Impact of science and technology on society Books

Book SynopsisIn The Future Is Analog, David Sax points out that the onset of the pandemic instantly gave us the digital universe we'd spent so long anticipating. Instant communication, online shopping, virtual everything. It didn't take long to realize how awful it was to live in this promised future. We craved real experiences, relationships, and spaces and got back to real life as quickly and often as we could.In chapters exploring work, school, religion, and more, this book asks pointed questions: Is our future inevitably digital? Can we reject the downsides of digital technology without rejecting change? Can we innovate not for the sake of productivity but for the good of our social and cultural lives? Can we build a future that serves us as humans, first and foremost?This is a manifesto for a different kind of change. We can spend our creativity and money on building new gadgets-or we can spend them on new ways to be together and experience the world, to bake bread, and climb mountains. All we need is the clarity to choose which future we want.

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Book SynopsisThe attack on the Capitol building following the 2020 election was an extraordinarily large and brazen crime. Conspiracies were formed on social media in full public view, the law-breakers paraded on national television with undisguised faces, and with outgoing President Donald Trump openly cheering them on. The basic concept of law enforcement--investigators find criminals and serve justice--quickly breaks down in the face of such an event. The system has been strained by the sheer volume of criminals and the widespread perception that what they did wasn't wrong. A mass of online tipsters--"sedition hunters"--have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence and creating an ethical dilemma. Who gets to serve justice? How can law enforcement still function as a pillar of civil society? As the foundations of our government are questioned, the FBI and Department of Justice are the first responders to a crisis of democracy and law that threatens to spread, and fast.In this work of extraordinary reportage, Ryan Reilly gets to know would-be revolutionaries, obsessive online sleuths, and FBI agents, and shines a light on a justice system that's straining to maintain order in our polarized country. From the moment the police barriers were breached on January 6th, 2021, Americans knew something had profoundly changed. Sedition Hunters is the fascinating, high-stakes story of what happens next.

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Book SynopsisThe Dark Mountain Project began with a manifesto published in 2009 by two English writers—Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth—who felt that literature was not responding honestly to the crises of our time. In a world in which the climate is being altered by human activities; in which global ecosystems are being destroyed by the advance of industrial civilisation; and in which the dominant economic and cultural assumptions of the West are visibly crumbling, Dark Mountain asked: where are the writers and the artists? Why are the mainstream cultural forms of our society still behaving as if this were the twentieth century—or even the nineteenth? Dark Mountain’s call for writers, thinkers and artists willing to face the depth of the mess we are in has made it a gathering point for a growing international network. Rooted in place, time and nature, their work finds a home in the pages of the Dark Mountain books, with two new volumes published every year. Walking on Lava brings together the best of the first ten volumes, along with the original manifesto. This collection of essays, fiction, poetry, interviews and artwork introduces The Dark Mountain Project’s groundbreaking work to a wider audience in search of ‘the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to the unknown world ahead of us.’Trade Review“In a world of disintegrating certainties, the vacuum left behind is terrifying. Yet the Dark Mountain Project insists on exploring this space, which the mainstream bids us ignore. For that alone it is invaluable. And when we are brave enough to open our eyes, Walking on Lava reveals that we are not alone. What new stories might we tell, together?”—Shaun Chamberlin, author of The Transition Timeline; editor of Lean Logic and Surviving the Future“The Dark Mountain Project has at last arrived in the United States with this splendidly ecological book, one to which Rachel Carson, Ed Abbey, and Aldo Leopold would have been proud to contribute. Urgently recommended!”—Lawrence Millman, author of At the End of the World“It’s wonderful that with this book an outsider can finally see all the things the Dark Mountain Project has been doing all these years. Probably won’t avert civilization’s collapse, but it’s good to have.”—Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale Revisited“In a culture killing the planet, and in a culture based on denial, I am grateful that the authors in this volume acknowledge the horrors we face. I hope that people will read this book, and armed with its important analysis, they will then act decisively to protect the planet that is our only home.”—Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, Endgame, and many other books“This medley of entrancing, soul-enhancing, exciting stories will stir your creaturely blood from the very depths of our sainted Earth. You will feel enlivened in ways you had forgotten; you will breathe in the wildness of the world; a holy wind will heal you. You will journey to your wider Self—to Great Gaia, Mother of All. This Dark Mountain book will do all this for you, and more. When you’ve read it, its words coursing through your veins, more animal now, more alive—go and do something wholesome for the more-than-youness that you’ve discovered, and, at last, come home.”—Dr. Stephan Harding, resident ecologist, Schumacher College; author of Animate Earth“Dark Mountain’s call to uncivilisation is not about unravelling the survival structures of our society. It is something much deeper, putting new survival structures in place by calling back the soul. I hope that this anthology will thrill you on that journey.”—Alastair McIntosh, PhD, author of Spiritual Activism and Poacher’s Pilgrimage“A collection by turns magical, brave, earnest, and mournful but truthful throughout. The authors point the way down a faint but still visible trail beyond domination and back to our once and future place as humble animals in love with our world.”—Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth; coauthor of Deep Green Resistance“We humans are in trouble, and because of us, most of our fellow species are also in trouble. All of the planet’s life-support systems are under stress or collapsing because of our unchecked appetites and swelling population. To find our way through the ruins and beyond, we need more than clever technology and magical markets. We need an alternative to the industrial mindset, which views Earth as raw material for human consumption and as a dump for our waste. We need the kind of diverse, clear-eyed, ecologically wise imagining gathered in this book. A bow of gratitude to the denizens of Dark Mountain.”—Scott Russell Sanders, author of Dancing in Dreamtime“This book changed my life. It puts into words the sense of utter hopelessness I feel about the fate of the world as we have known it. And yet, miraculously, it gives me ‘hope beyond hope’ for what lies ahead. The Dark Mountaineers are blazing new trails into, and through, the hot lava of our uncertain future.”—Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader“Don’t read this book if you’re not willing to be shaken and unsettled. Unflinching and unafraid!”—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

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Book SynopsisMany of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Economists call matchmakers multisided platforms because they provide physical or virtual platforms for multiple groups to get together. Dating sites connect people with potential matches, for example, and ride-sharing apps do the same for drivers and riders. Although matchmakers have been around for millennia, they're becoming more and more popular--and profitable--due to dramatic advances in technology, and a lot of companies that have managed to crack the code of this business model have become today's power brokers. Don't let the flashy successes fool you, though. Starting a matchmaker is one of the toughest business challenges, and almost everyone who tries to build one, fails. In Matchmakers, David Evans and Richard Schmalensee, two economists who were among the first to analyze multisided platforms and discover their principles, and who've consulted for some of the most successful platform businesses in the world, explain how matchmakers work best in practice, why they do what they do, and how entrepreneurs can improve their chances for success. Whether you're an entrepreneur, an investor, a consumer, or an executive, your future will involve more and more multisided platforms, and Matchmakers--rich with stories from platform winners and losers--is the one book you'll need in order to navigate this appealing but confusing world.Trade ReviewAs seen in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Economist. "A must-read business book for ambitious entrepreneurs ... thought-provoking insight into what's behind the exponential growth of the companies in whose footsteps we're following. It's a portal through which to view the economy of the future." -- Daily Telegraph "It's a worthwhile, and short, read for anyone who wonders about the key drivers in different types of business. Knowing what type of business a company is operating is important both for CEOs and investors." -- Forbes "The Rise of the 'Matchmakers' of the Digital Economy" -- The New York Times, DealBook "...measured and analytical..." -- The Wall Street Journal "An economist and entrepreneur and the former Dean of the MIT Sloan School plumb the historical roots and future possibilities of such business models and the economics behind them." -- Forbes, 2016 Summer Books for Creative Leaders "Matchmakers is one of the year's best strategy books... It should be read by both hipster-web designers with a full beard and smooth McKinsey consultants with sharp creases." -- Henrik Orholst, Borsen "The authors explain this ecosystem in engaging prose with ample examples of their theoretical points with practical case studies. Matchmakers introduces complex concepts in an important and expanding area of business and economic development. It is an important and provocative read." -- CHOICE, the publication of the American Library Association ADVANCE PRAISE for Matchmakers: Reed Hastings, founder and CEO, Netflix-- "Matchmakers sheds light on some of the most important businesses driving the global economy. A great read for anyone who wants to better understand how the companies behind the products and services they use every day work." Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal-- "Matchmakers is an insider's look at one of the critical business models of our era--one that only looks easy because the drivers around successful multi- and two-sided networks are anything but self-evident. It's an entertaining read, yet filled with the insights essential for anyone interested in starting or scaling these complex yet powerful businesses." Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus, Harvard University; former US Secretary of the Treasury-- "More than the Internet, the sharing economy or automation platform companies and matchmaking markets are defining the new economy. Evans and Schmalensee are pioneers in developing economic theories that explain this new economy. Here they share what they've learned to the great benefit not just of economists, but also of entrepreneurs, policy makers, and consumers." Hikmet Ersek, President and CEO, Western Union-- "Entirely new business models have evolved around the platform, connecting supply and demand, service provider and customer, sender and receiver. Matchmakers captures this phenomenon--the platform ecosystem--in a way that makes this book compelling reading for anyone seeking to understand the role that platforms play in today's economy." Jean Tirole, Chairman, Toulouse School of Economics; Winner, 2014 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences-- "David Evans and Richard Schmalensee are masters at combining strategic analysis and economic theory. Matchmakers is a journey through the strategies of platform businesses, which are central to our economies. Full of stories, fun to read, stimulating, and rigorous, this terrific book is required reading, from the economics and MBA student to the entrepreneur looking at building a platform to any reader curious about how our economy evolves." Bob Solomon, former Senior Vice President, Network and Financial Solutions, Ariba, Inc.-- "Matchmakers will be mandatory for anyone building or investing in multisided platforms--in the cloud or on the ground. It's not only full of great stories like the rise of M-PESA, it's also a practical guide to getting your platform business off the ground. If the people behind Apple Pay had this book to read, maybe they would have started differently." Gary Katz, President and CEO, International Securities Exchange-- "This book provided me, as a cofounder of the International Securities Exchange, with a different lens through which to view my business and industry. This framework would have been a valuable addition to my playbook as my colleagues and I grappled with questions of pricing and building critical mass when we were planning the launch, eighteen years ago, of the first all-electronic options exchange in the United States." Cathy Baron Tamraz, Chairman and CEO, Business Wire-- "The 'matchmaker' is one of the oldest business models, but it's ever more important in today's interconnected, networked world. This deep dive into today's multisided businesses provides a clear, compelling, and entertaining road map for how net platform businesses can blast off and ignite. Bravo!" Praise for Catalyst Code: Bill Gates-- "... an important book for anyone interested in understanding how breakthrough businesses can be built in today's economy." Patrick McGovern, founder and former Chairman, International Data Group-- "Catalyst Code shows that in the Internet Age, the greatest business successes will be based on creating communities in which buyers and sellers are brought together efficiently, rather than making a new product or providing a new service." Peter S. Lynch, Vice Chairman, Fidelity Management & Research Company-- "Evans and Schmalensee reveal the inner workings of what is rapidly becoming a new model for businesses."

