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Showing 1 - 20 of 72864 items
By Arthur Herman. 1997
Historian Arthur Herman traces the roots of declinism and shows how major thinkers, past and present, have contributed to its…
development as a coherent ideology of cultural pessimism.From Nazism to the Sixties counterculture, from Britain's Fabian socialists to America's multiculturalists, and from Dracula and Freud to Robert Bly and Madonna, this work examines the idea of decline in Western history and sets out to explain how the conviction of civilization's inevitable end has become a fixed part of the modern Western imagination. Through a series of biographical portraits spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, the author traces the roots of declinism and aims to show how major thinkers of the past and present, including Nietzsche, DuBois, Sartre, and Foucault, have contributed to its development as a coherent ideology of cultural pessimism.By George Gilder. 2000
The computer age is over. After a cataclysmic global run of thirty years, it has given birth to the age…
of the telecosm -- the world enabled and defined by new communications technology. Chips and software will continue to make great contributions to our lives, but the action is elsewhere. To seek the key to great wealth and to understand the bewildering ways that high tech is restructuring our lives, look not to chip speed but to communication power, or bandwidth. Bandwidth is exploding, and its abundance is the most important social and economic fact of our time. George Gilder is one of the great technological visionaries, and "the man who put the 's' in 'telecosm'" (Telephony magazine). He is equally famous for understanding and predicting the nuts and bolts of complex technologies, and for putting it all together in a soaring view of why things change, and what it means for our daily lives. His track record of futurist predictions is one of the best, often proving to be right even when initially opposed by mighty corporations and governments. He foresaw the power of fiber and wireless optics, the decline of the telephone regime, and the explosion of handheld computers, among many trends. His list of favored companies outpaced even the soaring Nasdaq in 1999 by more than double. His long-awaited Telecosm is a bible of the new age of communications. Equal parts science story, business history, social analysis, and prediction, it is the one book you need to make sense of the titanic changes underway in our lives. Whether you surf the net constantly or not at all, whether you live on your cell phone or hate it for its invasion of private life, you need this book. It has been less than two decades since the introduction of the IBM personal computer, and yet the enormous changes wrought in our lives by the computer will pale beside the changes of the telecosm. Gilder explains why computers will "empty out," with their components migrating to the net; why hundreds of low-flying satellites will enable hand-held computers and communicators to become ubiquitous; why television will die; why newspapers and magazines will revive; why advertising will become less obnoxious; and why companies will never be able to waste your time again. Along the way you will meet the movers and shakers who have made the telecosm possible. From Charles Townes and Gordon Gould, who invented the laser, to the story of JDS Uniphase, "the Intel of the Telecosm," to the birthing of fiberless optics pioneer TeraBeam, here are the inventors and entrepreneurs who will be hailed as the next Edison or Gates. From hardware to software to chips to storage, here are the technologies that will soon be as basic as the air we breathe.By Andrew D. Kaufman. 2014
“This lively appreciation of one of the most intimidating and massive novels ever written should persuade many hesitant readers to…
try scaling the heights of War and Peace sooner rather than later” (Publishers Weekly).Considered by many critics the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is also one of the most feared. And at 1,500 pages, it’s no wonder why. Still, in July 2009 Newsweek put War and Peace at the top of its list of 100 great novels and a 2007 edition of the AARP Bulletin included the novel in their list of the top four books everybody should read by the age of fifty. A New York Times survey from 2009 identified Warand Peace as the world classic you’re most likely to find people reading on their subway commute to work. What might all those Newsweek devotees, senior citizens, and harried commuters see in a book about the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s? War and Peace is many things. It is a love story, a family saga, a war novel. But at its core it’s a novel about human beings attempting to create a meaningful life for themselves in a country torn apart by war, social change, political intrigue, and spiritual confusion. It is a mirror of our times.Give War and Peace a Chance takes readers on a journey through War and Peace that reframes their very understanding of what it means to live through troubled times and survive them. Touching on a broad range of topics, from courage to romance, parenting to death, Kaufman demonstrates how Tolstoy’s wisdom can help us live fuller, more meaningful lives. The ideal companion to War and Peace, this book “makes Tolstoy’s characters lively and palpable…and may well persuade readers to finally dive into one of the world’s most acclaimed—and daunting—novels” (Kirkus Reviews).Bigger, Fancier, and more cutthorat than ever!When Freeman Hall left The Big Fancy to pursue his screenwriting dreams, he thought…
