{"product_id":"prosthetic-immortalities-adam-r-rosenthal-9781517916589","title":"Prosthetic Immortalities: Biology, Transhumanism, and the Search for Indefinite Life Volume 71","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExamining the links between today's ideas of radical life extension and age-old notions of immortality\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e From Plato's notion of generation to Derrida's concept of survival to such modern phenomena as anti-aging treatments, cryogenics, cloning, and whole-brain uploads, Adam Rosenthal's \u003ci\u003eProsthetic Immortalities\u003c\/i\u003e shows how the dream of indefinite life has always been a technological one: a matter of prosthesis. He argues that every biological instance of perpetual life, from one-celled organisms to rejuvenating jellyfish to Henrietta Lacks's \"immortal\" cancer cells, always results in the transformation of the original being. There can, therefore, be no certainty of immortality. Yet, because finite mortal life is already marked by difference, division, and change, as Rosenthal concludes: \"the problem of immortality will not cease to haunt us.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eProsthetic Immortalities\u003c\/i\u003e examines the persistence of humans' aspirations of deathlessness, showing that the link between immortalization and prostheticization is not unique to a single period but is, rather, a ubiquitous element of the discourse of immortality, encompassing both modern technoscientific efforts and religious discourses of an afterlife. Rosenthal asks to what extent the emergence of a virtual, posited, immortal presence follows from the tenets of empirical science--and not simply from the discourse of biology but also, and more radically still, from biological organization itself. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Rosenthal ultimately argues that the discovery of biological immortals--lifeforms that naturally have indefinitely long lifespans, such as cancer cells and bacteria--present novel conceptual difficulties for traditional philosophical approaches to mortality and selfhood, asking whether it is \u003ci\u003elife itself\u003c\/i\u003e that first births immortalizing prostheses. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Adam R. Rosenthal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517916585\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517916589\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/17\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.90d","brand":"Adam R. Rosenthal","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46602958897407,"sku":"9781517916589","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_f6cef072-c515-4852-a615-8d6ca41dca94.jpg?v=1739695788","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/prosthetic-immortalities-adam-r-rosenthal-9781517916589","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}