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Book SynopsisQuantum physics has turned our commonsense notion of reality on its head. This accessible book describes in layperson's terms the strange phenomena that exist at the quantum level--a world of tiny dimensions where nothing is absolutely predictable, where we rethink causality, and information seemingly travels faster than light. The author, a veteran physicist, uses illuminating analogies and jargon-free language to illustrate the basic principles of the subatomic world and show how they explain everything from the chemistry around us to the formation of galaxies. He also explains how scientists and engineers interact with this nebulous reality and, despite its mysteries, achieve results of great precision.Up front is a brief history of the early 20th-century "quantum revolution," focusing on some of the brilliant individuals whose contributions changed our view of the world--Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schroedinger, and others. The work concludes with a discussion of the many amazing inventions that have resulted from quantum theory, including lasers, semiconductors, and the myriad of electronic devices that use them.Lucidly written, this book conveys the excitement of discovery while expanding the reader's appreciation for a science that explores the basis of everything we know.Trade Review""Well-written and easy to read. Quantum Fuzz is an excellent introduction for anyone reading about physics for the first time, and also a good review for physics students. Very comprehensive and enjoyable. Highly recommended.”—Barry Parker, author of The Physics of War “Quantum Fuzz is an engaging book that ventures way beyond what the title implies. As promised, Walker explains quantum mechanics to a general audience by way of analogies, a difficult task that he accomplishes smoothly. But he doesn't stop there. Astronomy, computers, physics, and some aspects of modern technology from his professional engineering experience are addressed with clear, precise explanations. As a bonus, chemistry and the periodic table have the most cogent exposition I have ever seen, especially since it is viewed from a physics standpoint. This is a welcome addition to any thoughtful person's library.”—Arthur W. Wiggins, Physics Professor Emeritus at Oakland Community College and coauthor of The Human Side of Science “Walker brings to life one of the most strange, fascinating, and beautiful descriptions of our physical world. . . . Human beings and things here on Earth are all made of atoms. Yet most people know nothing of their diffuse, fascinating symmetries, and how these forms determine much of the properties of our universe. This book is an opportunity to 'come on board and sail to new lands of understanding.'" —David Toback, author of Big Bang, Black Holes, No Math“A good introduction for the general reader to the theory and applications of quantum mechanics. It includes one of the best descriptions of the history of the discovery of quantum mechanics that I have seen.”—Fred Kuttner, PhD, coauthor of Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness “Guided by Walker's careful, clear, and comfortable writing, you will discover a new way of understanding matter, energy, and the universe as a whole.”—Alfred "Fred” B. Bortz, PhD, author, and winner of the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award

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Book SynopsisFor readers of Sapiens and Homo Deus and viewers of The Social Dilemma, psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic tackles one of the biggest questions facing our species: Will we use artificial intelligence to improve the way we work and live, or will we allow it to alienate us?It's no secret that AI is changing the way we live, work, love, and entertain ourselves. Dating apps are using AI to pick our potential partners. Retailers are using AI to predict our behavior and desires. Rogue actors are using AI to persuade us with bots and misinformation. Companies are using AI to hire us—or not.In I, Human psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic takes readers on an enthralling and eye-opening journey across the AI landscape. Though AI has the potential to change our lives for the better, he argues, AI is also worsening our bad tendencies, making us more distracted, selfish, biased, narcissistic, entitled, predictable, and impatient.It doesn't have to be this way. Filled with fascinating insights about human behavior and our complicated relationship with technology, I, Human will help us stand out and thrive when many of our decisions are being made for us. To do so, we'll need to double down on our curiosity, adaptability, and emotional intelligence while relying on the lost virtues of empathy, humility, and self-control.This is just the beginning. As AI becomes smarter and more humanlike, our societies, our economies, and our humanity will undergo the most dramatic changes we've seen since the Industrial Revolution. Some of these changes will enhance our species. Others may dehumanize us and make us more machinelike in our interactions with people. It's up to us to adapt and determine how we want to live and work.The choice is ours.What will we decide?Trade ReviewNamed one of the best management books of 2023 by Børsen."I, Human argues compellingly that artificial intelligence is altering human intelligence—fuelling narcissism, diluting self-control, reinforcing prejudice—and reveals how human learning can still counteract the malign effects of machine learning. Tomas's easy style and dry humour belie the seriousness with which he tackles this vital issue of our time. Take note before the robots take over how you think." — City A.M."Fascinating, original and thought-provoking." — E&T magazine"The book's final chapter, How to Be Human, is headed with a quote from Maya Angelou: "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." This encapsulates the purpose of this unique book: to explain how AI is changing our lives, values, and ways of being—right now, never mind what this implies for the future—and to propose the means by which AI should and can enhance and enrich human experience rather than reduce it." — Developing Leaders magazine"…this is not an AI book like others. It does not try to predict the future or bamboozle readers with technological geekery. Instead, it assesses where this technology has brought us thus far and what we can do with it to retain what is most important to us as people." — Financial Times"…a shrewd, insightful take on the dangers of AI." — Publisher's WeeklyAdvance Praise for I, Human: "A compelling read about how AI is shaping us—and how we should shape it. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic examines how technology can augment our intelligence and reminds us to invest in the human skills that robots can't replace." — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author, Think Again; host, TED podcast Re:Thinking"A must-read for anyone who has wondered how we can maintain our humanity amid the superpowerful prediction machines we've created." — Angela Duckworth, author, New York Times bestselling Grit"Techno-zealots and doomsayers dominate the debate about artificial intelligence, which is why this unique book is such a breath of fresh air. I, Human is a strikingly clear-eyed account of the fraught but fertile relationship we already have with AI—and an inspiring argument for how, in the future, it can help us maintain and enhance rather than degrade what makes us essentially human." — Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author, Four Thousand Weeks"If you want to understand how we can best thrive in a world that is rapidly changing because of AI, and feel hopeful and confident about the role you can play, you'll find this book to be both brilliant and essential. Full of insights and practical tips, I, Human will prepare you for the future by focusing your attention on the very traits that make human nature unique." — Francesca Gino, professor, Harvard Business School; author, Rebel Talent"I, Human argues compellingly that artificial intelligence is altering human intelligence—fueling narcissism, diluting self-control, reinforcing prejudice—and reveals how human learning can still counteract the malign effects of machine learning. Tomas's easy style and dry humor bely the seriousness with which he tackles this vital issue of our time. Take note before the robots take over how you think." — Octavius Black, founder and CEO, MindGym"At last, a book on AI that focuses on humans rather than machines. A powerful case for reclaiming some of our most valuable neglected virtues." — Dorie Clark, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, The Long Game; executive education faculty, Duke University Fuqua School of Business

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Book SynopsisIn this eagerly-awaited new book from the author of the best-selling Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech, Peter Leigh takes a fun, informative and irreverent romp through the history of more than forty pieces of personal tech, charting the successes, failures and oddities from over five decades of our obsession with gadgetry.From the Teasmade to the TomTom, mankind has been on a constant hunt for gimmicks that make life easier, faster and more entertaining, and as yesterday's 'must-haves' become today's museum pieces, there's no better time to take a nostalgic trip through tech's back catalogue.

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Book SynopsisIn the late 1960s the world was faced with impending disaster: the height of the Cold War, the end of oil, and the decline of great cities throughout the world. Out of this crisis came a new generation of thinkers, designers and engineers who hoped to build a better future, influenced by visions of geodesic domes, walking cities, and a meaningful connection with nature. In this brilliant work of cultural history, architect Douglas Murphy traces the lost archeology of the present-day through the works of thinkers and designers such as Buckminster Fuller, the ecological pioneer Stewart Brand, the Archigram architects who envisioned the Plug-In City in the '60s, as well as co-operatives in Vienna, communes in the Californian desert, and protesters on the streets of Paris. In this mind-bending account of the last avant garde, we see not just the source of our current problems but also some powerful alternative futures.Trade ReviewNo one warns you that when you get old eras that you lived through are, to the next generation, history. And it is salutory to have one of the wilder fringes of that history recounted with the acuity, sympathy and fluency Douglas Murphy brings to it. The cast is extraordinary: oddballs, philosophers, seers-and a few frauds. -- Jonathan MeadesIn Last Futures, such one-time commonplaces as three day weeks, the elimination of labour, geodesic domes, walking cities, space colonies and industrialised housing are removed from dimwitted 'where's my jetpack' nostalgia and put back into history. In so doing, Douglas Murphy performs the useful service of making clear when the ideas of the unrealised futures of the 1960s and 1970s were stupid and wasteful, and when they were exceptionally smart-serious solutions to problems we still haven't solved, and problems we seem intent on making considerably worse. Last Futures is the Silent Running to contemporary architecture's The Fountainhead. -- Owen Hatherley, author of Landscapes of CommunismA fluent, chronological narrative in which oddities from the recent past form sequences in an unfolding drama . Murphy deploys his storytelling with great effect. * Architecture Today *Murphy tells the story of this counter-revolution pithily and well . A fresh and haunting way of explaining what happened to the radical '60s and '70s as a whole, in Murphy's view quite possibly the last chance the west had of creating a decent and environmentally sustainable society. -- Andy Beckett * Guardian *Provocative and compelling. * Macleans *Murphy's chief virtue is the faculty with which he connects the dots between various, seemingly unconnected developments in architecture and theory with the ecological, financial, and military crises of an earlier era, holding a mirror onto our own anxious epoch of globalized precarity labor and anthropogenic climate change. -- Anna Khachiyan * Metropolis *Murphy outlines both some well known and some intriguingly novel suggestions for why the enthusiasm for 'omni-infrastructural' utopian frames went away.[Last Futures's] motley quality is in no way a fault of Murphy's approach, but rather a real advantage of his method as a cultural historian. A strength of Murphy's book is that he depicts both the general outlines and some of the juiciest details of these complex historical moments without distilling them into a deceptively linear chronology or a progression of mere styles. -- David Wittenberg * Los Angeles Review of Books *Last Futures is to the end of mid century experimentalism what the Zapruder film is to the death of Kennedy: a weird and gripping replay, full of period grain, each frame posing questions about whether things could have been played our differently. * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisMusic is shaped by the science of sound. How can music - an artform - have anything to do with science? Yet there are myriad ways in which the two are intertwined, from the basics of music theory and the design of instruments to hi-fi systems and how the brain processes music.Science writer Andrew May traces the surprising connections between science and music, from the theory of sound waves to the way musicians use mathematical algorithms to create music.The most obvious impact of science on music can be seen in the way electronic technology has revolutionised how we create, record and listen to music. Technology has also provided new insights into the effects that different music has on the brain, to the extent that some algorithms can now predict our reactions with uncanny accuracy, which raises a worrying question: how long will it be before AI can create music on a par with humans?

