Impact of science and technology on society Books
Vintage Publishing Invisible Women: the Sunday Times number one
Book Synopsis*THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER**OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD*Discover the shocking gender bias that affects our everyday lives.'HELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things - a monumental piece of research' Caitlin MoranImagine a world where...· Your phone is too big for your hand· Your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body· In a car accident you are 47% more likely to be injured.If any of that sounds familiar, chances are you're a woman.From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, and the media. Invisible Women reveals how in a world built for and by men we are systematically ignoring half of the population, often with disastrous consequences. Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the profound impact this has on us all.Find out more in Caroline's new podcast, Visible Women.'A book that changes the way you see the world' Sunday Times'Revelatory, frightening, hopeful' Jeanette WintersonTrade ReviewRevelatory – it should be required reading for policy and decision makers everywhere -- Nicola SturgeonHELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things – a monumental piece of research -- Caitlin MoranRevelatory, frightening, hopeful. A secular Bible -- Jeanette WintersonThis book is a devastating indictment of institutionalised complacency and a rallying cry to fight back… Invisible Women should propel women into action. It should also be compulsory reading for men -- Christina Patterson * Sunday Times *Invisible Women takes on the neglected topic of what we don't know - and why. The result is a powerful, important and eye-opening analysis of the gender politics of knowledge and ignorance. With examples from technology to natural disasters, this is an original and timely reminder of why we need women in the leadership of the institutions that shape every aspect of our lives. -- Cordelia Fine
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Vintage Publishing Technofeudalism
Book SynopsisYanis Varoufakis is an economist, political leader and the author of numerous bestselling books: Talking to My Daughter: A Brief History of Capitalism; Adults in the Room, a memoir of his time as finance minister of Greece; an economic history of Europe, And The Weak Suffer What They Must?; and Another Now: Dispatches from An Alternative Present. Born in Athens in 1961, he was for many years a professor of economics in Britain, Australia and the USA before he entered politics. He is co-founder of the international grassroots movement DiEM25 and a Professor of Economics at the University of Athens.
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Profile Books Ltd The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for
Book SynopsisTHE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S TOP BOOKS OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2020 Shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award 2019 'Easily the most important book to be published this century. I find it hard to take any young activist seriously who hasn't at least familarised themselves with Zuboff's central ideas.' - Zadie Smith, The Guardian The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control us. The heady optimism of the Internet's early days is gone. Technologies that were meant to liberate us have deepened inequality and stoked divisions. Tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, whether government or retailer. Profits now depend not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. How will this fusion of capitalism and the digital shape our values and define our future? Shoshana Zuboff shows that we are at a crossroads. We still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in, and what we decide now will shape the rest of the century. Our choices: allow technology to enrich the few and impoverish the many, or harness it and distribute its benefits. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply-reasoned examination of the threat of unprecedented power free from democratic oversight. As it explores this new capitalism's impact on society, politics, business, and technology, it exposes the struggles that will decide both the next chapter of capitalism and the meaning of information civilization. Most critically, it shows how we can protect ourselves and our communities and ensure we are the masters of the digital rather than its slaves.Trade ReviewEasily the most important book to be published this century. I find it hard to take any young activist seriously who hasn't at least familarised themselves with Zuboff's central ideas. -- Zadie Smith * The Guardian *everyone needs to read this book as an act of digital self-defense. -- Naomi KleinA must read for anyone interested in power, politics, technology and the future of our fragile democracies. Zuboff is a brilliant mind who connects the dots like no other. -- Elif Shafak * New Statesman Books of the Year *Das Kapital of the digital age -- Hugo Rifkind * The Times *Magisterial, indispensable -- Carole Cadwalladr * Observer *[It] will surely become a pivotal work in defining, understanding and exposing this surreptitious exploitation of our data and, increasingly, our free will ... essential * Irish Times *An intensively researched, engagingly written chronicle of surveillance capitalism's origins and its deleterious prospects for our society ... This is the rare book that we should trust to lead us down the long hard road of understanding -- Jacob Silverman * New York Times *Groundbreaking, magisterial ... unmissable -- John Thornhill * FT *Comprehensive and impassioned ... an important book -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *Groundbreaking ... Aiming to apply Marx's account of surplus value in a time when capital is accumulated through knowledge-based technology, she has given us an illuminating critical perspective on the regime of surveillance under which we all now live * New Statesman *A bold, important book ... Combining in-depth technical understanding and a broad, humanistic scope, Zuboff has written what may prove to be the first definitive account of the economic - and thus social and political - condition of our age. -- James Bridle * Guardian *This book's major contribution is to give a name to what's happening, to put it in cultural and historical perspective, and to ask us to pause long enough to think about the future and how it might be different from today -- Frank Rose * WSJ *A chilling exposé of the business model that underpins the digital world ... a striking and illuminating book. A fellow reader remarked to me that it reminded him of Thomas Piketty's magnum opus, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, in that it opens one's eyes to things we ought to have noticed, but hadn't -- John Naughton * Observer *It's quite possible that the single most important book about politics, economics, culture and society in this century is Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. She explains with far more power than anyone has done before the emergence of a whole new form of capitalism based on the expropriation of the personal data we freely give to vast corporations. It's the Das Kapital for our times. -- Fintan O'Toole * Irish Times *An exceptional and necessary book about the information civilisation we have become -- David Patrikarakos * Literary Review *Extraordinarily intelligent ... Absorbing Zuboff's methodical determination, the way she pieces together sundry examples into this comprehensive work of scholarship and synthesis, requires patience, but the rewards are considerable - a heightened sense of awareness, and a deeper appreciation of what's at stake -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *Original ... it arrives at a crucial moment, when the public and its elected representatives are at last grappling with the extraordinary power of digital media and the companies that control it. Like another recent masterwork of economic analysis, Thomas Piketty's 2013 Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the book challenges assumptions, raises uncomfortable questions about the present and future, and stakes out ground for a necessary and overdue debate -- Nicholas Carr * LARB *I will make a guarantee: Assuming we survive to tell the tale, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism has a high probability of joining the likes Adam Smith's The Wealth of Natiions and Max Weber's Economy and Society as defining social-economics texts of modern times. It is not a 'quick read;' it is to be savored and re-read and discussed with colleagues and friends. No zippy one-liners from me, except to almost literally beg you to read/ingest this book -- Tom Peters, author of In Search of ExcellenceThe Age of Surveillance Capitalism is brilliant and essential ... a masterpiece of rare conceptual daring, beautifully written and deeply urgent -- Robert B. Reich, author of The Common Good and Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the FewThe defining challenge for the future of the market economy is the concentration of data, knowledge, and surveillance power. Not just our privacy but our individuality is at stake, and this very readable and thought-provoking book alerts us to these existential dangers. Highly recommended -- Daron Acemoglu, author of Why Nations FailZuboff's expansive, erudite, deeply-researched exploration of digital futures elucidates the norms and hidden terminal goals of information-intensive industries. Zuboff's book is the information industry's Silent Spring -- Chris Hoofnagle, University of California, BerkeleyIn the future, if people still read books, they will view this as the classic study of how everything changed. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a masterpiece that stunningly reveals the essence of twenty-first-century society, and offers a dire warning about technology gone awry that we ignore at our peril. Shoshana Zuboff has somehow escaped from the fishbowl in which we all now live, and introduced to us the concept of water. A work of penetrating intellect, this is also a deeply human book about what is becoming, as it relentlessly demonstrates, a dangerously inhuman time -- Kevin Werbach, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Blockchain and The New Architecture of TrustA panoramic exploration of one of the most urgent issues of our times, Zuboff reinterprets contemporary capitalism through the prism of the digital revolution, producing a book of immense ambition and erudition. Zuboff is one of our most prescient and profound thinkers on the rise of the digital. In an age of inane Twitter soundbites and narcissistic Facebook posts, Zuboff's serious scholarship is great cause for celebration -- Andrew Keen, author of How to Fix the FutureShoshana Zuboff has produced the most provocative compelling moral framework thus far for understanding the new realities of our digital environment and its anti-democratic threats. From now on, all serious writings on the internet and society will have to take into account The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. -- Joseph Turow, Robert Lewis Shayon Chair Professor, Annenberg School, University of PennsylvaniaFrom the very first page I was consumed with an overwhelming imperative: everyone needs to read this book as an act of digital self-defense. With tremendous lucidity and moral courage, Zuboff demonstrates not only how our minds are being mined for data but also how they are being rapidly and radically changed in the process. The hour is late and much has been lost already - but as we learn in these indispensable pages, there is still hope for emancipation * Naomi Klein *Something you need -- Margaret Atwooda must read for anyone interested in power, politics, technology and the future of our fragile democracies. Zuboff is a brilliant mind who connects the dots like no other. -- Elif Shafak * New Statesman *It's the Das Kapital for our times, setting out with clarity and urgency the implications of an economic system in which an elite can predict, and therefore manipulate, every shift in our desires. But Zuboff is no fatalist and her book should give us courage to, as it were, take back control. -- Fintan O’Toole * New Statesman *a vital analysis of the digital economy and our place in it. -- Rosamund Urwin * Sunday Times best Business Books of the Year 2019 *It is a stunning research on "information civilisation", concentration of power and the sinister exploitation of our data at the expense of our freedom, which are no doubt some of the most pressing issues of our times. But more than that, this is a fascinating and wise and honest exploration of what it means to be human in the digital age and why we need to fight back. Technology is way too important to leave it to tech companies, which are clearly becoming tech monopolies. We all need to become part of this important discussion, and for that to happen, we need to ask the right questions. This book is a brilliant way to do that. -- Elif Shafak * Guardian – Best Books of the Year Writers’ Choice *Of the many excellent books on our vexed relationship with tech published this year, the standout title has to be Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (Profile), which details how the Silicon Valley behemoths are mining our private experiences to make a profit. -- Ian Sample * Guardian's Best Science, Nature and Ideas Books of 2019 *Praise for In the Age of the Smart Machine: 'A work of rare originality and engrossing complexity * New York Times Book Review *Ground-breaking, magisterial and synthetically brilliant * Technology and Culture *Examined with force and almost cunning insight what is yet to come * Encyclopedia of Software Engineering *
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Sde Classics Meditations
Book Synopsis
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Vintage Publishing Homo Deus: ‘An intoxicating brew of science,
Book Synopsis**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER**Sapiens showed us where we came from. In our increasingly uncertain times, Homo Deus shows us where we're going.'Spellbinding' GuardianThe world-renowned historian and intellectual Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond - from overcoming death to creating artificial life.It asks the fundamental questions: how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold?'Even more readable, even more important, than his excellent Sapiens' Kazuo Ishiguro'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before' Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and SlowTrade ReviewHomo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. Above all, it will make you think in ways you had not thought before. -- Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and SlowShows us where mankind is headed in an absolutely clear-sighted and accessible manner * Jarvis Cocker *Even more readable, even more important, than his excellent Sapiens -- Kazuo Ishiguro * Guardian Books of the Year *An exhilarating book that takes the reader deep into questions of identity, consciousness and intelligence * Observer *A brilliantly original, thought-provoking and important study of where mankind is heading. * Evening Standard *Spellbinding… a quirky and cool book, with a sliver of ice at its heart * Guardian *An intoxicating brew of science, philosophy and futurism. * Mail on Sunday *Yuval Noah Harari is the most entertaining and thought-provoking writer of non-fiction at the moment. As with Sapiens, you finish the book feeling much wiser -- Matt HaigIt is thrilling to watch such a talented author trample so freely across so many disciplines... Harrari's skill lies in the way he tilts the prism in all these fields and looks at the world in different ways, providing fresh angles on what we thought we knew... the result is scintillating -- John Thornhill * Financial Times *What elevates Harari above many chroniclers of our age is his exceptional clarity and focus. -- Josh Glancy * Sunday Times *
