Download or read book How We Became Posthuman written by N. Katherine Hayles and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999-02-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age. Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman." Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems. Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.
Download or read book Agents of Transculturation written by Sebastian Jobs and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since antiquity, but increasingly since the global transformation of the world order in the early modern period, communication between members of different cultural groups depended on translators, diplomats, traders, and other specialists with a knowledge of both cultures. Successful communication and traffic relied on the mediating agency of persons who had been exposed, often in their childhood or through captivities, to the customs and languages of both cultures involved in the contact. Other border crossers and go-betweens acted as missionaries, traders, political refugees, beachcombers, pirates, anthropologists, actors in zoos, runaway slaves, and itinerant doctors. Because of their frequently precarious lives, the written traces left by these figures are often thin. While some of their lives have to be carefully reconstructed through critical readings of the documents left by others (frequently by their enemies), others have left autobiographical texts which allow for a richer assessment of their function as cultural border crossers and mediators. With examples covering from various historical periods between the early modern period and the present, as well as geographical areas such as the Mediterranean, Africa, the Americas, Hawaii, New Zealand and northern Europe, scholars from various disciplines and methodological backgrounds - reaching from history to religious studies and from literary studies to ethnology - fathom the intricacies of in-betweeness and reflect on the impact which "agents of transculturation" have in situations of cultural, social and political encounters.
Download or read book Theory and Evidence in Comparative Politics and International Relations written by R. Lebow and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-08-20 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the epistemology and the methodology of political knowledge and social inquiry: what can we know, and how do we know? Contributing authors offer answers, addressing the purpose and methods of research and analyzing concepts, including the relationship of theory and evidence and the importance of medicine to social science.
Download or read book The Engineer s Cost Handbook written by Richard E. Westney and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997-02-26 with total page 776 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers coverage of each important step in engineering cost control process, from project justification to life-cycle costs. The book describes cost control systems and shows how to apply the principles of value engineering. It explains estimating methodology and the estimation of engineering, engineering equipment, and construction and labour costs; delineates productivity and cash-flow analysis; and more.
Download or read book Local Ownership of Peacebuilding in Afghanistan written by Chuck Thiessen and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Local Ownership of Peacebuilding in Afghanistan: Shouldering Responsibility for Sustainable Peace and Development, Chuck Thiessen addresses the struggle of the Western-led mission in Afghanistan to ensure the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. Thiessen reports on current developments in peacebuilding theory and provides conversations with numerous peacebuilding leaders in Afghanistan about revising peacebuilding paradigms and strategies so that local, Afghan ownership becomes a central concern.
Download or read book The Government Machine written by Jon Agar and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-09-26 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of technology and politics in the evolution of the British "government machine." In The Government Machine, Jon Agar traces the mechanization of government work in the United Kingdom from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. He argues that this transformation has been tied to the rise of "expert movements," groups whose authority has rested on their expertise. The deployment of machines was an attempt to gain control over state action—a revolutionary move. Agar shows how mechanization followed the popular depiction of government as machine-like, with British civil servants cast as components of a general purpose "government machine"; indeed, he argues that today's general purpose computer is the apotheosis of the civil servant. Over the course of two centuries, government has become the major repository and user of information; the Civil Service itself can be seen as an information-processing entity. Agar argues that the changing capacities of government have depended on the implementation of new technologies, and that the adoption of new technologies has depended on a vision of government and a fundamental model of organization. Thus, to study the history of technology is to study the state, and vice versa.
Download or read book White Saris and Sweet Mangoes written by Sarah Lamb and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By examining both gender and aging in this ethnography of an Indian village, Sarah Lamb forces a re-examination of major debates in feminist anthropology and contributes to the small but growing literature on aging in contemporary culture.