the horrors of working in a handbag department were finally over. But instead of fame and fortune, he found himself stuck behind a wall of script-killing rewrites, unable to make a living.In Return to the Big Fancy, Freeman shares his wildly entertaining journey back through the fiery gates of Retail Hell. He thought he had seen it all in his day, but with the bar set higher than ever before, employees are now graciously bowing before Corporate as they climb over fellow salespeople, and even friends, to earn enough transactions and commissions to actually survive. As he learns more of the wretchedness that has befallen the sales floor, he realizes that The Big Fancy has its customers and its employees on a short leash. But leave it to Freeman and the threat of disappearing commissions to rally the retail slaves and show Corporate who's really in charge!By Rohit Anand, Abhinav Juneja, Digvijay Pandey, Sapna Juneja, Nidhi Sindhwani. 2024
META-HEURISTIC ALGORITHMS FOR ADVANCED DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS Discover a collection of meta-heuristic algorithms for distributed systems in different application domains Meta-heuristic…
techniques are increasingly gaining favor as tools for optimizing distributed systems—generally, to enhance the utility and precision of database searches. Carefully applied, they can increase system effectiveness, streamline operations, and reduce cost. Since many of these techniques are derived from nature, they offer considerable scope for research and development, with the result that this field is growing rapidly. Meta-Heuristic Algorithms for Advanced Distributed Systems offers an overview of these techniques and their applications in various distributed systems. With strategies based on both global and local searching, it covers a wide range of key topics related to meta-heuristic algorithms. Those interested in the latest developments in distributed systems will find this book indispensable. Meta-Heuristic Algorithms for Advanced Distributed Systems readers will also find: Analysis of security issues, distributed system design, stochastic optimization techniques, and more Detailed discussion of meta-heuristic techniques such as the genetic algorithm, particle swam optimization, and many others Applications of optimized distribution systems in healthcare and other key??industries Meta-Heuristic Algorithms for Advanced Distributed Systems is ideal for academics and researchers studying distributed systems, their design, and their applications.By Mortimer J. Adler. 1991
Dr. Adler, in his discussion, extends and modernizes the argument for the existence of God developed by Aristotle and Aquinas.…
Without relying on faith, mysticism, or science (none of which, according to Dr. Adler, can prove or disprove the existence of God), he uses a rationalist argument to lead the reader to a point where he or she can see that the existence of God is not necessarily dependent upon a suspension of disbelief. Dr. Adler provides a nondogmatic exposition of the principles behind the belief that God, or some other supernatural cause, has to exist in some form. Through concise and lucid arguments, Dr. Adler shapes a highly emotional and often erratic conception of God into a credible and understandable concept for the lay person.By Scott Riley. 2024
Learn to create seamless designs backed by a responsible understanding of the human mind. This new edition is fully updated and…
reworked to employ a realistic, challenging, and practical approach to interface design, presenting state of the art scientific studies in behavioral sciences, interface design and the psychology of design. All with modern, up-to-date examples and screenshots. The practical portion of this edition has been completely reworked, giving you the chance to follow along with a real, proven design process that has produced several successful products imbued with the principles of mindful, responsible design.You'll examine how human behavior can be used to integrate your product design into lifestyle, rather than interrupt it, and make decisions for the good of those that are using your product. You will also learn about the neurological aspects and limitations of human vision and perception; about our attachment to harmony and dissonance; and about our brain’s propensity towards pattern recognition and how we perceive the world around us. In the second half of the book, you’ll follow along with the key phases of a design project, implementing what you have learned in an end-to-end, practical setting. Design is a responsibility, but not enough designers understand the human mind or the process of thought. Mindful Design, Second Edition introduces the areas of brain science that matter to designers, and passionately explains how those areas affect each human’s day-to-day experiences with products and interfaces, providing a battle-tested toolkit to help you make responsible design decisions. What You'll Learn Review how attention and distraction work and the cost of attentional switchingUse Gestalt principles to communicate visual groupingEnsure your underlying models make sense to your audienceUse time, progression, and transition to create a compositionCarefully examine controlling behavior through reductionist and behaviorist motivation concepts Apply the theoretical knowledge to practical, mindful interface design Who This Book Is For The primary audience for this book is professional designers who wish to learn more about the human mind and how to apply that to their work. The book is also useful for design-focused product owners and startup founders who wish to apply ethical thinking to a team, or when bootstrapping their products. The secondary audience is design students who are either studying a ‘traditional’ visual design course, or a UX/interaction design course who have a desire to learn how they might be able to apply mindful design to their early careers. Finally, a tertiary audience for this book would be tutors involved in teaching design, or peripheral, courses who may wish to incorporate its teachings into their lectures, workshops or seminars.By Durgesh Mishra, Xin She Yang, Aynur Unal, Dharm Singh Jat. 2024
