We live in a world of stories; yet few of us pause to ask what stories actually are, why we consume them so avidly, and what they do for story makers and their audiences. This book focuses on the expe
This book is about the contemporary city and those who live in it. It is thus also about the urban world of the era (extending roughly from the 1960s to the present) that we see as postmodern, and spe
Algorithms are probably the most sophisticated tools that people have had at their disposal since the beginnings of human history. They have transformed science, industry, society. They upset the concepts of work, property, government, private life, even humanity. Going easily from one extreme to the other, we rejoice that they make life easier for us, but fear that they will enslave us. To get beyond this vision of good vs evil, this book takes a new look at our time, the age of algorithms. Creations of the human spirit, algorithms are what we made them. And they will be what we want them to be: it's up to us to choose the world we want to live in.
Algorithms are probably the most sophisticated tools that people have had at their disposal since the beginnings of human history. They have transformed science, industry, society. They upset the concepts of work, property, government, private life, even humanity. Going easily from one extreme to the other, we rejoice that they make life easier for us, but fear that they will enslave us. To get beyond this vision of good vs evil, this book takes a new look at our time, the age of algorithms. Creations of the human spirit, algorithms are what we made them. And they will be what we want them to be: it's up to us to choose the world we want to live in.
Recent neuroscience research makes it clear that human biology is cultural biology - we develop and live our lives in socially constructed worlds that vary widely in their structure values, and institutions. This integrative volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from the human, social, and biological sciences to explore culture, mind, and brain interactions and their impact on personal and societal issues. Contributors provide a fresh look at emerging concepts, models, and applications of the co-constitution of culture, mind, and brain. Chapters survey the latest theoretical and methodological insights alongside the challenges in this area, and describe how these new ideas are being applied in the sciences, humanities, arts, mental health, and everyday life. Readers will gain new appreciation of the ways in which our unique biology and cultural diversity shape behavior and experience, and our ongoing adaptation to a constantly changing world.
As humans, we want to live meaningfully, yet we are often driven by impulse. In Religion and the Meaning of Life, Williams investigates this paradox – one with profound implications. Delving into felt realities pertinent to meaning, such as boredom, trauma, suicide, denial of death, and indifference, Williams describes ways to acquire meaning and potential obstacles to its acquisition. This book is unique in its willingness to transcend a more secular stance and explore how one's belief in God may be relevant to life's meaning. Religion and the Meaning of Life's interdisciplinary approach makes it useful to philosophers, religious studies scholars, psychologists, students, and general readers alike. The insights from this book have profound real-world applications – they can transform how readers search for meaning and, consequently, how readers see and exist in the world.
As humans, we want to live meaningfully, yet we are often driven by impulse. In Religion and the Meaning of Life, Williams investigates this paradox – one with profound implications. Delving into felt realities pertinent to meaning, such as boredom, trauma, suicide, denial of death, and indifference, Williams describes ways to acquire meaning and potential obstacles to its acquisition. This book is unique in its willingness to transcend a more secular stance and explore how one's belief in God may be relevant to life's meaning. Religion and the Meaning of Life's interdisciplinary approach makes it useful to philosophers, religious studies scholars, psychologists, students, and general readers alike. The insights from this book have profound real-world applications – they can transform how readers search for meaning and, consequently, how readers see and exist in the world.
We all live in an interconnected world and for business leaders the last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the speed and scale of this interdependence. But while increased connectivity is inevitable,
We all live in an interconnected world and for business leaders the last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the speed and scale of this interdependence. But while increased connectivity is inevitable,
Now in paperback: An LGBTQ memoir with insights on raising a family-from a gay transgender man who shares his experience with both pregnancy and adoption"Trystan Reese writes with great tenderness and compassion. . . . [This book] limns the exact quality of joy that can inhere in inventing not only yourself, but also the world you live in."-Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the TreeAn inspiring memoir with universal lessons that will help all parents through the trials of raising childrenTrystan Reese is a gay transgender man married to Biff, a gay man who is not transgender. The young couple had been together a little over a year when they learned that Biff's one-year-old niece, Hailey, and three-year-old nephew, Riley, were about to be removed from their home by Child Protective Services because of abuse and neglect. Trystan and Biff made an immediate decision to take them in. Overnight, they became parents to two tiny, scared kids a
How science is opening up the mysteries of the heart, revealing the poetry in motion within the machine.Your heart is a miracle in motion, a marvel of construction unsurpassed by any human-made creation. It beats 100,000 times every day―if you were to live to 100, that would be more than 3 billion beats across your lifespan. Despite decades of effort in labs all over the world, we have not yet been able to replicate the heart’s perfect engineering. But, as Sian Harding shows us in The Exquisite Machine, new scientific developments are opening up the mysteries of the heart. And this explosion of new science―ultrafast imaging, gene editing, stem cells, artificial intelligence, and advanced sub-light microscopy―has crucial, real-world consequences for health and well-being. Harding―a world leader in cardiac research―explores the relation between the emotions and heart function, reporting that the heart not only responds to our emotions, it creates them as well. The condition known as Brok
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature―and their idea that elves live among us―Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it.Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown, in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art―from ancient times to today―Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline defines what an Icelander might call an elf.Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld―in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback―Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we
We would have painted your dog, but it wouldn't stay still long enough. This 300 piece Apartment Puzzle by Brass Monkey features a vintage painting of an English Foxhound being, well, the bestest ever. So why is it called an Apartment Puzzle? Good question. While you don't technically have to live in an apartment to complete it, it just happens to be the perfect size for a small table. It's kind of like the Tinder of the puzzling world...non-committal, but still pretty challenging.• 300 (small) piece rectangular puzzle.• Features a vintage English Foxhound painting by someone way more talented than us.• Completed puzzle measures 12" wide by 15" tall.• Box measures 7.1" wide by 8.5" tall (and 1.5" thick btw).• Minimal puzzle dust. Your human dust is your problem, though.