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Book SynopsisWe all live online now, but what does that mean in IRL? How do strange subcultures on reddit affect our local shopping centres, what do night gyms owe to Twitter, and where can we really go to get some decent sleep? Our every move online is watched, but can we see ourselves? In these wide-ranging, witty essays, Roisin Kiberd offers immersive insight into the strange worlds, habits and people who have grown up with the internet, and shows the way our world is changing to fit the online fever-dream. Unsettling, clear-sighted and perversely fun, she traces the lines between Netflix and nap hotels, vaporwave music and camgirls, self-optimisation and insomnia, dating apps and a grand unified theory of Monster Energy Drinks. As well as holding up the zeitgeist for scrutiny, she turns an equally frank eye on her own life online, and asks what we have gained, what we have lost, and what we have given willingly away in exchange for this connected world.Trade ReviewExtraordinary -- Mark O'ConnellWildly impressive, interesting and entertaining * The Irish Times *A blistering collection ... marvellous ... profoundly, touchingly human. * Irish Daily Mail *Blazingly smart * Business Post *Gripping and fascinating -- Andrew Marr, Start the Week, BBC Radio 4Lion-hearted in its honesty, and insightful to the point of brilliance. -- Lisa McInerneyRoisin Kiberd is a Dante of the internet, leading us through the infernal circles of our online damnation. The Disconnect is a brilliant debut collection - unsettling, illuminating, and perversely fun - by a writer of extraordinary style and intellectual range. -- Mark O'Connell, author * To Be A Machine *Excellent: full of sharp analysis of life online, insomnia, dating apps and with a grand unified theory of Monster Energy drinks ... I felt both seen and like I could see more after reading this collection. -- Amy Liptrot, author * The Outrun *Roisin Kiberd has found the words to capture what it feels like to live, as they say online, 'in the bad timeline.' ... The joy lies in Kiberd's lucid prose, in the possibilities she presents, in her clarity of thought. -- Nicole Flattery, author of 'Show Them a Good Time'Both a warning about our lives in the worst of all possible worlds and the silent scream of every child birthed in the Internet's fractured womb. A long overdue message delivered by a writer with a first-rate intellect and curiosity who's unafraid to turn heat-vision on the self and, thus, all selves. -- Jarrett Kobek, author of 'I Hate the Internet'Spectacular. A book that takes on, makes sense of, and triumphs over that shapeless techno-dread with which we're now so sickeningly familiar. It's lion-hearted in its honesty, and insightful to the point of brilliance. All I'd hoped for and exactly what I needed. -- Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious HeresiesAs deep as it is wide-ranging, The Disconnect is a smart, timely, and beautifully intimate investigation into how the internet is turning us all inside-out. -- Ian Maleney, author * Minor Monuments *One of our brightest young writers. -- Martin Doyle * Irish Times *It's sharp, sad and funny ... If you, like me, have ever had to cut yourself off from an endless scroll and then felt the existential weight of being at once plugged into and removed from the rest of the world, then this book is for you. -- Vicky Spratt * Refinery 29 *I can't wait for Roisin Kiberd's The Disconnect - the sharpest writer with the most glorious and zippy mind. -- John Patrick McHugh, author of Pure GoldA rare and wonderful attempt to acknowledge that, for many of us now, the distinction between "real-life" and the more nebulous realities that the internet provides us with have, in a very real sense, broken down. * Dublin Review of Books *Setting the rise of technology and the companies that harness it against her own upbringing, personal struggles, the alienation of working freelance in post-austerity Ireland, Kiberd wades through the depths of the internet's effects on her personally, the places it's driven her to, and what she's taken away from it. A wake-up call, cause for self-examination, and a valuable piece of cultural anthropology. -- Mike McGrath-Bryan * Irish Examiner *Superb -- Claire Hennessy * Irish Examiner *Kiberd is an enlightening and laser-sharp conversationalist, always keen to pursue a tangent if she sees one running off into the distance. Her book is equal parts absorbing and disconcerting, while her weaving of opinions, in-depth research and confessional soul-searching is indicative of a writer unafraid to poke her nose into areas usually left covered ... Sharp-witted, self-aware, extremely confessional * Irish Independent *Kiberd has a knack for describing with laser precision the shape and mood of an event, experience or emotion and a real skill for applied analysis. * The Irish Times *Illuminating and insightful ... Fresh and unique * RTE Guide *Kiberd's writing is funny and frank, punchy and poetic, emotional and earnest. She writes with bravery and honesty about her struggles with depression, bulimia and anxiety -- JP O’Malley * Irish Independent *This excavation of internet life was a treat -- Niamh DonnellyMade me cry, laugh and feel less alone. -- Rebecca Liu * White Review *

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Book Synopsis'Enter Ormerod's vital manual' - Pandora Sykes'A statistic-packed investigation into a worldwide phenomenon... It is no exaggeration to say this book is essential reading for anyone' -METRO'Who better to help us wade through the muddy waters of the great Insta-sham?' -ELLEWhy Social Media is Ruining Your Life tackles head on the pressure cooker of comparison and unreachable levels of perfection that social media has created in our modern world. It uncovers how our relationship with social media has rewired our behavioural patterns, destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention spans. The book is a rallying cry that will provide you with the knowledge, tactics and weaponry you need to find a more healthy way to consume social media and reclaim your happiness.Trade ReviewIt will come as no surprise that social media and the inclination to compare our lives' to others is having a malign effect on humans. But it might be slightly more alarming to discover that it's not just bringing us down but rewiring our behavioural patterns. Read this book and then carve out some for room yourself and your brain. - Emerald StreetKatherine Ormerod investigates the worst aspects of being constantly connected and how to offset the negative impact on your life. - Mail OnlineOrmerod's well-researched book is packed full of wisdom that will not only make you feel less alone in your worries, it offers advice and tips to help you armour up against the all-consuming force that is social media. - Mashable

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Book SynopsisShocked by 9/11, the Great Recession, digital anxiety, and ecological collapse, the West suffers from nostalgia. People everywhere yearn for a utopian version of the past that never existed. Desperate for relief, many long to escape from the present. Some will stop at nothing to achieve it. In his essential new book, Grafton Tanner, author of Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts, argues that our nostalgia today is partly a consequence of the attention economy. At a time when historical literacy is crucial, and old prejudices are percolating into the present, Big Tech’s predictive algorithms are locking us into nostalgic feedback loops. The result is a precarious society with its gaze fixed on the good old days. Spanning from the ancient Sophists to Black Mirror, The Circle of the Snake is at once a reckoning with the myth of digital utopia and an incisive analysis of nostalgia as a weapon to spread fascism.

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Book SynopsisThe ongoing war in Ukraine, between freedom and totalitarianism, has been brewing since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989: the great victory of liberal democracy over communism. In recent decades, authoritarian regimes have proliferated or become emboldened – from Myanmar and North Korea to Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and, of course, China. At the same time, we have seen wildly overpriced stock markets, the emergence of decentralised finance and its associated cryptocurrencies, and the idolization of inordinately expensive things, from watches and customised trainers to rare whiskies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The decoupling of capitalism from democracy, which gathered pace in the 1990s, has fostered an economic system powered by greed alone, able to prosper in brutal dictatorships, unchecked even by the financial crisis of 2007/8. Rampant inequality, fuelled by radically increased money supply, has been the result, with a tiny fraction of the world’s population owning more than the rest put together. This inequality has incited social unrest and contributed to the undermining of faith in the institutions of the democratic state. The citizens of Western democracies have been left to the mercy of unfettered capitalism, becoming data subjects, endlessly surveilled, marshalled and polarised. Today’s extreme capitalism, promoted by Milton Friedman and others, is exemplified by its modern monopolists – Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, whose fortunes have been built on often immoral, if not illegal actions, and whose headline-grabbing antics appear to be motivated more by ego than any genuine desire to do good for humanity. In the 1990s, an understanding of social justice and an appreciation of democracy still survived, but public discourse has grown increasingly polarised and angry. The authors draw a line from the robber barons of the 1990s tech revolution to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, citing the marginalisation of democratic principles which has enabled the rise of authoritarian populists such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Jair Bolsonaro and, of course, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. An unanticipated fightback in Ukraine, with support from the EU and the West, has the potential to reclaim the lost spirit of freedom inherent in liberal democracy, but will it be enough?Trade ReviewPraise for The End of Money: ‘A page-turner rich in data and steeped with evidence and insights that flow from a deep understanding of the history of financial markets . . . a must-read before you buy your next – or first – non-fungible token, Chinese banking stock or US government bond’ Professor Adrian Saville, Gordon Institute of Business Science ‘A fascinating and enjoyable read . . . interspersed with illuminating anecdotes from our recent financial history . . . makes it clear that excessive debt and extreme money creation have eroded faith in the global financial system, perhaps best symbolised by the rise of cryptocurrencies’ Michael Jordaan, business Leader and venture capitalist

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Book SynopsisSelected as one of the Best Summer Books of 2024: Business' in the Financial Times

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Book SynopsisNewsweek and Bloomberg popular science and investigative journalist Bryan Walsh explores the history of extinction and offers a cutting-edge examination of existential risk, the dangerous mistakes we have yet to pay for, and concrete steps we can take to protect ourselves and future-proof our civilization.What is going to cause our extinction?How can we save ourselves and our future?End Times answers the most important questions facing humankindEnd Times is a compelling work of skilled reportage that peels back the layers of complexity around the unthinkable-and inevitable-end of humankind. From asteroids and artificial intelligence to volcanic supereruption to nuclear war, 15-year veteran science reporter and TIME editor Bryan Walsh provides a stunning panoramic view of the most catastrophic threats to the human race.In End Times, Walsh examines threats that emerge from nature and those of our own making: asteroids, supervolcanoes, nuclear war, climate change, disease pandemics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial intelligence. Walsh details the true probability of these world-ending catastrophes, the impact on our lives were they to happen, and the best strategies for saving ourselves, all pulled from his rigorous and deeply thoughtful reporting and research.Walsh goes into the room with the men and women whose job it is to imagine the unimaginable. He includes interviews with those on the front lines of prevention, actively working to head off existential threats in biotechnology labs and government hubs. Guided by Walsh's evocative, page-turning prose, we follow scientific stars like the asteroid hunters at NASA and the disease detectives on the trail of the next killer virus.Walsh explores the danger of apocalypse in all forms. In the end, it will be the depth of our knowledge, the height of our imagination, and our sheer will to survive that will decide the future.Trade ReviewTIME MAGAZINE, "11 New Books to Read in August!"ECO WATCH, "Best Environmental Books of August"A harrowing chronicle of a range of threats that could bring about human extinction in the not-so-distant future. * The Washington Post *Walsh does wonders in unknotting the dizzying agendas fueling many of the existential risks explored in END TIMES. * Scientific Inquirer *Instead of freaking out, read End Times. It's a wise and weirdly hopeful journey into civilization's darkest nightmares. * Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come *It's not easy thinking about all the ways the world can end, let alone writing a whole book about them. But Bryan Walsh has managed the feat and then some, delivering a book that's as analytically astute as it is terrifically written. It takes a special kind of writer to pull this off, and in Bryan Walsh we found him. * Ian Bremmer, New York Times bestselling author of Us Versus Them: The Failure of Globalism *In End Times, Bryan Walsh has put together the loudest, scariest wake-up call possible. And yet it's not a book without hope: Walsh lays out a challenging series of believable scenarios that can allow human beings to thrive along with our fellow earth-dwellers, in a way that requires only qualities we already have: compassion, intelligence, focus, and determination * Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist and bestselling author *It takes a bold reporter and subtle thinker to survey the mortal threats we face and find a way towards hope; yet that is what Bryan Walsh has done in this terrifying, fascinating exploration of existential risk. Cascading catastrophes of the manmade kind are so frightful to consider that we naturally look the other way; but Walsh invites us to reckon with the world we've made, a crucial step towards taking responsibility for saving us from ourselves. The asteroids, the supervolcanoes, the plagues are not of our making; but the nukes, the climate disruption, the weaponized pathogens and challenges of AI are. With a storyteller's art and a scientists tools, Walsh helps us think the unthinkable, takes us to the observatories and laboratories where the future is made. Travel with him to doomsday and back, and nothing looks the same. * Nancy Gibbs, coauthor of New York Times bestseller The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity *

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Book SynopsisThis special double issue of Cybernetics and Human Knowing is comprised of a collection of papers devoted to the cybernetics and mathematics of Charles Sanders Peirce with a special focus on its synergies with George Spencer-Brown''s thinking. Peirce was a truly original American philosopher and logician working in the late 1800s and early 1900s; Spencer-Brown is an English polymath, best known as the author of Laws of Form. The contributions reflect the extraordinary richness of Peirce''s work and his relevance to present concerns in cybernetics. The similarities in the focus on some of the deep foundational subjects are astonishing, amongst those especially the concept of the void or Firstness and the continuity of mind and matter.