Download or read book Mechanizing Proof written by Donald MacKenzie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-01-30 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most aspects of our private and social lives—our safety, the integrity of the financial system, the functioning of utilities and other services, and national security—now depend on computing. But how can we know that this computing is trustworthy? In Mechanizing Proof, Donald MacKenzie addresses this key issue by investigating the interrelations of computing, risk, and mathematical proof over the last half century from the perspectives of history and sociology. His discussion draws on the technical literature of computer science and artificial intelligence and on extensive interviews with participants. MacKenzie argues that our culture now contains two ideals of proof: proof as traditionally conducted by human mathematicians, and formal, mechanized proof. He describes the systems constructed by those committed to the latter ideal and the many questions those systems raise about the nature of proof. He looks at the primary social influence on the development of automated proof—the need to predict the behavior of the computer systems upon which human life and security depend—and explores the involvement of powerful organizations such as the National Security Agency. He concludes that in mechanizing proof, and in pursuing dependable computer systems, we do not obviate the need for trust in our collective human judgment.
Download or read book Theory and Metatheory in International Relations written by F. Chernoff and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-10-15 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses three controversial contemporary American foreign policy problems to introduce students to the 'new debates' in international relations, in which the criticisms of constructivism, interpretivism, and postmodernism are presented against traditional positivist concepts of social science.
Download or read book The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann written by Herman H. Goldstine and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1942, Lt. Herman H. Goldstine, a former mathematics professor, was stationed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. It was there that he assisted in the creation of the ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer. The ENIAC was operational in 1945, but plans for a new computer were already underway. The principal source of ideas for the new computer was John von Neumann, who became Goldstine's chief collaborator. Together they developed EDVAC, successor to ENIAC. After World War II, at the Institute for Advanced Study, they built what was to become the prototype of the present-day computer. Herman Goldstine writes as both historian and scientist in this first examination of the development of computing machinery, from the seventeenth century through the early 1950s. His personal involvement lends a special authenticity to his narrative, as he sprinkles anecdotes and stories liberally through his text.
Download or read book Provoking Agents written by Judith Kegan Gardiner and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A major contribution in women's studies and in other disciplines dealing with issues of agency. The authors raise issues that are very important . . . and they raise them as they must be raised--by bridging theory and action." -- Kathryn Pine Addelson, author of Moral Passages: Toward a Collectivist Moral Theory Both the women's liberation movement and those who have studied it characterize agency as the capacity to make change in individual consciousness, personal lives, and society. The seventeen contributors to Provoking Agents explore whether--and how--feminist theory, writing, and other social practices can help readers move beyond seeing women as a powerless group to effecting changes in their own lives and, ultimately, becoming social activists. Topics in this multi-disciplinary collection range from maternal surrogacy to writing, from consciousness-raising to AIDS activism, from pornography to local organizing
Download or read book The Annenbergs written by John E. Cooney and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 1982 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is the colorful and dramatic biography of two of America's most controversial entrepreneurs: Moses Louis Annenberg, 'the racing wire king, ' who built his fortune in racketeering, invested it in publishing, and lost much of it in the biggest tax evasion case in United States history; and his son, Walter, launcher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazines and former ambassador to Great Britain."--Jacket.
Download or read book Close to the Machine written by Ellen Ullman and published by Picador. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a New Introduction by Jaron Lanier A Salon Best Book of the Year In 1997, the computer was still a relatively new tool---a sleek and unforgiving machine that was beyond the grasp of most users. With intimate and unflinching detail, software engineer Ellen Ullman examines the strange ecstasy of being at the forefront of the predominantly male technological revolution, and the difficulty of translating the inherent messiness of human life into artful and efficient code. Close to the Machine is an elegant and revelatory mediation on the dawn of the digital era.
