Chris Bateman

"Game deisgner and philosopher Chris Bateman explores cyborg virtue through problems such as cyberbullying, 'fake news' and the indifference of computers to human needs. Bateman reveals our shallow-sighteness in the face of the unfathomable complexity of our cybernetic networks. Critical yet optimistic, The Virtuous Cyborg rises to the challenge of the twenty-first century by asking us to ponder the question of what kind of cyborgs we want to become."-- Back cover. Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-188).

What does the Wikipedia know, and how can it know it? More to the point, how can anyone using an anonymously edited source, the contents of which change on a daily basis, know that what they are reading constitutes knowledge? In this provocative challenge to contemporary concepts of objectivity, four figures of knowledge – the Wikipedia, scientific experiments, anonymous peer review, and school education – are investigated in order to question the way we understand the world around us.

Balance has no meaning for a politics that is merely the continuation of war by other means. Both religious zealots and defenders of scientific fact declare a monopoly on truth and the moral law, while radicals are powerless to resist since they have lost faith that ethics can be anything but arbitrary. Meanwhile, insane bureaucracy devastates life while nations fall into dishonor as they abandon their promises of justice. If the moral law cannot save us, perhaps it is time to try moral chaos.
Chaos Ethics collides philosophers such as Kant, Nietzsche, Levinas, Mary Midgley, Alasdair MacInytre, Alain Badiou, Isabelle Stengers, and Bruno Latour with everything from cyberpunk science fiction and the fantasy novels of Michael Moorcock to Google, gay marriage, drone assassinations, and the ethics of cats and dogs. A strange and wondrous journey through morality viewed as a facet of imagination that offers a new perspective in which the diversity of ethics is a strength not a weakness, hesitation is more noble than certainty, and virtue can be expressed in both law and chaos.

What is the nature of life? Scientists turn to natural selection, genes or adaptation to explain the living world, but much of the imagery used to present evolution threatens to distort our understanding of the incredible history of our planet. There is no science without mythology, and the only way to reveal the facts is to understand the fictions.
The Mythology of Evolution exposes the seven spins given to evolutionary theory, each resting upon an ideological interpretation of an otherwise neutral idea. There are myths of progress and destiny, such as the "ladder of progress" and only the strong survive. There are stories magnifying the significance of genes such as the "selfish gene" or "kin selection". There are more grandiose myths such as "survival of the fittest" and the infamous "intelligent design". All relate to a final myth – that of "science as truth".
By liberating evolution from these misrepresentative stories, we can find a more nuanced vision of life that shows how advantages persist, trust is beneficial, and the diversity of species emerges from a refinement of possibilities made possible by a chain of inheritance that stretches back to the beginnings of life itself.

Can games be art? When film critic Roger Ebert claimed in 2010 that videogames could never be art it was seen as a snub by many gamers. But from the perspective of philosophy of art this question was topsy turvey, since according to one of the most influential theories of representation all art is a game. Kendall Waltons make-believe theory explains how we interact with paintings, novels, movies and other artworks in terms of imaginary games, like a child's game of make-believe, wherein the artwork acts as a prop prescribing specific imaginings. In this view there can be no question that videogames - in fact, all games - are indeed a strange and wonderful form of art. In Imaginary Games, game designer and philosopher Chris Bateman expands Waltons theory to videogames, board games, collectible card games such as Pokémon and Magic: the Gathering, and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The book explores the diverse fictional worlds that influence the modern world, the ethics of games, and the curious role imagination plays in everything from religion to science and mathematics.