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Book SynopsisThis book explains, in a straightforward way, the foundations upon which electoral techniques are based in order to shed new light on what we actually do when we vote. The intention is to highlight the fact that no matter how an electoral system has been designed, and regardless of the intentions of those who devised the system, there will be goals that are impossible to achieve but also opportunities for improving the situation in an informed way. While detailed descriptions of electoral systems are not provided, many references are made to current or past situations, both as examples and to underline particular problems and shortcomings. In addition, a new voting method that avoids the many paradoxes of voting theory is described in detail. While some knowledge of mathematics is required in order to gain the most from the book, every effort has been made to ensure that the subject matter is easily accessible for non-mathematicians, too. In short, this is a book for anyone who wants to understand the meaning of voting. Trade Review“Paolo Serafini has the merit of presenting in a synthetic and pedagogical way the main aspects of the voting theory. This book would be well suited for undergraduate and graduate students who are new to voting theory … . the book is very enjoyable to read … . The present book adds its stone to the series of books on voting theory while distinguishing itself by its pedagogy and simplicity.” (Eric Kamwa, Journal of Economics, Vol. 134, 2021)“This book exposes a variety of social choice systems … . The electoral rules for the formation of the government of several countries are discussed, as examples of application of different aggregation methods, their particular problems and shortcomings are highlighted and opportunities of improvement underlined.” (Annibal Parracho Sant’Anna, zbMATH 1476.91002, 2022)Table of Contents

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisBringing Biology to Life is a guided tour of the philosophy of biology, canvassing three broad areas: the early history of biology, from Aristotle to Darwin; traditional debates regarding species, function, and units of selection; and recent efforts to better understand the human condition in light of evolutionary biology. Topics are addressed using no more technical jargon than necessary, and without presupposing any advanced knowledge of biology or the philosophy of science on the part of the reader. Discussion questions are also provided to encourage reader reflection.Trade Review“Mahesh Ananth’s Bringing Biology to Life does exactly what it promises, which is to bring to life core topics in philosophy of biology. This book will be eminently attractive not only to the relative beginner but also to the most erudite reader. Covered with remarkable breadth, depth, and élan are the following topics: the history of biological thought (notably Aristotle and Darwin), the units of selection problem, the nature of biological function, the problem of what a biological species is, and the implications of evolution for morality and ethics, psychology, and religion (especially so-called Intelligent Design). Those hoping to find a lively read will not be disappointed.” — David N. Stamos, York UniversityTable of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology Chapter 2: Darwin’s Darwinism Chapter 3: The Unit of Selection Chapter 4: Biological Function Chapter 5: The Species Debate Chapter 6: Evolution and Ethics Chapter 7: Evolutionary Psychology Chapter 8: Evolution and Religion

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Book SynopsisWhy we don't really want simplicity, and how we can learn to live with complexity.If only today's technology were simpler! It's the universal lament, but it's wrong. In this provocative and informative book, Don Norman writes that the complexity of our technology must mirror the complexity and richness of our lives. It's not complexity that's the problem, it's bad design. Bad design complicates things unnecessarily and confuses us. Good design can tame complexity.Norman gives us a crash course in the virtues of complexity. Designers have to produce things that tame complexity. But we too have to do our part: we have to take the time to learn the structure and practice the skills. This is how we mastered reading and writing, driving a car, and playing sports, and this is how we can master our complex tools. Complexity is good. Simplicity is misleading. The good life is complex, rich, and rewarding—but only if it is understandable, sensible, and meaningful.

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Book SynopsisA simple, enduring framework for understanding the complex world of AI and machine learning?updated with a new preface.As the capabilities of AI and language models like ChatGPT continue to advance, it is more important than ever to understand the implications and potential pitfalls of these technologies. In this updated edition of How to Speak Machine, which was first published in 2019, John Maeda draws on his extensive experience as one of the world?s preeminent interdisciplinary thinkers on technology and design to provide actionable guidance for businesses, product designers, and policymakers. Using thoughtful explorations and occasionally whimsical examples, he identifies a framework that describes the key capabilities and pitfalls of any machine learning system?and how they can be used to create inclusive and world-changing products.Essential reading for anyone seeking a high-level understanding of how machines ?think? and what the future may hold, How to Speak Machine is more relevant than ever today?as AI becomes even more enmeshed in all areas of business and product design.

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Book SynopsisThe changes taking place in our aesthetic and emotional sensibility: a deep mutation in the psychosphere, caused by semio-capitalism.Franco “Bifo” Berardi''s newest book analyzes the contemporary changes taking place in our aesthetic and emotional sensibility—changes the author claims are the result of semio-capitalism''s capturing of the inner resources of the subjective process: our experience of time, our sensibility, the way we relate to each other, and our ability to imagine a future. Precarization and fractalization of labor have provoked a deep mutation in the psychosphere, and this can be seen in the rise of psychopathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, panic, and attention deficit disorder. Sketching out an aesthetic genealogy of capitalist globalization, Berardi shows how we have arrived at a point of such complexity in the semiotic flows of capital that we can no longer process its excessive currents of information. A swarm effect now rules: it has become impossible to say “no.” Social behavior is trapped in inescapable patterns of interaction coded by techno-linguistic machines, smartphones, screens of every size, and all of these sensory and emotional devices end up destroying our organism''s sensibility by submitting it to the stress of competition and acceleration.Arguing for disentanglement rather than resistance, Berardi concludes by evoking the myth of La Malinche, the daughter of a noble Aztec family. It is a tale of a translator and traitor who betrayed her own people, yet what the myth portends is the rebirth of the world from the collapse of the old.

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Book SynopsisThe evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explores the latest research on intimacy and desire to consider how new technologies and fundamental human behaviors interact. He details how existing artificial intelligences can already learn and exploit human social needs—and are getting better at what they do.Trade ReviewFantastic, funny, informative, and very, very timely. -- Kate Devlin, author of Turned On: Science, Sex, and RobotsArtificial Intimacy is a great example of how to use an evolutionary perspective on human nature to illuminate an emerging, evolutionarily unprecedented area of modern life. -- Steve Stewart-Williams, author of The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture EvolveRob Brooks weaves an engaging story of how this near future may look, drawing deeply on both his background as an evolutionary biologist and his skill as a scientific storyteller. Get ready for a roller-coaster ride into love and intimacy in your digital future. -- Toby Walsh, author of 2062: The World That AI MadeWitty, accessible, always fascinating but surely contentious, this is popular science that will appeal to readers of Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens. -- Books + Publishing'Artificial Intimacy' leaves the reader with a new understanding – and a million curiosities – about how technology influences our intimate relationships, and how that might change in the future. * AIPT Science *An in depth and well-researched narrative. An excellent book. * Nicole Barbaro, PhD *Artificial Intimacy weaves an engrossing story on the future that awaits us, without predicting whether or not it will be promising or dystopian. * The Hindu Business Line *Very accessible work...recommended. * Choice *This nuanced book written in clean, clear prose makes for compelling reading. * vijee venkatraman *Table of ContentsIntroduction: In the beginning …1. Meet the dollbots2. It’s not about the robot3. Groom your friends4. The intimacy algorithm5. How did sex become so complicated?6. When artificial intimacy goes bad7. Ploughs, pills and porn: How technology changes sex8. Tomorrow’s moral panic will be just like yesterday’s9. Make war not love10. A Fembot army to disarm the InCel insurrection11. There’s no such thing as free love12. A future in four fictionsAcknowledgmentsReferencesNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThrough case studies of scientists in the Amazon analyzing soil and in Pasteur’s lab studying the fermentation of lactic acid, Latour shows us the myriad steps by which events in the material world are transformed into items of scientific knowledge.Trade Review[Pandora’s Hope] brims with insight, and is frequently brilliant. It does what one always hopes for, but so rarely finds, in a philosophy book; it shakes assumptions so deeply held that you hardly knew they were there. It takes the world, reshuffles it, and deals it back; the cards are all the same, but the hand is crucially different… Pandora’s Hope, and its author, demand serious attention… Latour asks jarring and important questions and proposes jarring and brilliant answers. Kafka once wrote that a good book ought to have the fearsome impact of an ice ax. Pandora’s Hope does this. Having finished it, I am bloodied and befuddled. And I can think of no greater compliment for a book, or heartier endorsement. -- Noah J. Efron * Boston Book Review *In this book of impassioned and creative explorations into scientific life, Bruno Latour offers himself as a reasonable man who is ready and willing to lead combatants of the ‘science wars’ off the battle plain and onto higher ground… The text is comprised of essays about the genesis of and context for the science wars, case studies of scientific practice and elaboration of his current theoretical stances. His writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving… It is hard not to be caught up in the author’s obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well. -- Katherine Pandora * American Scientist *Show Latour an intellectual war zone and he’ll leap into the middle, to do battle with both sides… You can rely on [Pandora’s Hope] to shake your ideas up. And that’s almost never a bad thing, in science or elsewhere. -- Mike Holderness * New Scientist *Pandora’s Hope is Latour’s systematic defense of science studies, starting with impressions of his sojourn with five naturalists in Amazonia… His observations of [them] are overwhelmingly persuasive, and without a hint of supercilious hostility to the cause of science. Latour is proud to have been cited as co-contributor to their research report, and they must be equally pleased to figure in his. * Times Higher Education Supplement *His work sparkles with wit, sharp scholarship, graceful tropes, homely but apt metaphors, personal anecdotes at his own expense, and other jewels of the art of persuasion. It is always a pleasure to read or listen to Bruno, just for the vitality and fun of his mind. -- John Ziman * Interdisciplinary Science Reviews *Latour is concerned with making a case for the emerging field of ‘science studies,’ a discipline that proposes to study science and the scientific process itself on a philosophical and conceptual level. After an introductory chapter in which he lays the groundwork for science studies and its contributions to our knowledge of the nature of reality, Latour then provides a series of case studies showing scientists from various fields in action. In these case studies, which range from an analysis of a field trip by soil scientists in the Amazon to Louis Pasteur’s investigations of lactic acid fermentation in yeast, Latour carefully dissects the seen and unseen components of the scientists’ activity and thought. Latour’s engaging, clear writing style makes a difficult subject much easier to comprehend. -- R. K. Harris * Choice *Table of Contents"Do You Believe in Reality?" News from the Trenches of the Science Wars Circulating Reference: Sampling the Soil in the Amazon Forest Science's Blood Flow: An Example from Joliot's Scientific Intelligence From Fabrication to Reality: Pasteur and His Lactic Acid Ferment The Historicity of Things: Where Were Microbes before Pasteur? A Collective of Humans and Nonhumans: Following Daedalus's Labyrinth The Invention of the Science Wars: The Settlement of Socrates and Callicles A Politics Freed from Science: The Body Cosmopolitic The Slight Surprise of Action: Facts, Fetishes, Factishes Conclusion: What Contrivance Will Free Pandora's Hope? Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is life? What is water? What is sound? In Sounding the Limits of Life, anthropologist Stefan Helmreich investigates how contemporary scientists--biologists, oceanographers, and audio engineers--are redefining these crucial concepts. Life, water, and sound are phenomena at once empirical and abstract, material and formal, scientific and social.Trade Review"Winner of the 2016 Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts""This collection is extremely impressive. The notes and bibliography read like a veritable state-of-the-art of the field; the author has read and imbibed everything and everyone and is in firm command of his disciplinary landscape. Helmreich has been a leader among anthropologists in applying to science a new kind of methodologically sophisticated ethnography."---Oren Harman, European LegacyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations vii Sounding Life, Water, Sound ix CHAPTER 1 What Was Life? Answers from Three Limit Biologies 1 CHAPTER 2 Life Forms: A Keyword Entry (with Sophia Roosth) 19 CHAPTER 3 An Archaeology of Artificial Life, Underwater 35 CHAPTER 4 Cetology Now: Formatting the Twenty-First-Century Whale 44 CHAPTER 5 How Like a Reef: Figuring Coral, 1839-2010 48 CHAPTER 6 Homo microbis: Species, Race, Sex, and the Human Microbiome 62 CHAPTER 7 The Signature of Life: Designing the Astrobiological Imagination 73 CHAPTER 8 Nature/Culture/Seawater: Theory Machines, Anthropology, Oceanization 94 CHAPTER 9 Time and the Tsunami: Indian Ocean, 2004 106 CHAPTER 10 From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures 116 CHAPTER 11 Underwater Music: Tuning Composition to the Sounds of Science 137 CHAPTER 12 Seashell Sound 155 CHAPTER 13 Sound Studies Meets Deaf Studies (with Michele Friedner) 164 CHAPTER 14 Chimeric Sensing 173 Life, Water, Sound Resounding 183 Acknowledgments 189 Notes 195 Index 283

