Download or read book The Complexity of Humans Today written by Lucy Coleman and published by R. R. Bowker. This book was released on 2019-04 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humans may be the most important beings on the planet, but they are also the most complex. This statement is true in more ways than one, humans are not the only living things on earth, but they are on top of the food chain because they embody intellectual prowess higher than other living things. As a human being, you think beyond eating and sleeping; you are always overwhelmed by so many other issues that must be dealt with daily, for you to experience the best out of life. However, dealing with these issues doesn't mean you get to escape the "complex" idea of your humanity. If you are going to deal with complexities all your life, the best thing you can do is understand them, and see how you can make the most out of the situation. The objective of this book is to share some of the most factual aspects of human complexity, so you are equipped with information that will help you live your best life now and understand your surroundings. We live in a world that is filled with diversity in many aspects, and these are the basic centre point of human nature. There is so much to learn on the issue of complexity, in fact, you will be amazed at the depths we will unravel, but I promise it will be fun all the way. "Humans had always been a complex mystery".
Download or read book In the Light of Evolution written by National Academy of Sciences and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.
Download or read book Discovering the Brain written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."
Download or read book That Complex Whole written by Lee Cronk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-20 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our understanding of the evolution of human behavior has grown enormously over the past few decades, and an increasing number of behavioral and social scientists are making use of evolutionary theory in their work to shed light on issues ranging from marriage and parenting to the study of mental illness. The success of this research program is thre
Download or read book Human Capitalism written by Brink Lindsey and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-05 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the rich are getting smarter while the poor are being left behind What explains the growing class divide between the well educated and everybody else? Noted author Brink Lindsey, a senior scholar at the Kauffman Foundation, argues that it's because economic expansion is creating an increasingly complex world in which only a minority with the right knowledge and skills—the right "human capital"—reap the majority of the economic rewards. The complexity of today's economy is not only making these lucky elites richer—it is also making them smarter. As the economy makes ever-greater demands on their minds, the successful are making ever-greater investments in education and other ways of increasing their human capital, expanding their cognitive skills and leading them to still higher levels of success. But unfortunately, even as the rich are securely riding this virtuous cycle, the poor are trapped in a vicious one, as a lack of human capital leads to family breakdown, unemployment, dysfunction, and further erosion of knowledge and skills. In this brief, clear, and forthright eBook original, Lindsey shows how economic growth is creating unprecedented levels of human capital—and suggests how the huge benefits of this development can be spread beyond those who are already enjoying its rewards.
Download or read book On Complexity written by Edgar Morin and published by Hampton Press (NJ). This book was released on 2008 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume contains some key essays by French thinker Edgar Morin on the subject of complexity, and specifically on what Morin calls complex thought."--Pub. desc.
Download or read book The Perfect Swarm written by Len Fisher and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The IgNobel Prize-winner and author of Rock, Paper, Scissors applies science-based solutions to seemingly complex problems in life.
Download or read book Complexity written by Roger Lewin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Put together one of the world's best science writers with one of the universe's most fascinating subjects and you are bound to produce a wonderful book. . . . The subject of complexity is vital and controversial. This book is important and beautifully done."—Stephen Jay Gould "[Complexity] is that curious mix of complication and organization that we find throughout the natural and human worlds: the workings of a cell, the structure of the brain, the behavior of the stock market, the shifts of political power. . . . It is time science . . . thinks about meaning as well as counting information. . . . This is the core of the complexity manifesto. Read it, think about it . . . but don't ignore it."—Ian Stewart, Nature This second edition has been brought up to date with an essay entitled "On the Edge in the Business World" and an interview with John Holland, author of Emergence: From Chaos to Order.
