Treachery of Realities

Sal Restivo, retired, taught sociology at universities in the U.S., UK, Europe, Brazil, and China for 50 years. He is a former President of the Society for Social Studies of Science. His recent publications include The Social Brain (Lexington Books, 2023) and Inventions in Sociology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbout the Path of this BookOvertureBio-SketchesPart 1The Sociology of Reality1 A World of Post-truths, Lies and Alternative Facts1 The Post-truth Regime2 Conclusion2 The Iron Laws of Reality1 Introduction2 Epistemic Vigilance versus Machiavellian Vigilance (Thomson, 2023)3 Through the Cultural Looking Glass4 Beauty, Terror, and the Sublime5 A Child of the Book6 The Road to Reality7 Free Will8 Open and Closed Systems9 The Rejection of Transcendental Realities10 Religion11 Science12 The Technological Fix13 Sociology as a Science14 Cosmology15 Subscendental Realities16 The Myth of Individualism17 Objectivity18 Conclusion3 Existential Threats1 Interlude: Principles of Sociocultural Evolution2 Existential Threat: The Very Idea3 On the Mathematics of Existential Threats4 Death by Alien Invasion5 Death by Mass Extinction6 Death by Asteroid7 Death by Super Volcano8 Death by Solar Flare9 Death by Auroras10 Death by Climate Change11 Death by Geo-engineering12 Death by Nuclear Winter13 Death by Pandemic14 Death by Bioterrorism15 Death by Salt16 Death by De-education: The American Example17 Death by Social Relations18 Death by Supernova19 Death by Gravity20 Death by Black Hole21 Death by Tipping Points22 Death by Truth23 Conclusion4 Death by Chatbots, ai, and Robots: A Case Study in Existential Threats1 Generative ai2 ai Experts Increasingly Afraid of Their Creations3 Trinity: A Lesson in Science4 Oppenheimer Redux5 Pandora’s Box & Frankenstein6 ai and Ethics7 Technology Assessment for ai8 The False Equivalence Trap9 Who Is Hallucinating?10 The Hallucinations11 Are We Over-Worrying the ai Problem?12 gai and Consciousness13 A Note on Turing14 What Else Can Go Wrong15 The Robots Are Coming16 Robots ‘r’ Us17 Progress, the Very Idea18 ConclusionPart 2Encounters with Reality5 Reality Is Real: The Dangers of Romancing Reality1 Das Ist Nicht Physik, Das Ist Theologie2 Reality Is Real3 Review4 Reality Redux 15 Taming Consciousness6 Conclusion6 Reality Confronts the News as an Existential Threat1 Supreme Realities2 The Headlines3 The Reality of Violence3.1 Violence in the News4 Violence and Disconnections5 Intervention: Dunning-Kruger Chickens Come Home to Roost6 The Irreality of Nostradamus7 The Reality of Sex8 What Kind of Life Form Criminalizes Sex?9 The Reality of Religion9.1 Mania from Heaven10 The Reality of Religious Freedom11 The Reality of Us: News on Who and What We are12 Conclusion7 The Reality of the Social Brain: A Case Study in the Existential Threat of Individualism1 Connectomes2 Brain-Machine Interaction (bmi) and Brain-Computer Interaction (bci)3 A Case Study: Einstein, Genius, and Social Networks4 The Woman in Einstein’s Social Brain5 On Breaking the 11th Commandment and Committing Sociology6 ConclusionPart 3Evolution, Culture, and Survival Wisdom8 The Cooperative Principle in Evolution1 Introduction2 From the Cooperative Principle to Love as an Evolutionary Mechanism3 Interlude: Mediated Communication4 Love, Society, Culture, and Evolution5 An Evoutionary Sociology of Love6 The Humanistic Conception of Love7 Love and Human Liberation8 The Future of Intimate Relationships9 Summary10 Conclusion9 Survivability1 The Pillars of Sustainability2 Data, Data, and More Data3 The Morality of Science4 Survival Wisdom5 The United Nations and Sustainability6 Conclusion10 Capitalism: Ideology Contra Economy1 The Black Hole Economy2 Will the Real Karl Marx Please Stand Up?3 Capitalism in Ideal Type Terms4 Capitalism (Ideal Type Format)5 Capitalism: the Bottom Line6 Conclusion11 What Is to Be Done?1 The Anarchist Social Order (See Bibliography on Anarchism and Social Order in References)1.1 The Goals1.2 Resources1.3 Activities2 Education Reconstructed3 Intervention: A Note on Alienation4 Managerialism5 Conclusion12 A Secular Humanist Worldview: Prologue to Anarchy1 The Secular Worldview Narrative Unfolds2 Levels of Reality3 Science4 Secular5 Anarchism6 A Secular Worldview Unfolds7 A Secular Worldview Crystallizes8 Secular Humanism9 The Anarchist Imagination10 Conclusion: Anarchism in the Real World13 Anarchism, Properly Understood1 Anarchism Redux2 Social Anarchism3 Coda4 Conclusion: Once Again, What Is to Be Done?Part 4Paradigm for Transition14 What Is Real, after All?1 A Reiteration2 Reality Redux 23 The Garden of Epicurus4 Realistic, Not Rational, Hedonism5 What Is to Be Done?6 A Different Beginning7 Intervention: The Problem of Meaning8 We Are Not Oysters9 Origins10 Hedonism Then11 The Transition12 The Erotics of the Revolution13 Doomerism?14 Conclusion: the Walls of ImprisonmentAppendix 1: The Reality Fallacies as the Foundation of the Iron Laws of RealityReferences and Further ReadingsIndex