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Popularized by such best-selling authors as Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, andEric Schlosser, a growing food movement urges us to support sustainable agriculture by eating freshfood produced on l

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, scholars and policy analysts in national security have turned their attention to terrorism, considering not only how to prevent future attacks but also the roo

Public controversies over issues ranging from global warming to biotechnology have politicized scientific expertise and research. Some respond with calls for restoring a golden age of value-free scie

Just as education has promoted democracy and economic growth, the Internet has thepotential to benefit society as a whole. Digital citizenship, or the ability to participate insociety online, promotes

Most of us prefer to commute by the shortest route available, without taking into account the traffic congestion that we cause for others. Many networks, including computer networks, suffer from some

This innovative text presents computer programming as a unified discipline in a way that is both practical and scientifically sound. The book focuses on techniques of lasting value and explains them

The present volume offers eloquent testimony that many of the master builders of this century have held passionate convictions regarding the philosophic and social basis of their art. Nearly every im

How AI will challenge our ideas about personhood. Chatbots like ChatGPT have challenged human exceptionalism: we are no longer the only beings capable of generating language and ideas fluently. But is ChatGPT conscious? Or is it merely engaging in sophisticated mimicry? And what happens in the future if the claims to consciousness are more credible? In The Line, James Boyle explores what these changes might do to our concept of personhood, to "the line" we believe separates our species from the rest of the world, but also separates "persons" with legal rights from objects. The personhood wars--over the rights of corporations, animals, over the question of when life begins and ends--have always been contentious. We've even denied the personhood of members of our own species. How will those old fights affect the new ones, and vice versa? Boyle pursues those questions across a dizzying array of fields. He discusses moral philosophy and science fiction, transgenic species, nonhuman animals

An exploration of social media–imposed pressure on new mothers: How the supposed safe havens of online mommy groups have become rife with aggression and groupthink.Many mothers today turn to social media for parenting advice, joining online mothers’ groups on Facebook and elsewhere. But the communities they find in these supposed safe havens can be rife with aggression, peer pressure, and groupthink―insisting that only certain practices are “best,” “healthiest,” “safest” (and mandatory). In this book, Jessica Clements and Kari Nixon debunk the myth of “optimal motherhood”―the idea that there is only one right answer to parenting dilemmas, and that optimal mothers must pursue perfection. In fact, Clements and Nixon write, parenting choices are not binaries, and the scientific findings touted by mommy groups are neither clear cut nor prescriptive. Clements and Nixon trace contemporary ideas of optimal motherhood to the nineteenth-century “Cult of True Womanhood,” which viewed women in te

A graduate textbook on microeconomics, covering decision theory, game theory, and the foundations of contract theory, with a unique focus on the empirical.This graduate-level text on microeconomics, covering such topics as decision theory, game theory, bargaining theory, contract theory, trade under asymmetric information, and relational contract theory, is unique in its emphasis on the interplay between theory and evidence. It reviews the microeconomic theory of exchange “from the ground up,” aiming to produce a set of models and hypotheses amenable to empirical exploration, with particular focus on models that are useful for the study of contracts, institutions, and organizations. It explores research that extends price theory to the exchange of commodities when markets are incomplete, discussing recent developments in the field. Topics covered include the relationship between theory and evidence; decision theory as it is used in contract theory and institutional design;

A comprehensive overview of important and contested issues in vaccination ethics and policy by experts from history, science, policy, law, and ethics. Vaccination has long been a familiar, highly effective form of medicine and a triumph of public health. Because vaccination is both an individual medical intervention and a central component of public health efforts, it raises a distinct set of legal and ethical issues--from debates over their risks and benefits to the use of government vaccination requirements--and makes vaccine policymaking uniquely challenging. This volume examines the full range of ethical and policy issues related to the development and use of vaccines in the United States and around the world. Forty essays, articles, and reports by experts in the field look at all aspects of the vaccine life cycle. After an overview of vaccine history, they consider research and development, regulation and safety, vaccination promotion and requirements, pandemics and bioterrorism,

A guided tour of the rapidly evolving networked world of connected devices, objects, and people that is changing the way we live and work.Since the publication of the original edition of this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved from a novelty (look! my phone connects to my lamp!) to a mainstream technology framework that we rely on every day to accomplish many tasks. This revised and updated edition reports on the latest developments in this rapidly evolving networked world of connected devices, objects, and people that is changing the way we live and work. Business and technology writer Samuel Greengard takes us on a guided tour of the IoT, describing smart lightbulbs, sensors in phones that trigger earthquake warnings, 3D headsets that connect users to business expos through completely immersive virtual reality environments, and more. He offers a clear explanation of the technology that builds and manages the IoT and examines t