Download or read book The Complexity of Human Thought written by Robert Leve and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-29 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an innovative interdisciplinary approach to understanding the principles of human thinking and offers techniques concerning the solution of abstract problems and predictions based on those principles. Utilizing the concepts of complexity science, the book explains the emergence and structural elements of cognitive models underlying such diverse human behaviors as abstract thought, kindness, and selfishness. Such cognitive models allow humans to react to their present environments and make accurate and useful predictions of their futures. Those who might find this book of interest are primarily academics or professionals interested in a unique and interdisciplinary approach to cognition based on complexity science. The book may also be utilized as a supplemental class text in programs on complexity science, life science, and cognition.
Download or read book Behave written by Robert M. Sapolsky and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 801 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestseller • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year “It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal "It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "Immensely readable, often hilarious...Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post From the bestselling author of A Primate's Memoir and the forthcoming Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will comes a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Behave is one of the most dazzling tours d’horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted. Moving across a range of disciplines, Sapolsky—a neuroscientist and primatologist—uncovers the hidden story of our actions. Undertaking some of our thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, and war and peace, Behave is a towering achievement—a majestic synthesis of cutting-edge research and a heroic exploration of why we ultimately do the things we do . . . for good and for ill.
Download or read book The Complexity of Human Communication written by Philip J. Salem and published by Hampton Press (NJ). This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most communication research and most applications of that research acknowledge the process nature of communication. However, the material following that acknowledgment confirms to traditional linear and static approaches treating communication as little more than printed text. This Print Paradigm persists despite repeated calls to explore the more dynamic nature of communication. In this second edition, the author updates and expands his argument that communication is a process analogous to the complexity in other living systems. Complexity theory models biological principles similar to how chaos theory treats chemical and physical processes. The book begins with a review of philosophical and social psychological thought as a basis for explaining the mathematical and natural science models. The volume reviews a remarkable range of material stretching over three centuries. The author explains complicated concepts in a simple and often whimsical way and uses practical as well as research examples to bring technical ideas to a wide audience. The author develops paradigmatic principles and then describes the process of information and a model of communication as a socially emergent process. The early chapters are a foundation for disputing current thinking across a range of topics such as communication and self, stories and storytelling, communication and trust, and conflict. The author concludes by sketching theoretical, methodological, practical, and ethical challenges. The volume is as dynamic and intricate as the complexity of human communication.
Download or read book Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology written by William Balée and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2006-06-22 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of studies by anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, and biologists is an important contribution to the emerging field of historical ecology. The book combines cutting-edge research with new perspectives to emphasize the close relationship between humans and their natural environment. Contributors examine how alterations in the natural world mirror human cultures, societies, and languages. Treating the landscape like a text, these researchers decipher patterns and meaning in the Ecuadorian Andes, Amazonia, the desert coast of Peru, and other regions in the neotropics. They show how local peoples have changed the landscape over time to fit their needs by managing and modifying species diversity, enhancing landscape heterogeneity, and controlling ecological disturbance. In turn, the environment itself becomes a form of architecture rich with historical and archaeological significance. Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology explores thousands of years of ecological history while also addressing important contemporary issues, such as biodiversity and genetic variation and change. Engagingly written and expertly researched, this book introduces and exemplifies a unique method for better understanding the link between humans and the biosphere.
Download or read book The Complexity of Human Rights written by Philip Alston and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-08 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first systematic assessment from a human rights law perspective of the landmark contributions of the renowned legal anthropologist, Sally Engle Merry. What impact does over-simplification have on human rights debates? The understandable tendency to present them as a single, universal, and immutable concept ignores their complexity and by extension only serves to weaken them. Merry and her colleagues transformed human rights thinking by highlighting the process of 'vernacularization', which sees rights discourse as being unavoidably dependent upon translation and interpretation. She also warned of the pitfalls of excessive reliance upon statistical and other indicators, through the process of quantification. Here the leading voices in the field assess the significance of these contributions.
