From Literature to Biterature

From Literature to Biterature

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0773589929

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From Literature to Biterature is based on the premise that in the foreseeable future computers will become capable of creating works of literature. Among hundreds of other questions, it considers: Under which conditions would machines become capable of creative writing? Given that computer evolution will exceed the pace of natural evolution a million-fold, what will such a state of affairs entail in terms of art, culture, social life, and even nonhuman rights? Drawing a map of impending literary, cultural, social, and technological revolutions, Peter Swirski boldly assumes that computers will leap from mere syntax-driven processing to semantically rich understanding. He argues that acknowledging biterature as a species of literature will involve adopting the same range of attitudes to computer authors (computhors) as to human ones and that it will be necessary to approach them as agents with internal states and creative intentions. Ranging from the metafiction of Stanislaw Lem to the "Turing test" (familiar to scientists working in Artificial Intelligence and the philosophers of mind) to the evolutionary trends of culture and machines, Swirski's scenarios lay the groundwork for a new area of study on the cusp of literary futurology, evolutionary cognition, and philosophy of the future.


A Stanislaw Lem Reader

A Stanislaw Lem Reader

Author: Stanisław Lem

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 1997-11-12

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 081011495X

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In The Lem Reader, Peter Swirski has assembled an in-depth and insightful collection of writings by and about, and interviews with, one of the most fascinating writers of the twentieth century.


The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem

The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2006-07-27

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 0773575073

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Leading scholars examine the social and cultural significance of technology and science in the work of Stanislaw Lem, the author of Solaris.


Of Literature and Knowledge

Of Literature and Knowledge

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-02-12

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1134104405

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"Of Literature and Knowledge looks ... like an important advance in this new and very important subject... literature is about to become even more interesting." – Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University. Framed by the theory of evolution, this colourful and engaging volume presents a new understanding of the mechanisms by which we transfer information from narrative make-believe to real life. Ranging across game theory and philosophy of science, as well as poetics and aesthetics, Peter Swirski explains how literary fictions perform as a systematic tool of enquiry, driven by thought experiments. Crucially, he argues for a continuum between the cognitive tools employed by scientists, philosophers and scholars or writers of fiction. The result is a provocative study of our talent and propensity for creating imaginary worlds, different from the world we know yet invaluable to our understanding of it. Of Literature and Knowledge is a noteworthy challenge to contemporary critical theory, arguing that by bridging the gap between literature and science we might not only reinvigorate literary studies but, above all, further our understanding of literature.


Ars Americana, Ars Politica

Ars Americana, Ars Politica

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0773537651

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A penetrating look at modern American politics and the partisan culture that feeds off its turmoil.


Between Literature and Science

Between Literature and Science

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780773520783

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In Between Literature and Science Peter Swirski examines the true intellectual scope of Edgar Allan Poe and Stanislaw Lem. Using a genuinely interdisciplinary approach he shows that they propose far-reaching hypotheses in aesthetics, epistemology, cognitive science, philosophy of science, literary studies, and pragmatics as well as in cosmology, artificial intelligence, and futurology. Swirski argues that previous studies of their science fiction works, in neglecting these broader philosophical and scientific ambitions, have misrepresented Poe and Lem's artistic achievements.


Stanislaw Lem

Stanislaw Lem

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1781381860

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Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future brings a welter of unknown elements of Lem's life, career, and literary legacy to light in order to mete out cognitive justice to the writer who preferred to be known as the philosopher of the future.


British Outlaws of Literature and History

British Outlaws of Literature and History

Author: Alexander L. Kaufman

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0786485124

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The medieval outlaws of Britain maintain a hold on the present-day imagination, judging by their presence in literature and on film. Exploring the nature of both historical and fictional outlaws, these twelve critical essays survey the literary, historical, and cultural environments that produced them, namely the medieval and early modern periods. Divided into three parts, the text examines the historical records of real outlawed men and women and the representation of Jews in medieval Britain as possible outlaws, outlaws associated specifically with Wales, and the popular figure of Robin Hood and the context of the late medieval poems and plays that feature him as a prominent figure.


All Roads Lead to the American City

All Roads Lead to the American City

Author: Peter Swirski

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 9622098622

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All Roads Lead to the American City provides an original view of the urban culture in America seen through its irrevocable ties with the cities and roads. Examining the history, cinema, literature, cultural myths and social geography of the United States, the book puts some of the greatest as well as the "baddest" American cities under the microscope. Taking the role of the roads that crisscross and connect the cities as their shared point of reference, these essays explore ways to understand the people who live, commute, work, create, govern, commit crime and conduct business in them.Cities, for the most part, are America. Their values and problems define not only what the United States is, but what other nations perceive the United States to be. Roads and transportation, on the other hand, and their impact on the American culture and lifestyle, form not only the integral part of the historical rise-and-shine of the modern city, but a physical release from and a cultural antidote to its pressure-cooker stresses. Tracing the boundless variety and complexity of these twin themes, All Roads Lead to the American City is built around an interlinked series of essays on the urban culture in America. Juxtaposing the city and the road, it looks alternatively at cities as historical, geographical, social and cultural centres of life in the land, and at roads as physical as well as metaphorical arteries that lead in and out of the city.