Download or read book Histories of Computing written by Michael Sean Mahoney and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-20 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computer technology is pervasive in the modern world, its role ever more important as it becomes embedded in a myriad of physical systems and disciplinary ways of thinking. The late Michael Sean Mahoney was a pioneer scholar of the history of computing, one of the first established historians of science to take seriously the challenges and opportunities posed by information technology to our understanding of the twentieth century. MahoneyÕs work ranged widely, from logic and the theory of computation to the development of software and applications as craft-work. But it was always informed by a unique perspective derived from his distinguished work on the history of medieval mathematics and experimental practice during the Scientific Revolution. His writings offered a new angle on very recent events and ideas and bridged the gaps between academic historians and computer scientists. Indeed, he came to believe that the field was irreducibly pluralistic and that there could be only histories of computing. In this collection, Thomas Haigh presents thirteen of MahoneyÕs essays and papers organized across three categories: historiography, software engineering, and theoretical computer science. His introduction surveys MahoneyÕs work to trace the development of key themes, illuminate connections among different areas of his research, and put his contributions into context. The volume also includes an essay on Mahoney by his former students Jed Z. Buchwald and D. Graham Burnett. The result is a landmark work, of interest to computer professionals as well as historians of technology and science.
Download or read book Capital Times written by Eric Alliez and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a history of the philosophy of time and a comparison of the ways of conceiving the temporal, concentrating on European philosophy and its impact the connection between time and money in Western civilization. Analyzes the social and political processes involved in conceptions of time in ancien
Download or read book Sound States written by Adalaide Morris and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-06-15 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By investigating the relationship between acoustical technologies and twentieth-century experimental poetics, this collection, with an accompanying compact disc, aims to 'turn up the volume' on printed works and rethink the way we read, hear, and talk about literary texts composed after telephones, phonographs, radios, loudspeakers, microphones, and tape recorders became facts of everyday life. The collection's twelve essays focus on earplay in texts by James Joyce, Ezra Pound, H.D., Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, Amiri Baraka, Bob Kaufman, Robert Duncan, and Kamau Brathwaite and in performances by John Cage, Caribbean DJ-poets, and Cecil Taylor. From the early twentieth-century soundscapes of Futurist and Dadaist 'sonosphers' to Henri Chopin's electroacoustical audio-poames, the authors argue, these states of sound make bold but wavering statements--statements held only partially in check by meaning. The contributors are Loretta Collins, James A. Connor, Michael Davidson, N. Katherine Hayles, Nathaniel Mackey, Steve McCaffery, Alec McHoul, Toby Miller, Adalaide Morris, Fred Moten, Marjorie Perloff, Jed Rasula, and Garrett Stewart.
Download or read book The Law and Regulation of Franchising in the EU written by Mark Abell and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ÔMark AbellÕs book argues that the European franchising market fails to reach its potential as it remains unregulated. He supports this by analysing the historical legal and economic basics and risk/attraction profiles of franchising to franchisors and franchisee, compares the European situation to the highly developed regulatory regimes in the USA and Australia, and moves through to proposing and drafting a new EU directive to bring greater certainty and stability to cross border franchising in the EU. Comprehensively researched and very detailed, this book is a worthy contribution to the literature on the subject.Õ Ð Graham Cunningham, Barrister, Hardwicke Key features of this detailed and insightful work include: ¥ Practical analysis from a leading authority in the field of franchising. ¥ Examination of the impact of both franchise specific and general commercial law upon use of franchising in the EU. ¥ Comparative legal analysis of the law of England, Germany, France, the US and Australia. ¥ Carefully constructed proposals for a franchise directive in the EU based on the vast experience of the author. ¥ A draft text for the proposed directive. The Law and Regulation of Franchising in the EU provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory environment for franchising in the EU. Franchising in the EU comprises nearly 10,000 franchised brands and over Û215 billion (US$300 billion) turnover per annum. However, compared to its scale in the US and Australia, franchising is not realising its full potential in the EU and the author points to the lack of homogeneity across members states as a large part of the problem. The book concludes by arguing for the adoption of a draft directive, and proposes a draft directive, which promotes market confidence in franchising, provides pre-contractual hygiene and imposes a mandatory taxonomy of rights and obligations. This highly topical and comprehensive work will appeal to franchise lawyers and franchise academics as this is the first book that analyses the impact of EU and member state law upon the use of franchising in the EU.