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Penguin Books Ltd ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Book SynopsisNo recent scientific enterprise has been so alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. How intelligent are the best of today's AI programs? To what extent can we entrust them with decisions that affect our lives? How human-like do we expect them to become, and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us in most, if not all, human endeavours? From leading AI researcher and award-winning author Melanie Mitchell comes a knowledgeable and captivating account of modern-day artificial intelligence. Flavoured with personal stories and a twist of humour, Artificial Intelligence illuminates the workings of machines that mimic human learning, perception, language, creativity and common sense. Weaving together advances in AI with cognitive science and philosophy, Mitchell probes the extent to which today's 'smart' machines can actually think or understand, and whether AI requires such elusiTrade ReviewIf you think you understand AI and all of the related issues, you don't. By the time you finish this exceptionally lucid and riveting book you will breathe more easily and wisely -- Michael Gazzaniga, author of The Consciousness InstinctMelanie Mitchell writes about AI with a warm, friendly voice and an unpretentious brilliance that no machine could hope to match... for now -- Steven Strogatz, author of The Joy of XComputers are capable of feats of astonishing intelligence, while at the same time lacking any semblance of common sense. Melanie Mitchell takes us through an enlightening tour of how artificial intelligence currently works, and how it falls short of true human understanding -- Sean Carroll, author of The Big PictureA must read for anyone interested in the emerging revolution of AI, machine learning and big data. Mitchell lays bare the hyperbole and misconceptions that are being propagated in the media. This book can be, and should be, read by the proverbial man or woman-on-the-street, the Silicon Valley guru, members of Congress, or a student of the humanities, as well as by professional scientists and engineers. They will all profit enormously from it -- Geoffrey West, author of ScaleMitchell cuts through the hype that the field of A.I. is often prone to and lays out what it does well, where it fails, and how it might do better -- George Musser, author of Spooky Action at a DistanceMelanie Mitchell deftly provides the reader with a keen, clear-sighted account of the history of AI and neural networks. A wonderfully informative book -- John Allen Paulos, author of InnumeracyMitchell is one of the finest minds in computation today, and one of the clearest-spoken. She understands the power of a metaphor — and why nearly all of the ones we have for AI are either simply poor, in the best of cases, or dangerously misleading. If you want to know where our current mayhem came from, read this account of the field -- Cat Bohannon author of EveThe recent resurgence of AI has led to predictions of everything from the end of the world to immortality. Melanie Mitchell’s very intelligent, clear and sensible book is a welcome corrective to the exaggerated fears and hopes for AI, and the prefect primer to start understanding how the systems actually work -- Alison Gopnik, author of The Philosophical BabyMitchell knows what she’s talking about. Even better, she’s a clear, cogent and interesting writer . . . It has significantly improved my knowledge when it comes to automation technology, but the greater benefit is that it has also enhanced my appreciation for the complexity and ineffability of human cognition * Chicago Tribune *Without shying away from technical details, this survey provides an accessible course in neural networks, computer vision, and natural-language processing, and asks whether the quest to produce an abstracted, general intelligence is worrisome . . . Mitchell’s view is a reassuring one * The New Yorker *
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Vintage Publishing The Technological Republic
Book SynopsisSilicon Valley has lost its way. From the founding of the American republic through much of the twentieth century, our most brilliant engineering minds and the democratic state collaborated to advance world-changing technologies. The partnership ensured the West's dominant place in the geopolitical order. But that relationship has now eroded, with perilous repercussions.The modern incarnation of Silicon Valley turned its focus to the consumer market, including the construction of elaborate online advertising and social media platforms. The market rewarded shallow engagement with the potential of technology, as startup after startup catered to the whims of capitalist culture with little interest in constructing the technology that would address our most significant challenges. A generation of extraordinarily talented engineers, insulated from the geopolitical threats of the moment, built photo-sharing apps and marketing algorithms at the expense of projects with the potential to serve a more pressing collective or national purpose.In this groundbreaking and provocative treatise, Alexander C. Karp, co-founder and chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies, and Nicholas W. Zamiska, head of corporate affairs at the company, offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of creative and cultural ambition. They argue that in order for the West to maintain its geopolitical advantageand the freedoms that we take for grantedthe software industry must redirect its attention to our most urgent challenges and rebuild its relationship with government.It will be the union of the state and the software industrynot their separation and disentanglementthat will be required for the United States and its allies to remain as dominant in this century as they were in the last. The public will forgive many failures of government and the political class. But the electorate will not overlook a systemic inability to harness technology for the purpose of effectively advancing our welfare and security.Karp and Zamiska argue that a democratic public's commitment to free speech, in particularto preserving space for ideological confrontation and a rejection of intellectual fragilityhas everything to do with technological and economic outperformance. An entire generation is at risk of unwittingly becoming a product, a vessel for the ambitions of others, deprived of the opportunity to form authentic and independent beliefs about the world. At once iconoclastic and rigorous, the book will also lift the veil on Palantir and its broader political project from the inside, offering a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality.
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Penguin Books Ltd Digital Minimalism
Book SynopsisLearn how to switch off and find calm - from the New York Times bestselling author of A World Without Email ''Digital Minimalism is the Marie Kondo of technology'' Evening Standard ''An eloquent, powerful and enjoyably practical guide to cutting back on screen time'' The Times ''An urgent call to action for anyone serious about being in command of their own life'' Ryan Holiday ''What a timely and useful book'' Naomi Alderman, author of The Power Do you find yourself endlessly scrolling through social media or the news while your anxiety rises? Are you feeling frazzled after a long day of endless video calls? In this timely book, professor Cal Newport shows us how to pair back digital distractions and live a more meaningful life with less technology. By following a ''digital declutter'' process, you''ll learn to: Rethink your relationship with social media Prioritize ''high bandwidth'' conversations over low quality text chains Rediscover the pleasures of the offline world Take back control from your devices and find calm amongst the chaos with Digital Minimalism. Trade ReviewA compelling case for cultivating intense focus, and offers immediately actionable steps for infusing more of it into our lives * Adam Grant, author of Originals on Deep Work *A wonderfully entangled, intertwined, and erudite series of strategies, philosophies, disciplines, and techniques to sharpen your focus and dive deep into your work * 800-CEO-READ on Deep Work *As a presence on the page, Newport is exceptional in the realm of self-help authors * New York Times Book Review *Cal Newport speaks human truth to digital power. He calls out our enslavement to modern devices and calmly presents a better way to live and work * author of Fully Connected *This book is an urgent call to action for anyone serious about being in command of their own life * author of The Obstacle is the Way *Cal Newport has discovered a cure for the techno-exhaustion that plagues our always-on, digitally caffeinated culture * The Minimalists *Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism is the best book I've read in some time about our fraught relationship with technology. If you're looking for a blueprint to guide you as you liberate yourself from the shackles of email, social networks, smartphones, and screens, let this book be your guide * author of Irresistible *You're not the user, you're the product. Hang up, log off, and tune in to a different way to be in the world. Bravo, Cal, smart advice for good people * author of This is Marketing *I hope that everyone who owns a mobile phone and has been wondering where their time goes gets a chance to absorb the ideas in this book. It's amazing how the same strategy can work for both financial success and mental well-being: Put more energy into what makes you happy, and ruthlessly strip away the things that don't * aka Mr. Money Mustache *I challenge you not to devour this wonderful book in one sitting. I certainly did and I started applying Cal's ideas to my own life immediately * author of Essentialism *Cal Newport's book is a refreshing antidote to the poisonous cycle of what's new? - what's new? that this digital, hyperconnected decade has seduced us into. Building on the economics of Henry David Thoreau, Cal's call for calmer waters, for meaningful and engaged interactions, is just what the world needs right now * author of The Organised Mind *Digital Minimalism is the Marie Kondo of mobile phones * Evening Standard *Willpower, tips, and vague resolutions are not sufficient by themselves to tame the ability of new technologies to invade your cognitive landscape * The New Yorker *What a timely and useful book! It's neither hysterical nor complacent - a workable guide to being thoughtful about digital media. It's already made me rethink some of my media use in a considered way * Naomi Alderman, author of The Power *
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Melville House Publishing How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention
Book Synopsis
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Ebury Publishing How to Stand Up to a Dictator
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAbsolutely sublime and transformational. [Maria Ressa] lays out the moral paradigm for our time and the consequences of ignoring it and the thrill and reward of embracing it * Shoshana Zuboff, author of the international bestselling Surveillance Capitalism *A personal hero of mine ... she's an important warning for the rest of us * Hillary Clinton *I don't think I've read a more important book this year. * Andrew Marr, LBC *Maria is a key voice... she is so incredible in so many ways. The world needs to listen to what she has to say * Carole Cadwalladr *Maria Ressa is five feet two inches, but she stands taller than most in her pursuit of the truth * Amal Clooney *
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Vintage Publishing The Singularity is Nearer
Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERThe legendary oracle of technological change explains how AI will transform our species beyond recognition within two decades.The best person I know at predicting the future of AI' BILL GATES''Essential reading to understand our exponential times'' MUSTAFA SULEYMAN''Fascinating . . . raises the most profound philosophical questions'' YUVAL NOAH HARARIWhat will it mean to live free from the limits of our bodies? Who will we become if our minds can be stored and duplicated? What new realms of beauty, connection and wonder might we inhabit? How will we navigate the risks presented by such awesomely powerful technology?By the end of this decade, AI will exceed human levels of intelligence. During the 2030s, it will become superintelligent', vastly outstripping our capabilities and enabling dramatic interventions in our bodies. By 2045, we will be able to connect our brains directly with AI, enhancing our intelligence a millionfold and expanding our consciousness in ways we can barely imagine. This is the Singularity.Ray Kurzweil is one of the greatest inventors of our time with over 60 years' experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Dozens of his long-range predictions about the rise of the internet, AI and bioengineering have been borne out. In this visionary and fundamentally optimistic book, Kurzweil explains how the Singularity will occur, explores what it will mean to live free from the limits of biology and argues that we can and will transform life on Earth profoundly for the better.''The greatest oracle of our digital age'' PETER H. DIAMANDIS, founder of XPRIZE''Curious about the future? Read this book'' VINT CERF, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
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Vintage Publishing The Technological Republic
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
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Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention
Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A SPECTATOR AND FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022 A WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH ‘If you read just one book about how the modern world is driving us crazy, read this one’ TELEGRAPH ‘This book is exactly what the world needs right now’ OPRAH WINFREY ‘A beautifully researched and argued exploration of the breakdown of humankind's ability to pay attention’ STEPHEN FRY ‘A really important book . . . Everyone should read it’ PHILIPPA PERRY --- Is your ability to focus and pay attention in free fall? You are not alone. The average office worker now focuses on any one task for just three minutes. But it’s not your fault. Your attention didn’t collapse. It has been stolen. Internationally bestselling author Johann Hari shows twelve deep factors harming our focus. Once we understand them, together, we can take back our minds.Trade ReviewA brilliant book about one of the most important topics of our time -- Dr Rangan ChatterjeeThis mind-blowing book explains everything. Read it and be free -- Simon AmstellThere's so much in this book . . . Unbelievable, juicy dynamite that you have to read -- Chris EvansI think this book is exactly what the world needs right now . . . I hope everybody buys the book. I promise you it will be worth your time and certainly worth your focus -- Oprah WinfreyJohann Hari writes like a dream. He’s both lyricist and storyteller – but also an indefatigable investigator of one of the world’s greatest problems: the systematic destruction of our attention. Read this book to save your mind -- Susan CainI don’t know anyone thinking more deeply, or more holistically, about the crisis of our collective attention than Johann Hari. And this is a crisis that we must address if we are to meet any of the other pressing emergencies we face as a species, whether ecological or social. Which means that this book could not be more vital. Please sit with it, and focus -- Naomi KleinA story that so many of us have felt needs to be told, but whose cause and consequences are hard to capture and articulate without guesswork, prejudice or ideology. Hari not only achieves this and more, but he does so it with the pace, sparkle and energy of the best kind of thriller writer. I can’t remember reading a book which made me shout out “yes! That’s it!” quite so many times -- Stephen FryA highly original and wide-ranging investigation into the causes of our epidemic of flagging attention. Written with Hari’s trademark incisive prose, indefatigable search for scientific evidence vividly presented, and illustrated with telling anecdotes, Stolen Focus is a bracing and necessary wake-up call to us all -- Gabor Maté M.D.A fascinating journey into the mind and how it is being manipulated with devastating effects. Hari’s subject is something that is affecting us all and this seminal work will be one of the defining books of our era . . . Get off social media, switch off the TV, put down your smart phone and do one thing – read this book’ -- Dr Max PembertonStop whatever you’re doing and read this book. A deeply researched, disturbing, and yet ultimately hopeful exploration of the primal crisis of our time: our diminishing ability to focus on what really matters -- Rutger Bregman, author of HUMANKINDIf you want to get your attention and focus back, you need to read this remarkable book . . . [Hari] has cracked the code of why we’re in this crisis, and how to get out of it. We all need to hear this message -- Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive GlobalAn unbelievable storyteller . . . It might just change your life -- Steven BartlettThanks to this brilliant book, I have got to know myself and my fellow humans better. It educates and entertains you - the stories will suck any reader in, and then slowly change your mind. Everyone should read it. It has changed my habits - way beyond just putting away my phone more. Stolen Focus is a really important book -- Philippa PerryIn his unique voice, Johann Hari tackles the profound dangers facing humanity from information technology and rings the alarm bell for what all of us must do to protect ourselves, our children and our democracies -- Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of StateAn entirely necessary book, a miracle of clarity and depth, a resonant, deeply researched warning followed by a truly inspiring clarion-call to action. Read it and weep, then dry your eyes and join in -- Emma ThompsonA visionary, systemic, revolutionary and practical guide for creating the new world. Through tireless research and genius insight Johann Hari certainly snapped me to attention. A life changing book -- V, author of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUESProvided a staggering insight into the misery occasioned by our addiction to the idiocies of the web. If you have kids please read it * Spectator *This is a book for those of us (all of us?), who feel we are spending too much time staring at our phones — and are losing the capacity to concentrate * Financial Times *
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Random House The Big Hop
Book SynopsisDavid Rooney is a historian and museum curator. Born in north-east England, he moved to London in 1995 to take a traineeship at the Science Museum, where he first encountered the aeroplane that completed the Big Hop in 1919. Over an almost thirty-year career, David has curated timekeeping, transport and engineering collections at institutions from the National Maritime Museum to the Science Museum, bringing historical stories vividly alive. He is the author of About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks (2021), which has been translated into eleven languages. About The Big Hop, David says: It is 30 years since I first walked beneath the canvas wings of an ungainly biplane and wondered what must have possessed two young men to fly it across the Atlantic. Writing this book is my way of paying tribute to the pioneers of aviation men and women from all walks of life who risked everything: for freedom, for progress, and for us.'
