{"product_id":"9780374200039","title":"Work Mate Marry Love : How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eWork Mate Marry Love\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Debora L. Spar\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA crucial guide to life before—and after—Tinder, IVF, and robots.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat will happen to our notions of marriage and parenthood as reproductive technologies increasingly allow for newfangled ways of creating babies? What will happen to our understanding of gender as medical advances enable individuals to transition from one set of sexual characteristics to another, or to remain happily perched in between? What will happen to love and sex and romance as our relationships migrate from the real world to the Internet? Can people fall in love with robots? Will they? In short, what will happen to our most basic notions of humanity as we entangle our lives and emotions with the machines we have created?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eWork Mate Marry Love\u003c\/i\u003e, Harvard Business School professor and former Barnard College president Debora L. Spar offers an incisive and provocative account of how technology has transformed our intimate lives in the past, and how it will do so again in the future. Surveying the course of history, she shows how marriage as we understand it resulted from the rise of agriculture, and that the nuclear family emerged with the industrial revolution. In their day, the street light, the car, and later the pill all upended courtship and sex. Now, as we enter an era of artificial intelligence and robots, how will our deepest feelings and attachments evolve? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the past, the prevailing modes of production produced a world dominated by heterosexual, mostly-monogamous, two-parent families. In the future, however, these patterns are almost certain to be reshaped, creating entirely new norms for sex and romance, and for the construction of families and the raising of children. Steering clear of both techno-euphoria and alarmism, Spar offers a bold and inclusive vision of how our lives might be changed for the better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Spar argues that new technologies spark shifts in the most intimate of human affairs, often in unexpected ways . . . [She] carves convincing paths through mountains of academic and historical records.\" \u003cb\u003e—Amanda Hess, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Thought-provoking . . . Spar’s explanations of how specific technologies developed are lucid and insightful. Readers will take comfort in this clear-eyed assessment of humanity’s ability to adapt to technological change.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Spar presents an intriguing assertion of the powerful role technology has played in social change . . . 'We make the machines,' she writes archly, 'and then they make us.'\"\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Throughout history, technological change has reordered our lives, including its most intimate aspects. In this powerful account of 8,000 years of human development, Debora L. Spar traces how first settled agriculture, then the steam engine, and eventually the mid-twentieth century revolutions of cars, modern household appliances, and the pill transformed work and family patterns, production and reproduction. This dazzling and fast-paced guide to a new world in the making will make you recoil at times. Yet by unsentimentally historicizing the most intimate aspects of our lives, Spar’s big-picture book opens up new vistas for understanding the most consequential changes of our times.\" \u003cb\u003e—Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of American History at Harvard University and author of \u003ci\u003eEmpire of Cotton\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Based on thousands of years of history, Debora Spar convincingly argues that the major changes we are seeing in the technologies of biology and artificial intelligence are about to change how we think of ourselves and our places in society in fundamental ways. More than thought provoking, this is a book that will make you examine why you are the way you are.\" \u003cb\u003e—James Waldo, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and Chief Technology Officer at Harvard University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fascinating read.  Equal parts history and imagination, \u003ci\u003eWork Mate Marry Love\u003c\/i\u003e explains how technology always has and always will shape who we are though we are often blind to its true impact. Spar will push you to examine your own experience with tech, and you will wonder where its influence ends and the real you begins.” \u003cb\u003e—Joanna Coles, former editor-in-chief of \u003ci\u003eCosmopolitan \u003c\/i\u003eand chief content officer of Hearst Magazines, and executive producer of \u003ci\u003eThe Bold Type\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Debora Spar’s \u003ci\u003eWork Mate Marry Love\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully poetic examination of how the technologies we feel we are shaping are actually shaping us. With algorithms mediating every aspect of our lives and robots slipping into our bedrooms, it’s essential reading for anyone exploring what it means to be human at this time of revolutionary change. I couldn’t put it down.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eJamie Metzl, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity\u003c\/i\u003e and founder of OneShared.World\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With a fresh and incisive take on how technology has long shaped our relationships with work and with each other,  Debora Spar mines the past to show us where we are going next.  \u003ci\u003eWork Mate Marry Love\u003c\/i\u003e is a sweeping, fascinating journey that tells us what we need to know now to be prepared for the next inevitable wave of change.\" \u003cb\u003e—Patrick J. McGinnis, author of \u003ci\u003eFear of Missing Out\u003c\/i\u003e and host of the podcast \u003ci\u003eFOMO Sapiens\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374200039\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40744397439182,"sku":"9780374200039","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_6f1ab7c6-7e4c-49a4-8786-0a05d8f466c5.jpg?v=1641449264","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374200039","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}