Reading. Thinking. Walking. Spinning. Breathing. Listening. Praying. Asking.
Who are we to be,
now that we are here,
in this phase of human–techno evolution?
I write as more questions form and answers emerge.
My books span academic scholarship, speculative and historical fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Across these different forms, I explore questions of ethics, technology, consciousness, human and more-than-human relationships, and the many ways we come to know the world.
Books
Animals, Ethics, and Engineering
Animals, Ethics, and Engineering: Intersections and Implications is a seminal work that explores the intricate relationship between technology, ethics, and the welfare of non-human animals. Edited by Rosalyn W. Berne, this volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to examine the ethical responsibilities inherent in technological progress and its impact on animal well-being.
Amazon
Routledge
“This ambitious and groundbreaking volume marks the arrival of an ‘animal turn’ in engineering ethics. Amid growing awareness for how non-human animals are inextricably bound up with the fate of our ever-more engineered planet, Animals, Ethics, and Engineering weaves together a rich, interdisciplinary tapestry of theoretical and applied perspectives while giving voice to diverse species and ecosystems. This must-read collection is at the leading edge of STEM ethics.”
— Prof. Brent K. Jesiek, Purdue University, USA
When the Horses Whisper
When the Horses Whisper shows the capacity of horses to help us heal the human heart. It expresses in human language what horses have to say when given the chance to speak. It is a story about the bond between horse and human, and the communication made possible when the bond is based on love. Conversations with fifteen horses, most of whom live and work in Costa Rica, are featured along with their photographs, capturing them as individual beings in service to humans on a shared evolutionary journey. This journey amounts to the remembering of our whole selves in the wholeness of creation, especially the parts we split off, deny, and place in shadow because they are too painful. Horses, as the book shows, can help us see these lost parts, and call forth our courage to reclaim them. When the Horses Whisper recounts the equine healing work that helped the author and others reclaim their authentic selves. This book is testimony to the power of horses and equine healing work in transforming life’s losses into a deeper human wholeness and a further communion with the non-human world.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Equus Film Festival Book Awardee
1st place, literary non-fiction, 2017
& Living Now Book Award, Silver Medal, 2016
"When the Horses Whisper, you can listen! Read Rosalyn Berne."
Rita Mae Brown, MFH
Author of the Mrs. Murphy
mystery series, and the
Sneaky Pie Brown mystery series
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Nautilus Books Silver Award, 2017
Waking to Beauty
​In Waking to Beauty, Rosalyn W. Berne explores the extraordinary experiences that have shaped her spiritual journey and deepened her understanding of our connection with other beings. Following When the Horses Whisper, the book considers the early origins of her capacity to “hear” and communicate with horses and the realizations that have flowed from this unexpected gift. Her encounters with a mare named Beauty led her from an understanding of God as dwelling somewhere “out there” toward an experience of the divine as present within us, among our fellow creatures, and throughout the living Earth.
At the heart of the book is a vision of spiritual evolution grounded in humanity's interdependence with other species and the Earth itself. Beauty's message raises an urgent question: What if the wisdom we need to change our relationship with the living world comes from beings we have not thought to hear?
That Is Enough
"Seeing her at a distance, I paddle the kayak quietly in her direction; the only sounds the lapping of water against the hull, and an owl’s long hoots across the still water. Drawing close, I begin a prayer:
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Great Mother, appearing to me in the form of this loon, I approach you with the desire to learn and to understand. Please allow me to come close enough to watch, to be near so that I may feel the life force in you.
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I drift even closer, still my paddles and focus on my breath. With each exhalation I release myself further and further, letting go of all expectations. Dropping my personal, ego need for a particular experience, I let go of everything except the awareness of being in her presence. I inhale in the awareness that I am. And so is she. That is enough, and in that is everything."
​From Waking to Beauty (2016)
— Rosalyn W. Berne, Ph.D
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Nanotalk
In Nanotalk, Rosalyn W. Berne invites thirty-five scientists and engineers working in nanotechnology to reflect openly on the meaning and implications of their work. Drawing on a five-year research project supported by the National Science Foundation, the book explores what happens when technological development moves into territory whose consequences cannot yet be known.
Through conversations about science, humanity, nature, change, belief, and the future, these researchers reveal the hopes, assumptions, uncertainties, and ethical questions that accompany the pursuit of nanotechnology. Berne asks what it means to develop powerful technologies responsibly when their ultimate effects remain beyond our ability to predict—and argues for conscientious foresight and ethical reflection as essential companions to scientific discovery.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Creating Life from Life:
Biotechnology and Science Fiction
In Creating Life from Life, Rosalyn W. Berne brings scientists and science fiction writers into conversation about the possibilities and moral implications of biotechnology. The book melds essays on biotechnology written by scientists with science fiction stories that imagine where those technologies might lead. Together, they open questions about what we may one day be able to create—and what it might mean to be human as our capacity to recreate and transform life continues to evolve.
The biotechnology revolution has been unfolding for decades, but its future is far from predetermined. Many choices remain about the kinds of lives, relationships, and worlds biotechnology may make possible. Creating Life from Life invites readers into the imaginative and ethical space between what science can do and what we should choose to do, emphasizing the need for continuing reflection and conversation as biotechnology evolves.