News Release

Book examines boundaries among humans, animals, machines

September 23, 2008

In the twenty-first century, the boundaries between both humans and machines and humans and animals are hotly contested and debated.

A new book by Penn State Harrisburg Professor of Humanities and Philosophy Glen A. Mazis examines the increasingly blurring boundaries among the three and argues that despite their violating collisions, there are ways for the three realms to work together for mutual thriving.

Published by SUNY Press, Humans, Animals, Machines: Blurring Boundaries “ probes the blurring of boundaries among humans, animals, and machines,” Dr. Mazis explains. “It explores how this blurring has become intensified in ways both destructive for humans, animals, and the environment, and also offering fruitful possibilities for these three realms to work together. The book is unique in looking at the comparison of all three realms together, instead of just comparing two of them, as most studies do.”

He adds the book is unusual in “being so interdisciplinary, drawing upon philosophy, artificial intelligence studies, physics, animal research, writings about autism, literature, aesthetics, technology research, poetry, attachment theory, and psychology.”

Edward Casey, author of The World at a Glance, says, “One of the great virtues of this book is its ability to draw upon different domains – philosophy, artificial intelligence, ethology, psychology, anthropology, and art—and to do so in a rigorous and creative manner.”

Previous books by Dr. Mazis include: Emotion and Embodiment: Fragile Ontology; Earthbodies: Rediscovering Our Planetary Senses; and The Trickster, Magician, and Grieving Man: Reconnecting Men with Earth.