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Duke University Press Staying with the Trouble
Book SynopsisDonna J. Haraway refigures our current epoch, moving away from the Anthropocene toward the Chthulucene: an epoch in which we stay with the trouble of living and dying on a damaged earth while living with and understanding the nonhuman in complex ways conducive to building more livable futures.Trade Review"In Staying with the Trouble, we find real SF: science fiction, science fact, science fantasy, speculative feminism, speculative fabulation, string figures, so far. So many ways to look at the world and ourselves, so many complicated ideas on how we critters will survive and thrive and die in the disturbing Chthulucene. Haraway is difficult to read. But the effort required is worth it." -- Nancy Jane Moore * Cascadia Subduction Zone *"Chthulucene is not a simple word, yet it is a productive motif for Haraway. With it she laces ideas from urban pigeons, woolen coral reefs, writing workshops, Inupiat computer games, canine estrogen and Black Mesa sheep. The thready and the tentacular form the subject and the framework of her theory-making, as well as the structure of her writing." -- Archie Davies * Antipode *"Staying with the Trouble is Haraway at her most accessible. Readers familiar with her work with recognize her characteristic style and language, polysemous metaphors co-mingle with evocative refrains, deep etymological readings, and even the occasional sentence with internal rhyme schemes. . . . This is a work to provoke and inspire. It is a call to arms (or pseudopods as the case may be)!" -- Matt Thompson * Savage Minds *"[W]e should take seriously the implications of kin versus family, of kin as encompassing all non-human relations. There is an ethics here, on a micro and macro level. Haraway is no moralist, but replacing 'human relations' with 'kin' arguably brings about a transformation in our hierarchies and priorities - why not care as much about a wildflower as you do about your niece? If it is not a zero-sum game, and let us hope it is not, we can make room for all kinds of lives, and all kinds of ways of living. Staying with the trouble is also a matter of sticking with all the things that currently live and will die alongside us, whether we cause it or notice it or not." -- Nina Power * Spike *"Haraway models like few others deep intellectual generosity and curiosity. Staying with the Trouble cites students, thinks with community activists and artists, and writes alongside scientists and fiction writers. Haraway does not want you to read her; she wants you to read with her. She also insists on conversations with all kinds of storytellers: academics or not, humans or not, environmental humanities scholars or not." -- Astrida Neimanis * Australian Feminist Studies *"The book enacts different forms of analysis and activism. It is not only that the book transcends disciplinary boundaries of biology, sciences studies, art history, philosophy and dense descriptions of political activism most often found in social sciences. These approaches are interwoven in a very rich and exquisite manner for which the author is well known." -- Waltraud Ernst * Angelaki *"Haraway is probably as aware as a writer can be that what she has to offer at the moment is nowhere near enough to engage with all the ‘trouble’ that needs to be engaged with. All she can do, she seems to be saying, is to stay with it a while, worrying at the very edges of her capacity, and then pass it on. ‘We need each other’s risk-taking support, in conflict and collaboration, big time,’ is how she ends that infamous two-page endnote. ‘The answer to the trust of the held-out hand’, as she also puts it. ‘Think we must.’" -- Jenny Turner * London Review of Books *"Staying with the Trouble is a kind of Whole Earth Catalogue of thought devices for attuning our senses to the damaged ecosystem of the still-blue planet. It makes It makes inspiring and imaginative use of science fiction, art projects, geology, evolutionary theory, developmental biology, science and technology studies, anthropology, environmental activism, philosophy, feminism, horticulture, linguistics, pigeon fancying, and many other ways of thinking and knowing about ourselves, our worlds, and the many imbricate relations through which life on earth comes into being and dies." -- Sarah Franklin * American Anthropologist *"In advancing an approach that is at once hopeful but grounded, attuned to the realities of history but open to the possibility of alternative futures—in other words, in adamantly insisting on 'staying with the trouble' of the present—Haraway provides a ray of light in an otherwise- gloomy world of Anthropocene scholarship." -- Leah Aronowsky * Endeavor *"For anthropologists Haraway’s book will read as an invitation to think and write in terms that allow for symbiosis throughout.... Readers may not find clear road maps that guide them to struggle for more just flourishings or to understand the powerful and violent articulations of economies and ecologies in the Capitalocene. But they will perhaps rethink and expand the diverse relationalities that constitute the very preconditions of collective action. This is an invitation both to theorize and to make unexpected collaborations." -- Caterina Scaramelli * American Ethnologist *"Haraway’s kinships offer a brave opening in feminist theory.... Haraway has a long history of making brave moves—and winning feminism over." -- Paulla Ebron and Anna Tsing * Feminist Studies *"As always [Haraway's] work is capacious, sharp, inventive, and informed." -- Kyla Tompkins * American Quarterly *"As someone who has spent many years thinking about how we could live on Mars, I can assure you that there is no planet B. Adjusting ourselves and our society to the planet we actually live on will require us to create and enact a new structure of feeling. The feminist theorist Donna Haraway urges us to take care of our animal cousins in her provocative study Staying With the Trouble. We must establish enduring relationships between generations and species, she argues, and recognise that an improved political economy is both necessary and possible." -- Kim Stanley Robinson * The Guardian *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Playing String Figures with Companion Species 9 2. Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene 30 3. Sympoiesis: Symbiogenesis and the Lively Arts of Staying with the Trouble 58 4. Making Kin: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene 99 5. Awash in Urine: DES and Premarin in Multispecies Response-ability 104 6. Sowing Worlds: A Seed Bag for Terraforming with Earth Others 117 7. A Curious Practice 126 8. The Camille Stories: Children of Compost 134 Notes 169 Bibliography 229 Index 265
£20.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Merchants of Doubt
Book SynopsisThe U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers.Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly - some of the same figures who have claimed that the science of global warming is not settled denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. Doubt is our product, wrote one tobacco executive. These ''experts'' supTrade ReviewAnyone concerned about the state of democracy in America should read this book -- Al GoreBrilliantly reported and written with brutal clarity * Huffington Post *It is tempting to require that all those engaged in the business of conveying scientific information to the general public should read it * Science *A hard-hitting thriller ... also a meticulously researched history book and a portal into the world of real science ... A fascinating story * West Australian *Excellent, important * Choice *
£13.49
Oxford University Press Superintelligence
Book SynopsisThis seminal book injects the topic of superintelligence into the academic and popular mainstream. What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? In a tour de force of analytic thinking, Bostrom lays a foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.Trade ReviewWorth reading. * Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX and Tesla *I highly recommend this book * Bill Gates *very deep ... every paragraph has like six ideas embedded within it. * Nate Silver *Nick Bostrom makes a persuasive case that the future impact of AI is perhaps the most important issue the human race has ever faced. Instead of passively drifting, we need to steer a course. Superintelligence charts the submerged rocks of the future with unprecedented detail. It marks the beginning of a new era * Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkley *Those disposed to dismiss an 'AI takeover' as science fiction may think again after reading this original and well-argued book * Martin Rees, Past President, Royal Society *This superb analysis by one of the worlds clearest thinkers tackles one of humanitys greatest challenges: if future superhuman artificial intelligence becomes the biggest event in human history, then how can we ensure that it doesnt become the last? * Max Tegmark, Professor of Physics, MIT *Terribly important ... groundbreaking... extraordinary sagacity and clarity, enabling him to combine his wide-ranging knowledge over an impressively broad spectrum of disciplines - engineering, natural sciences, medicine, social sciences and philosophy - into a comprehensible whole... If this book gets the reception that it deserves, it may turn out the most important alarm bell since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring from 1962, or ever * Olle Haggstrom, Professor of Mathematical Statistics *Valuable. The implications of introducing a second intelligent species onto Earth are far-reaching enough to deserve hard thinking * The Economist *There is no doubting the force of [Bostrom's] arguments the problem is a research challenge worthy of the next generations best mathematical talent. Human civilisation is at stake * Financial Times *His book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies became an improbable bestseller in 2014 * Alex Massie, Times (Scotland) *Ein Text so nüchtern und cool, so angstfrei und dadurch umso erregender, dass danach das, was bisher vor allem Filme durchgespielt haben, auf einmal höchst plausibel erscheint. A text so sober and cool, so fearless and thus all the more exciting that what has until now mostly been acted through in films, all of a sudden appears most plausible afterwards. (translated from German) * Georg Diez, DER SPIEGEL *Worth reading.... We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes * Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX and Tesla *A damn hard read * Sunday Telegraph *I recommend Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom as an excellent book on this topic * Jolyon Brown, Linux Format *Every intelligent person should read it. * Nils Nilsson, Artificial Intelligence Pioneer, Stanford University *An intriguing mix of analytic philosophy, computer science and cutting-edge science fiction, Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence is required reading for anyone seeking to make sense of the recent surge of interest in artificial intelligence (AI). * Colin Garvey, Icon *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Past Developments and Present Capabilities 2: Roads to Superintelligence 3: Forms of Superintelligence 4: Singularity Dynamics 5: Decisive Strategic Advantage 6: Intellectual Superpowers 7: The Superintelligent Will 8: Is the Default Outcome Doom? 9: The Control Problem 10: Oracles, Genies, Sovereigns, Tools 11: Multipolar Scenarios 12: Acquiring Values 13: Design Choices 14: The Strategic Picture 15: Nut-Cutting Time Afterword
£11.39
Chelsea Green Publishing Co The Great Regeneration: Ecological Agriculture,
Book SynopsisIn the age of climate change and the ongoing battles around how we use land to grow food and rear livestock, can an emerging group of visionary farmers utilise new technology to help create a truly communal vision of regenerative agriculture that is networked, engaged, and transformative – and ultimately a force for good in the natural world? In The Great Regeneration, farmer-technologist Dorn Cox and author-activist Courtney White explore this unique, groundbreaking research which is aimed at reclaiming the ground where science and agriculture meet as a shared human endeavour. The Great Regeneration explores the critical function that open-source technology can have in promoting agroecological systems, through data-sharing and networking. If these systems are brought together, there is potential to revolutionise how we manage food production and natural systems around the world, decentralising and deindustrialising the structures of production and governance that have long dominated the agricultural landscape. In this important book, Dorn Cox and Courtney White present a simple choice: we can allow ourselves to be dominated by this new technology, or we can harness its potential and use it to understand and improve our shared environment. The choices made today will affect the generations to come, and The Great Regeneration shows how, together, we can create positive and lasting change.Trade Review“Cox reminds us [that] regenerative farming is not just a set of practices, but an entire world view. . . [and] open-source technology, data sharing, Ag Data wallets, and farmer-to-farmer education are among our most essential tools in this world-changing endeavor.”—Ronnie Cummins, international director of Organic Consumers Association and author of Grassroots Rising“This book is the blueprint for a new spatial practice to repair not only agriculture but community, politics, and the economy besides."—Jo Guldi, author of The Long Land War and The History Manifesto"Timely, The Great Regeneration is a valued contribution to our on-going national discussions concerning sustainable agriculture, food science, and environmental issues. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, The Great Regeneration is especially and unreservedly recommended."—Midwest Book Review
£17.09
Penguin Books Ltd Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer
Book Synopsis''Do I wish to keep up with the times? No. My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can''The great American poet, novelist and environmental activist argues for a life lived slowly.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.63
Profile Books Ltd Fear
Book Synopsis'Extraordinary' Ai Weiwei'Brilliant' Simon SchamaFear has long been a driving force - perhaps the driving force - of world history: a coercive tool of power and a catalyst for radical change. Here, Robert Peckham traces its transformative role over a millennium, from fears of famine and war to anxieties over God, disease, technology and financial crises.In a landmark global history that ranges from the Black Death to the terror of the French Revolution, the AIDS pandemic to climate change, Peckham reveals how fear made us who we are, and how understanding it can equip us to face the future.
