Zeroing In on the Year 2000: The Final Edition

The final volume in the series devoted to documenting the diverse social and cultural transitions of the fin-de-siecle, this work offers a look back at the inception and progress of the series. The contributors reflect on how the shifting context for the production and reception of the series has been a reliable barometer of the profound ways in which traditional forms of knowledge about society are changing. The focus then changes to dealing with the social phenomena that evoke the value of zero. The idea of a zero state as it relates to artificial intelligence, euthanasia, cryonics, money and the disappearing idea of society itself in the discourse of contemporary politics. Far from being the loss of meaning, the consideration of zero entails the proliferation of meaning in the face of voids, absences and ultimately of puzzles like the contemplation of death in life.