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2018: Science""UK astronomer royal Martin Rees faces the future as scientist, citizen and 'worried member of the human species'. His bold, beautifully synthesized primer paces from human-driven challenges such as climate change to dizzying astronomical discoveries within and beyond the Solar System. . . A clarion call for global, rational, long-term thinking."---Barbara Kiser, Nature"A remarkable book not only because of the subject—the prospects of humanity—but because it is so reasonable. . . . Rees largely manages to steer clear of both fear mongering and cheerleading. The question of how we should deal with new technology has no easy answer, and the author doesn’t pretend that it does. Instead, in each case he lays out the important points to consider."---Sabine Hossenfelder, Wall Street Journal"Fortunately for Rees, the symptoms of his anxiety appear to be an exceptionally clear head and a capable grasp of the big picture. His sense of cosmic wonder shines through brilliantly in the book’s later chapters. Explanations of complex subjects like the Large Hadron Collider and the ongoing search for exoplanets benefit from his crisp, precise prose. . . . Rees is a seasoned science communicator, and in so far as his job is to get more and more people interested in the field, the book’s short length and approachable style is a shrewd move that will open a wormhole to the big questions for the curious."---Louie Conway, Vanity Fair"When politics seems impossible, it is sometimes good to take the long view. Astronomer Martin Rees’s On the Future offers a cosmological perspective on the present state of the world. Brexit seems a bit less all-or-nothing when set against the prospect of post-human space travel."---David Runciman, The Guardian"[Hawking and Rees] offer brisk, lucid peeks into the future of science and of humanity. They evince a profound faith in science’s power to demystify nature and bend it to our ends."---John Horgan, Wall Street Journal"[On the Future] offers forecasts of impending technological developments and words of hope for the human ability to use science to repair a wounded planet and improve lives. . . . This far-ranging but easily understood collection of ideas shares and communicates the enthusiasm of Rees’s ‘techno-optimist’ view of the prospects for humanity." * Publishers Weekly *"Short in extent but wide in range: from redesigning genes, through the likelihood of human-induced climate change, to the possibility of encounters with alien intelligence in the Universe. [On the Future]’s overall theme is that Earth’s growing population will flourish only if science and technology are deployed with ‘wisdom.’"---Andrew Robinson, Science"Rees neatly packages his sprawling subject matter into a guidebook for the responsible use of science to build a healthy and equitable future for humanity."---Daniel Ackerman, Scientific American"Rees is hardly the first to issue a stern warning about what lies ahead if complacency and consumerism rule, but his lucid, well-reasoned explanation of the stakes and inimitable prose lift this manifesto above the rest. An impassioned call to action from one of the world's foremost scientists. A book to be read by anyone on Earth who cares about its future." * Kirkus, starred review *"It is hard not to be fascinated as [Rees] builds his Eeyorish case – which is laid out with the dispassionate air of a superintelligent alien anthropologist observing our species’ eccentricities from afar. . . . [A] lucid and engaging book."---Tom Whipple, The Times"Lord Martin Rees manages weighty, often scary, matters with an eminently accessible lightness of touch in On the Future: Prospects for Humanity. . . . [A] short, crisply written new book."---John Cornwell, Financial Times"This slim volume, written in Rees’s characteristically elegant style, will frighten and inspire – and above all, entertain."---Clive Cookson, Financial Times"If you’re worried about the prospects for the human race, try Martin Rees’s On the Future for a sober, level-headed assessment."---John Naughton, The Observer"The importance of science in society has no greater spokesperson than Lord Martin Rees." * The Economist *"By no means merely a happiness pill, Martin Rees's On the Future: Prospects for Humanity nonetheless encourages the reader to think beyond the new norms of diminished and collapsing expectations. . . . This is less a book than a set of goggles that provides the reader a glimpse of a wider spectrum of possibility than would otherwise be visible."---Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Education"Rees is clear-sighted and pithy. . . . His account of the planets and exoplanets on which we might one day descend feels thrillingly real. . . . Wonderfully optimistic."---James McConnachie, Sunday Times"Rees shows us an optimistic yet realistic way of contemplating the what is to come, as long as we broaden our thinking and realise that we’re all on this crowded planet together."---Sandra Kropa, BBC Sky at Night Magazine"It would be easy for a book about the future to turn gloomy, but this one balances concerns with hopeful prospects." * Foreword Reviews *"[An] eloquent book."---John Thornhill, Financial Times"Rees dispenses his apocalyptic overview of the coming decades like cocktail party wisdom. The author, who moves in elevated circles and has the papal ear, is an affable doom merchant."---Anjana Ahuja, New Statesman"An overview of the great science-based possibilities for mankind, as well as an expert’s gentle warning against what will happen to life on earth if we continue to form our thinking around short-term goals."---Rozalind Dineen, Times Literary Supplement"With the authority that only someone of his calibre could command, Martin Rees presents his vision of the future of mankind." * Nature Astronomy *"This little gem is divided into four beautifully-crafted chapters providing broad perspective, personal anecdotes, some seldom-mined historical background, strong scientific emphasis, and hope."---Bruce L. Dietrich, Planetarian"In [On the Future], Rees turns his focus closer to home, examining the existential threats that face humanity over the next century. From cyberattacks to advances in biotechnology to artificial intelligence to climate change, Rees, Britain's astronomer royal, says we are living at a critical juncture — one that could define how the human species fares."---Denise Chow, NBC News MACH"[On the Future] shrewdly weighs up our chances of survival."---Andy Martin, Belfast Telegraph"A rallying call for the sort of rational thinking that seems to have become unpopular in recent years. . . . A short, but persuasive, book."---Dominic Lenton, Engineering & Technology"A really important book."---David Runciman, Talking Politics podcast"Overall, this is a wise and humane overview of the challenges we all face, with much practical guidance about how best to tackle these in terms of responsible scientific and technological innocation related to deeper human values."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"Lord Rees is the source on all things future-of-humanity." * Mayday *"[A] condensed masterpiece of analysis and observation."---Jonathan Power, New York Journal of Books"Reading On the Future will equip the reader with the means to challenge their representatives to lift their eyes above the daily grind of politics and set their sights on a brighter future which humanity can enjoy if the correct decisions are made in respect of the development and application of science and technology."---K. Alan Shore, Contemporary Physics"I found reading Rees’s ideas here rewarding. I also learned a lot from this book. . . as such, I am very positive about this book and I think that all ethicists should read it."---Wouter Kalf, Ethical Perspectives

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the William A. Douglass Book Prize in Europeanist Anthropology, Society for the Anthropology of Europe""Bernstein uses history as well as the contemporary landscape to riase questions about the chaging status of the category "human" in increasingly medically engineered bodies. In wonderfully thought-provoking passages, she muses over the relationships between body and mind, biology and technology to rethink, enlarge and playfully undermine the understanding of life itself."---Kate Brown, Times Literary Supplement"A magic dwells. . . By holding these different viewpoints up against each other, [and] Bernstein shows us just how intricate the question of what makes us human really is."---Justine Buck Quijada, Politics, Religion, & Ideology

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Book SynopsisWe live in a time of engineered intimacy, toxic memes and online addiction. Can we ever break free?Trade Review'Dystopian ... a scathing indictment of a technology that transforms the very notion of self into a sharing platform.' -- Eva Illouz, author of 'Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation''Sad by Design: on Platform Nihilism, despite the title, is not a sad book. It dissects our digital addictions with the dynamite power of critical theory. It's a savage journey into the heart of the digital self, and a wake-up call to break free of our own enslavement' -- Donatella Della Ratta, author of 'Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria''Geert Lovink, who is expertly familiar with digital dynamics - technological as well as social - provides in this book a searing criticism of platform nihilism, considered above all as a perversion of computational design' -- Bernard Stiegler, author of 'The Age of Disruption: Technology and Madness in Computational Capitalism'Table of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Society of the Social 1. Overcoming the Disillusioned Internet 2. Social Media as Ideology 3. Distraction and its Discontents 4. Sad by Design 5. Media Network Platform: Three Architectures 6. From Registration to Extermination: On Technological Violence 7. Narcissus Confirmed: Technologies of the Minimal Selfie 8. Mask Design: Aesthetics of the Faceless 9. Memes as Strategy: European Origins and Debates 10. Before Building the Avant-Garde of the Commons Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisSandra Harding here develops further the themes first addressed in her widely influential book, The Science Question in Feminism, and conducts a compelling analysis of feminist theories on the philosophical problem of how we know what we...Trade ReviewWhose Science, Whose Knowledge? represents a transition from gender to power considerations in Harding's continuous efforts to raise questions about the theory and practice of science. -- Shulamit Reinharz * Gender & Society *Harding's account offers a good insight into a variety of feminist responses to the hegemony apparently exercised by scientific thinking. Some readers will take the book as a challenge to the sociology of science to examine its arguments and assumptions in the light of standpoint theory and feminist postmodernism. -- Steven Yearley * British Journal of Sociology *This is an important book that has much to offer practicing scientists but probably will not be read by many of them. That is a shame, because its bold claims are usefully unsettling and its argument begs for engagement. One of the basic messages of Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?—that all fields of natural science are best analyzed from within the social sciences, of which they are logically a part, rather than taken as external models for the social sciences—has potential consequences for most, perhaps all, scientific practice. -- Rayna Rapp, New School for Social Research * Science *

