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Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism by Leif Weather
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ApproximatelyAU $45.69
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eBay item number:396799160784
Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN-13
- 9781517919320
- Book Title
- Language Machines
- ISBN
- 9781517919320
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of Minnesota Press
ISBN-10
1517919320
ISBN-13
9781517919320
eBay Product ID (ePID)
23072745612
Product Key Features
Number of Pages
264 Pages
Language
English
Publication Name
Language Machines : Cultural Ai and the End of Remainder Humanism
Subject
Intelligence (Ai) & Semantics, Social Aspects / General
Publication Year
2025
Type
Textbook
Subject Area
Computers
Series
Posthumanities Ser.
Format
Trade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height
0.6 in
Item Weight
10.9 Oz
Item Length
8.5 in
Item Width
5.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
Reviews
" Language Machines takes the success of generative AI as an opportunity to rethink fundamental questions about the relationship of language to referentiality and of culture to cognition. Leif Weatherby confronts these questions boldly and argues persuasively that avoiding them leads to what he calls 'remainder humanism'--a defensive insistence on a human essence defined as the shrinking negative space left by technology."--Ted Underwood, author of Distant Horizons: Digital Evidence and Literary Change "Leif Weatherby reveals a rift in the humanities, torn open by the cultural technology of generative AI: we have no theory for what AI is doing to language. Meticulously mining structuralism, computation, poetics, and labor history, he constructs much-needed theory to account for the matrix of culture and language in which AI is embedded--and which it increasingly now creates."--Annette Vee, author of Coding Literacy: How Computer Programming Is Changing Writing " Language Machines is by some distance the most intellectually stimulating and original book on large language models and their kin that I have read."-- Programmable Mutter, " Language Machines takes the success of generative AI as an opportunity to rethink fundamental questions about the relationship of language to referentiality and of culture to cognition. Leif Weatherby confronts these questions boldly and argues persuasively that avoiding them leads to what he calls 'remainder humanism'--a defensive insistence on a human essence defined as the shrinking negative space left by technology."--Ted Underwood, author of Distant Horizons: Digital Evidence and Literary Change "Leif Weatherby reveals a rift in the humanities, torn open by the cultural technology of generative AI: we have no theory for what AI is doing to language. Meticulously mining structuralism, computation, poetics, and labor history, he constructs much-needed theory to account for the matrix of culture and language in which AI is embedded--and which it increasingly now creates."--Annette Vee, author of Coding Literacy: How Computer Programming Is Changing Writing " Language Machines is by some distance the most intellectually stimulating and original book on large language models and their kin that I have read."-- Programmable Mutter "It's a blaring wake-up call on what's necessary to understand contemporary scientific developments in both linguistics and artificial intelligence."-- Pre-History of an Encounter, " Language Machines takes the success of generative AI as an opportunity to rethink fundamental questions about the relationship of language to referentiality and of culture to cognition. Leif Weatherby confronts these questions boldly and argues persuasively that avoiding them leads to what he calls 'remainder humanism'--a defensive insistence on a human essence defined as the shrinking negative space left by technology."--Ted Underwood, author of Distant Horizons: Digital Evidence and Literary Change
Dewey Edition
23
Series Volume Number
74
Illustrated
Yes
Volume Number
Vol. 74
Dewey Decimal
006.301
Table Of Content
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: AI between Cognition and Culture 1. How the Humanities Lost Language: Syntax, Statistics, and Structure 2. The Eliza Effect Goes Global: Intelligence as Simulacrum 3. The Semiological Surround, or How Language Is the Medium of Computation 4. Large Literary Machines 5. Computational Meaning: For a General Poetics 6. Poetic Ideology: The Packaged Semantics of Generative Culture Conclusion: Language as a Service, or the Return of Rhetoric Notes Bibliography Index
Synopsis
How generative AI systems capture a core function of language Looking at the emergence of generative AI, Language Machines presents a new theory of meaning in language and computation, arguing that humanistic scholarship misconstrues how large language models (LLMs) function. Seeing LLMs as a convergence of computation and language, Leif Weatherby contends that AI does not simulate cognition, as widely believed, but rather creates culture. This evolution in language, he finds, is one that we are ill-prepared to evaluate, as what he terms "remainder humanism" counterproductively divides the human from the machine without drawing on established theories of representation that include both. To determine the consequences of using AI for language generation, Weatherby reads linguistic theory in conjunction with the algorithmic architecture of LLMs. He finds that generative AI captures the ways in which language is at first complex, cultural, and poetic, and only later referential, functional, and cognitive. This process is the semiotic hinge on which an emergent AI culture depends. Weatherby calls for a "general poetics" of computational cultural forms under the formal conditions of the algorithmic reproducibility of language. Locating the output of LLMs on a spectrum from poetry to ideology, Language Machines concludes that literary theory must be the backbone of a new rhetorical training for our linguistic-computational culture.
Item description from the seller
Seller feedback (1,054,781)
- w***i (873)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseAbsolutely Wonderful Seller!! Terrific Item As Described!!! Great Service and Communication!! Shipped In Waterproof Packaging!! I Received Item In About One Week!! Very Pleased With Seller! I Will Buy From This Seller Again!!
- e***_ (17)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseSeller handles a massive inventory so I give them grace on the slow processing and shipping. They were very communicative and prompt with their response when I messaged in asking about it. Book was in good condition as described. Small ding on the page edges which wasn't mentioned, but that's fairly common even at your typical book store. Still a good value and I'd buy from them again.
- r***r (2963)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseBook arrived today, 2 days before deadline given by the seller. Well-packaged & in good condition. Price was very competitive, & the book was accurately listed. Great communication. I appreciate the seller getting back to me when I was having trouble tracking the book's delivery progress. Apparently there were 2 different tracking numbers - one in Canada & the other in the U.S., since it was initially shipped from Canada. Thank you very much for your quick response & helpful information.Rethinking Investing: A Very Short Guide to Very Long-Term Investing by Charles (#396183075510)
Seller feedback (1,054,781)
- w***i (873)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseAbsolutely Wonderful Seller!! Terrific Item As Described!!! Great Service and Communication!! Shipped In Waterproof Packaging!! I Received Item In About One Week!! Very Pleased With Seller! I Will Buy From This Seller Again!!
- e***_ (17)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseSeller handles a massive inventory so I give them grace on the slow processing and shipping. They were very communicative and prompt with their response when I messaged in asking about it. Book was in good condition as described. Small ding on the page edges which wasn't mentioned, but that's fairly common even at your typical book store. Still a good value and I'd buy from them again.
- r***r (2963)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseBook arrived today, 2 days before deadline given by the seller. Well-packaged & in good condition. Price was very competitive, & the book was accurately listed. Great communication. I appreciate the seller getting back to me when I was having trouble tracking the book's delivery progress. Apparently there were 2 different tracking numbers - one in Canada & the other in the U.S., since it was initially shipped from Canada. Thank you very much for your quick response & helpful information.Rethinking Investing: A Very Short Guide to Very Long-Term Investing by Charles (#396183075510)