Download or read book Metaman written by Gregory Stock and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting, challenging book argues that man and machine have merged into a new global superorganism that is just now entering its prime and that promises a positive and prosperous future. A controversial book from the author of The Book of Questions. Photos and line drawings throughout.
Download or read book Evolution Order and Complexity written by Kenneth Boulding and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution, Order and Complexity reflects topical interest in the relationship between the social and natural worlds. It represents the cutting edge of current thinking which challenges the natural/social dichotomy thesis by showing how the application of ideas which derive from biology can be applied and offer insight into the social realm. This is done by introducing the general system theory to the methodological debate on the relation of human and natural sciences.
Download or read book The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader written by David Pitt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Reader is the first comprehensive history of the noosphere and biosphere. Drawing on classical influences, modern parallels, and insights into the future, the Reader traces the emergence of noosphere and biosphere concepts within the concept of environmental change. Reproducing material from seminla works, both past and present, key ideas and writings of prominent thinkers are presented, including Bergson, Vernadsky, Lovelock, Russell, Needham, Huxley, Medawar, Toynbee and Boulding, and extensive introductory pieces bu the editors drawattention to common themes and competing ideas. Focussing on issues of origins, theories, parallels and potential, the discussions place issues in a broad context, compare and contrast central concepts with those of the Gaia hypothesis, sustainability and global change, and examine the potential application of noospheric ideas to current debates about culture, education and technology in such realms as the Internet, space exploration, and the emergence of super-consciousness. Literally the `sphere of mind or intellect', the noosphere is aprt of the `realm of the possible' in human affairs, where there is a conscious effort to tackle global issues The noosphere concept captures a number of key contemporary issues - social evolution, global ecology, Gaia, deep ecology and global environmental change - contributing to ongoing debates concerning the implications of emerging technologies.
Download or read book Metal and Flesh written by Ollivier Dyens and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-10-12 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poetic exploration of the new world created by the collision of the biological body with technology and culture. For more than 3,000 years, humans have explored uncharted geographic and spiritual realms. Present-day explorers face new territories born from the coupling of living tissue and metal, strange lifeforms that are intelligent but unconscious, neither completely alive nor dead. Our bodies are now made of machines, images, and information. We are becoming cultural bodies in a world inhabited by cyborgs, clones, genetically modified animals, and innumerable species of human/information symbionts. Ollivier Dyens's Metal and Flesh is about two closely related phenomena: the technologically induced transformation of our perceptions of the world and the emergence of a cultural biology. Culture, according to Dyens, is taking control of the biosphere. Focusing on the twentieth century—which will be remembered as the century in which the living body was blurred, molded, and transformed by technology and culture—Dyens ruminates on the undeniable and irreversible human/machine entanglement that is changing the very nature of our lives.
Download or read book Eating the IT Elephant written by Richard Hopkins and published by Addison-Wesley Professional. This book was released on 2008-04-29 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Practical, Start-to-Finish Approach to Managing, Evolving, and Transforming Legacy IT Systems For every IT executive, manager, architect, program leader, project leader, and lead analyst “Richard and Kevin introduce us to a reality that’s often neglected in our industry: the problem of evolving legacy systems, a domain they call ‘Brownfield development.’ The authors identify the root of the problem as that of complexity, and offer an approach that focuses on the fundamentals of abstraction and efficient communication to nibble at this problem of transformation bit by bit. As the old saying goes, the way you eat the elephant is one bite at a time. Richard and Kevin bring us to the table with knife and fork and other tools, and show us a way to devour this elephant in the room.” Grady Booch, IBM Fellow, co-creator of UML “Most organizations in the 21st century have an existing, complex systems landscape. It is time that the IT industry face up to the reality of the situation and the need for new development methods and tools that address it. This book describes a new approach to the development of future systems: a structured approach that recognizes the challenges of ‘Brownfield’ development, is based on engineering principles, and is supported by appropriate tooling.” Chris Winter, CEng CITP FBCS FIET, IBM Fellow, Member of the IBM Academy of Technology Most conventional approaches to IT development assume that you’re building entirely new systems. Today, “Greenfield” development is a rarity. Nearly every project exists in the context of existing, complex system landscapes--often poorly documented and poorly understood. Now, two of IBM’s most experienced senior architects offer a new approach that is fully optimized for the unique realities of “Brownfield” development. Richard Hopkins and Kevin Jenkins explain why accumulated business and IT complexity is the root cause of large-scale project failure and show how to overcome that complexity “one bite of the elephant at a time.” You’ll learn how to manage every phase of the Brownfield project, leveraging breakthrough collaboration, communication, and visualization tools--including Web 2.0, semantic software engineering, model-driven development and architecture, and even virtual worlds. This book will help you reengineer new flexibility and agility into your IT environment...integrate more effectively with partners...prepare for emerging business challenges... improve system reuse and value...reduce project failure rates...meet any business or IT challenge that requires the evolution or transformation of legacy systems. · System complexity: understand it, and harness it Go beyond the comforting illusion of your high-level architecture diagrams · How conventional development techniques actually make things worse Why traditional decomposition and abstraction don’t work--and what to do instead · Reliably reengineer your IT in line with your business priorities New ways to understand, communicate, visualize, collaborate, and solve complex IT problems · Cut the elephant down to size, one step at a time Master all four phases of a Brownfield project: survey, engineer, accept, and deploy
