The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

Steven Kotler

ISBN 10: 1784291226 / ISBN 13: 9781784291228

Published by Quercus Publishing, 2015

About this Item

How extreme sport are redefining the limits of being human.

Seller Inventory # CIN1784291226VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1784291226
• ISBN 13: 9781784291228
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

A razor-sharp analysis of how record-breaking exploits in extreme sport are redefining the limits of being human.

Right now, more people are risking their lives for their sports then ever before in history. As Thomas Pynchon once put it in Gravity''s Rainbow, ''it is not often that Death is told so clearly to f@%* off''.

Over the past three decades, the bounds of the possible in action and adventure sports - from sky-diving to motocross to surfing and beyond - have been pushed farther and faster. A generation''s worth of iconoclastic misfits have rewritten the rules of the feasible; not just raising the bar, but obliterating it altogether. Along the way, they have become a force pushing evolution relentlessly onward.

In a thrilling narrative that draws on biology, psychology, and philosophy, Steven Kotler asks why, at the tail end of the 20th century and the early portion of the 21st, are we seeing such a multi-sport assault on reality? Did we somehow slip through a wormhole to another universe where gravity is optional and common sense obsolete? And where - if anywhere - do our actual limits lie?

About the Author

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. His books include the nonfiction works Abundance, A Small Furry Prayer, and West of Jesus, and the novel The Angle Quickest for Flight. His articles have appeared in more than sixty publications, including the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Forbes, and GQ. He writes “Far Frontiers,” a blog about innovation and technology, for Forbes.com and “The Playing Field,” a blog about the science of sport and culture, for PsychologyToday.com. Kotler is also the cofounder and director of research at the Flow Genome Project, an international organization devoted to decoding the peak performance state of flow, and the cofounder of the New Mexico–based Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary. He has a BA in English and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University.