This book features high-quality research papers presented at the Third International Conference on Data Science and Big Data Analytics (IDBA…
2023), organized by Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology, Indore, India, in association with ACM and IEEE Computer Society in hybrid mode during June 16–17, 2023. This book discusses the topics such as data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, big data and cloud security, computation security, big data security, information security, forecasting, data analytics, mathematics for data science, graph theory and application in data science, data visualization, computer vision, and analytics for social networks.This book proceedings addresses a crucial gap in understanding the impact of technology on Business Model Innovation (BMI). It emphasizes…
the need for further research to explore the intricate relationship between technology and BMI, focusing on opportunities and challenges. By delving into how technology influences emerging business model innovations and enhances operational efficiency, the publication aims to advance knowledge. Inviting diverse research methods, it sheds light on various ideas within the technology and BMI realm. Tailored for students, scholars, professionals, and policymakers, this book contributes to the evolving field of BMI and technology.Research Software Engineering: A Guide to the Open Source Ecosystem strives to give a big-picture overview and an understanding of…
the opportunities of programming as an approach to analytics and statistics. The book argues that a solid "programming" skill level is not only well within reach for many but also worth pursuing for researchers and business analysts. The ability to write a program leverages field-specific expertise and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration as source code continues to become an important communication channel. Given the pace of the development in data science, many senior researchers and mentors, alongside non-computer science curricula lack a basic software engineering component. This book fills the gap by providing a dedicated programming-with-data resource to both academic scholars and practitioners.Key Features overview: breakdown of complex data science software stacks into core components applied: source code of figures, tables and examples available and reproducible solely with license cost-free, open source software reader guidance: different entry points and rich references to deepen the understanding of selected aspectsAt last, you can grasp the most difficult concepts of thought!If you&’ve always wanted to learn about philosophy but were…
too intimidated to get past the first word ending in &“ism,&” The Everything Philosophy Book provides simple explanations guaranteed to make philosophic ideas and concepts easy to understand.This entertaining book offers a broad overview of many diverse schools of thought—from antiquity up through the present day. In plain English, author James Mannion explains all of the great philosophies—and even provides contemporary examples to put them in perspective. Interspersed are fascinating sidebars that offer helpful hints toward understanding complex concepts and little-known facts about the lives of great philosophers.The Everything Philosophy Book delves into the minds of such philosophers as: -Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle -Augustine and Aquinas -Buddha and Confucius -Spinoza and Descartes -Locke and Hume -Voltaire and Rousseau -Mill and Nietzsche -Russell and SartreEndlessly fascinating—and always clear and concise—The Everything Philosophy Book will be welcomed by anyone who wants to broaden his or her outlook on life.By Michael Krimper, Gabriel Quigley. 2024
“You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” These are some of the most quoted lines written…
by Samuel Beckett, which speak to the impulse of persevering in times of crisis and impossibility. Yet few readers of Beckett agree about what this paradoxical formula could mean, let alone what mode of engagement it would seem to indicate, be it committed, autonomous, or something else entirely. This volume of essays explores what that mode of engagement could be, all the while elucidating the ethical and political stakes of the “ongoing” in both Beckett’s life and work. Across multiple disciplines in the humanities, the authors delve into questions of political subjectivity and representation, the ethics of powerlessness and refusal, the aesthetics of syncopation and destitution, multimedia experiments between genre, as well as Beckett’s wider impact on transnational itineraries of modernism and philosophy up to the contemporary.By Carl Cavanagh Hodge, Andrew David Irvine. 2024