Download or read book LAST FRONTIERS OF THE MIND written by MOHANDAS MOSES and published by PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original and brilliantly written book, Mohandas Moses has embarked on a daring theme-the challenge of artificial intelligence to the human mind and human creativity. The mind, he says, is the greatest invention in the universe; it has created the greatest works of art and science: its dimensions and potential are yet to be fathomed. But now the marvellous human mind stands challenged by the machine. To illustrate the central theme of his book, the author has brought together the views of a galaxy of eminent philosophers, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists who have explored the phenomenon and evolution of the human mind and consciousness, and the growth of Artificial Intelligence. The author describes the contribution made by the 'Artificial Intelligentsia', the human-computer interaction, and emphasizes the formidable power of the machine mind to usurp the grandeur of the human mind. He has described the manner in which memory, language, creativity, mathematics, teaching-learning and chess-playing could be altered by the digital culture. He says that 'the question we need to ask ourselves as thinking men is-would we like to sense sensations, experience experiences and think thoughts with under-standing as human beings should or are our personas to be blue matched to the template of the machine mind?' With erudition and wry humour the author takes the reader on a fascinating journey of exploration. Written with brilliance and clarity, there is freshness in his perspective and a lucid presentation of ideas. This book will be of great interest as much to academics, experts on artificial intelligence, as to the general reader who wishes to know about the challenges to the human intellect and creativity in the digital age.
Download or read book Educating for Eco justice and Community written by C. A. Bowers and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We believe in social justice. We support educational reform. Yet unless we reframe our approaches to both, says C. A. Bowers, the social justice attained through educational reform will only lead to more intractable forms of consumerism and further impoverishment of our communities. In Educating for Eco-Justice and Community Bowers outlines a strategy for educational reform that confronts the rapid degradation of our ecosystems by renewing the face-to-face, intergenerational traditions that can serve as alternatives to our hyper-consumerist, technology-driven worldview. Bowers explains how current technological and progressive programs of educational reform operate on deep cultural assumptions that came out of the Enlightenment and led to the Industrial Revolution. These beliefs frame our relationship with nature in adversarial terms, view progress as inevitable, and elevate the individual over community, expertise over intergenerational knowledge, and profit over reciprocity. By making eco-justice a priority of educational reform, we can begin to: democratize developments in science and technology in ways that eliminate eco-racism; reverse the global processes that are worsening the economic and political inequities between the hemispheres; expose the cultural forces that turn aspects of daily life--from education and entertainment to work and leisure--into market-dependent relationships; uplift knowledge and traditions of intergenerationally connected communities; and develop a sense of moral responsibility for the long-term consequences of our excessive material demands. In the tradition of Wendell Berry, David Orr, and Kirkpatrick Sale, Bowers thinks about our place in the natural world and the current economies to show how we can reform education and create a less consumer-driven society.
Download or read book Is Human Nature Obsolete written by Harold W. Baillie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary exploration of whether modern genetics and bioengineering are leading us to a posthuman future.
Download or read book Let Them Eat Data written by C. A. Bowers and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do computers foster cultural diversity? Ecological sustainability? In our age of high-tech euphoria we seem content to leave tough questions like these to the experts. That dangerous inclination is at the heart of this important examination of the commercial and educational trends that have left us so uncritically optimistic about global computing. Contrary to the attitudes that have been marketed and taught to us, says C. A. Bowers, the fact is that computers operate on a set of Western cultural assumptions and a market economy that drives consumption. Our indoctrination includes the view of global computing innovations as inevitable and on a par with social progress--a perspective dismayingly suggestive of the mindset that engendered the vast cultural and ecological disruptions of the industrial revolution and world colonialism. In Let Them Eat Data Bowers discusses important issues that have fallen into the gap between our perceptions and the realities of global computing, including the misuse of the theory of evolution to justify and legitimate the global spread of computers, and the ecological and cultural implications of unmooring knowledge from its local contexts as it is digitized, commodified, and packaged for global consumption. He also suggests ways that educators can help us think more critically about technology. Let Them Eat Data is essential reading if we are to begin democratizing technological decisions, conserving true cultural diversity and intergenerational forms of knowledge, and living within the limits and possibilities of the earth’s natural systems.
