Everyone in Silico


Book Description

In Vancouver in 2036, people are tired of the rain. They're willing to give up a lot for guaranteed sunshine, a life with no wasted hours. A life free of crime and disease. A life that ends when you want it to, not when some faceless entity decides it's your time. Those who don't buy in - the poor, the old, the paranoid - have to watch as their loved ones, their friends, and their jobs leave the city. They have to watch as the latest prestige technology, Self, changes everything - not just the world but humanity itself. On the bright side, the rents have dropped. And in several unexpected ways, resistance is growing. This fascinating work of fiction tells what can happen when the cyberworld becomes more important than the real world.Munroe is a Canadian science fiction author, who publishes his works independently under the imprint No Media Kings. He was managing editor at the magazine Adbusters in the 1990s, before publishing his debut novel Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask in 1999. The following he release Angry Young Spaceman through his No Media Kings imrpint and, in the U.S., Four Walls Eight Windows. A couple of years later he published Everyone in Silico, which was promoted partly by Munroe's attempt to invoice corporations mentioned in the novel for product placement. Munroe's most recent books are graphic novels set in post-Rapture Chicago and Detroit.Munroe was the founder of Perpetual Motion Roadshow, a North American indie touring circuit that sent 100 writers, performers and musicians on the road between 2003-2007. A former video games columnist for Eye Weekly, he is a founding board member of the Hand Eye Society and has produced projects such as the Torontron.




Therefore, Repent!


Book Description

"Once the Christians have floated bodily into the sky, life goes on pretty much as usual for the immoral majority... . except that magic works . . . "-Publisher.




Angry Young Spaceman


Book Description

Recent college graduate Sam Breen takes his diploma and class of 2959 ring and heads for the underwater civilization of the planet Octavia to teach English. Original.




I Am a Strange Loop


Book Description

Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.




Computers and Creativity


Book Description

This interdisciplinary volume introduces new theories and ideas on creativity from the perspectives of science and art. Featuring contributions from leading researchers, theorists and artists working in artificial intelligence, generative art, creative computing, music composition, and cybernetics, the book examines the relationship between computation and creativity from both analytic and practical perspectives. Each contributor describes innovative new ways creativity can be understood through, and inspired by, computers. The book tackles critical philosophical questions and discusses the major issues raised by computational creativity, including: whether a computer can exhibit creativity independently of its creator; what kinds of creativity are possible in light of our knowledge from computational simulation, artificial intelligence, evolutionary theory and information theory; and whether we can begin to automate the evaluation of aesthetics and creativity in silico. These important, often controversial questions are contextualised by current thinking in computational creative arts practice. Leading artistic practitioners discuss their approaches to working creatively with computational systems in a diverse array of media, including music, sound art, visual art, and interactivity. The volume also includes a comprehensive review of computational aesthetic evaluation and judgement research, alongside discussion and insights from pioneering artists working with computation as a creative medium over the last fifty years. A distinguishing feature of this volume is that it explains and grounds new theoretical ideas on creativity through practical applications and creative practice. Computers and Creativity will appeal to theorists, researchers in artificial intelligence, generative and evolutionary computing, practicing artists and musicians, students and any reader generally interested in understanding how computers can impact upon creativity. It bridges concepts from computer science, psychology, neuroscience, visual art, music and philosophy in an accessible way, illustrating how computers are fundamentally changing what we can imagine and create, and how we might shape the creativity of the future. Computers and Creativity will appeal to theorists, researchers in artificial intelligence, generative and evolutionary computing, practicing artists and musicians, students and any reader generally interested in understanding how computers can impact upon creativity. It bridges concepts from computer science, psychology, neuroscience, visual art, music and philosophy in an accessible way, illustrating how computers are fundamentally changing what we can imagine and create, and how we might shape the creativity of the future.




