{"product_id":"shamans-and-robots-roger-bartra-9781517917494","title":"Shamans and Robots: On Ritual, the Placebo Effect, and Artificial Consciousness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA profound exploration of the external influences that shape human consciousness, from healing rituals to digital devices\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this voyage through thousands of years of psychosomatic healing, distinguished anthropologist and sociologist Roger Bartra examines the placebo effect as a key to our understanding of human consciousness. \u003ci\u003eShamans and Robots\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how biology and technology become intertwined within human culture by using the various histories of ritual and symbolic healing to speculate about future developments in artificial intelligence. \u003cp\u003e Charting the extensive history of the placebo effect through medieval healing, shamanism, and early psychoanalytic practices, Bartra posits that consciousness is not simply the province of the mind but something equally shaped by external systems and objects. He finds evidence of this \"exocerebrum\"--the extension of our brains outside the body--in the shamanistic concept of the placebo, in which external objects heal our bodies, and in modern technical devices like prostheses or robots, whose development of a mechanical consciousness would have to mimic, and in turn elucidate, the processes involved in the creation of consciousness in humans. Through this radical concept, he analyzes digital media's relationship to the functions of the human brain and probes the possibility of artificial consciousness. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Both a look at the human body's potential to restore itself and a profound reflection on the curative power of symbolic structures, \u003ci\u003eShamans and Robots\u003c\/i\u003e explores how our technologies increasingly serve as extensions of our cognitive selves. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Roger Bartra\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517917492\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517917494\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 11\/19\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 176\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.40d","brand":"Roger Bartra","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46052394205439,"sku":"9781517917494","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_645dd3ae-5f2b-449d-89f2-16e099b29f39.jpg?v=1723556245","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/shamans-and-robots-roger-bartra-9781517917494","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}