Download or read book Living with Complexity written by Donald A. Norman and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-10-29 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why we don't really want simplicity, and how we can learn to live with complexity. If only today's technology were simpler! It's the universal lament, but it's wrong. In this provocative and informative book, Don Norman writes that the complexity of our technology must mirror the complexity and richness of our lives. It's not complexity that's the problem, it's bad design. Bad design complicates things unnecessarily and confuses us. Good design can tame complexity. Norman gives us a crash course in the virtues of complexity. Designers have to produce things that tame complexity. But we too have to do our part: we have to take the time to learn the structure and practice the skills. This is how we mastered reading and writing, driving a car, and playing sports, and this is how we can master our complex tools. Complexity is good. Simplicity is misleading. The good life is complex, rich, and rewarding—but only if it is understandable, sensible, and meaningful.
Download or read book Radically Human written by Paul Daugherty and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2022-04-26 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology advances are making tech more . . . human. This changes everything you thought you knew about innovation and strategy. In their groundbreaking book, Human + Machine, Accenture technology leaders Paul R. Daugherty and H. James Wilson showed how leading organizations use the power of human-machine collaboration to transform their processes and their bottom lines. Now, as new AI powered technologies like the metaverse, natural language processing, and digital twins begin to rapidly impact both life and work, those companies and other pioneers across industries are tipping the balance even more strikingly toward the human side with technology-led strategy that is reshaping the very nature of innovation. In Radically Human, Daugherty and Wilson show this profound shift, fast-forwarded by the pandemic, toward more human—and more humane—technology. Artificial intelligence is becoming less artificial and more intelligent. Instead of data-hungry approaches to AI, innovators are pursuing data-efficient approaches that enable machines to learn as humans do. Instead of replacing workers with machines, they're unleashing human expertise to create human-centered AI. In place of lumbering legacy IT systems, they're building cloud-first IT architectures able to continuously adapt to a world of billions of connected devices. And they're pursuing strategies that will take their place alongside classic, winning business formulas like disruptive innovation. These against-the-grain approaches to the basic building blocks of business—Intelligence, Data, Expertise, Architecture, and Strategy (IDEAS)—are transforming competition. Industrial giants and startups alike are drawing on this radically human IDEAS framework to create new business models, optimize post-pandemic approaches to work and talent, rebuild trust with their stakeholders, and show the way toward a sustainable future. With compelling insights and fresh examples from a variety of industries, Radically Human will forever change the way you think about, practice, and win with innovation.
Download or read book Human Language written by Peter Hagoort and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique overview of the human language faculty at all levels of organization. Language is not only one of the most complex cognitive functions that we command, it is also the aspect of the mind that makes us uniquely human. Research suggests that the human brain exhibits a language readiness not found in the brains of other species. This volume brings together contributions from a range of fields to examine humans' language capacity from multiple perspectives, analyzing it at genetic, neurobiological, psychological, and linguistic levels. In recent decades, advances in computational modeling, neuroimaging, and genetic sequencing have made possible new approaches to the study of language, and the contributors draw on these developments. The book examines cognitive architectures, investigating the functional organization of the major language skills; learning and development trajectories, summarizing the current understanding of the steps and neurocognitive mechanisms in language processing; evolutionary and other preconditions for communication by means of natural language; computational tools for modeling language; cognitive neuroscientific methods that allow observations of the human brain in action, including fMRI, EEG/MEG, and others; the neural infrastructure of language capacity; the genome's role in building and maintaining the language-ready brain; and insights from studying such language-relevant behaviors in nonhuman animals as birdsong and primate vocalization. Section editors Christian F. Beckmann, Carel ten Cate, Simon E. Fisher, Peter Hagoort, Evan Kidd, Stephen C. Levinson, James M. McQueen, Antje S. Meyer, David Poeppel, Caroline F. Rowland, Constance Scharff, Ivan Toni, Willem Zuidema
Download or read book The Major Transitions in Evolution written by John Maynard Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-10-30 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During evolution there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies. This is the first book to discuss all these major transitions and their implications for our understanding of evolution.Clearly written and illustrated with many original diagrams, this book will be welcomed by students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.