An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil


Book Description

Ever walked in on a roommate in, uh, the middle of something? When Kate interrupts Lilith's demonic ritual, it's pretty awkward, but it gives her a great idea for a new online journal: roommatefromhell.com. Whether her roommate is unholy or just unhinged, Kate's not sure. But she knows a good show when she sees it, and she convinces her bombshell pal to perform her strange ceremony at their art gallery launch. Then she gets a booker at the local rock club to let them open for a metal band, and the kids love it. They decide to take the show on the road, and somewhere along the way Kate's role changes from tour manager to go-go dancer. It's fun, but she can't ignore the creepy people from Lilith's past that are coming to their shows. And as the rituals get more intense and more bloody, Kate starts to wonder if she's gotten in a little too deep. It's not quite rock and roll, but she could still lose her soul.




Three Days in April


Book Description

The debut standalone novel from author Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7, THREE DAYS IN APRIL is a near-future speculative thriller that marks the entry of a bright new voice into the genre. Anders Jensen is having a bad month. His roommate is a data thief, his girlfriend picks fights in bars, and his best friend is a cyborg…and a lousy tipper. When everything is spiraling out of control, though, maybe those are exactly the kind of friends you need. In a world divided between the genetically engineered elite and the unmodified masses, Anders is an anomaly: engineered, but still broke and living next to a crack house. All he wants is to land a tenure-track faculty position, and maybe meet someone who’s not technically a criminal-but when a nightmare plague rips through Hagerstown, Anders finds himself dodging kinetic energy weapons and government assassins as Baltimore slips into chaos. His friends aren’t as helpless as they seem, though, and his girlfriend’s street-magician brother-in-law might be a pretentious hipster - or might hold the secret to saving them all. Frenetic and audacious, Three Days in April is a a blend of science fiction and psychological thriller that raises an important question: once humanity goes down the rabbit hole, can we ever find our way back?




Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask


Book Description

Ryan is a university student dealing with the normal problems of a 22-year-old guy -- shyness, virginity, weird roommates, and a massive crush on Cassandra, a waitress at his local greasy spoon. (Oh, and a freakish ability to change into a fly.) When he finally gets up the nerve to ask Cassandra for a date, he learns that the two have more in common than they first thought. (Turns out that Cassandra can make things disappear.) Sharing their secrets for the first time, Ryan and Cassandra realize they were made for each other...and to battle forces of evil! Inspired by Sailor Moon, they team up to fight the villians in their own backyard, taking on cigarette barons, right wing newspapers, and the overzealous local police. But can the Superheroes for Social Justice transform the world in time? Find out in.. Notice: This Book is published by Historical Books Limited (www.publicdomain.org.uk) as a Public Domain Book, if you have any inquiries, requests or need any help you can just send an email to [email protected] This book is found as a public domain and free book based on various online catalogs, if you think there are any problems regard copyright issues please contact us immediately via [email protected]




Sword of My Mouth


Book Description

The concrete shell of Detroit's cracked open to reveal loamy soil, rich with potential. But someone knows there's more profit in controlling hunger than selling food... the world was simpler before the righteous floated away into the sky, and magic started working. The all-new six-issue story spinning out of the acclaimed graphic novel Therefore, Repent! continues here.




The Feeling of Life Itself


Book Description

A thought-provoking argument that consciousness—more widespread than previously assumed—is the feeling of being alive, not a type of computation or a clever hack In The Feeling of Life Itself, Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted—the feeling of being alive. Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists track the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the organ of the mind. But why the brain and not, say, the liver? How can the brain—three pounds of highly excitable matter, a piece of furniture in the universe, subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece—give rise to subjective experience? Koch argues that what is needed to answer these questions is a quantitative theory that starts with experience and proceeds to the brain. In The Feeling of Life Itself, Koch outlines such a theory, based on integrated information. Koch describes how the theory explains many facts about the neurology of consciousness and how it has been used to build a clinically useful consciousness meter. The theory predicts that many, and perhaps all, animals experience the sights and sounds of life; consciousness is much more widespread than conventionally assumed. Contrary to received wisdom, however, Koch argues that programmable computers will not have consciousness. Even a perfect software model of the brain is not conscious. Its simulation is fake consciousness. Consciousness is not a special type of computation—it is not a clever hack. Consciousness is about being.