Download or read book The Opening of the Cybernetic Frontier written by Daniel Elazar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Opening of the Cybernetic Frontier is the third in-J. stallment in the Cities of the Prairie project. It completes an ongoing multi-generational, comparative study of ten medium-sized communities located in five Prairie and Plains states - Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. This long-term study was initiated by Daniel J. Elazar in 1959 to develop a comprehensive theory explaining and forecasting the development of the civil community based upon the changing relationship between internal developments and external factors.In this new volume, Elazar and his colleagues trace developments in these communities during the 1980s and 1990s. The study examines how local communities function politically, socially, and economically, and then analyzes the impact that regional, national, and international trends and patterns have on local political systems in general and the cities of the prairie in particular. It revisits these communities at the dawning of a new frontier, the city-cybernetic frontier, which is characterized by a knowledge-intensive economic base made possible by computer and communication technologies. Changing technology has accelerated the settlement patterns that emerged after World War II. Ongoing population sprawl means that individuals are leaving the suburbs to live in the exurbs and beyond, creating a citybelt phenomenon that relies upon new technologies.
Download or read book Opening Cybernetic Frontiers written by Daniel Judah Elazar and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book II Cybernetic Frontiers written by Stewart Brand and published by Random House (NY). This book was released on 1974 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Two Cybernetic Frontiers written by S. Brand and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics written by Daniel Elazar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American civilization has been shaped by four decisive forces: the frontier, migration, sectionalism and federalism. The frontier has offered abundance to those who would/could take advantage of its opportunities, stimulated technological innovation, and been the source of continuous change in social structure and economic organization; migration has been responsible for relocating cultures from the Old world to the New: various sections of geographic territories have adjusted to the overall American culture without losing their individual distinctiveness; and federalism has shaped the United States' political and social organization., The Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics was begun in the late 1950s under the auspices of the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs as a study of the eight "lesser" metropolitan areas in Illinois. What started out as a design for "community maps" of each area, with the intent to outline their particular political systems, led to a major study of metropolitan cities of the prairie-the "heartland" area between the Great Lakes and the Continental Divide-with an examination of the processes that have shaped American politics. The distinctive features of the geographic areas that Elazar discovered can best be understood as reflections of the differences in cultural backgrounds of their respective settlers. Proper understanding of these communities therefore requires an examination of their place in the federal system, the impact of frontier and section upon them, and a study of the cultures that inform them as civil communities. The volume is consequently divided into three parts: "Cities, Frontiers, and Sections," "Streams of Migration and Political Culture," and "Cities, States, and Nation," each of which explores Elazar's concerns in discovering the interrelationship between the cities of the frontier and American politics., A prequel to The Closing of the Metropolitan Frontier, The Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics will be of great interest to students of politics, American history and ethnography.
Download or read book The Cybernetics Moment written by Ronald R. Kline and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choice Outstanding Academic Title Cybernetics—the science of communication and control as it applies to machines and to humans—originates from efforts during World War II to build automatic antiaircraft systems. Following the war, this science extended beyond military needs to examine all systems that rely on information and feedback, from the level of the cell to that of society. In The Cybernetics Moment, Ronald R. Kline, a senior historian of technology, examines the intellectual and cultural history of cybernetics and information theory, whose language of “information,” “feedback,” and “control” transformed the idiom of the sciences, hastened the development of information technologies, and laid the conceptual foundation for what we now call the Information Age. Kline argues that, for about twenty years after 1950, the growth of cybernetics and information theory and ever-more-powerful computers produced a utopian information narrative—an enthusiasm for information science that influenced natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, humanists, policymakers, public intellectuals, and journalists, all of whom struggled to come to grips with new relationships between humans and intelligent machines. Kline traces the relationship between the invention of computers and communication systems and the rise, decline, and transformation of cybernetics by analyzing the lives and work of such notables as Norbert Wiener, Claude Shannon, Warren McCulloch, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Herbert Simon. Ultimately, he reveals the crucial role played by the cybernetics moment—when cybernetics and information theory were seen as universal sciences—in setting the stage for our current preoccupation with information technologies. "Nowhere in the burgeoning secondary literature on cybernetics in the last two decades is there a concise history of cybernetics, the science of communication and control that helped usher in the current information age in America. Nowhere, that is, until now . . . Readers have in The Cybernetics Moment the first authoritative history of American cybernetics."—Information & Culture "[A]n extremely interesting and stimulating history of the concepts of cybernetics . . . This is a book for everyone to read, relish, and think about."—Choice "As a whole, the book presents a comprehensive in-depth retrospective analysis of the contribution of the American scientific school to the making, formation, and development of cybernetics and information theory. An unquestionable advantage of the book is the skillful use of numerous bibliographic sources by the author that reflect the scientific, engineering, and social significance of the questions being considered, competition of ideas and developments, and also interrelations between scientists."