Review | Summer 2024
Virtual Reality Reboots History
The American dream has always meant living in our own fantasy worlds. Maybe it’s time to really go for it.
Contributing Editor
Charles T. Rubin
Charles T. Rubin, a New Atlantis contributing editor, is professor emeritus of political science at Duquesne University and the author of Eclipse of Man: Human Extinction and the Meaning of Progress, published in 2014 by New Atlantis Books. He was also one of the authors of the now-retired New Atlantis blog Futurisms.
As professor of political science and the Marie-Clement Rodier, C.S.Sp., Endowed Chair at Duquesne University, Mr. Rubin taught courses in political philosophy and about the normative aspects of policymaking. His research and publications focused on emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, and those who believe they will allow the redesign of humanity, and on the political theory of environmentalism and urban planning. He also writes on literature and politics.
In addition to Eclipse of Man, Mr. Rubin is the author of The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism (1994) and editor of Conservation Reconsidered: Nature, Virtue and American Liberal Democracy (2000) both published by Rowman and Littlefield.
In The New Atlantis
Review | Summer 2023
Review | Spring 2021
The Case Against the Case Against Space
If we had to solve the human condition before we tried anything new, we’d never try anything new.
Essay | Winter 2019
Review | Spring 2017
On the Shelf
Short reviews of books on the opioid epidemic, the crisis of authority, Silicon Valley, the “new eugenics,” and more
Essay | Winter 2017
Essay | Summer 2013
The Golem and the Limits of Artifice
On what the Jewish legend can (and cannot) teach us about bioethics
Online Exclusive | September 27, 2012
September 27, 2012
Essay | Summer 2011
Essay | Spring 2010
Essay
Essay
Essay | Summer 2009
Correspondence | Spring 2006
Review | Spring 2006
Essay | Winter 2006
Essay | Spring 2005
Essay | Winter 2004
Essay | Spring 2003
Books
- Conservation Reconsidered: Nature, Virtue and American Liberal Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000)
- The Quest for Justice: Readings in Political Ethics, edited with Leslie G. Rubin (Ginn/Simon & Schuster, 1992)
Eclipse of Man
Human Extinction and the Meaning of Progress
Tomorrow has never looked better. Breakthroughs in fields like genetic engineering and nanotechnology promise to give us unprecedented power to redesign our bodies and our world. Futurists and activists tell us that we are drawing ever closer to a day when we will be as smart as computers, will be...
Other Publications
- “Postmodernism, Autonomy and Bioethical Boundaries,” The Good Society, 2010
- “Why Be Human?,” Online Lecture: Listening to Words, April 24, 2007
- “What Should Be Done: Revolutionary Technology and the Problem of Perpetuation in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age,” Perspectives on Political Science, Summer 2006
- “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” First Things, June-July 2006
- “Shoreless Ocean, Sunless Sea: Henry Adams’s Democracy,” Challenges to the American Founding: Slavery, Historicism, and Progressivism in the Nineteenth Century, Ronald J. Pestritto and Thomas G. West, eds. (Lexington Books, 2004)
- “Review of Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist,” Academic Questions, September 2003
- “Civic Environmentalism: Developing a Research and Action Agenda,” George C. Marshall Institute, June 30, 2003
- “Conquering Mind and the End of Humanity: Prospects for a Robotic Future,” Perspectives on Political Science, Spring 2003
- “Flannery O’Connor’s Religious Vision of Regime Change,” Perspectives on Political Science, Fall 2002 (with Leslie G. Rubin)
- “Civic Environmentalism: A New Approach to Policy,” George C. Marshall Institute, December 15, 2001
- “The Principle of Compromise,” George C. Marshall Institute, May 15, 2001
- “Review of Science Wars,” Academic Questions, June 1998
- “The Troubled Relationship Between Science and Policy,” Lecture Notes: George Marshall Institute Washington Roundtable, January 15, 1997
- “The ‘L’ Paradox,” Searchlites, Spring 1996
- “Environmentalism, Constitutionalism, and the Public Good,” On Principle, October 1996
- “How Many People Can The Earth Support?” Commentary, August 1996
- “A Proper Role and Realistic Expectations for Science,” Academic Questions, September 1995
- “Managing the Planet: The Politics of ‘The Environment,’” in Creation at Risk: Religion, Science, and Environmentalism (ISI Books, 1995)
- “State of the Art Called American Government,” Society, September 1990"]