Haeg, Fritz.
Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn
. 2nd ed. New York: Metropolis Books, 2010.

Hamilton, Clive.
Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.

Hannibal, Mary Ellen.
The Spine of the Continent
. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2012.

Hansen, James.
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009.

Harman, Jay.
The Shark’s Paintbrush: Biomimicry and How Nature Is Inspiring Innovation
. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2013.

Hauter, Wenonah.
Foodopoly: The Battle over the Future of Food and Farming in America
. New York: New Press, 2012.

Hayden, Dolores.
Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820–2000
. New York: Vintage, 2004.

———.
The Grand Domestic Revolution
. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982.

Humes, Edward.
Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet
. New York: Ecco, 2009.

Hutchins, Ross E.
Nature Invented It First
. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980.

Jablonka, Eva, and Marion J. Lamb.
Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life
. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.

Jackson, John Brinckerhoff.
Discovering the Vernacular Landscape
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.

James, Sarah, and Torbjörn Lahti.
The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices
. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2004.

Jellicoe, Geoffrey, and Susan Jellicoe.
The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day
. 3rd expanded and updated ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

Kahn, Peter H., Jr., and Patricia H. Hasbach, eds.
Ecopsychology: Science, Totems, and the Technological Species
. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.

Kazez, Jean.
Animalkind: What We Owe to Animals
. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Keeney, L. Douglas.
Lights of Mankind: The Earth at Night as Seen from Space
. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2012.

Kintisch, Eli.
Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope—or Worst Nightmare—for Averting Climate Catastrophe
. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.

Klein, Caroline, et al., eds.
Regenerative Infrastructures: Freshkills Park, NYC—Land Art Generator Initiative
. New York: Prestel, 2013.

Klyza, Christopher, ed.
Wilderness Comes Home: Rewilding the Northeast
. Hanover, NH: Middlebury College Press, 2001.

Kolbert, Elizabeth.
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006.

Kranzberg, Melvin, and Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., eds.
Technology in Western Civilization
, vol. 1,
The Emergence of Modern Industrial Society, Earliest Times to 1900
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.

Kurzweil, Ray.
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
. New York: Penguin, 1999.

Langmuir, Charles H., and Wally Broeker.
How to Build a Habitable Planet: The Story of Earth from the Big Bang to Humankind
. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.

Lindsay, Ronald.
Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas
. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2008.