Hegel in A Wired Brain

Description

Slavoj Zizek gives us a reading of a philosophical giant that changes our way of thinking about the new posthuman era. No ordinary study of Hegel, this work investigates what he might have had to say about the idea of the 'wired brain' - what happens when a direct link between our mental processes and a digital machine emerges. Zizek explores the phenomenon of a wired brain effect, and what might happen when we can share our thoughts directly with others. He hones in on the key question of how it shapes our experience and status as 'free' individuals and asks what it means to be human when a machine can read our minds. With characteristic verve and enjoyment of the unexpected, Zizek connects Hegel to the world we live in now, shows why he is much more fun than anyone gives him credit for, and why the 21st century might just be Hegelian.

Slavoj Zizek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is International Director at the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, University of London, UK, Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Hegel in a Wired Brain, mixes perspicacity and paradox in brain-teasing ways that have become his signature style but there is novelty too in this punchy addition to his oeuvre. * PopMatters *