£11.69
Lexington Books Digital Media
Book SynopsisDigital Media: Human-Technology Connection examines what it is like to be alive in today's technologically textured world and showcases specific digital media technologies that makes this kind of world possible. So much of human experience occurs through digital media that it is time to pause and consider the process and proliferation of digital consumption and humanity's role in it through an interdisciplinary array of sources from philosophy, media studies, film studies, media ecology and philosophy of technology. When placed in the interpretive lens of artifact, instrument, and tool, digital media can be studied in a uniquely different way, as a kind of technology that pushes the boundaries on production, distribution and communication and alters the way humans and technology connect with each other and the world. The book is divided into two sections to provide overarching definitions and case study specifics. Section one, Raw Materials, examines pertinent concepts like digital medTrade ReviewThis small volume has an immodest aim—to analyze 'how digital media change our day-to-day lifeworld experience.' This analysis consists primarily of two components. First is a description of 'postphenomenology,' which is described as phenomenology leavened with pragmatism and close attention to the experiences of using specific technologies. The second is a series of 'cases,' which include descriptions of the use of screens, earbuds, portable music players, digitally altered ('photoshopped') images, aggregate news services, and athletic performance monitoring. Straightforward descriptions of these familiar digital media experiences are juxtaposed with metaphors (e.g., the 'siren's song of today'), oracular statements by phenomenologists, and, most especially, open-ended questions ('Is the technological weave in our contemporary world a heavy covering?' or 'If I cannot hear lifeworld sounds, am I less of a citizen?'). Readers should not expect definitive answers to such questions but instead are encouraged to be mindful of how casual, but pervasive, use of digital media can alter basic experiences and thus who people are. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and professionals. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Foreword Section 1: Raw Materials Chapter 1: Exploring the Texture Chapter 2: Describing Digital Media Chapter 3: Digging Section 2: Feeling the Weave Chapter 4: Case: The Screen Chapter 5: Case: Dwelling in digital Sound Chapter 6: Case: Earbud Embodiment Chapter 7: Case: Being-In-The World-With my iPod Chapter 8: Case: Dubstep Chapter 9: Case: The Photoshop Aesthetic Chapter 10: Case: Data mining Chapter 11: Case: Aggregate News Chapter 12: Case: Self Tracking Epilogue
£37.80
Random House The Extinction of Experience
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£10.44
John Murray Press Change: How to Make Big Things Happen
Book Synopsis'A remarkable and important guide to effecting change in our individual lives, businesses, societies - and beyond' JONAH BERGER, bestselling author of ContagiousHow did movements like the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter take off when they did? How did Lord Kitchener recruit 2,000,000 volunteers at the start of World War I?Why did Twitter take hold while Google+ has failed?What surprising lessons can we learn from Covid 19?From the spread of Covid-19 to the rise of political polarization, from implicit bias to genetically modified food, from NASA to Netflix - it's time to think differently about how change works.Professor Damon Centola is the world expert in the new science of networks. His ground-breaking research across areas as disparate as voting, health, technology and finance has highlighted powerful and highly effective new ways to ensure lasting change. In this book, Centola distils over a decade of deep experience into a fascinating new theory that challenges previous assumptions that new ideas are either contagious or not. Change shows that beliefs and behaviours are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is. The real story of social change is more complex and much more interesting. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways. Drawing on deep-yet-accessible research and fascinating examples, Change presents a paradigm-shifting new science for understanding what drives change, recognising our blind spots and how we can change the world around us.Trade ReviewAn utterly fascinating read that will challenge your core assumptions about how change happens * ADAM GRANT, bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take *Thought-provoking . . . A fascinating account of how change works and why it so often fails * Daily Mail *Will inspire you to start making the world a better place * Next Big Idea Club *Compelling * Nature *
£12.34
Vintage Publishing A Crack in Creation: The New Power to Control
Book Synopsis'The most important advance of our era. One of the pioneers of the field describes the exciting hunt for the key breakthrough and what it portends for our future' Walter IsaacsonWorld-famous scientist Jennifer Doudna - winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating the revolutionary gene-editing technique CRISPR - explains her discovery, describes its power to reshape the future of all life and warns of its use.A handful of discoveries have changed the course of human history. This book is about the most recent and potentially the most powerful and dangerous of them all. It is an invention that allows us to rewrite the genetic code that shapes and controls all living beings. As a result, dreams of genetic manipulation have become a stark reality: the power to cure disease and alleviate suffering, as well as to re-design any species, including humans, for our own ends. Jennifer Doudna is the co-inventor of this technology - known as CRISPR - and a scientist of worldwide renown. Writing with fellow researcher Samuel Sternberg, here she provides the definitive account of her discovery, explaining how this wondrous invention works and what it is capable of. She also asks us to consider what our new-found power means: how do we enjoy its unprecedented benefits while avoiding its equally unprecedented dangers? _________________PRAISE FOR A CRACK IN CREATION: 'The future is in our hands as never before, and this book explains the stakes like no other' George Lucas'One of the most PIONEERING women in science . . . Exhilarating' Arianna Huffington'Thrilling' Adam Rutherford'An instant classic' Siddhartha MukherjeeTrade ReviewThe most important advance of our era. One of the pioneers of the field describes the exciting hunt for the key breakthrough and what it portends for our future -- Walter IsaacsonToo important … What may happen thanks to Doudna’s [discovery] is dizzying … for her, this is the future of medicine. If she’s right, then Crispr is about to make our present healthcare concerns look surprisingly trivial -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *One of the architects of this miraculous biological technique … explains the science clearly and excitingly as a kind of globalist detective story * Telegraph *Probably the greatest biological breakthrough since that of Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin… We owe Doudna several times over – for her discovery, for her zeal to take it from the lab into the clinic, for her involvement in the ethical issues raised, for her public engagement work, and now for this book -- Peter Forbes * Guardian *An urgent plea from the celebrated biologist whose discovery enabled us to rewrite the code of life. The future is in our hands as never before, and this book explains the stakes like no other -- George LucasUrgent, riveting and endlessly fascinating, this book is destined to become an instant classic. Read it if you want to understand our biological future -- Siddhartha MukherjeeIn this wonderful book … Doudna’s and Sternberg’s simple but compelling exploration of this hugely important subject offers and excellent overview of this startling and unprecedented discovery * Literary Review *An exhilarating and frightening roadmap to our future by one of the most pioneering women in science -- Arianna HuffingtonJennifer Doudna is the true pioneer who built the bridge between the basic science of CRISPR and its diverse applications. Now is the time to read about the revolution that could change our world -- George ChurchA scientific thriller and a gripping read by a brilliant scientist -- Venki RamakrishnanOne of the most monumental discoveries in biology * New York Times *A detailed account of the story so far. It may well end up being compared with the book that inspired a 12-year-old Doudna in the first place: James Watson’s The Double Helix … Packed with amazing female scientists, it is thrilling, generous and no less personal … We need scientifically informed conversations about what we should do next with these powers, and Doudna’s book is a good place to begin -- Adam Rutherford * New Scientist *A welcome new contribution to the [gene editing] debate… She should be congratulated for being one of the very few scientists involved in a breakthrough to write a timely, popular personal account… Doudna’s style, more contemplative than Watson or Venter, is just as effective at describing the increasingly frantic pace of life in the lab, as researchers realise that epoch-making discoveries are in the offing. She tells the scientific back-story particularly well… The arguments are rehearsed with admirable clarity -- Clive Cookson * Financial Times *
£10.44
Atlantic Books The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the
Book Synopsis'Boldly reactionary... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine' Sunday Times'Chilling' The EconomistIn this ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr argues that not since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been exposed to such a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on the latest research to show that the Net is literally re-wiring our brains inducing only superficial understanding. As a consequence there are profound changes in the way we live and communicate, remember and socialise - even in our very conception of ourselves. By moving from the depths of thought to the shallows of distraction, the web, it seems, is actually fostering ignorance. The Shallows is not a manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to turn back the clock. Rather it is a revelatory reminder of how far the Internet has become enmeshed in our daily existence and is affecting the way we think. This landmark book compels us all to look anew at our dependence on this all-pervasive technology.This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioural effects of smartphones and social media.Trade ReviewA boldly reactionary book... Its thesis is simple and persuasive. The things that we do have a physical effect on our brains... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine... The internet is a distraction machine. -- Sam Leith * Sunday Times *Essential reading about our internet age. * New York Times Book Review *The most readable overview of the science and history of human cognition to date... Carr draws some chilling inferences. * The Economist *An elegantly written cry of anguish... Hair-raising. -- John Harris * Guardian *Carr straddles the book-dominated and web-dominated worlds and is at home in both... Mild-mannered, never polemical, with nothing of the Luddite about him, Carr makes his points with wide-ranging erudition. -- Christopher Caldwell * Financial Times *Unhurried... even-handed... Carr constantly emphasises the fact that screen technologies are neither evil nor miraculous in their effects on the human mind... What is certain, however, is that our minds will change... A worthy illustration that books do indeed enable deep reflection. -- Susan Greenfield * Literary Review *Absorbing [and] disturbing * Wall Street Journal *I have not only given this book to numerous friends, I actually changed my life in response to it. -- Jonathan Safran FoerAn important and timely book. See if you can stay off the Web long enough to read it! -- Elizabeth KolbertThis is a book to shake up the world. -- Ann PatchettTable of Contents0: THE WATCHDOG AND THE THIEF 1: HAL AND ME 2: THE VITAL PATHS 3: TOOLS OF THE MIND 4: THE DEEPENING PAGE 5: A MEDIUM OF THE MOST GENERAL NATURE 6: THE VERY IMAGE OF A BOOK 7: THE JUGGLER'S BRAIN 8: THE CHURCH OF GOOGLE 9: SEARCH, MEMORY 10: A THING LIKE ME 11: HUMAN ELEMENTS
£10.44
Chelsea Green Publishing Co The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity
Book Synopsis‘This seminal book...will transform your understanding ...of the environmental and health effects of electricity and radio frequencies’ Paradigm Explorer ‘Firstenberg is a pioneer in the sense that Rachel Carson was a pioneer.’ Chellis Glendinning, PhD, author of When Technology Wounds 75,000 copies sold! Cell towers, Wi-fi, 5G: Electricity has shaped the modern world. But how has it affected our health and environment? Over the last 220 years, society has evolved a universal belief that electricity is ‘safe’ for humanity and the planet. Scientist and journalist Arthur Firstenberg disrupts this conviction by telling the story of electricity in a way it has never been told before – from an environmental point of view – by detailing the effects that this fundamental societal building block has had on our health and our planet. In The Invisible Rainbow, Firstenberg traces the history of electricity from the early eighteenth century to the present, making a compelling case that many environmental problems, as well as the major diseases of industrialised civilisation—heart disease, diabetes, and cancer—are related to electrical pollution.Trade Review“Few individuals today are able to grasp the entirety of a scientific subject and present it in a highly engaging manner, in plain English, without losing any of the details. In The Invisible Rainbow, Firstenberg has done just that with one of the most pressing but neglected problems of our technological age. This book, which as a medical doctor I found hard to put down, explores the relationship between electricity and life from beginning to end: from the early eighteenth century to today, and from the point of view of the physician, the physicist, and the average person in the street. Firstenberg makes a compelling case that the major diseases of civilization—heart disease, diabetes, and cancer—are in large part related to the pollution of our world by electricity.”—Bradley Johnson, MD, Amen Clinic, San Francisco“The Invisible Rainbow is wonderful. Firstenberg has done his research thoroughly. His book is easily readable and provocative while being entertaining. A remarkable contribution.”—David O. Carpenter, MD, director, Institute for Health and the Environment, School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany“I found it to be a mystery unfolding and could not put it down. It shines a new light on diseases that come from electrical development, and addresses current environmental crises that only a few yet realize are the consequence of electrosmog. This book is very, very important.”—Sandy Ross, PhD, president, Health and Habitat, Inc.“I was stunned by this book. It is an extremely valuable document about an increasingly widespread environmental health risk to which we are all exposed. I am overwhelmed with admiration for what Firstenberg has accomplished.”—William E. Morton, MD, DrPH, professor emeritus, Oregon Health Sciences University“Firstenberg is a pioneer in the sense that Rachel Carson was a pioneer.”—Chellis Glendinning, PhD, author of When Technology Wounds