Rarely in the short history of liberal-democratic government has a primer on basic liberal-democratic values and institutions been more needed…
than now. Popular discontent, even anger, with democratic governments has grown steadily over the past twenty years. Not since the 1930s have citizens and their elected officials been so baffled about their respective roles in the maintenance of both democratic governments and liberal economies. This book attempts to address this growing need. Especially written as a primer for courses in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), it has introductory chapters on all three main disciplines. It also has chapters on the rule of law and on three important public-policy areas – Corruption, Climate and Civil Society. Individual topics discussed include free and fair elections, populism, responsible government, republican and Westminster systems of government, regulated free markets, the Great Recession of 2008, globalization, greenwashing, identity politics, academic freedom, utilitarianism, social contract theory, positive and negative liberty, and the good life.Historically informed, The Ethics and Economics of Liberal Democracies: Foundations for PPE is sure to be of interest to students who are interested in public-policy work, as well as those who are interested in both the theory and practice of democratic government.Key Features: Written especially for PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) courses and students Focuses on the key values and institutions of modern democracies Includes chapters on both the theory and practice of democratic government and public-policy work Provides a comprehensive glossary of relevant terms from all three disciplinesBy Amir Husain. 2017
&“A must-read for anyone looking to understand how artificial intelligence is poised to transform human society and life.&” —Paul Scharre,…
Author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial IntelligenceThe future is now. Acclaimed technologist and inventor Amir Husain explains how we can live amidst the coming age of sentient machines and artificial intelligence—and not only survive, but thrive.Artificial &“machine&” intelligence is playing an ever-greater role in our society. We are already using cruise control in our cars, automatic checkout at the drugstore, and are unable to live without our smartphones. The discussion around AI is polarized; people think either machines will solve all problems for everyone, or they will lead us down a dark, dystopian path into total human irrelevance. Regardless of what you believe, the idea that we might bring forth intelligent creation can be intrinsically frightening. But what if our greatest role as humans so far is that of creators?Amir Husain, a brilliant inventor and computer scientist, argues that we are on the cusp of writing our next, and greatest, creation myth. It is the dawn of a new form of intellectual diversity, one that we need to embrace in order to advance the state of the art in many critical fields, including security, resource management, finance, and energy. &“In The Sentient Machine, Husain prepares us for a brighter future; not with hyperbole about right and wrong, but with serious arguments about risk and potential&” (Dr. Greg Hyslop, Chief Technology Officer, The Boeing Company). He addresses broad existential questions surrounding the coming of AI: Why are we valuable? What can we create in this world? How are we intelligent? What constitutes progress for us? And how might we fail to progress? Husain boils down complex computer science and AI concepts into clear, plainspoken language and draws from a wide variety of cultural and historical references to illustrate his points. Ultimately, Husain challenges many of our societal norms and upends assumptions we hold about &“the good life.&”This volume LNCS 14300 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference, IFM 2023, in November 2023, held in…
Leiden, The Netherlands. The 16 full papers presented together with 2 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 51 submissions. The conference focuses on all aspects of the design of integrated techniques, including language design, verification and validation, automated tool support, and the use of such techniques in software engineering practice.By Stefan Schiffner, Sebastien Ziegler, Adrian Quesada Rodriguez. 2022
This book presents a collection of high-quality research works and professional perspectives arising from the call for papers of the…
Privacy Symposium 2022; an international conference aimed towards the promotion of international dialogue, cooperation and knowledge sharing on data protection regulations, compliance and emerging technologies. Gathering legal and technology expertise, this publication provides cutting-edge perspectives on the convergence of international data protection regulations, as well as data protection compliance of emerging technologies, such as: Artificial Intelligence, e-health, blockchain, edge computing, Internet of things, V2X and Smart Grids. It includes selected papers from the Privacy Symposium conference 2022 (PSC 2022) call for papers, encompassing relevant topics, including: international law and comparative law in data protection cross-border data transfers emerging technologies and data protection compliance data protection by design technologic solutions for data protection compliance data protection good practices across industries and verticals cybersecurity and data protection assessment and certification of data protection compliance, and data subject rights implementation This publication includes papers authored by academics and professionals involved on various areas of data protection, technical, legal and compliance services.Chapter 10 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.comBy Volodymyr Tonkonogyi, Vitalii Ivanov, Justyna Trojanowska, Gennadii Oborskyi, Milan Edl, Ivan Kuric, Ivan Pavlenko, Predrag Dasic. 2020
