New Romantic Cyborgs

New Romantic Cyborgs promises both to help us understand how humans interact with AI and new ICT in the context of earlier technological innovation, and to develop new ways to think about and relate to machines

Coeckelbergh shows how romanticism does not turn away from technology and science, but is fascinated by it.

Due to the amazing advances of science and technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it is easy to overlook the influence of romanticism on society and, in this sense, New Romantic Cyborgs presents a solid counterbalance.

…drawing on and quoting amply from an extensive secondary literature, Coeckelbergh paints a more complex and nuanced picture [of romanticism]. Avoiding any sharp, unitary definition, he variously associates romanticism with fascination with the sublime, Gothic motifs, transcendence and echantment.

Coeckelbergh is at his best when arguing that twenty-first century ICTs represent a new stage in the relationship of humans and machines; he is persuasive in tracing the steps that led up to it, and he is right to sort ouf the long-term inplications of our novel condition….New Romantic Cyborgs identifies a new reality and poses powerful questions. The search for answers is only the beginning.

This well-researched, rich text challenges the idea that technology is contrary to Romantic concepts of being….Providing a rigorous literary and social history of Romanticism as layered social, literary, artistic, and cultural movements, Coeckelbergh…demonstrates proficient knowledge of the subject matter….This text will serve as a strong introduction to Romanticism across historical periods for scholars in technology studies, media studies, or similar interdisciplinary fields, or as an enrichment for historians interested in these time periods who wish to engage with questions about technology and media.

Mark Coeckelbergh is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna and author of New Romantic Cyborgs- Romanticism, Information Technology, and the End of the Machine (MIT Press).