£17.09
Penguin Books Ltd (UK) Source Code
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£11.69
Profile Books Ltd Fear: An Alternative History of the World
Book SynopsisIt's been said that, after 9/11, the 2008 financial crash and the Covid-19 pandemic, we're a more fearful society than ever before. Yet fear, and the panic it produces, have long been driving forces - perhaps the driving force - of world history: fear of God, of famine, war, disease, poverty, and other people. In Fear: An Alternative History of the World, Robert Peckham considers the impact of fear in history, as both a coercive tool of power and as a catalyst for social change. Beginning with the Black Death in the fourteenth century, Peckham traces a shadow history of fear. He takes us through the French Revolution and the social movements of the nineteenth century to modern market crashes, Cold War paranoia and the AIDS pandemic, into a digital culture increasingly marked by uniquely twenty-first-century fears. What did fear mean to us in the past, and how can a better understanding of it equip us to face the future? As Peckham demonstrates, fear can challenge as well as cement authority. Some crises have destroyed societies; others have been the making of them. Through the stories of the people and the moments that changed history, Fear: An Alternative History of the World reveals how fear and panic made us who we are.Trade ReviewCompelling * Economist *An ambitious deep dive into history * Irish Independent *[An] elegant synthesis of centuries of intellectual history ... Peckham's mapping of fear across centuries of thought offers an opportunity to reflect on a persistent political geography of anxiety * Lancet *Clear and engaging ... readers keen to grasp a better understanding of the history of the world will be entranced by Peckham's ability to communicate complex political, religious, economic, artistic, medical, military, technological and cultural trends * BBC History Magazine *Brilliant and breathtakingly wide-ranging ... As Peckham shows in gripping and beautifully written detail, fear isn't just the stock in trade of wicked despots; in some circumstances it can be turned to positive effect. Could it, now, be that fear is our friend? Read Peckham and judge for yourself. -- Simon SchamaExtraordinary. This exceptional and thought-provoking book sheds light on the intricate position fear occupies in the unavoidable realities of politics and our spiritual existence. -- Ai WeiweiWe all know what fear is, but who amongst us have considered its history? Peckham is fear's astute historian-translator in this big, brave, honest, and learned book. He moves us back and forth across time and place, from fourteenth-century century plague to bombs in Afghanistan, in a profoundly human history of the politics of one emotion. It's gripping as well as uncomfortable reading, that shows us the stakes when fear and freedom are twinned -- Alison Bashford, author * The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution *Robert Peckham's deeply informed and lucidly staged anatomy of fear is a remarkable achievement. Peckham shapes a fundamentally transformative account of the sociology of fear - and of fear as a constitutive element of modern sociality itself. A groundbreaking study. -- Mark Seltzer, author * The Official World *Fascinating, compelling and erudite. I have written quite a lot about fear and the brain, but learned so much about fear itself from this book. -- Joseph LeDoux, author * The Deep History of Ourselves *
£21.25
Penguin Books Ltd Weapons of Math Destruction
Book Synopsis''A manual for the 21st-century citizen... accessible, refreshingly critical, relevant and urgent'' - Financial Times ''Fascinating and deeply disturbing'' - Yuval Noah Harari, Guardian Books of the Year In this New York Times bestseller, Cathy O''Neil, one of the first champions of algorithmic accountability, sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life -- and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for insurance - are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. And yet, as Cathy O''Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and incontestable, even when they''re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination. Tracing the arc of a person''s life, O''Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These weapons of math destruction score teachers and students, sort CVs, grant or deny loans, evaluate workers, target voters, and monitor our health. O''Neil calls on modellers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it''s up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.Trade ReviewFascinating and deeply disturbing -- Yuval Noah Harari * Guardian Books of the Year *This is a manual for the 21st-century citizen, and it succeeds where other big data accounts have failed - it is accessible, refreshingly critical and feels relevant and urgent -- Federica Cocco * Financial Times *Well-written, entertaining and very valuable -- Danny Dorling * Times Higher Education *O'Neil has become a whistle-blower for the world of Big Data... Her work makes particularly disturbing points about how being on the wrong side of an algorithmic decision can snowball in incredibly destructive ways * Time *Cathy O'Neil has seen Big Data from the inside, and the picture isn't pretty. Weapons of Math Destruction opens the curtain on algorithms that exploit people and distort the truth while posing as neutral mathematical tools. This book is wise, fierce, and desperately necessary -- Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not To Be WrongWeapons of Math Destruction is a fantastic, plainspoken call to arms. Cathy O'Neil's book is important precisely because she believes in data science. It's a vital crash course in why we must interrogate the systems around us and demand better -- Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and co-editor of Boing BoingOften we don't even know where to look for those important algorithms, because by definition the most dangerous ones are also the most secretive. That's why the catalogue of case studies in O'Neil's book are so important; she's telling us where to look * Guardian *In today's world, if you want to change your fate you've got to pray at the altar of the algorithm... As math guru Cathy O'Neil argues in her newest book, these models are just the latest way America's institutions perpetuate bias and prejudice to reward the rich and keep the poor, well, poor. It's a nuanced reminder that big data is only as good as the people wielding it * Wired *Not math heavy, but written in an exceedingly accessible, almost literary style; her fascinating case studies of WMDs fit neatly into the genre of dystopian literature. There's a little Philip K. Dick, a little Orwell, a little Kafka in her portrait of powerful bureaucracies ceding control of the most intimate decisions of our lives to hyper-empowered computer models riddled with all of our unresolved, atavistic human biases -- Chris Jackson * Paris Review *O'Neil is an ideal person to write this book... She is one of the strongest voices speaking out for limiting the ways we allow algorithms to influence our lives and against the notion that an algorithm, because it is implemented by an unemotional machine, cannot perpetrate bias or injustice... While Weapons of Math Destruction is full of hard truths and grim statistics, it is also accessible and even entertaining. O'Neil's writing is direct and easy to read - I devoured it in an afternoon -- Evelyn Lamb * Scientific American *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias,
Book Synopsis'Required reading for everyone' Adam RutherfordShortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021 Medicine, education, psychology, economics - wherever it really matters, we look to science for guidance. But what if science itself can't always be relied on?In this vital investigation, Stuart Ritchie reveals the disturbing flaws in today's science that undermine our understanding of the world and threaten human lives. With bias, careless mistakes and even outright forgery influencing everything from austerity economics to the anti-vaccination movement, he proposes vital remedies to save and protect science - this most valuable of human endeavours - from itself.* With a new afterword by the author *'Thrilling... Reminds us that another world is possible' The Times, Books of the Year'Excellent... We need better science. That's why books like this are so important' Evening StandardTrade ReviewThrilling ... Ritchie reminds us that another world is possible * The Times *Fascinating and often shocking * Sunday Times, Best Paperbacks of 2021 *The most important science story of our times ... evocative and engaging ... sometimes funny, sometimes shocking * Unherd *Excellent ... we need better science. That's why books like this are so important * Evening Standard *Entertaining ... revelatory ... brilliantly highlights the problems in current practices and sets out a path towards new ones * Daily Mail *A desperately important book, Science Fictions brilliantly exposes the fragility of the science on which lives, livelihoods and our whole society depend ... Required reading for everyone -- ADAM RUTHERFORD, author of How to Argue With a RacistRitchie's engaging tour of the dark side of research [...] has rumbled science's guilty secret ... the tragedy is that the current system does not just overlook our foibles, it amplifies them ... he's entertaining company ... an illuminating and thoughtful guide. Ultimately, he comes to praise science, not to bury it -- ROGER HIGHFIELD * Literary Review *An engagingly accessible set of cautionary tales to show how science and scientists can be led astray, in some instances with fatal consequences ... clear-eyed and chillingly accurate ... should be compulsory reading for anyone involved in the communication of science to policy makers and to the public -- GINA RIPPON, author of The Gendered BrainGripping tales of increasing recent villainy and bias in the laboratory, which should worry those of us who love science -- MATT RIDLEY, author of How Innovation WorksAll the replication-failure and scientific-misconduct stories you've ever heard are here - along with more that you haven't ... This comprehensive collection of mishaps, misdeeds and tales of caution is the great strength of Ritchie's offering ... Ritchie's four themes carve complex, interconnected issues at natural joints, and allow his case studies to shine -- Fiona Fidler * Nature *He has come to praise science, not to bury it; nevertheless, his analyses of science's current ethical ills - fraud, hype, negligence and so on - are devastating -- Simon Ings * Telegraph *Science Fictions... is a useful account of ten years or more of debate, mostly in specialist circles, about reproducibility -- John Whitfield * London Review of Books *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Human Compatible
Book SynopsisFROM THE BBC REITH LECTURER 2021''The most important book I have read in quite some time'' Daniel Kahneman; ''A must-read'' Max Tegmark; ''The book we''ve all been waiting for'' Sam HarrisHumans dream of super-intelligent machines. But what happens if we actually succeed?Creating superior intelligence would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, according to the world''s pre-eminent AI expert, it could also be the last. In this groundbreaking book, Stuart Russell sets out why he has come to consider his own discipline an existential threat to humanity, and how we can change course before it''s too late. In brilliant and lucid prose, he explains how AI actually works and its enormous capacity to improve our lives - and why we must never lose control of machines more powerful than we are. Russell contends that we can avert the worst threats by reshaping the foundations of AI to guarantee that machines pursue our objectives, not theirs. Profound, urgent and visionary, Human Compatible is the one book everyone needs to read to understand a future that is coming sooner than we think.LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & McKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR''Thought-provoking'' Financial Times''Fascinating and significant'' Sunday Times''The most important book on AI this year'' GuardianTrade ReviewSurely the most important book on AI this year. -- Ian Sample * The Guardian, Book of the Day *A brilliantly clear and fascinating exposition of the history of computing thus far, and how very difficult true AI will be to build. -- Steven Poole * The Spectator *Fascinating and significant. -- James McConnachie * The Sunday Times *Worth reading Human Compatible by Stuart Russell (he's great!) about future AI risks and solutions. -- Elon Musk * Twitter *A thought-provoking and highly readable account of the past, present and future of AI . . . Russell deploys a bracing intellectual rigour . . . but a laconic style and dry humour keep his book accessible to the lay reader. * The Financial Times *It's asking a lot of a book about the potential end of civilisation to be strewn with humour and wry asides, but this is what Russell manages . . . it's worth sticking with, for the sake of the species. -- Best Science, Nature and Ideas Books of 2019 * The Guardian *An excellent, nuanced history. * The Telegraph, Best New Science Books for Christmas *Russell is an assiduous and conscientious scholar ... [he] provides a wealth of information. This is one of those intellectual voyages where both the journey and the destination matter. -- John Naughton * The Literary Review *This is the most important book I have read in quite some time. It lucidly explains how the coming age of artificial super-intelligence threatens human control. Crucially, it also introduces a novel solution and a reason for hope. * Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' *Of the many books published this year on artificial intelligence, this is probably the best. Stimulating and scary stuff. -- Best Books of 2019: Technology * The Financial Times *A must-read: this intellectual tour-de-force by one of AI's true pioneers not only explains the risks of ever more powerful artificial intelligence in a captivating and persuasive way, but also proposes a concrete and promising solution. * Professor Max Tegmark, MIT, author of 'Life 3.0' *Stuart