Includes bibliographical references.

The mirror of design : spiderwebs, sediments radiation, extinction self-surveillance

The plastic human : plasticity, strange artifacts interface

Blows of design : technofossils, prehistory genetic continuum hands, ornament sexual selection

The invention of the human : tools, brain, curiosity

The ornamental species : domestication, beads, networks, thinking strings, useless things

New from nowhere : mechanical life, good design, morality, failure toys, functionalsim

Good design is an anesthetic : smoothness, shock, smile shock absorber, nerves

The design of health : dissection, x-ray, tuberculosis, fatigue, allergies, autoimmune burnout

Human-centered design : camping, artificial limbs biology, survival, self-destruction, primal scene

The frictionless silhouette : normal, human engineering, automaton biotechnique, discipline

Designing the body : bodybuilding, hedonism nudism, libido, stomach psyche

Design as perversion : fetishism, bondage voyeurism, erotica scatology, pedophilia

Designing a ghost : scale figure, protohumans clothing, lurking shadows

The unstable body : microbiome, prosthetics plastic surgery, drugs biodesign, chimera

Homo cellular : intimacy, connectivity shelter, computation selfie, surveillance

Design in 2 seconds : social media, avatar hybrid space, the bed postlabor, self-design

"The question "are we human?" is both urgent and ancient. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley offer a multi-layered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design. Their field notes offer an archaeology of the way design has gone viral and is now bigger than the world. They range across the last few hundred thousand years and the last few seconds to scrutinize the uniquely plastic relation between brain and artifact. A vivid portrait emerges. Design becomes the way humans ask questions and thereby continuously redesign themselves"-- Page 4 of cover