Download or read book Up The Infinite Corridor written by Fred Hapgood and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 1994-01-20 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book CIO written by and published by . This book was released on 1993-08 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Up The Infinite Corridor written by Fred Hapgood and published by Addison Wesley Publishing Company. This book was released on 1993-01-20 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Up the Infinite Corridor, Fred Hapgood explores the mental landscape of engineering a style of thought, a mode of operation, a particular form of creativity that increasingly defines the trajectory of modern life." "With the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as his point of reference, Hapgood traces the emergence of the profession from its mud-on-the-boots days preoccupied with canals and roads to its present absorption with cyber-space and micromachines. He also shows the evolution in how engineers are trained, from the apprentice working alongside the older man, to "build and test," to the postwar emergence of engineering science and its focus on developing general principles about the natural behavior of artifacts." "But it is when Hapgood explores a selection of research projects currently going on at the Institute that he actually takes us inside the process, bringing to life the struggle to design an artificial human knee that in every way mimics nature, the creation of all automated navigational system for cars, the attempt to infuse a piece of silicon with the capacity for vision, the construction of a human-powered airplane, and the development of robot mice for maze racing in international competition. In so doing, Hapgood gives us a glimpse into an alternate universe he calls "solution space," the black box of possibilities which the engineer moves inside, searching along its various pathways, confronting key to true innovation." "MIT is a rich culture that has always had its bizarre projects and its even more bizarre personalities, and Hapgood guides us through its history, the folkways and legends of undergraduate life, the twisted sense of humor emerging from the pressures and insecurities of a place in which everyone has the intellectual accelerator wired to the floor. The engineering sensibility that emerges is nothing like the dry "nuts and bolts" cliche. Rather it is an ethos based on reverence for "the fitness of things," the existential pleasure of connecting with the properties of nature. For as Hapgood points out, if scientists carry on a romance, engineers form a marriage and have progeny with nature, working within its confines day in and day out. The value system implied is one that sees our universe composed of elements whose behaviors matter to us intimately." "Hapgood's rich and insightful treatment shows engineering to be an enterprise surprisingly humane, even lyrical."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book From the Basement to the Dome written by Jean-Jacques Degroof and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How a bottom-up problem-solving ethos, multidisciplinary approach, and experimental mindset has nurtured entrepreneurship at MIT. MIT is world-famous as a launching pad for entrepreneurs. MIT alumni have founded at least 30,000 active companies, employing an estimated 4.6 million people, with revenues of approximately $1.9 trillion. In the 2010s, twenty to thirty ventures were spun off each year to commercialize technologies developed in MIT labs (with intellectual property licensed by MIT to these companies); in the same decade, MIT graduates started an estimated 100 firms per year. How has MIT become such a hotbed of entrepreneurship? In From the Basement to the Dome, Jean-Jacques Degroof describes how MIT's problem-solving ethos, multidisciplinary approach, and experimental mindset nurture entrepreneurship. Degroof explains that, at first, the culture of entrepreneurship sprang from such extracurricular activities as forums, clubs, and competitions. Eventually, the Institute formally supported these activities, offering courses in entrepreneurship. Degroof describes why entrepreneurship is so uniquely aligned with MIT's culture: a history of bottom-up decision-making, a tradition of academic excellence, a keen interest in problem-solving, a belief in experimentation, and a tolerance for failure on the way to success. Entrepreneurship is the logical outcome of MIT's motto, Mens et Manus (mind and hand) ), translating theories and scientific discoveries into products and businesses--many of which have the goal of solving some of the world's most pressing problems. Degroof maps MIT's current entrepreneurial ecosystem of students, faculty, and researchers; considers the effectiveness of teaching entrepreneurship; and outlines ways that the MIT story could inspire conversations in other institutions about promoting entrepreneurship.
Download or read book A Mind at Play written by Jimmy Soni and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics "We owe Claude Shannon a lot, and Soni & Goodman’s book takes a big first step in paying that debt." —San Francisco Review of Books "Soni and Goodman are at their best when they invoke the wonder an idea can instill. They summon the right level of awe while stopping short of hyperbole." —Financial Times "Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman make a convincing case for their subtitle while reminding us that Shannon never made this claim himself." —The Wall Street Journal “A charming account of one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished scientists…Readers will enjoy this portrait of a modern-day Da Vinci.” —Fortune In their second collaboration, biographers Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman present the story of Claude Shannon—one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century and the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed the first wearable computer, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called “the Magna Carta of the Information Age.” In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon’s family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life.
Download or read book The Accidental Time Machine written by Joe Haldeman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-07-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW IN PAPERBACK-FROM THE AUTHOR OF MARSBOUND Grad- school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when he inadvertently creates a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose in taking a time-machine trip himself-or so he thinks.