Russell has long been the most sensible voice in computer science on the topic of AI risk. And he has now written the book we've all been waiting for. Human Compatible is a brilliant and utterly accessible guide to what will be either the best or worst technological development in human history. -- Sam Harris, author of five New York Times bestsellers and host of the Making Sense podcastHuman Compatible made me a convert to Russell's concerns with our ability to control our upcoming creation -- super-intelligent machines. Unlike outside alarmists and futurists, Russell is a leading authority on AI. His new book will educate the public about AI more than any book I can think of, and is a delightful and uplifting read. -- Judea Pearl, Turing Award-winner and author of 'The Book of Why'Stuart Russell, one of the most important AI scientists of the last 25 years, may have written the most important book about AI so far, on one of the most important questions of the 21st century: How to build AI to be compatible with us. The book proposes a novel and intriguing solution for this problem, while offering many thought-provoking ideas and insights about AI along the way. An accessible and engaging must-read for the developers of AI and the users of AI - that is, for all of us. -- James Manyika * Chairman and director of McKinsey Global Institute *The man set on stopping the machines taking over. * The Telegraph *In clear and compelling language, Stuart Russell describes the huge potential benefits of Artificial Intelligence, as well as the hazards and ethical challenges. It's specially welcome that a respected leading authority should offer this balanced appraisal, avoiding both hype and scaremongering. -- Professor Martin Rees, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, and author of 'On the Future'A strong case for planning for the day when machines can outsmart us. * Kirkus Review *Persuasively argued and lucidly imagined, Human Compatible offers an unflinching, incisive look at what awaits us in the decades ahead. Stuart Russell's diagnosis of the risks and dangers of AI is convincing, and his prescription for action is compelling. No researcher has argued more persuasively about the risks of AI, nor has shown more clearly a pathway forward. Anyone who takes the future seriously should pay attention. -- Brian Christian, author of 'Algorithms to Live By'Can we coexist happily with the intelligent machines that humans will create? "Yes," answers Human Compatible, "but first..." Through a brilliant reimagining of the foundations of artificial intelligence, Russell takes you on a journey from the very beginning, explaining the questions raised by an AI-driven society and beautifully making the case for how to ensure machines remain beneficial to humans. A totally readable and crucially important guide to the future from one of the world's leading experts. -- Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CognitionX and Head of the UK Government's AI CouncilThe same mix of de-mystifying authority and practical advice that Dr. Benjamin Spock once brought to the care and raising of children, Dr. Stuart Russell now brings to the care, raising, and yes, disciplining of machines. He has written the book that most -- but perhaps not all -- machines would like you to read. -- George Dyson, author of 'Turing's Cathedral' and 'Project Orion'This beautifully written book addresses a fundamental challenge for humanity: increasingly intelligent machines that do what we ask but not what we really intend. Essential reading if you care about our future. -- Professor Yoshua Bengio, Computer Science and Operations Research, Université de Montréal, winner of the 2018 Turing AwardA book that charts humanity's quest to understand intelligence, pinpoints why it became unsafe, and shows how to course-correct if we want to survive as a species. Stuart Russell, author of the leading AI textbook, can do all that with the wealth of knowledge of a prominent AI researcher and the persuasive clarity and wit of a brilliant educator. -- Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype
£10.44
NICEIC Niceic Learners Guide 1
Book SynopsisThe Learning Guide has been produced by the NICEIC to assist learners working towards a qualification that demonstrates awareness of the requirements and content of the UK national standards for the safety of electrical installations - BS 7671:2018+A2:2022 Requirements for the Electrical Installations. IET Wiring Regulations Eighteenth Edition and is aimed at those already working in the electrical contracting industry or those in associated role where a sound knowledge of the requirements of BS 7671 is required.
£34.42
Transworld Publishers Ltd Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the
Book Synopsis_______________‘One of the best books yet written on data and algorithms. . .deserves a place on the bestseller charts.’ (The Times) You are accused of a crime. Who would you rather determined your fate – a human or an algorithm?An algorithm is more consistent and less prone to error of judgement. Yet a human can look you in the eye before passing sentence.Welcome to the age of the algorithm, the story of a not-too-distant future where machines rule supreme, making important decisions – in healthcare, transport, finance, security, what we watch, where we go even who we send to prison. So how much should we rely on them? What kind of future do we want?Hannah Fry takes us on a tour of the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us. In Hello World she lifts the lid on their inner workings, demonstrates their power, exposes their limitations, and examines whether they really are an improvement on the humans they are replacing.A BBC RADIO 4: BOOK OF THE WEEKSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE AND 2018 ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZETrade ReviewA stylish, thoughtful, and scrupulously fair-minded account of what the software that increasingly governs our lives can and cannot do ... A beautifully accessible guide that leaps lightly from one story to the next without sparing the reader hard questions... deserves a place in the bestseller charts. -- Oliver Moody * The Times *With refreshing simplicity, Fry explains what AI, machine learning and complicated algorithms really mean, providing some succinct explanations of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, driverless cars and many other unnerving modern phenomena…This book illustrates why good science writers are essential. -- Katy Guest * Guardian *Brilliantly clear...Fry succinctly outlines the ethical issues that beset AI -- James McConnaiche * Sunday Times *Hello World is a gem of accessible science writing. With eloquence and charm, Hannah Fry outlines the maths of computer algorithms and explains how they are transforming fields such as health, justice, transport and the arts. She is a wise guide to the benefits - and horrors of our increasingly data-driven world. -- Alex Bellos, author of Alex's Adventures in NumberlandExpertly told, wise and with a lightness of touch, Hannah Fry's brilliant exploration of how we live our lives in the age of AI will prompt arguments in pubs and over dinner tables for years to come. -- Adam Rutherford
£10.44
MIT Press Ltd What Is Intelligence
£25.60
Duckworth Books The Singularity Is Near
Book SynopsisA radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author ofHow to Create a Mindand who Bill Gates calls 'the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.'
£17.09
Canongate Books Could Should Might Dont
£18.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists
Book SynopsisA TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Engaging and visceral ... Reads like a thriller' Financial Times 'Riveting and often deeply disturbing ... A punch to the stomach' Sunday Times 'Ebner has done some gutsy, thought-provoking research' Sunday Telegraph 'Fascinating and important' Spectator By day, Julia Ebner works at a counter-extremism think tank, monitoring radical groups from the outside. But two years ago, she began to feel she was only seeing half the picture; she needed to get inside the groups to truly understand them. She decided to go undercover in her spare hours – late nights, holidays, weekends – adopting five different identities, and joining a dozen extremist groups from across the ideological spectrum. Her journey would take her from a Generation Identity global strategy meeting in a pub in Mayfair, to a Neo-Nazi Music Festival on the border of Germany and Poland. She would get relationship advice from ‘Trad Wives’ and Jihadi Brides and hacking lessons from ISIS. She was in the channels when the alt-right began planning the lethal Charlottesville rally, and spent time in the networks that would radicalise the Christchurch terrorist. In Going Dark, Ebner takes the reader on a deeply compulsive journey into the darkest recesses of extremist thinking, exposing how closely we are surrounded by their fanatical ideology every day, the changing nature and practice of these groups, and what is being done to counter them.Trade ReviewEbner has done some gutsy, thought-provoking research **** * Sunday Telegraph *Engaging and visceral ... At times, Ebner’s undercover work reads like a thriller ... Going Dark pulls back the facade of invulnerability and remorselessness that extremists promote with glossy propaganda, to understand those they recruit * Financial Times *Riveting and often deeply disturbing ... Her aim is to expose the way extremist groups manipulate their members in the hope that this will prevent others from being radicalised by them. Her book is a call, too, for policy-makers to rethink their response to extremism ... A punch to the stomach * The Sunday Times *Fascinating and important ... Going Dark shows how diverse groups feed off each other, using similar tactics to create social bubbles while exploiting the weakness — or reluctance — of social media firms to control their hate-filled content. It underlines the dangers of ignoring the threat of far-right terror, the normalisation of violence-inciting ideologies and the fearsome power of technology to inspire copycat attacks * Spectator *A chilling, compulsive investigation into online extremist groups * Standpoint *A thorough and shocking exploration of how the internet has facilitated the spread of extremism ... Ebner depicts the vast and rapid spread of online extremism, and the challenge we face in fighting it * City AM *Julia Ebner advises governments and organisations on online extremism and hate speech. To complete her investigations of online fanatics, she assumes a variety of identities and goes undercover in a dozen tech-savvy extremist groups ... Absorbing and intelligent ... Ebner doesn't just analyse these things, she takes real risks to witness them up close. The result is a work that is terrifying because it is non-fiction. * Irish News *Julia Ebner's description of infiltrating extremist groups – and her first hand account of how their ideology is turned into violent action – is chilling ... [she] deserves a medal * Lord Harris of Haringey, House Magazine *Julia Ebner has not only teased out and explained the common denominator in extremist movements, she has done so in a way that is humanising, engrossing and alarming. Going Dark is not just an overdue, almost exhaustive journey of research into the lives of extremists, it is a public service -- Nesrine Malik, author of We Need New StoriesA scintillating journey into a secret world that is impacting our everyday lives in ways we are only just starting to grasp. Simultaneously immersive and analytical, Ebner’s adventures in the dark crevasses of the internet shows how fascism works today – and what needs to be done to stop it -- Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is Not PropagandaGoing Dark makes for terrifying reading, but it’s all the more essential for that, exposing just how closely we’re surrounded by fanatical ideology every day of our lives, and how that ideology is being countered * Stylist *
£10.44
Simon & Schuster Diffusion of Innovations 5th Edition
Book SynopsisNow in its fifth edition, Diffusion of Innovations is a classic work on the spread of new ideas. In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances—a process which typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990's, for example, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in the history of humankind. Furthermore, the Internet is changing the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the importance of physical distance between people. The fifth edition addresses the spread of the Internet, and how it has transformed the way human beings communicate and adopt new ideas.Trade ReviewChoice The name of Everett Rogers...is virtually synonymous with the study of the diffusion of innovations....His coverage is comprehensive, ranging from the elements of diffusion and the history of diffusion research to generators of innovation, change agents, and the consequences of innovations. Among the many features that make this an exemplary interdisciplinary effort are Rogers's clear, literate style and his ability to stay in touch with social realities. He sets a high standard for social theorists.Technology and Culture A classic work....Full of interesting insights, solid examples, and good common sense.Journal of Communication Incorporates important advances...presented in the usual clear, didactic, and often light-spirited style of the author, who also offers choice examples of his wide cross-cultural experiences. The result is a highly readable and discussion-provoking text.Engineering Management Society Holds several important lessons for anyone planning the introduction of new ideas in a firm....Introduces the latest and probably some of the best thinking in that area.Table of ContentsContentsPrefaceCHAPTER 1. ELEMENTS OF DIFFUSIONCHAPTER 2. A HISTORY OF DIFFUSION RESEARCHCHAPTER 3. CONTRIBUTIONS AND CRITICISMS OF DIFFUSION RESEARCHCHAPTER 4. THE GENERATION OF INNOVATIONSCHAPTER 5. THE INNOVATION-DECISION PROCESSCHAPTER 6. ATTRIBUTES OF INNOVATIONS AND THEIR RATE OF ADOPTIONCHAPTER 7. INNOVATIVENESS AND ADOPTER CATEGORIESCHAPTER 8. DIFFUSION NETWORKSCHAPTER 9. THE CHANGE AGENTCHAPTER 10. INNOVATION IN ORGANIZATIONSCHAPTER 11. CONSEQUENCES OF INNOVATIONSGlossaryBibliographyName IndexSubject Index
£21.25
Oneworld Publications Little Eyes: LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER