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Book SynopsisNow available in paperback with a new preface by the author, this acclaimed biography will appeal to historians of technology and science, as well as to scientists and engineers who wish to learn more about this remarkable man.Trade ReviewHow was it that a man who had no formal education after the age of sixteen could apply operational calculus to technological problems in a way that other eminent mathematical physicists had not? Why was a charged layer of the ionosphere named after him? The best way to gain an insight into the life and work of this eccentric genius will be to delve into this delightful book. International Journal of Electrical Engineering Educators A good book by a careful, historically minded engineer... A lively, informative narrative of Heaviside's life and work. Nahin has exhaustively resurveyed archives and contemporary sources and is very much at home in historical discussions of Victorian physics. IsisTable of ContentsContents: Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition Preface to the Original Edition A Note of Mathematics A Note of References A Note on Money Acknowledgements 1 The Origins of Heaviside ( A Description of mid-19th century Victorian England.) The Man The Nature of His Work The Grim World of Heaviside's Youth Notes and References 2 The Early Years (The young Heaviside, his family circumstances, and his education.) The Beginning A Lucky Marriage First (and Last) Job A Lifetime Decision Tech Note: Where Is the Fault? Notes and References 3 The First Theory of the Electric Telegraph (Historical discussion of Professor William Thomson's 1854 diffusion theory, the starting point of Heaviside's work.) Thomson and Stokes The Law of Squares The Atlantic Cable The Speed of the Current Phase Distortion Tech Note: How Thomson Thought Electricity "Soaks" into an Infinitely Long Cable Notes and References 4 Heaviside's Early Telegraphy Work (An account of the introduction effects into cable analysis, and the nature of Heaviside's mode of working.) A Full-Time Student The Telegraph Papers The Problem of Signal Rate Assymmetry A "Mathematical Monster" Arithmatic Drudgery Tech Note: Why a Cable Is Slower in One Direction than in the Other Notes and References 5 The Scienticulist (An introduction to William Henry Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the British Post Offics and Heaviside's great nemesis.) Heaviside's Nemesis Subdividing the Electric Light The Age of the "Practical Man" A Public Debate Why Preece Prevailed (for a While) A Clash of Personalities Preece's Ability The Telephone Affair Heavisides Refuses to Be Shackled Tech Note: Preece's Analysis of the Electric Light Notes and References 6 Maxwell's Electricity (The state of knowledge at Maxwell's death om 1879.) Introduction The Men before Maxwell Action-at-a-Distance The Luminiferous Ether Faraday and Lines of Force William Thomson Maxwell The Displacement Current Post-script: Just What Is Electricity, Anyway? Tech Note 1: A Technically Nice, Often Taught, but Historically False "Explanantion" of the Displacement Current Tech Note 2: Action-at-a-Distance, Fields, and Faraday's Electronic State Notes and References 7 Heaviside's Electrodynamics (How Heaviside formulated the field equations and what he did with them.) The Conversion of a Skeptic The Electrician The Importance of Mr. Biggs Getting Off to a Bad Start Reformulating Maxwell's Equations A Friend in Germany More Germans: Foppl, Boltzmann, and Planck Energy and Its Flux Moving Charges A Friend at Cambridge Faster-than-Light Dr. Heaviside, F.R.S. Tech Note 1: The Duplex Equations Tech Note 2: The Localization of Electromagnetic Field Energy Tech Note 3: Heaviside's Derivation of hte Electromagnetic Energy Flow Vector in Space Tech Note 4: Poynting;s Physics (and Oliver's Objection) Notes and References 8 The Battle With Preece (The story of the " KR-Law" and Preece's efforts to suppress Heaviside's influence.) High-Tech Hardware, Low-Tech Theory Early Mathematical Analysis The Peculiar Experiments of David Hughes Preece's " KR-Law" and Heaviside's Attack Oliver Lodge's Oscillating Leyden Jar "Experience" versus "Theory" Heaviside's Vindication A Change of Scene-and Fame Back in Print-in Style! His Friends Try to Help More Battles Tech Note1: The Skin Effect Tech Note 2: The " KR-Law" Tech Note 3: Preece and Lodge on Lightning Tech Note 4: Heaviside and S. P. Thompson on the Distortionless Circuit Notes and References 9 The Great Quarterionic War (The development of vectors by Heaviside and by Gibbs, and the debate with Tait.) More Debates Peter Tait, the Warrior of Victorian Science William Hamilton and Quarterions Before 1890-The Calm Before the Storm The Vector Analysis of Josiah Willard Gibbs Tait Throws Down the Gauntlet The Battle The Aftermath Off to War-Again Tech Note 1: Numbers and Vecotrs-Real, Complex and Hypercomplex Tech Note 2: Hamilton's Insight at the Brougham Bridge Tech Note 3: Quarterions Are Complex! Notes and References Strange Mathematics (Operational calculus.) "Rigorous Mathematics In Narrow, Physical Mathematics Bold and Broad" The Operator Concept Heaviside's Operators The Expansion Theorem The Royal Society Affair The Aftermath of the Rejection A New Friend at Cambridge Tech Note 1: Heaviside's Resistance Operators Tech Note 2: The Problem with the p and 1/ p Operators Tech Note 3: The Meaning of Heaviside's Fractional Operator, and Impulses Tech Note 4: Heaviside and Divergent Series Notes and References 11 The Age-of-the-Earth Controversy (The debate between Perry and Kelvin, and Heaviside's support of Perry via his operational methods.) Historical Origin of the Debate The Problem of Fossils Kelvin's Theory perry's Rebuttal of Kelvin's Theory Perry's Theory of Discontinuous Diffusivity Kelvin's Defense and Perry's Reply The End of the Debate An Assessment of the Debate A Final Word Tech Note 1: Heaviside's Operator Solution of Kelvin's Original One-Dimensional Problem Tech Note 2: Heaviside's Operator Solution of Perry's Problem of Discontinuous Diffusivity Notes and References 12 The Final Years of the Hermit (The Personal life of Heaviside after 1900, when essentially all his scientific work was done.) A "Gentleman" with a Pension Life in the Country Another Change at The Electrician The Passing of the Century-and of a Friend and a Foe The Catches up t Heaviside-and Leaves Him Behind Oliver Puts His Name on the Atmosphere Increasing Trouble with Life Life at Homefield Death Takes and Past-and the Present The End of the Hermit A Last Look Notes and References 13 Epilogue (An evaluation of Heaviside's impact since his death.) The Legend Grows Heaviside Profiled in TimeMagazine! Formulas Under the Floor Last Words Notes and References Index Credits

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Book SynopsisThe contributors to Captivating Technology examine how carceral technologies such as electronic ankle monitors and predictive-policing algorithms are being deployed to classify and coerce specific populations and whether these innovations can be appropriated and reimagined for more liberatory ends.Trade Review"The book comes at a timely moment, contributing to pressing contemporary conversations about predictive algorithms, bias in AI, new modes of surveillance, and the myriad ways our increasingly technologically mediated lives are experienced unequally along lines of race, class, and gender. . . . Captivating Technology offers a meaningful contribution to public and scholarly discussions of technological (in)justice." -- Naomi Zucker * Somatosphere *"Benjamin presents a rich and original contribution to critical studies of race and technoscience." -- Clara Hick * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“Captivating Technology is a powerful and deeply creative text that excavates suppressed histories just as much as it works towards building new futures.” -- Susila Gurusami * Surveillance & Society *“Captivating Technology...is an excellent collection that is compelling both in rich individual chapters and in the synthetic whole.... One of the strengths of this collective volume is its deliberate use of literary technologies.” -- Vivette García-Deister and Anne Pollock * BioSocieties *“[Captivating Technology] is an ideal in action; unfettered by carceral imaginations, scholars can invent different worlds that replace—and not merely, through reform, extend—the discriminatory societies we have made together.” -- David Theodore * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsForeword / Troy Duster xi Acknowledgments / Ruha Benjamin xv Part I. Carceral Techniques from Plantation to Prison 1. Naturalizing Coercion: The Tuskegee Experiments and the Laboratory Life of the Plantation / Britt Rusert 25 2. Consumed by Disease: Medical Archives, Latino Fictions, and Carceral Health Imaginaries / Christopher Perreira 50 3. Billions Served: Prison Food Regimes, Nutritional Punishment, and Gastronomical Resistance / Anthony Ryan Hatch 67 4. Shadows of War, Traces of Policing: The Weaponization of Space and the Sensible Preemption / Andrea Miller 85 5. This Is Not Minority Report: Predictive Policing and Population Racism / R. Joshua Scannell 107 Part II. Surveillance Systems from Facebook to Fast Fashion 6. Racialized Surveillance in the Digital Service Economy / Winifred Poster 133 7. Digital Character in "The Scored Society": FICO, Social Networks, and the Competing Measurements of Creditworthimess / Tamara K. Nopper 170 8. Deception by Design: Digital Skin, Racial Matter, and the New Policing of Child Sexual Exploitation / Mitali Thakor 188 9. Employing the Carceral Imaginary: An Ethnography of Worker Surveillance in the Retail Industry / Madison Van Oort 209 Part III. Retooling Liberation from Abolitionists to Afrofuturists 10. Anti-Racist Technoscience: A Generative Tradition / Ron Eglash 227 11. Techo-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation across the African Diaspora and Global South / Nettrice R. Gaskins 252 12. Making Skin Visible through Liberatory Design / Lorna Roth 275 13. Scratch a Theory, You Find a Biography: A Conversation with Troy Duster 308 14. Reimagining Race, Resistance, and Technoscience: A Conversation with Dorothy Roberts 328 Bibliography 349 Contributors 389 Index 393

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Book SynopsisEighty years ago, Ettore Majorana, a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. How is it possible that the most talented physicist of his generation vanished without leaving a trace? It has long been speculated that Majorana decided to abandon physics, disappearing because he had precociously realized that nuclear fission would inevitably lead to the atomic bomb. This book advances a different hypothesis. Through a careful analysis of Majorana's article "The Value of Statistical Laws in Physics and Social Sciences," which shows how in quantum physics reality is dissolved into probability, and in dialogue with Simone Weil's considerations on the topic, Giorgio Agamben suggests that, by disappearing into thin air, Majorana turned his very person into an exemplary cipher of the status of the real in our probabilistic universe. In so doing, the physicist posed a question to science that is still awaiting an answer: What is Real?