—Cybernetics and System Analysis "Dr. Kline is perhaps uniquely situated to take on so large and complicated [a] topic as cybernetics . . . Readers unfamiliar with Wiener and his work are well advised to start with this well-written and thorough book. Those who are already familiar will still find much that is new and informative in the thorough research and reasoned interpretations."—IEEE History Center "The most comprehensive intellectual history of cybernetics in Cold War America."—Journal of American History "The book will be most valuable as historical background for the large number of disciplines that were involved in the cybernetics moment: computer science, communications engineering, information theory, and the social sciences of sociology and anthropology."—IEEE Technology and Society Magazine "Ronald Kline’s chronicle of cybernetics certainly does what an excellent history of science should do. It takes you there—to the golden age of a new, exciting field. You will almost smell that cigar."—Second-Order Cybernetics "Kline’s The Cybernetics Moment tracks the rise and fall of the cybernetics movement in more detail than any historical account to date."—Los Angeles Review of Books
Download or read book Frontiers of Cyberspace written by and published by Brill. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The content of this volume reflects theoretical and practical discussions on cultural issues influenced by increased adoption of information and communication technologies. The penetration of new forms of communication, such as online social networking, internet video-casting, and massive online multiplayer gaming; the experience and exploration of virtual worlds; and the massive adoption of ever-emergent ICT technologies; are all developments in desperate need of serious examination. It is not surprising that these new realities, and the questions and issues to which they give rise, have drawn increasing attention from academics. Those engaging these issues do so from a wide range of academic fields. Accordingly, the authors contributing to this volume represent an impressive array of academic disciplines and varied perspectives, including philosophy, sociology, religion, anthropology, digital humanities, literature studies, film science, new media studies and still others. Thus, the subsequent chapters offer the reader a multidimensional examination of this volume’s unifying theme: the ways and extent to which current and anticipated cybernetic environments have altered, and will continue to shape, our understandings of what it means to be human.
Download or read book The Cybernetic Brain written by Andrew Pickering and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cybernetics is often thought of as a grim military or industrial science of control. But as Andrew Pickering reveals in this beguiling book, a much more lively and experimental strain of cybernetics can be traced from the 1940s to the present. The Cybernetic Brain explores a largely forgotten group of British thinkers, including Grey Walter, Ross Ashby, Gregory Bateson, R. D. Laing, Stafford Beer, and Gordon Pask, and their singular work in a dazzling array of fields. Psychiatry, engineering, management, politics, music, architecture, education, tantric yoga, the Beats, and the sixties counterculture all come into play as Pickering follows the history of cybernetics’ impact on the world, from contemporary robotics and complexity theory to the Chilean economy under Salvador Allende. What underpins this fascinating history, Pickering contends, is a shared but unconventional vision of the world as ultimately unknowable, a place where genuine novelty is always emerging. And thus, Pickering avers, the history of cybernetics provides us with an imaginative model of open-ended experimentation in stark opposition to the modern urge to achieve domination over nature and each other.
Download or read book Progress written by Robert David Sack and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2002-06-06 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The connection between geography and progress is fundamental," writes Robert Sack in the introduction to the present volume. Touching on both moral and material progress, six of the world's leading geographers and environmental historians explore differing aspects of this connection. Thomas Vale discusses whether progress is discernible in the natural realm; Kenneth Olwig examines fundamental changes that occurred to the notion of progress with the rise of modernity, while David Lowenthal and Yi-Fu Tuan discuss recent geographical changes that have resulted in an increasing societal disenchantment and anxiety. Nicholas Entrikin looks at progress as "moral perfectibility, and its connection to democratic places," a theme which Robert Sack further explores by prescribing ways in which geographers and citizens can evaluate and create places that increase our awareness of reality in its variety and complexity. Contributors: J. Nicholas Entrikin, University of California-Los Angeles; David Lowenthal, University College, London; Kenneth Olwig, University in Trondheim, Norway; Robert David Sack, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Yi-Fu Tuan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Thomas R. Vale, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Download or read book True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier written by Vernor Vinge and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of articles and essays about the new frontier of the Internet, especially a direct interface between brain and computer that enables game players of the future to actually experience the world of their fantasies.
Download or read book New York Politics Government written by and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two values often at odds with each other?competition and compassion?dominate New York?s political culture. Since the eighteenth century New York has been known for its economic leadership and entrepreneurial opportunities. Its nickname, ?the Empire State,? reflects the state?s continuing role as a national and international center of industry and commerce. Yet New York?s political culture, as Daniel J. Elazar has noted, is paradoxically both individualistic and moralistic. Compassion is extended not only toward those unable to compete in the marketplace but also toward the numerous interest groups and institutions?labor, business, nonprofit agencies?that depend on the state?s largesse for their own well-being. This distinctive political blend can produce inconsistent yet complementary public policies, such as providing tax incentives for economic development alongside liberal Medicaid benefits. In this excellentøoverview of New York politics, five distinguished scholars explore the state?s paradoxical political culture, examining its local, regional, and national components through the years.