Book SynopsisA visionary novel about our interconnected world, about the collision of horror and humanity, from the Man Booker-shortlisted master of the spine-tingling tale A Guardian & Observer Best Fiction Book of 2020 * A Sunday Times Best Science Fiction Book of the Year * The Times Best Science Fiction Books of the Year * NPR Best Books of the Year World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2020 * Ebook Travel Guides Best 5 Books of 2020 * A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 They’re not pets. Not ghosts or robots. These are kentukis, and they are in your home. You can trust them. They care about you... They've infiltrated apartments in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of Sierra Leone, town squares of Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. Anonymous and untraceable, these seemingly cute cuddly toys reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung souls – but they also expose the ugly truth of our interconnected society. Samanta Schweblin's wildly imaginative new novel pulls us into a dark and complex world of unexpected love, playful encounters and marvellous adventures. But beneath the cuddly exterior, kentukis conceal a truth that is unsettlingly familiar and exhilaratingly real. This is our present and we’re living it – we just don’t know it yet. *Little Eyes comes with two different covers, and the cover you receive will be chosen at random*Trade Review'Ingenious... An artful exploration of solitude and empathy in a globalised world… In a nimble, fast-moving narrative, what’s most impressive is the way she foregrounds her characters’ inner hopes and fears.' * Guardian *'Disturbing... Schweblin enjoys hovering just above the normal. Inspired by Samuel Beckett, she is interested in exposing absurdities.' * Financial Times *‘Little Eyes makes for masterfully uneasy reading; it’s a book that burrows under your skin.’ * Telegraph *'I cannot remember a book so efficient in establishing character and propelling narrative; there’s material for a hundred novels in these deft, rich 242 pages... The writing, ably translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, is superb, fully living up to the promise of Schweblin's stunning previous novel, Fever Dream... A slim volume as expansive and ambitious as an epic.' * New York Times *'A timely meditation on humanity and technology.' * Harper's Bazaar *'Little Eyes provides us with a powerful examination of the underlining disparities that persist. It is a fable for a society in which we are all made to feel simultaneously exposed and anonymous, connected and alone.' * Times Literary Supplement *‘Little Eyes acts as a clear warning that every digital decision we make has consequences... It does feel alarmingly real.’ * i *'This dazzling inquiry into loneliness and connection...has been given added resonance by the atomisation of lockdown.' * Guardian, '50 Brilliant Books to Transport You This Summer' *'A dark story, beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, it leaves the reader in a world from which there is no escape, as it questions our growing complicity in social media and neocapitalist technologies.' * Morning Star *'Creepy as hell.' * Weekend Sport *‘Enjoyable reading… riffing on everyday human foibles – jealousy, capriciousness, existential restlessness…the understatedly arch tone is well served by Megan McDowell’s translation, which is so slick that one hardly seems to be reading a translated work.’ * Literary Review *'Daring and original... Schweblin deftly explores both the loneliness and casual cruelty that can inform our attempts to connect in this modern world.' * Booklist *'If you want a spookily prescient vision of human isolation both assuaged and deepened by inscrutable, glitch-prone tech, then Little Eyes more than fits the brief... Adroitly served by Megan McDowell’s winningly deadpan translation, these stories deal not in 'truly brutal plots' but 'desperately human and quotidian' urges, fears and scams... In the middle of our stay-at-home, broadband-enabled apocalypse, that feels right.' * Spectator *'The 'toys' Schweblin has created are the perfect hybrid between a pet and a social network, enabling her to dissect problems that touch all of our lives: the dark side of the internet; the global epidemic of loneliness; the dumb inertia that leads us to jump on board with the latest trend… As always in the worlds Schweblin creates, the real monsters are to be found not in the outside world, but inside each of us.' * New York Times (Spanish edition) *'A dystopian novel that is necessary, hypnotic, irresistible.' * Elle Italia *'This brilliant and disturbing book resembles Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale in how it speculates…Schweblin unspools a disquieting portrait of the dark sides of connectivity and the kinds of animalistic cyborgs it can make of us, as we walk through barriers that even spirits cannot cross.' * Literary Hub *'The finest novel of the past five years. Quite exceptional. Little Eyes will certainly feature in future lists of the ten best novels of this century.' * Luisgé Martín, author of The Same City *'A nuanced exploration of anonymous connection and distant intimacy in our heavily accessible yet increasingly isolated lives...Capacious, touching, and disquieting, this is not-so-speculative fiction for an overnetworked and underconnected age.' * Kirkus Reviews *'Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, is a chilling and often hilarious book on the pitfalls of living in a highly interconnected world. Schweblin has a true talent for getting to the centre of our fears and drawing them out. An intensely clever title that will have you examining your own relationship to the internet.' -- Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters'This has a propulsive, Dave Eggers-ish readability.' * Daily Mail *'Little Eyes is a short, powerful, disquieting novel. The story explores the grey area that constitutes an invasion of privacy, and the line between intimacy and exhibitionism. Samanta Schweblin guides the narrative with a skilful hand reminiscent of her very finest short stories. An excellent storyteller, but above all, a true writer.' * La Razón *'Readers will be fascinated by the kentuki-human interactions, which smartly reveal how hungry we are for connection in a technology-bent world. Of a piece with Schweblin’s elliptical Fever Dream and the disturbing story collection Mouthful of Birds...this jittery eye-opener will appeal to a wide range of readers.' * Library Journal *'Schweblin’s handling of tension and her viscously instantaneous ironic twists, familiar from her short story collection Mouthful of Birds, are delicious... An eerie sense of disjuncture characterises the entire reading experience...an indicator of the deep, discomforting place it has made itself under my skin.' * 3:AM magazine *'Schweblin unfurls an eerie, uncanny story… Daring, bold, and devious.' * Publishers Weekly *'Her most unsettling work yet – and her most realistic.' * New York Times *‘A master of the unsettling… the imaginary technology at the heart of Little Eyes feels all too real, and Schweblin persuasively elaborates its operations and implications… the novel’s breadth provides much of its pleasure, allowing an inventiveness that balances the bleakness of its characters’ lives.’ -- Hannah Rosefield * The New Statesman *'In Samanta Schweblin's fiendishly readable Little Eyes, the new must-have tech gadget allows users to leapfrog into the lives of strangers – a sharp idea that became even more pertinent with the isolation and atomisation of lockdown.' -- Guardian, Best Fiction of 2020'Schweblin's clear and brisk language, aided by a seemingly effortless translation from Spanish by Megan McDowell, drives home the accessibility of this outlandish story. Little Eyes is strange and addictive, an experience made even more frightening by how familiar this feels.' * Salon *‘Alluring and unsettling in equal measure… A subtle and scathing parody of modern communications technology and social media… Colourful and near-hypnotic prose… A rare, yet powerful, indictment of a society that tolerates and even encourages violations of one of our most precious moral commodities – privacy.’ * E&T *'She has a gift for fiction that is pure, original, revelatory.' * El País *'Little Eyes calls to mind the world of Black Mirror. The result is suffocating and addictive in equal measure; combining the minutiae of domestic life with a picture of the dark side of technology in a disconcertingly natural style. A story about voyeurism, and the pleasure of looking at the world through someone else’s eyes.' * El Mundo *'An insightful reflection on solitude and privacy.' * ABC *'[Schweblin is] a literary explorer of 21st century fears.' * La Vanguardia *'Schweblin plunges herself once again into the disturbing limits of what we think of as 'normal'.' * Letras Libres *'This isn’t science fiction; this is the here and now.' * El Diario *'Drawn in quotidian elegance, the novel is a string of nonstop, colorful vignettes… If Schweblin’s sci-fi thriller Fever Dream made sleep difficult, Little Eyes raises the unease quotient. The book seems to watch viewers creepily as it unfolds.' * BookPage *'Like a true master, Schweblin manages to lure us in with a story that leaves us both bruised and fascinated.' * Culturas *'The undisputed star of Latin American fiction.' * ABC Sevilla *'The fantastic and strange worlds of Samanta Schweblin’s work are described with wisdom and ferocity.' * La Repubblica *'[Little Eyes is] yet another unsettling glimpse of life...providing us with the disturbing psychological insights which we associate with her work... Once again Schweblin has produced a novel which is prescient and frightening in equal measure.’ * 1streading *'Embedded within this novel of international interconnectivity are questions of the exhibitionism and voyeurism tied up in our use of technology. Expect echoes of the Wachowskis' Sense8, except told with what has been characterized as Schweblin's "neurotic unease."' * The Millions, Most Anticipated Titles of 2020 *'Samanta Schweblin will injure you, however safe you may feel.' * Jesse Ball, author of Census *'Samanta Schweblin is one of the most promising voices in modern literature.' * Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature *'Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin was pure sorcery. Hands down, one of the best books of 2020 (so far)... I was intoxicated.' * The Book Satchel *'In accentuating so many of the dangers of online communities, as well as [the] advantages, Schweblin takes you on a psychological journey that feels like a Black Mirror episode and has you questioning actions that seemed mundane before.' * The Book Slut *'Brilliantly creepy.' -- New York Times, Notable Books of 2020'Little Eyes supposes a world that is our world, 5 minutes from now... It then introduces one small thing — one little change, one product, one tweaked application of a totally familiar technology — and tracks the ripples of chaos that it creates... Think for just a moment the kind of joy and the kind of horror something like that would create. Then read Little Eyes and see how whatever it was that you imagined was just the beginning of how awful it could be.' -- NPR, Best Books of the Year'A smart and timely meditation on what the internet is doing to the human soul... Funny, frightening and bound to make you turn off your mobile.' -- Tablet, Summer reads
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd A World Without Work Technology Automation and
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE FT & McKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2020The Sunday Times Best Business Books of the Year 2020The Times of London Best Business Books of the Year 2020The Financial Times Best Books of the Year 2020Fortune Magazine Best Business Book of the Year 2020 FiveBooks.com Best Non-Fiction of 2020 Inc.com Best New Business Books of 2020''A path-breaking, thought-provoking and in-depth study of how new technology will transform the world of work'' Gordon Brown ''Compelling... Should be required reading for any presidential candidate'' New York TimesNew technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines. In the past, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. Yet in A World Without Work, Daniel Susskind shows why this time really is different. Advances in artificial intelligence mTrade ReviewCompelling ... Thought-provoking ... Should be required reading for any presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future. * New York Times *An excellent and timely piece of analysis ... Susskind combines a mastery of global research with insight into how government works. A book of immense importance that demands to be taken very seriously by No. 10, and by anyone who cares about the future of our country and world. * New Statesman *A pathbreaking, thought-provoking, and in-depth study of how new technology will transform the world of work. * The Right Honourable Gordon Brown *A fascinating book about a vitally important topic - and he writes with such elegance that you don't even notice how much you're learning. Elegant, original and compelling. -- Tim Harford, author of 'Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy' and 'The Undercover Economist'A superb and sophisticated contribution to the debate over work in the age of artificial intelligence. Susskind approaches the debate with a great command of the evidence and with excellent judgment. He takes on all of the major debates: whether new jobs will replace those that disappear, how the income distribution will be affected, and how individuals are likely to allocate their time in the future between work, leisure, study, and other activities. Never glib, consistently wise and well-informed, this is the book to read to understand how digital technologies and artificial intelligence in particular are reshaping the economy and labor market, and how we will live alongside increasingly smart machines. -- Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions NetworkDaniel Susskind has written an important book on an equally important topic: the future of work in an economy driven by the advances in artificial intelligence. His conclusion is that ultimately there will be less work, or at least less paid work. This will shake the foundations of our economy and our society. Our institutions will have to be transformed. It will be a daunting challenge. We have to start thinking hard about it now. -- Martin Wolf * Chief Economics Commentator, 'The Financial Times' *This is the book to read on the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence. It is thoughtful and state-of-the-art on the economics of the issue, but its real strength is the way it goes beyond just the economics. A truly important contribution that deserves widespread consideration. -- Lawrence Summers, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Treasury Secretary for the Clinton Administration and Director of the National Economic Council for the Obama AdministrationEloquent and humane, A World Without Work moves the debate beyond the illusion that technology always creates more jobs than it destroys and provocatively explores the role of work in human life and what to do when that role evaporates. -- Stuart Russell, author of 'Human Compatible' and Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, BerkeleyFascinating and tightly argued * Sunday Telegraph *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Irresistible: Why you are addicted to technology