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Book SynopsisA fascinating ethnography of microbes that opens up new spaces for anthropological inquiry The trillions of microbes in and on our bodies are determined by not only biology but also our social connections. Gut Anthro tells the fascinating story of how a sociocultural anthropologist developed a collaborative “anthropology of microbes” with a human microbial ecologist to address global health crises across disciplines. It asks: what would it mean for anthropology to act with science? Based partly at a preeminent U.S. lab studying the human microbiome, the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University, and partly at a field site in Bangladesh studying infant malnutrition, it examines how microbes travel between human guts in the “field” and in microbiome laboratories, influencing definitions of health and disease, and how the microbiome can change our views on evolution, agency, and life.As lab scientists studied the interrelationships between gut microbes and malnutrition in resource-poor countries, Amber Benezra explored ways to reconcile the scale and speed differences between the lab, the intimate biosocial practices of Bangladeshi mothers and their children, and the looming structural violence of poverty. In vital ways, Gut Anthro is about what it means to collaborate—with mothers, local field researchers in Bangladesh, massive philanthropic global health organizations, with the microbiome scientists, and, of course, with microbes. It follows microbes through various enactments in scientific research—microbes as kin, as data, and as race. Revealing how racial categories are used in microbiome research, Benezra argues that microbial differences need transdisciplinary collaboration to address racial health disparities without reifying race as a straightforward biological or social designation.Gut Anthro is a tour de force of science studies and medical anthropology as well as an intensely personal and deeply theoretical accounting of what it means to do anthropology today. Cover alt text:Black background overlaid with a pink organic path suggestive of a human digestive system. Title appears within the guts as if being processed.Trade Review"From start to finish, Gut Anthro demonstrates how relations are integral to science. With bold, page-turning prose, Amber Benezra traces microbiokinships from kitchen tables to scientific laboratories, offering a refreshingly honest analysis of how knowledge and process are one and the same. Miscarriage. Diarrhea. Career ambitions. Humanitarian hubris. Anthropological complicity. We learn from microbes—and the messy, fragile, tenacious humans that study them—how much the minute details of mundane life matter. Alternately hopeful and unsettling, this is a book that expertly does what microbes have always done: change how we see, how we collaborate, and who we are."—Emily Yates-Doerr, author of The Weight of Obesity: Hunger and Global Health in Postwar Guatemala"This is an utterly arresting ethnographic examination of a networked bioscience project that stretches from sample collection in Bangladesh to data analysis at a U.S. university. Amber Benezra offers an account—rigorous, revelatory, wrenching—of the vexed promises of acting as both participant and observer in the contact zones of today’s international biomedical research."—Stefan Helmreich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Book SynopsisAn engaging critique of the science and metaphysics behind our understanding of the universe The James Webb Space Telescope, when launched in 2021, will be the premier orbital observatory, capable of studying every phase of the history of the universe, from the afterglow of the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Examining the theoretical basis for key experiments that have made this latest venture in astrophysics possible, Bjørn Ekeberg reveals that scientific cosmology actually operates in a twilight zone between the physical and metaphysical. Metaphysical Experiments explains how our current framework for understanding the universe, the Big Bang theory, is more determined by a deep faith in mathematical universality than empirical observation. Ekeberg draws on philosophical insights by Spinoza, Bergson, Heidegger, and Arendt; on the critical perspectives of Latour, Stengers, and Serres; and on cutting-edge physics research at the Large Hadron Collider, to show how the universe of modern physics was invented to reconcile a Christian metaphysical premise with a claim to the theoretical unification of nature.By focusing on the nonmathematical assumptions underlying some of the most significant events in modern science, Metaphysical Experiments offers a critical history of contemporary physics that demystifies such concepts as the universe, particles, singularity, gravity, blackbody radiation, the speed of light, wave/particle duality, natural constants, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy. Ekeberg’s incisive reading of the metaphysical underpinnings of scientific cosmology offers an innovative account of how we understand our place in the universe.Trade Review"In this provocative and sharply written account, Bjørn Ekeberg makes a radical case for the social construction of physics and its truths, urging that the mathematical unification of physical phenomena is not only physics’ goal but also a deeply metaphysical requirement for its progress—progress put into doubt, not to say crisis, by the emergence of mathematical theories (such as multiverse or string theory) that seem ‘untestable in any empirical sense and probably remain beyond the horizon of experimental physics.’"—Brian Rotman, author of Becoming Beside Ourselves: The Alphabet, Ghosts, and Distributed Human Being "What if the basis of contemporary cosmology were false? This stirring question launches Bjørn Ekeberg on a lucid exploration of modern scientific history, leading to the recent marriage of cosmology with experimental particle physics. Well-informed in contemporary philosophy, Ekeberg provides a unique synthesis that will be of interest to philosophers of science and contemplative scientists alike."—Graham Harman, Southern California Institute of Architecture "This erudite, idiosyncratic book more than earns a place on the library shelf." —CHOICETable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Cosmic World-Object1. The Metaphysics Experiment: From Particle Collider to the Cosmos2. God, That Is, Nature: The Invention of the Universe3. Probability and Proliferation: The Invention of the Particle4. Big Bang Metaphysics: The Universe of Modern CosmologyConclusion: A Question of RelevanceNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisPresents thirty novel terms that do not yet exist in English to envision ways of responding to the environmental challenges of our generation As the scale and gravity of climate change becomes undeniable, a cultural revolution must ultimately match progress in the realms of policy, infrastructure, and technology. Proceeding from the notion that dominant Western cultures lack the terms and concepts to describe or respond to our environmental crisis, An Ecotopian Lexicon is a collaborative volume of short, engaging essays that offer ecologically productive terms—drawn from other languages, science fiction, and subcultures of resistance—to envision and inspire responses and alternatives to fossil-fueled neoliberal capitalism. Each of the thirty suggested “loanwords” helps us imagine how to adapt and even flourish in the face of the socioecological adversity that characterizes the present moment and the future that awaits. From “Apocalypso” to “Qi,” “ ~*~ “ to “Total Liberation,” thirty authors from a range of disciplines and backgrounds assemble a grounded yet dizzying lexicon, expanding the limited European and North American conceptual lexicon that many activists, educators, scholars, students, and citizens have inherited. Fourteen artists from eleven countries respond to these chapters with original artwork that illustrates the contours of the possible better worlds and worldviews.Contributors: Sofia Ahlberg, Uppsala U; Randall Amster, Georgetown U; Cherice Bock, Antioch U; Charis Boke, Cornell U; Natasha Bowdoin, Rice U; Kira Bre Clingen, Harvard U; Caledonia Curry (SWOON); Lori Damiano, Pacific Northwest College of Art; Nicolás De Jesús; Jonathan Dyck; John Esposito, Chukyo U; Rebecca Evans, Winston-Salem State U; Allison Ford, U of Oregon; Carolyn Fornoff, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Michelle Kuen Suet Fung; Andrew Hageman, Luther College; Michael Horka, George Washington U; Yellena James; Andrew Alan Johnson, Princeton U; Jennifer Lee Johnson, Purdue U; Melody Jue, U of California, Santa Barbara; Jenny Kendler; Daehyun Kim (Moonassi); Yifei Li, NYU Shanghai; Nikki Lindt; Anthony Lioi, Juilliard School of New York; Maryanto; Janet Tamalik McGrath; Pierre-Héli Monot, Ludwig Maximilian U of Munich; Kari Marie Norgaard, U of Oregon; Karen O’Brien, U of Oslo, Norway; Evelyn O’Malley, U of Exeter; Robert Savino Oventile, Pasadena City College; Chris Pak; David N. Pellow, U of California, Santa Barbara; Andrew Pendakis, Brock U; Kimberly Skye Richards, U of California, Berkeley; Ann Kristin Schorre, U of Oslo, Norway; Malcolm Sen, U of Massachusetts Amherst; Kate Shaw; Sam Solnick, U of Liverpool; Rirkrit Tiravanija, Columbia U; Miriam Tola, Northeastern U; Sheena Wilson, U of Alberta; Daniel Worden, Rochester Institute of Technology.Trade Review"Part dream, part provocation ... (with) a wonky yet infectious hopefulness."—The New Yorker"We understand that an era is ending, but we do not know what will happen after it. Maybe changing words from 70 thousand years ago helps us cope with reality."—Vogue Poland"A fascinating collection of non-English or newly invented words that impart something of the complexities of everyday life in an era of warming skies and oceans, mass degradation, precarity, and insecurity, each of which also helps map a possible future."—Science Magazine"A perfect artifact of our complicated present."—Los Angeles Review of Books"The texts, which are written mostly by professorial types whose specialties include English literature, anthropology and environmental studies, range from the drearily academic to the gloriously weird. But the entries’ basic messages are: do not despair; be humble; get creative."—ArtReview Asia"An Ecotopian Lexicon is a fascinating, thought-provoking book. It’s worth a read."—The Weekly Anthropocene"How can we better locate, through a vocabulary no longer inspired by neoliberal capitalism, the escape route from the Anthropocene? The necessary words are in a book that is a utopia in the form of a dictionary: An Ecotopian Lexicon. The lexicon contains poetic, esoteric and exotic suggestions. The authors of the individual entries identify their ecological and ecopsychological potential... Do words like apocalypso, cibopathic, fotminne, blockadia, gyebale, sound strange? Of course, because they don't exist; but they could come in handy."—La Reppublica"The climate crisis provides opportunity and impetus for humans to make some of the changes, big and small, that we need to continue to progress. An Ecotopian Lexicon provides us with some of the creativity, language and concepts we need to make these very necessary changes."—Language & Ecology"The essays vary in their theoretical density, but the editors have curated what is, on the whole, a very approachable collection, and one that I can imagine being meaningful not just for scholars in the environmental humanities, but for environmentally conscious citizens outside the academy as well."—Ancillary Review of Books"With the look and feel of a small coffee table book—including original artwork, loanwords highlighted in sage green, and suggestive ‘paths’ at the end of each entry to chart a less linear browsing experience—it invites and rewards re-reading. . . . There is so much work to do, and this book reminds us to use all the creative resources at our disposal to do that work as joyfully as possible."—ISLE"An Ecotopian Lexicon offers a fresh mode of engaging."—Kenyon Review"This delightful dictionary of differences also represents what might just be the best method we have for mapping the gaps in our conceptual landscape. On that basis, I recommend it wholeheartedly."—Extrapolation "An Ecotopian Lexicon proves to be an endeavor both revolutionary and futuristic"—Utopian Studies"An Ecotopian Lexicon is a delightful book, conceived and executed with a rare combination of scholarly rigor and heartfelt commitment."—Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

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Book SynopsisA radical proposal for how a tiny organism can transform our understanding of human relations Serving as both a guide and companion publication to the conceptual art project of the same name, The Lichen Museum explores how the physiological characteristics of lichens provide a valuable template for reimagining human relations in an age of ecological and social precarity. Channeling between the personal, the scientific, the philosophical, and the poetic, A. Laurie Palmer employs a cross-disciplinary framework that artfully mirrors the collective relations of lichens, imploring us to envision alternative ways of living based on interdependence rather than individualism and competition.Lichens are composite organisms made up of a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria thriving in a mutually beneficial relationship. The Lichen Museum looks to these complex organisms, remarkable for their symbiosis, diversity, longevity, and adaptability, as models for relations rooted in collaboration and nonhierarchical structures. In their resistance to fast-paced growth and commodification, lichens also offer possibilities for humans to reconfigure their relationship to time and attention outside of the accelerated pace of capitalist accumulation.Drawing together a diverse set of voices, including personal encounters with lichenologists and lichens themselves, Palmer both imagines and embodies a radical new approach to human interconnection. Using this tiny organism as an emblem through which to navigate environmental and social concerns, this work narrows the gap between the human and natural worlds, emphasizing the notion of mutual dependence as a necessary means of survival and prosperity.Trade Review "The Lichen Museum is a deeply engaging, provocative, humorous, and moving account of why we should pay more attention to lichens. As lichens can be found anywhere, the entire surface of the earth becomes the lichen museum. A. Laurie Palmer weaves together personal anecdotes, theoretical interventions, photography, and detailed research to draw attention to how lichens can offer new ways to think through questions of relationality, life and death, and our mutual obligations to each other."—Heather Davis, author of Plastic Matter "Meditative and inquisitive, The Lichen Museum is an interdisciplinary work about learning from the most unassuming of species."—Foreword "Reading this work feels like taking a series of walks with a particularly curious and sensitive companion, consistently attentive to otherwise neglected facets of the actual environment. "—e-flux "As an environmentally engaged artist, Palmer introduces readers to lichens through personal observations, extensive research, and critical evaluation of past and current scientific study of this complex living organism and offers her musings on the potential philosophical and poetic implications of these symbiotic organisms."—CHOICE

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Book SynopsisA radical proposal for how a tiny organism can transform our understanding of human relations Serving as both a guide and companion publication to the conceptual art project of the same name, The Lichen Museum explores how the physiological characteristics of lichens provide a valuable template for reimagining human relations in an age of ecological and social precarity. Channeling between the personal, the scientific, the philosophical, and the poetic, A. Laurie Palmer employs a cross-disciplinary framework that artfully mirrors the collective relations of lichens, imploring us to envision alternative ways of living based on interdependence rather than individualism and competition.Lichens are composite organisms made up of a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria thriving in a mutually beneficial relationship. The Lichen Museum looks to these complex organisms, remarkable for their symbiosis, diversity, longevity, and adaptability, as models for relations rooted in collaboration and nonhierarchical structures. In their resistance to fast-paced growth and commodification, lichens also offer possibilities for humans to reconfigure their relationship to time and attention outside of the accelerated pace of capitalist accumulation.Drawing together a diverse set of voices, including personal encounters with lichenologists and lichens themselves, Palmer both imagines and embodies a radical new approach to human interconnection. Using this tiny organism as an emblem through which to navigate environmental and social concerns, this work narrows the gap between the human and natural worlds, emphasizing the notion of mutual dependence as a necessary means of survival and prosperity.Trade Review "The Lichen Museum is a deeply engaging, provocative, humorous, and moving account of why we should pay more attention to lichens. As lichens can be found anywhere, the entire surface of the earth becomes the lichen museum. A. Laurie Palmer weaves together personal anecdotes, theoretical interventions, photography, and detailed research to draw attention to how lichens can offer new ways to think through questions of relationality, life and death, and our mutual obligations to each other."—Heather Davis, author of Plastic Matter "Meditative and inquisitive, The Lichen Museum is an interdisciplinary work about learning from the most unassuming of species."—Foreword "Reading this work feels like taking a series of walks with a particularly curious and sensitive companion, consistently attentive to otherwise neglected facets of the actual environment. "—e-flux "As an environmentally engaged artist, Palmer introduces readers to lichens through personal observations, extensive research, and critical evaluation of past and current scientific study of this complex living organism and offers her musings on the potential philosophical and poetic implications of these symbiotic organisms."—CHOICE

