Technology: general issues Books

Book SynopsisCOM018000

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Book SynopsisTechnology and sustainability are linked by the choices we make. Every day, those choices determine the trajectory of our society toward whatever future lies ahead. We therefore need to think deeply about the nature of technology, and about how the values we hold - as individuals, professionals, and global citizens - shape the technological choices we make. This is the book every engineering student should read.Sustainability is not a technological problem, but a social and cultural one - a problem in system design. While technology provides tools to improve our situation, those same tools can also make things much worse. Yet behind all of our technologies are the choices that led to them; behind the reasons for those choices, lie the values we hold as individuals, professionals, and global citizens. A sustainable future requires us all to make better choices, starting today. Aimed primarily at STEM students, The End of Technology explores the nature of technology, the kinds of ethical choices we make about technology, and how values are embedded in system design.Trade Review“These reflections on technology should stimulate your thinking about the crucial questions of our day.”- Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org“Peter Denton draws engineers to critically examine why we do what we do, and the questions to which engineering asserts its claim – but also holds the responsibility – to answer.”- Marcia Friesen, P.Eng., Ph.D., Dean, Price Faculty of Engineering, University of Manitoba“Denton’s The End of Technology is a careful but passionate book full of good sense about a subject that we all need to understand deeply. It is perfect for STEM students and faculties, but, really, it is a book for all of us. I love this book.”- James Gustave Speth, former Dean, Yale School of the Environment“This is the most important book on technology and sustainability since David Dickson’s The Politics of Technology and E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful.”- Dr. Sal Restivo, author of The Age of the Social“Peter Denton encourages us to step back from looking at the problems of climate change and a lack of sustainability with sorrow and regret, and to make choices as individuals that can make a real difference.”- John Craynon, Ph.D., PE, Teaching Assistant Professor, Mining Engineering, West Virginia University“This is a book that deserves a wide readership.”- John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology“This book will inspire readers to reconnect with their humanity and take care of each other and Mother Nature so that, together, we can create a sustainable future for all.”- Kehkashan Basu, MSM, Founder-President, Green Hope FoundationTable of Contents Preface Introduction CHAPTER 1 Technology is in Our Heads CHAPTER 2 Technology by Choice CHAPTER 3 Reverse Engineering CHAPTER 4 Problems in System Design CHAPTER 5 System Design Solutions CHAPTER 6 The Story of Progress CHAPTER 7 The End of Technology Bookshelf Index

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Book SynopsisThe rise of technology in human culture has changed almost every facet of society. Technology is especially useful regarding sustainable development. These technologies can cause significant greenhouse gas reductions and other benefits in terms of logistics and smart cities. New technology applied in this way can greatly help the human effort to restore the environment. Disruptive Technologies and Eco-Innovation for Sustainable Development provides an in-depth look into the new techniques, strategies, and technologies for achieving environmental sustainability through best business and technology practices. The book covers topics such as eco-innovation, green criteria, Agriculture 4.0, and topics related to logic, philosophy, and history of science and technology from the green/sustainable point of view. It is essential for managers, academicians, scientists, students, and researchers in various government, public, and private sectors.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a diverse read offering chapters covering multiple subjects, but all linked into the same theme. It explores many of the things we have been misinformed about in mainstream media, education and religion. A chapter by chapter in depth look at various subjects that challenge what we think we know. It ultimately proposes an alternative way of thinking, and assessing what we have all been informed of through different platforms. The book explores the author and some of the key things that have affected his life, guiding him to this point now where he wants to share some of his experiences. This includes his love of spirituality and the guidance that has been provided to him throughout his life. It's an often-humorous story with honest snippets from youth through to adulthood. It explores all the good and bad aspects of the human experience and his acceptance that it is all part of the journey. The second chapter covers our recent technological boom. This explores the authors thoughts on how we have progressed so quickly over the last 100 years with a thought-provoking challenge as an explanation. A look at our history and all the many holes in what we have been informed about through education and religion, that frankly do not hold up now with science- throwing curve balls into our previous understanding of our past. The chapter covers such things as structural anomalies around the world, our true origins and the various differing species of humanity that have occupied this planet, and many more issues the author has found through his investigations. Through Government disclosure and personal accounts, the next chapter looks at the subject of ‘are we alone in this universe’? Starting way back in history and finishing right up to date it looks at the overwhelming evidence that would suggest we are not alone, from witness reports, abduction cases to crop circles. This chapter provides some compelling and fact-based evidence to support the authors ideas. Following on from the previous chapter the author looks at our planet and its place in the universe, covering the mind-boggling numbers that are attached to the incredible size of the known universe, and our tiny insignificant place within it. It further highlights the facts presented in the previous chapter that discusses are we truly alone in a universe that is difficult to comprehend with its true and enormous size. Moving away from historical information the author comes right up to date with a chapter about the modern world. He questions that have we really got it right? , and has life truly improved with all the stress and mental health issues being highlighted these days. An example being emails. Emails were meant to make life quicker and easier, yet in reality they have had a negative effect. Regardless of whether you work in an office or a building site, you have to factor into your daily life time to look at and respond to emails. It's something twenty-five years ago did not exist, but the world still worked, giving us something else to factor into what is not enough time in most people’s day. It was meant to improve and ease our existence, but does it?

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Book SynopsisArtificial intelligence is everywhere-powering news feeds, curating search results and invisibly steering our lives. We talk to it and, increasingly, it talks back. And sometimes its answers seem eerily smart.... Until they don''t.Billions of dollars have been poured into AI yet it keeps surprising us with its epic fails-confidently wrong chatbots, inadvertently racist photo apps, well-meaning autonomous cars that fail to recognize traffic cones.Industry insider Emmanuel Maggiori cuts through the hype, revealing the deceptively simple mechanisms behind AI''s impressive results-and its spectacular blunders.Learn the dark secret of the AI industry-how unreasonable expectations, shady practices and outright lying have inflated a bubble of monumental proportions.Read Smart Until It''s Dumb to discover how AI really works, why it''s not always so smart, and why the AI bubble is about to burst.***Emmanuel Maggiori, PhD, is a 10-year AI industry insider, specialized in machine learning and scientific computing. He helps companies build complex software. He has developed AI for a wide variety of applications, from extracting objects from satellite images to packaging holiday deals for millions of travelers every day.

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