Book SynopsisAlmost half of the developed population has an internet-based addiction. In some ways this is not surprising, as our world is filled with addictive experiences: from social media and messaging, to rolling news and video streaming. Attention spans are decreasing as our time spent glued to our screens are increasing, negatively affecting our ability to relax, sleep, develop relationships and achieve meaningful goals. Psychologist Adam Alter provides insight into why explains the science behind why we can't seem to stop such behaviour and offers practical advice for using technology differently, in order to lead a happier life, and to set yourself free. ‘This examination of today’s tech-zombie epidemic is worth putting your phone down for’ Guardian 'Essential reading... Regain control of your time, finances and relationships' Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of HabitTrade ReviewA truly addictive book ... a fascinating and much needed exploration of one of the most troubling phenomena of modern times -- MALCOLM GLADWELLBrilliant. Irresistible offers a crucial understanding of how we are psychologically tethered to our devices, along with much-needed solutions -- SUSAN CAIN author of QUIETEssential reading if you’ve ever wondered why some experiences are so addictive, and how to regain control of your time, finances, and relationships -- CHARLES DUHIGG, author of THE POWER OF HABITAn important, groundbreaking book about why we're addicted to technology, how we got here, and what we should do next -- ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, author of THRIVEThere could be no better guide than Adam Alter to a technological landscape that’s increasingly designed to turn us into addicts. Your sanity will thank you for reading it -- OLIVER BURKEMAN, author of THE ANTIDOTE
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Money: Vintage Minis
Book SynopsisSelected from the books Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah HarariHow did money come to be invented? Why does it now have such significance in our lives? Does it make us happier or unhappier? And what does the future hold for it? With brilliant clarity and insight, Yuval Noah Harari takes the reader on a journey from the very first coins through to 21st century economics and shows us how we are all on the brink of a revolution, whether we like it or not. VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Home by Salman RushdieBabies by Anne EnrightEating by Nigella LawsonDrinking by John Cheever
£5.99
Verso Books Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World
Book SynopsisNeoliberalism isn't working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite.Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto for life after capitalism. Against the confused understanding of our high-tech world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams demand a postcapitalist economy capable of advancing standards, liberating humanity from work and developing technologies that expand our freedoms.This new edition includes a new chapter where they respond to their various critics.Trade ReviewA powerful book: it not only shows us how the postcapitalist world of rapidly improving technology could make us free, but it also shows us how we can organise to get there. This is a must-read. * Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future *Inventing the Future is exactly what we need right now. With immense patience and care, it sets out a clear and compelling vision of a postcapitalist society. Equally importantly, it lays out a plausible programme which can take us from 24/7 capitalist immiseration to a world free of work. -- Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?Neoliberalism and austerity seem to reign supreme - the idea of a society not run for profit seems impossible. Or does it? The fascinating Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams argues for a radical transformation of society. -- Owen Jones * New Statesman *Inventing the Future is unapologetically a manifesto, and a much-overdue clarion call to a seriously disorganized metropolitan left to get its shit together, to start thinking - and arguing - seriously about what is to be done.It is hard to deny the persuasiveness with which the book puts forward the positive contents of a new and vigorous populism; in demanding full automation and universal basic income from the world system, they also demand the return of utopian thinking and serious organization from the left. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Srnicek and Williams demonstrate how a sustainable economic future is less a question of means than of imagination. The postcapitalist world they envision is utterly attainable, if we can remember that we have been inventing the economy all along. -- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens NowNick Srnicek and Alex Williams' project dares to propose a different way of thinking and acting. Given the fizzling of the Occupy moment, a radical rethinking of the anarchic approach is badly needed but just not happening. This book could do a lot of work in getting that rethink going. -- Doug Henwood, author of Wall StreetA conceptual launch pad for a new socialist imagination. -- Mike Davis, author of Planet of SlumsThe most important book of 2015. -- Aaron Bastani, co-founder of Novara MediaThey argue that, in the future, the workplace won't exist in anything like the form we have now, and in any case it will have very few permanent workers. Assuming this position, they ask: What would be the social vision appropriate to a jobless future? * n+1 *Inventing the Future may be the shrewdest, sanest pipe dream of a book published since the recession. -- Nathan Heller * New Yorker *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing How to Save the Internet
Book SynopsisThe global, open internet is fragmenting. As democracies seek to rein in the power of Big Tech, as Silicon Valley pivots to an America-first agenda, as authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia segregate their populations from the rest of the internet, the most powerful tool ever created for bringing the world together risks being dismantled. Taking us behind the scenes at Meta and his interactions with world leaders, Nick Clegg, Meta's former President, Global Affairs, sets out where Big Tech has gone wrong, how Silicon Valley's insularity has blinded it to its missteps, and the radical reforms of the global platforms that are now needed if they are to secure a long-term future. But he also makes the case that many of the charges against them including that their algorithms polarise, manipulate and harm are vastly overstated or simply untrue. And while new laws that regulate these corporations are essential, imposing national borders on the internet cannot be the answer. That will fatally undermine its capacity for knowledge-sharing, collaboration, education, trade, medical and scientific research, and ultimately for the improvement and empowerment of billions of lives. Radical, reasonable, deeply felt and disarmingly honest, How To Save the Internet sets out a blueprint for the global cooperation we need in order to reform Big Tech while preserving the fundamental openness of the internet on which our future so depends.
£21.25
HarperCollins Publishers The Age of Wonder
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes’s dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement.Trade Review‘Rich and sparkling, this is a wonderful book.’ Claire Tomalin, Guardian, Books of the Year ‘Exuberant…Holmes suffuses his book with the joy, hope and wonder of the revolutionary era. Reading it is like a holiday in a sunny landscape, full of fascinating bypaths that lead to unexpected vistas…it succeeds inspiringly.’ John Carey, Sunday Times ‘Thrilling: a portrait of bold adventure among the stars, across the oceans, deep into matter, poetry and the human psyche.’ Peter Forbes, Independent ‘A glorious blend of the scientific and the literary that deserves to carry off armfuls of awards and confirms Holmes's reputation as one on the stellar biographers of the age.’ Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year ‘No question – the non-fiction book of the year is Richard Holmes's “The Age of Wonder”, not only beautifully written, but also kicking open a new perspective on the Romantic age.’ Andrew Marr, Observer, Books of the Year ‘Itself a wonder – a masterpiece of skilful and imaginative storytelling.’ Michael Holroyd, Guardian, Books of the Year ‘Dazzling and approachable. It's a brilliantly written account…original in its connections and very generous in its attention.’ Andrew Motion, Guardian, Books of the Year ‘Witty, intellectually dazzling and wholly gripping.’ Richard Mabey, Guardian, Books of the Year ‘So immediate and so beguiling is Holmes's prose that we are with him all the way.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Brimming with anecdote, Holmes's enthusiastic narrative amply conveys the period's spirited, often reckless pursuit of discovery with an astute balance of technical detail and the wider cultural picture.’ Financial Times
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media
Book SynopsisSocial media is supposed to bring us together - but it is tearing us apart. 'A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read' Zadie SmithThe evidence suggests that social media is making us sadder, angrier, less empathetic, more fearful, more isolated and more tribal.Jaron Lanier is the world-famous Silicon Valley scientist-pioneer who first alerted us to the dangers of social media. In this witty and urgent manifesto he explains why its toxic effects are at the heart of its design, and, in ten simple arguments, why liberating yourself from its hold will transform your life and the world for the better. WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR ‘Informed, heartfelt and often entertaining ... a timely reminder that even if we can’t bring ourselves to leave social media altogether, we should always think critically about how it works’ Sunday Times ‘Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now’ Matthew d’Ancona, author of Post-TruthTrade ReviewOne of the most optimistic books about the Internet I've ever read because it dares to hope for better ... A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read -- Zadie SmithIn every chapter there is a principle so elegant, so neat, sometimes even so beautiful, that what is billed as straight polemic becomes something much more profound -- Zoe Williams * Guardian *Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now -- Matthew d'Ancona, author of Post-TruthA witty and fiercely intelligent attack on the ethics and business model of big tech and a romping read to boot. Lanier is a modern day Luther, calling for a digital reformation and nailing his theses to the door -- Tom Hodgkinson, The IdlerAn eloquence that is hard to argue against … Every time you log on, you are adding to a fire that is burning your house down -- Danny Fortson * Sunday Times *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Lazarus Heist
Book SynopsisBASED ON THE NO 1 HIT PODCAST ''The Lazarus Heist''''You''ll never see North Korea the same way again'' Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland''One of the most incredible cyber-espionage stories I''ve ever heard'' Jamie Bartlett, author of The Missing Crypto Queen''Pacy and eye-popping'' - Tom Burgis, author of KleptopiaThey have been accused of causing mayhem in Hollywood with 2014''s infamous Sony hack.They''re allegedly behind WannaCry, a cyber-attack which brought NHS hospitals to a dangerous standstill.And it has been claimed that they have stolen more than $ 1bn in an international crime spree.They are the Lazarus Group, a shadowy cabal of hackers accused of working on behalf of the North Korean state.From the streets of Dhaka to the casinos of Macau to the secretive capital of Pyongyang, this shocking story uncovers the secret world of the Lazarus Group, their victimTrade ReviewPacy and eye-popping. It's chilling to read how easily dictators blessed with talented hackers can now terrorise democracies -- Tom Burgis * author of Kleptopia *This is a mindbending investigation. You'll never see North Korea the same way again -- Oliver Bullough * Sunday Times bestselling author of Moneyland and Butler to the World *One of the most incredible cyber-espionage stories I've ever heard -- Jamie Bartlett * author of The Missing Crypto Queen *Cyber warfare and criminal hacking has never been more pertinent. This a must read to understand the threats currently facing all of us globally * Annie Machon, author of Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers *Part detective story, part thriller, but scary since it is all true. White exposes North Korea as a pariah State where ruthless dictatorship joins forces with international cyber crime. A compelling account of a 21st century threat to us all * Sir David Omand, former head of GCHQ and author of How Spies Think *Geoff White's thorough investigation reads as part detective story, part thriller, but scary since it is all true. He exposes North Korea as a pariah State where ruthless dictatorship joins forces with international cyber crime. A compelling account of a 21st century threat to us all * Professor Sir David Omand, former head of GCHQ and author of How Spies Think *North Korea is one of the world's least understood countries. By uncovering key details about the innovative methods of the Lazarus Group, and richly detailing its operations, Geoff White has performed a crucial service in our conception of the criminal state that is North Korea. Read this book! * Isaac Stone Fish, author of America Second: How America's Elites Are Making China Stronger *In this captivating gem of a book, Geoff takes us on a whirlwind global adventure that covers the events around a fascinating and important cyber attack that we all should be aware of * Jack Rhysider, founder of Darknet Diaries *While the book reads like a typical Hollywood crime drama, in the end the good guys do not win * Foreign Policy *A pacey insight into the cutting edge of modern crime and an equally fascinating portrait of life inside North Korea * The Economist *A globe-trotting, criminal thriller, with geopolitical implications, glitz and glamour, high tech, life and death stakes, and, what's more-it is all true. -- Joshua C. Huminsk * Diplomatic Courier *A riveting investigation reveals a world of shadowy criminals, sophisticated hacks and bungled schemes * Financial Times *A captivating read that contains everything from geopolitics and cybercrime to Hollywood and the idiosyncrasies of North Korea's over-the-top regime-none of which can be dull on any day * India Times *An easy-to-read book on cybersecurity. If you hold crypto, you need to know the basics of security -- Changpeng Zhao * CEO of Binance *
£11.69
W. W. Norton & Company Times Second Arrow
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£22.80