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We live in a digitalized world that is experiencing environmental changes, scarcity of natural resources, global pandemics, mass migrations, and burgeoning global populations. In Ecology, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, Sing C. Chew proposes that we meet these challenges by examining the connected global world we live in and by considering the advances that have been made in digitalization, miniaturization, dematerialization, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented realities, and machine learning, which have increased our socioeconomic and political productivity. Chew outlines potential structural avenues to address these challenges, suggests pragmatic choices to ease living during these chaotic crisis conditions, and outlines solutions that will enable us to traverse systemic crises.
Chapter 1: Dark Ages and Contours of System Transition
Chapter 2: Internet, Dematerialization, and Value
Chapter 3: Artificial Intelligence, Learning Machines, and Virtuality
Chapter 4: Cultural Reactions and Degrowth: Good Life for All?
Chapter 5: Living in an Era of Scarcity
Chapter 6: Reflections
Sing C. Chew is professor emeritus at Humboldt State University and founding editor of the interdisciplinary journal Nature and Culture.
"This book is historically informed and perceptive. We already have most of the technical and emotional tools necessary to avoid ecological catastrophe, and we can do so without abandoning growth or a rich life. Sing C. Chew's insights suggest a way to move forward in a world where lack of such a vision is one of our major challenges."
– Robert Denemark, University of Delaware; Chair, Editorial Advisory Board, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
"Witnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Sing C. Chew offers lessons from history that inform a present-day, pragmatic approach to living in the midst of recurring crises. This is a must-read in today's challenging and evolving world!"
– Daniel Sarabia, Roanoke College
"A New Big History of the connected cyclic ups and downs of Nature and Society. This is a must-read for all interested in macro social science."
– Albert J. Bergesen, University of Arizona
"Sing C. Chew's latest book, Ecology, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality: Life in the Digital Dark Ages, complements his trio of monographs on the history of environmental degradation and social change. His timing could not be better, as books examining the intersection of environmental crisis and emerging technologies have quickly become a cottage industry [...] Chew successfully highlights many of the fascinating ways in which emerging technologies are likely to revolutionise resource use, while also calling into question the sustainability of the larger systems that have thrust humanity into the digital Dark Ages."
– Environmental Values