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Book SynopsisA methodological follow-up to Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet The environmental and climatic crises of our time are fundamentally multispecies crises. And the Anthropocene, a time of “human-made” disruptions on a planetary scale, is a disruption of the fabric of life as a whole. The contributors to Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene argue that understanding the multispecies nature of these disruptions requires multispecies methods.Answering methodological challenges posed by the Anthropocene, Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene retools the empirical study of the socioecological chaos of the contemporary moment across the arts, human science, and natural science. Based on critical landscape history, multispecies curiosity, and collaboration across disciplines and knowledge systems, the volume presents thirteen transdisciplinary accounts of practical methodological experimentation, highlighting diverse settings ranging from the High Arctic to the deserts of southern Africa and from the pampas of Argentina to the coral reefs of the Western Pacific, always insisting on the importance of firsthand, “rubber boots” immersion in the field.The methodological companion to Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene (Minnesota, 2017), this collection puts forth empirical studies of the multispecies messiness of contemporary life that investigate some of the critical questions of our time.Contributors: Filippo Bertoni, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; Harshavardhan Bhat, U of Westminster; Nathalia Brichet, U of Copenhagen; Janne Flora, Aarhus U, Denmark; Natalie Forssman, U of British Columbia; Peter Funch, Aarhus U; Kirsten Hastrup, U of Copenhagen; Colin Hoag, Smith College; Joseph Klein, U of California, Santa Cruz; Andrew S. Mathews, U of California, Santa Cruz; Daniel Münster, U of Oslo; Ursula Münster, U of Oslo; Jon Rasmus Nyquist, U of Oslo; Katy Overstreet, U of Copenhagen; Pierre du Plessis, U of Oslo; Meredith Root-Bernstein; Heather Anne Swanson, Aarhus U; Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, U of California,Santa Cruz; Stine Vestbo.Trade Review "From snorkel fins to worn sneakers, drip torches, boats, dogsleds, and the hooves of a horse, Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene is a bold essay collection that pays attention to the ambulatory prosthetics that we wear or carry into particular fields (ocean, forest, savannah, university) and their many histories—material, colonial, multispecies. Situated knowledge has found its footing."—Melody Jue, author of Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater "Explicitly cross-disciplinary, [Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene] will be of wide interest to colleges and universities with larger libraries."—CHOICE "Where [Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene] really shines—and offers something new—is in its ethical and political imperative to develop novel methodologies to understand our current moment."—H-Net Reviews

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Book SynopsisA pioneering call for a new understanding of scale across the humanities How is it possible that you are—simultaneously—cells, atoms, a body, quarks, a component in an ecological network, a moment in the thermodynamic dispersal of the sun, and an element in the gravitational whirl of galaxies? In this way, we routinely transform reality into things already outside of direct human experience, things we hardly comprehend even as we speak of DNA, climate effects, toxic molecules, and viruses. How do we find ourselves with these disorienting layers of scale? Enter Scale Theory, which provides a foundational theory of scale that explains how scale works, the parameters of scalar thinking, and how scale refigures reality—that teaches us how to think in terms of scale, no matter where our interests may lie. Joshua DiCaglio takes us on a fascinating journey through six thought experiments that provide clarifying yet provocative definitions for scale and new ways of thinking about classic concepts ranging from unity to identity. Because our worldviews and philosophies are largely built on nonscalar experience, he then takes us slowly through the ways scale challenges and reconfigures objects, subjects, and relations. Scale Theory is, in a sense, nondisciplinary—weaving together a dizzying array of sciences (from nanoscience to ecology) with discussions from the humanities (from philosophy to rhetoric). In the process, a curious pattern emerges: attempts to face the significance of scale inevitably enter terrain closer to mysticism than science. Rather than dismiss this connection, DiCaglio examines the reasons for it, redefining mysticism in terms of scale and integrating contemplative philosophies into the discussion. The result is a powerful account of the implications and challenges of scale, attuned to the way scale transforms both reality and ourselves.Trade Review "Scale Theory is an exceptionally astute and lucid remapping of the concept of scale. Working through a lively set of thought experiments, Joshua DiCaglio invents a scalar theory to move beyond conventional—often reductive and parochial—understandings of scale. From the not-so-simple conceptual and material status of objects, to questions of process, relations, and consciousness, to the scalar repercussions for subjects, experience, and the very practices of interpretation, DiCaglio delineates and performs a far-reaching scale theory for the predicaments of the present."—Peter C. van Wyck, Concordia University, Montréal "There are few more important, and few more difficult topics to study, than the role of scale in society and nature. This is why I’m so damn thankful for Joshua DiCaglio’s, Scale Theory. He assembles a clear and systematic theory of scale and then demonstrates how its practice can transform our understanding of ourselves and our perceptions of the world. It’s really more than a book; it’s a vision, a guide, and a provocation to help us better navigate a world that exceeds our capacity to understand it."—Phillip Thurtle, author of Biology in the Grid: Graphic Design and the Envisioning of Life "Enthralling."—Leonardo "DiCaglio’s evidence disrupts the frame of situated knowledge."—Science as Culture Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Learning to ScalePart I. Algorithms for a Theory of Scale1. Distance and Resolution: The First Experiential Origin of Scale2. Measurement and Perspective: The Second Experiential Origin of Scale3. Scope and Accumulation: The Third Experiential Origin of Scale4. To the Bottom: The First Thought Experiment in Scale5. From the Top: The Second Thought Experiment in Scale6. In the Scalar Simulation: The Third Thought Experiment in ScalePart II. Configurations for a Theory of Scale7. In-formations of the Whole: Scalar Configurations of Objects8. I Am the Transhuman Cosmos: Scalar Configurations of Subjects9. Cutting and Claiming Everything: Scalar Configurations of RelationsPart III. Rhetorical Technologies for a Theory of Scale10. Mapping the Vast Unknowing: The Science of Scale, the Scale of Science11. The Cosmos Seeing Itself: Representations of Scale, Scales of Representation12. Transformations by Involution: The Contemplative Practices of Scale, Scaling ContemplationAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA revealing genealogy of image-recognition techniques and technologies Today’s most advanced neural networks and sophisticated image-analysis methods come from 1950s and ’60s Cold War culture—and many biases and ways of understanding the world from that era persist along with them. Aerial surveillance and reconnaissance shaped all of the technologies that we now refer to as computer vision, including facial recognition. The Birth of Computer Vision uncovers these histories and finds connections between the algorithms, people, and politics at the core of automating perception today.James E. Dobson reveals how new forms of computerized surveillance systems, high-tech policing, and automated decision-making systems have become entangled, functioning together as a new technological apparatus of social control. Tracing the development of a series of important computer-vision algorithms, he uncovers the ideas, worrisome military origins, and lingering goals reproduced within the code and the products based on it, examining how they became linked to one another and repurposed for domestic and commercial uses. Dobson includes analysis of the Shakey Project, which produced the first semi-autonomous robot, and the impact of student protest in the early 1970s at Stanford University, as well as recovering the computer vision–related aspects of Frank Rosenblatt’s Perceptron as the crucial link between machine learning and computer vision.Motivated by the ongoing use of these major algorithms and methods, The Birth of Computer Vision chronicles the foundations of computer vision and artificial intelligence, its major transformations, and the questionable legacy of its origins. Cover alt text: Two overlapping circles in cream and violet, with black background. Top is a printed circuit with camera eye; below a person at a 1977 computer.Trade Review"A key technology of our time, computer vision is embedded in both our professional and everyday lives in numerous ways—from helping doctors diagnose diseases to enabling organizations to obtain accurate information about remote natural disaster zones and refugee camps to allowing billions of people to capture better images with their phone cameras. Focusing on the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s, James E. Dobson offers the first book tracing the development of computer vision. Combining historical research and theoretical analysis, The Birth of Computer Vision is an invaluable contribution to the fields of media theory, software studies, and algorithm studies."—Dr. Lev Manovich, author of Cultural Analytics"In this timely and eye-opening book, James E. Dobson provides a penetrating analysis of the opportunities and challenges of facial recognition and other computer vision technology by excavating its formation from the sediment of history, tracing its connections to the military industrial complex of the Cold War, and critically examining the notable successes and failures of embryonic research efforts and prototypes."—David J. Gunkel, author of Deconstruction

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Book SynopsisThis text revolves around a new and unusual view on the most fundamental puzzle of physics. It focusses on the key aspect that makes the role of the time dimension fundamentally different: causality. It deals on the one hand with general relativity, and on the other hand with quantum theory. The implicit and intuitive way by which causality is usually taken for granted is just made explicit and less self-evident, shedding a new light on the gravity-quantum conflict. The case is made that gravity is a necessary condition for a causal universe. But upon turning to the pure unitary quantum physics explaining the nature of matter one is dealing with the strictly a-causal time expressed through the thermal quantum field theory machinery. When this a-causal microscopic and causal macroscopic world meet, one encounters the wavefunction collapse, that itself may be rooted in the quantum-gravity conflict. Modern ideas are discussed resting on eigenstate thermalization showing how this may lie eventually at the origin of irreversible thermodynamics, with its famous second law setting also a direction of time. The case is anchored in the sophisticated modern mathematical machinery of both general relativity and quantum physics which is normally barely disseminated beyond the theoretical physics floors. The book is unique in the regard that the consequences of this machinery - Riemannian geometry and Penrose diagrams, thermal quantum fields, quantum non-equilibrium and so forth -- are explained in an original, descriptive language conveying the conceptual consequences while avoiding mathematical technicalities.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface, Book I. The Science Wars, 1. Scientific Passions, 2. The Neutrino’s Paradoxical Mode of Existence, 3. Culturing the Pharmakon?, 4. Constraints, 5. Introductions, 6. The Question of Unknowns, Book II. The Invention of Mechanics: Power and Reason, 7. The Power of Physical Laws, 8. The Singularity of Falling Bodies, 9. The Lagrangian Event, 10. Abstract Measurement: Putting Things to Work, 11. Heat at Work, 12. The Stars, Like Blessed Gods, 13. If We Could . . ., Book III. Thermodynamics: the Crisis of Physical Reality, 14. The Threefold Power of the Queen of Heaven, 15. Anamnesis, 16. Energy is Conserved!, 17. The Not So Profound Mystery of Entropy, 18. The Obligations of the Physicist, 19. Percolation, 20. In Place of an Epilogue, Notes, Index

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Book SynopsisFew thinkers have been as influential upon current discussions and theoretical practices in the age of media archaeology, philosophy of technology, and digital humanities as the French thinker Gilbert Simondon. Simondon’s prolific intellectual curiosity led his philosophical and scientific reflections to traverse a variety of areas of research, including philosophy, psychology, the beginnings of cybernetics, and the foundations of religion. For Simondon, the human/machine distinction is perhaps not a simple dichotomy. There is much we can learn from our technical objects, and while it has been said that humans have an alienating rapport with technical objects, Simondon takes up the task of a true thinker who sees the potential for humanity to uncover life-affirming modes of technical objects whereby we can discover potentiality for novel, healthful, and dis-alienating rapports with them. For Simondon, by way of studying its genesis, one must grant to the technical object the same ontological status as that of the aesthetic object or even a living being. His work thus opens up exciting new entry points into studying the human’s rapport with its continually changing technical reality. This first complete English-language translation of Gilbert Simondon’s groundbreaking and influential work finally presents to Anglophone readers one of the pinnacle works of France’s most unique thinkers of technics.

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