This book offers a timely yet comprehensive snapshot of innovative research and developments in the area of manufacturing. It covers…
a wide range of manufacturing processes, such as cutting, coatings, and grinding, highlighting the advantages provided by the use of new materials and composites, as well as new methods and technologies. It discusses topics in energy generation and pollution prevention. It shows how computational methods and mathematical models have been applied to solve a number of issues in both theoretical and applied research. Based on selected papers presented at the Grabchenko’s International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing Processes (InterPartner-2019), held in Odessa, Ukraine on September 10-13, 2019, this book offers a timely overview and extensive information on trends and technologies in the area of manufacturing, mechanical and materials engineering. It is also intended to facilitate communication and collaboration between different groups working on similar topics, and to offer a bridge between academic and industrial researchers.By Juan Julian Merelo, Fernando Melício, José M. Cadenas, António Dourado, Kurosh Madani, António Ruano, Joaquim Filipe. 2019
This book gathers revised and extended versions of the best papers presented at the 8th International Joint Conference on Computational…
Intelligence (IJCCI 2016), which was held in Porto, Portugal from 9 to 11 November 2016. The papers address three main fields of Computational Intelligence, namely: Evolutionary Computation, Fuzzy Computation, and Neural Computation. In addition to highlighting recent advances in these areas, the book offers veteran researchers new and innovative solutions, while also providing a source of information and inspiration for newcomers to the field.By A. C. Grayling. 2023
'Grayling brings satisfying order to daunting subjects' Steven Pinker'An enthusiastic thinker who embraces humour, common sense and lucidity' Independent_______________From the…
eminent philosopher, an authoritative exploration of the great questions of how to live'There is a question everyone has to ask and answer - in fact, has to keep on asking and keep on answering. It is, 'How should I live my life?' meaning, 'What values shall I live by? 'What sort of person should I be? What shall I aim for?' The great majority of people do not ask this question, they merely answer it unthinkingly, by adopting conventional views of life and what matters in it...'From Stoics to existentialists, in philosophy and literature, discussion of the philosophy of life -- of love and death, of courage, fortitude and wisdom -- challenges us all to think about what kinds of life are truly worth living. In this summation of a lifetime thinking and writing about this great question, A. C. Grayling explores with clarity and depth the ideas that each of us must use in answering it for ourselves.Drawing on the lives, experiences and works of a fantastically eclectic range of thinkers -- taking in not only philosophers such as Confucius, Seneca and Nietzsche, but also authors from Shakespeare to Ursula LeGuin, and modern thinkers such as Martha Nussbaum and Bernard Williams - Philosophy and Life brings together wisdom from across eras and continents in a tour de force on the philosophy of being human in a complicated world.By Bob Hughes. 2016
It’s hammered into us from birth that ‘all good things come at a price’. Today, that price looks apocalyptic, with…
wars, exploitation and environmental collapse in every part of the globe. Some suggest that the carnage is “a price worth paying” for technological progress. No pain, no gain. But technology is precisely the business of minimising the costs and impacts of existence… and by whole orders of magnitude. By now, all human beings should be leading creative, leisure-filled lives in a pristine world of burgeoning diversity. So how did it go so wrong? In a word, inequality. In The Bleeding Edge, Bob Hughes argues that unequal societies are incapable of using new technologies well. Wherever elites exist, self-preservation decrees that they must take control of new technologies to protect and entrench their status, rather than satisfy people’s needs. Hughes pursues the latest discoveries about the effects of social inequality on human health, into the field of human environmental impact, and traces today’s ecological crisis back to the rise of the world’s first elites, 5,000 years ago. He argues that new technologies have never emerged from elites or from the clash of competitive forces, but from largely voluntary, egalitarian collaborations of the kind that produced the world’s first working computers. Finally, Hughes shows that an egalitarian world is not ‘pie in the sky' but our evolutionary homeland, the glue that holds societies together, and the “cradle of invention” from which all our best ideas emerge. The book concludes: ‘Let’s assume that the commitment to human equality that’s written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights means exactly what it says, and take it from there.’