Bibliograph

Underbug, an obsessive tale of termites and technology, Lisa Margonelli

Type

Label

Underbug, an obsessive tale of termites and technology, Lisa Margonelli

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Underbug

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1004919593

Responsibility statement

Lisa Margonelli

Sub title

an obsessive tale of termites and technology

Summary

"Are we more like termites than we ever imagined? In Underbug, the award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli introduces us to the enigmatic creatures that collectively outweigh human beings ten to one and consume $40 billion worth of valuable stuff annually. Over the course of a decade-long obsession with one of nature's most influential but least understood bugs, Margonelli pokes around termite mounds and high-tech research facilities, closely watching biologists, roboticists, and geneticists. What begins as a natural history of the termite becomes a personal exploration of the unnatural future we're building, with darker observations on power, technology, historical trauma, and the limits of human cognition. Her globe-trotting journey veers into uncharted territory, from evolutionary theory to Edwardian science literature to the military-industrial complex. Whether in Namibia or Cambridge, Arizona or Australia, Margonelli turns up astounding facts and raises provocative questions. Is a termite an individual or a unit of a superorganism? Can we harness the termite's properties to change the world? If we build termite-like swarming robots, will they inevitably destroy us? Is it possible to think without having a mind? Underbug burrows into these questions and many others--unearthing disquieting answers about the world's most underrated insect and what it means to be human."--Dust jacket

Table Of Contents

Part I. A termite safari -- Part II. Riddles in the dirt ; An inconvenient insect ; Into the mound ; Complexity is the essence ; Because they are so sweet ; A black box with six legs ; Waiting for Carnot -- Part III. The second termite safari ; Life in the firehose ; Jazz in the metagenome ; Burning very slowly ; Restless streams -- Part IV. Crossing the abstraction barrier ; Influential individuals ; The robot apocalypse -- Part V. Darwin's termites ; The soul of the soil ; The math of fairy circles ; The soul of the cell ; Empathy and the drone ; White ants -- Part VI. Them and us

resource.variantTitle

Obsessive tale of termites and technologyUnder bug

Classification