Download or read book New Scientist written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 936 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Odd Body written by Stephen Juan and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-29 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you've ever had a question about your body (maybe one you're afraid to ask?), this book is for you. Things like why we yawn, why skin wrinkles after a bath, or even whether it's possible to keep a severed head alive: The Odd Body explains these and many other silly, weird, bizarre, and fascinating body mysteries. Dr. Stephen Juan entertains and rivets readers with his detailed answers. Reading The Odd Body is like having your doctor patiently answer all your random questions, one by one. But Dr. Juan goes well beyond the usual and ordinary things people wonder about bodies, like why most individuals are right-handed or why you get chills when chalk screeches across a blackboard. He also tells readers how a dead body is made into a mummy, the success rate of those who bore holes in their own heads to relieve headaches, and much, much more. The Odd Body is a unique combination of fun and fascinating material that's delivered by an expert who happens to be a great storyteller. The book's question-and-answer format makes it easy to pick up, turn to any page, and immediately become drawn into the intricacies of anatomy and physiology while gaining a better understanding of the human need to know more about ourselves.
Download or read book Mindful Conservatism written by C. A. Bowers and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2003 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mindful Conservatism examines how the misuse of our political vocabulary contributes to governmental, corporate, and educational policies that degrade the Earth's natural systems, and suggests ways to overcome this linguistic confusion to help recognize the fundamental connections between communities, sustainability, and the conservation of the world's diverse cultures. Visit our website for sample chapters!
Download or read book The Iron Spirit written by GoGo Sof and published by Partridge Publishing Singapore. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book The Iron Spirit, the author shares her challenges in life: from physical to career and family lives to self-worth and faith. She shares her personal account of her simple solutions to these problems or issues which often had held her back or weighed her down in life. For several years, where the author struggles to overcome her confusion, repressed anger and frustration at the choices she made, and despite all challenges, the world of sports from running to swimming to cycling and triathlon - seems at last to offer her the gift she longs for: a story that moves her forward as it reveals the truth about human life. In the years since then, the author has ventured to many places around the world, some on regular visits to places where she could seek a new goal, and some where she rediscovers new people and lessons. And with all the travels, the story ends with the author who now decides what to do with lifes haunting legacy of love, loss and acceptance while she moves forward and make a positive difference to the world.
Download or read book The Mirage of Dignity on the Highways of Human Progress written by Lukman Harees and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-01-16 with total page 781 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Modern Man is hypocritically boasting of unprecedented material progress in a world , where ,inter-alia millions daily go to bed hungry, die or get killed through unwanted wars and preventable causes, live in inhumane conditions , vulnerable being exploited , with ever widening inequality , and might still ruling over right in international relations, even in the post UDHR era! an indictment on the collective conscience of mankind. Besides, the flame of materialism has been devouring time tested moral values, causing chaos within the basic unit in society- the family and relegating Man and his dignity to the level of animals and even manipulating his identity. Therefore questions arise: Is Moral law fading ; are political/economic systems and institutions like UN failing in realizing the lofty goal of affording due dignity , basic rights and social justice humanity deserves? Can the bystanders be mere onlookers anymore? This book seeks to dispassionately survey the yawning gap between the rhetoric and the ground reality in bringing about dignity and social justice for humanity from bystanders perspective in the light of these questions and underlines the imperative need for moral progress to go hand in hand to make Man assume his due role as the trustee on earth. It also exhorts bystanders to close ranks as human- dignity champions, rights defenders, identity protectors- against onslaughts from power hungry politicians, mighty powers and vested interests. This is the need of the times and what our future progeny demands.
Download or read book The Spike written by Damien Broderick and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-02-09 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human life and the human condition are changing rapidly, and are about to change even faster and more radically. Dazzling scientific breakthroughs are changing how long we live, where we live, how we dress, how we communicate, how we work and what work we do, and even how we think and imagine. Scientist Vernor Vinge proposed that humanity is approaching what he called the Singularity, what Broderick has renamed the Spike: that moment in human history when heretofore unimaginable changes -- artificial intelligence, immortality, and nanotechnology, just to name a few -- occur with such rapidity and number that the human race will be transformed -- or destroyed. This book of wonders and dangers brings together all the fascinating possibilities. Don't miss Broderick's new Tor novel, Transcension, also published in February, in which one of the futures described in The Spike is the setting for a diverting entertainment. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Download or read book INTO THE VOID written by Lawrence J. Terlizzese and published by Christian Publishing House. This book was released on 2016-06-18 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Journal of Information Ethics written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