Download or read book CIO written by and published by . This book was released on 1993-08 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 Tanganika and Other Idyls written by Solon Doggett and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Golden Cities written by Solon Doggett and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Strange Beauty written by George Johnson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-09-29 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a New Afterword "Our knowledge of fundamental physics contains not one fruitful idea that does not carry the name of Murray Gell-Mann."--Richard Feynman Acclaimed science writer George Johnson brings his formidable reporting skills to the first biography of Nobel Prize-winner Murray Gell-Mann, the brilliant, irascible man who revolutionized modern particle physics with his models of the quark and the Eightfold Way. Born into a Jewish immigrant family on New York's East 14th Street, Gell-Mann's prodigious talent was evident from an early age--he entered Yale at 15, completed his Ph.D. at 21, and was soon identifying the structures of the world's smallest components and illuminating the elegant symmetries of the universe. Beautifully balanced in its portrayal of an extraordinary and difficult man, interpreting the concepts of advanced physics with scrupulous clarity and simplicity, Strange Beauty is a tour-de-force of both science writing and biography.
Download or read book The Idea Factory written by Pepper White and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-10-12 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a personal story of the educational process at one of the world's great technological universities. This is a personal story of the educational process at one of the world's great technological universities. Pepper White entered MIT in 1981 and received his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1984. His account of his experiences, written in diary form, offers insight into graduate school life in general—including the loneliness and even desperation that can result from the intense pressure to succeed—and the purposes of engineering education in particular. The first professor White met at MIT told him that it did not really matter what he learned there, but that MIT would teach him how to think. This, then, is the story of how one student learned how to think. There have of course been changes at MIT since 1984, but its essence is still the same. White has added a new preface and concluding chapter to this edition to bring the story of his continuing education up to date.
Download or read book Nature and Experience written by Bryan Bannon and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we mean when we speak about and advocate for ‘nature’? Do inanimate beings possess agency, and if so what is its structure? What role does metaphor play in our understanding of and relation to the environment? How does nature contribute to human well-being? By bringing the concerns and methods of phenomenology to bear on questions such as these, this book seeks to redefine how environmental issues are perceived and discussed and demonstrates the relevance of phenomenological inquiry to a broader audience in environmental studies. The book examines what phenomenology must be like to address the practical and philosophical issues that emerge within environmental philosophy, what practical contributions phenomenology might make to environmental studies and policy making more generally, and the nature of our human relationship with the environment and the best way for us to engage with it.
Download or read book Programming the Universe written by Seth Lloyd and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-03-13 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd, the answer is yes. All interactions between particles in the universe, Lloyd explains, convey not only energy but also information–in other words, particles not only collide, they compute. What is the entire universe computing, ultimately? “Its own dynamical evolution,” he says. “As the computation proceeds, reality unfolds.” Programming the Universe, a wonderfully accessible book, presents an original and compelling vision of reality, revealing our world in an entirely new light.
Download or read book Fodor s Boston 2012 written by Fodor's and published by Fodor. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides information on hotels, restaurants, driving and walking tours, shopping and sightseeing, and nighttime entertainment.
Download or read book Fodor s Boston With Map written by Debbie Harmsen and published by Fodors Travel Publications. This book was released on 2012 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed and timely information on accommodations, restaurants and local attractions highlight these updated travel guides, which feature all-new covers, a dramatic visual design, symbols to indicate budget options, must-see ratings, multi-day itineraries, Smart Travel Tips, helpful bulleted maps, tips on transportation, guidelines for shopping excursions and other valuable features. Original.
Download or read book Electric Universe written by David Bodanis and published by Crown. This book was released on 2006-02-28 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of E=mc2 weaves tales of romance, divine inspiration, and fraud through an account of the invisible force that permeates our universe—electricity—and introduces us to the virtuoso scientists who plumbed its secrets. For centuries, electricity was seen as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. The force that once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our brains. In harnessing its power, we have created a world of wonders—complete with roller coasters and radar, computer networks and psychopharmaceuticals. In Electric Universe, the great discoverers come to life in all their brilliance and idiosyncrasy, including the visionary Michael Faraday, who struggled against the prejudices of the British class system, and Samuel Morse, a painter who, before inventing the telegraph, ran for mayor of New York City on a platform of persecuting Catholics. Here too is Alan Turing, whose dream of a marvelous thinking machine—what we know as the computer—was met with indifference, and who ended his life in despair after British authorities forced him to undergo experimental treatments to “cure” his homosexuality. From the frigid waters of the Atlantic to the streets of Hamburg during a World War II firestorm to the interior of the human body, Electric Universe is a mesmerizing journey of discovery.
