Hermínio Martins was one of the key pioneers of the sociology of science and technology. He published extensively in Portuguese and was recognized for his academic contributions with an honorary doctorate at Lisbon (2006) and two Portuguese Medals of Honour. Following his retirement from the University of Oxford, he wrote prolifically in English on a wide range of topics that examined the ethical and societal consequences of the commoditization of the human body and mind. These essays are deep philosophical reflections on our contemporary world, and draw extensively and eclectically upon a wide range of theoretical influences including continental philosophy, history and psychology, to name but a few disciplines. ‘The Technocene’ is a selection of some of these insightful essays, made available to a global audience for the first time.

S. Ravi Rajan is professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.

Preface; Editor’s Introduction: Hermínio Martins and the Technocene; 1. The Technocene: On Bodies, Minds and Markets; 2. Technology Sublime: Paths to the Post-Human; 3. Perpetual Augmentation: From Eugenics to Human Genetic Capitalism; 4. The Body Vanishes! Momenta of Discarnation in Technoscience Today; 5. When Universities Become Body-Shops; Select Bibliography of Hermínio Martins’s Works; Index.

‘This superb collection of selected essays by Hermínio Martins is a timely contribution to ongoing debates on the transformations of the human condition and the very future of the human species.’
—Jose Esteban Castro, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK, and Principal Researcher, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina

‘The Technocene will inaugurate nothing short of a new and fertile research tradition in sociology, specifically in the philosophical sociology of technology.’
—Bridget Fowler, Co-editor of Time, Science and the Critique of Technological Reason: Essays in Honour of Hermínio Martins and Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Glasgow, Scotland

‘Marked by an unprecedented confluence of bodies, markets and technology, the notion of Technocene is the harbinger of the Anthropocene. Professor Hermínio Martins’s final essays, nearly lost to time, are brought to life in this caringly produced posthumous collection.’
—Nicholas J. Rowland, Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USA