Nicholas Agar: 5 books

A nuanced discussion of human enhancement that argues for enhancement that does not significantly exceed what is currently possible for human beings. The transformative potential of genetic and cybernetic technologies to enhance human capabilities is most often either rejected on moral and...

An argument that achieving millennial life spans or monumental intellects will destroy values that give meaning to human lives. Proposals to make us smarter than the greatest geniuses or to add thousands of years to our life spans seem fit only for the spam folder or trash can. And yet this...

An argument in favor of finding a place for humans (and humanness) in the future digital economy. In the digital economy, accountants, baristas, and cashiers can be automated out of employment; so can surgeons, airline pilots, and cab drivers. Machines will be able to do these jobs more efficiently,...

The rapid developments in technologies — especially computing and the advent of many 'smart' devices, as well as rapid and perpetual communication via the Internet — has led to a frequently voiced view which Nicholas Agar describes as 'radical optimism'. Radical optimists claim that accelerating...

Advances in our scientific understanding and technological power in recent decades have dramatically amplified our capacity to intentionally manipulate complex ecological and biological systems. An implication of this is that biological and ecological problems are increasingly understood and approached...