Book Description

With digital immortality making headlines, stories about robot companions going viral, and crypto upending reality as we know it, it's time to ask: what does it mean to be human in a nearly post-human era? This highly anticipated debut from poet, artist and AI researcher Sasha Stiles captures both the thrill and peril of our intimate relationship with technology, fusing the zero-one rhythms of binary code with the pulse of elegiac couplets in a hybrid text unlike any ever written. Both groundbreaking and heartbreaking, the collection weaves together masterful human verse with captivating language experiments by the author's AI alter ego, alongside full-color photos of Stiles' critically acclaimed art. An urgent investigation of the human condition in a time of profound change, TECHNELEGY is a transhuman manifesto with poetic soul -- and, in the words of leading futurist Martine Rothblatt, "an instant techno-classic." The future of human and machines, and the future of the virtual environment is unravelling fast. Human and machine poetry, a language of shimmering light and sound. Sasha's beautiful poetry evokes the experience of an intimate social gathering, with views on life that make me feel I'm there. Who can pass on that? This is a great read. " A brilliant book--wildly imaginative, playful, smart--the record of a poet grappling with our technological present, and future."--Alan Lightman "TECHNELEGY is an immersive journey into today's entangled web of existence. A fascinating brainbath that leaves the mind inspired, awake and expanded."--Ani Liu "Sasha Stiles' TECHNELEGY is the most comprehensive expression I've seen of our anxiousness for and angst about human-extending technology, as well as its cultural advocacy known as transhumanism. With preternaturally accurate phraseology, and a deft braiding of poetry structures and graphic textuals, Stiles has uniquely managed to create a book of poetry that is as momentous in its reach as are the prospects of AI and digital humanity in theirs. This book will never get old; it is an instant techno-classic."--Martine Rothblatt "The merger between ourselves and our intelligent creations is already underway and will ultimately recreate the nature of everything we hold dear such as life, death, sex, relationships, work and prosperity. Sasha Stiles has fashioned this future scenario into a wonderful series of poems and images that bring the sensitivity of humanity to our transhumanist destiny."--Ray Kurzweil