Download or read book Illinois Politics Government written by Samuel Kimball Gove and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of World War II, the primary political regions of Illinois, Chicago and "downstate, " have lost population, wealth, and political power to a third region, the suburban collar, which has relentlessly expanded outward from Chicago. At the same time, legislative service has changed from a largely part-time "citizen" activity into a "professional, " career-oriented pursuit. Parochial perspectives of elected officials have intensified as reflected in candidates' promises to deliver their districts' "fair share" of government spending. The state legislature has become an arena in which each region battles for its own fair share, rather than an instrument for comprehensively addressing the state's problems. The authors foresee the emergence of political coalitions linking downstate and Chicago-historically at odds-in efforts to protect their "shares" and contend with the suburban collar. Illinois's political leaders face the challenge of looking beyond district interests to the broader concerns of work-force quality and statewide economic prosperity. Samuel K. Gove is Director Emeritus at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois. He is coeditor with Louis H. Masotti of After Daley: Chicago Politics in Transition. James D. Nowlan is an adjunct professor of public policy at Knox College and a Senior Fellow with the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He is the author of A New Game Plan for Illinois.
Download or read book The Closing of the Metropolitan Frontier written by Daniel Elazar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s signaled the end of the prosperity of the postwar years enjoyed by the cities of the prairie-those cities located immediately within or adjacent to the Mississippi River drainage system, or what is usually called the American Heartland. During this period, the bottom dropped out of local economies and all collapsed except those upheld by massive state institutions. With this collapse, optimism for new opportunities ended, signaling the close of the American frontier. The Closing of the Metropolitan Frontier looks at mid-sized cities Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Joliet, Moline, Peoria, Rockford, Rock Island, and Springfield, Illinois; Davenport, Iowa; Duluth, Minnesota; and Pueblo, Colorado. Elazar examines how they adapted to change during the period immediately after World War II, through the Vietnam War, and the Nixon years. He considers the roles of federal and state governments as instruments of change including their efforts to impose new standards and ways of doing business. The Closing of the Metropolitan Frontier analyzes the struggle between federalism and managerialism in the local political arena. In his new introduction, Daniel J. Elazar discusses this volume's place as part of a forty-year study of the cities of the prairie as well as the changes and developments in that region over that forty-year span. This volume will be of great interest to economists, political scientists, and sociologists interested in the Great Society and the New Federalism and their aftermath.
Download or read book Developing Frontier Cities written by Harvey Lithwick and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Unique Nature of Frontier Cities and their Development Challenge Harvey Lithwick and Yehuda Grad us The advent of government downsizing, and globalization has led to enormous com petitive pressures as well as the opening of new opportunities. How cities in remote frontier areas might cope with what for them might appear to be a devastating challenge is the subject of this book. Our concern is with frontier cities in particular. In our earlier study, Frontiers in Regional Development (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996), we examined the distinction between frontiers and peripheries. The terms are often used interchangeably, but we believe that in fact, both in scholarly works and in popular usage, very different connotations are conveyed by these concepts. Frontiers evoke a strong positive image, of sparsely settled territories, offering challenges, adventure, unspoiled natural land scapes, and a different, and for many an attractive life style. Frontiers are lands of opportunity. Peripheries conjure up negative images, of inaccessibility, inadequate services and political and economic marginality. They are places to escape from, rather than frontiers, which is were people escape to. Peripheries are places of and for losers.
Download or read book New Jersey Politics and Government written by Barbara G. Salmore and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussing such issues as the development of a more activist posture within the state government and the response of the New Jersey polity to growing suburbanization, Barbara G. Salmore and Stephen A. Salmore present the only comprehensive overview of politics and government in New Jersey. This second edition includes a new chapter on the political changes in New Jersey since the book?s original publication in 1993.
Download or read book Building Cities in America written by Daniel Judah Elazar and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1987 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the distinctive character of America's cities? How have our metropolitan regions evolved since the Colonial period? What effect will local politics have on the future of the American city? These are the questions Daniel J. Elazar addresses in this third volume of his highly-acclaimed 'Cities of the Prairie' trilogy. Recognizing the growing alienation from local institutions on the part of city-dwellers nation-wide, Elazar explains why the restoration of local attachments should be a matter of first priority. Co-published with Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Download or read book Alabama Government Politics written by James D. Thomas and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of the nation, Alabama government is emblemized by Governor George Wallace blocking the entry to the University of Alabama, defying court-ordered integration and championing states'-rights slogans. But Wallace?s return to power in the 1980s witnessed sweeping social and political changes in Alabama. Today the state for the most part enjoys the aura of "the new South." James D. Thomas and William H. Stewart, both natives of Alabama, bring a detailed sense of its colorful past to their forward-looking book about its government and political institutions. In the course of writing about Alabama's legislative, administrative, and judiciary branches; its local politics; and its historic relations with the federal government, Thomas and Stewart reveal much about life today in this southern state. Low taxes, industrialization and urbanization, the civil rights movement, and a trend toward two-party politics have helped to usher in dramatic changes. Although continued change is in the wind, the authors do not think that Alabama's political institutions will soon lose their distinctive Alabama character, and no book has ever described that better than Alabama Government and Politics.
