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A timely investigation into the forces that are driving innovation in the four core areas of human experience: birth, food, sex, and death In Sex Robots and Vegan Meat, award-winning journalist and documentary maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey into the world of the people who are changing what it means to be human. Focusing on the central pillars of the human experience-birth, food, sex, and death-Kleeman examines the people who are driving some truly amazing, and perhaps worrying, innovations. We are on the brink of seismic changes in the ways we live and die, from babies grown in artificial wombs to lab-produced meat; from sex robots able to hold polite conversation, and otherwise, to being able to choose to end our days with the perfect, painless, automated death. Our journey from cradle to grave is developing in ways which involve more and more technology and less and less human interaction. Might these advances in technology serve to rob us of our humanity? In this book, Kleeman takes a profound look at what the future might have in store and asks some provocative questions along the way. Kleeman places these scientists front and center and asks what is driving and motivating them. Are they entrepreneurs in it for the greater good of human advancement, or might there be more sinister-i.e. monetary-motivations in play? Kleeman is a skilled and subtle interrogator and travels with the listener on a fascinating exploration of the changes afoot and their implications for who we are as a society-and as human beings. It's an immersive, eye-opening, and hugely entertaining journey into a world of extraordinary visionaries on the front line of a social revolution. "Kleeman recognizes that technology has the power to shape human life, of course, but she is also interested in interrogating that power, and understanding who exactly gets to wield it." "Eye-opening…The sceptical Kleeman makes a witty and tenacious guide." "The author is a focused and charming tour guide, with the kind of breezy writing skills that make each section immensely intriguing." "A funny yet disturbing report on the science, technology, and marketing strategies reshaping some of the most basic human urges and drives." "The future is a fairly scary place, but there is no better guide to it than Jenny Kleeman. By turns alarming, funny, thought-provoking and fascinating, this is a book that brilliantly shows us where much of our life (and death) is heading."

Mode of access: World Wide Web