The curse of intelligence


Book Description

This is the first book to address the problems faced by this cohort written in simple language and containing completely new ideas. The author, a clinical psychologist specialising in the extremely gifted, explains in this book why being intelligent is a curse for many children and adults. Being extremely intelligent can lead to rejection by those around you, affecting self-esteem, motivation and social development, with possible life-long traumas creating depression or aggression. Using simple, direct language, this book will help parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and highly-gifted individuals themselves to fully understand their needs and improve the attention they currently recieve.




The Curse of the High IQ


Book Description

Society, by statistical necessity, needs to focus on the majority. It needs to be built and designed for "the average." Society, by moral necessity, also needs to focus on the disadvantaged and disabled. Helping those who cannot help themselves. But while the majority of society's resources, attention, and infrastructure is dedicated to average or below-average intelligent people, little-to-none of it is paid to the abnormally intelligent. And while having a high IQ is an overall net benefit in life, being an statistical intellectual freak is not without its drawbacks. Welcome to the "Curse of the High IQ." Whether you fall asleep during class, constantly ram heads with your boss, can't understand why people watch the Oscars, are an alcoholic, or are accused of having "ADD," having a high IQ can be a maddening experience. What you see as the obvious solution is what the "normies" will fight against tooth and nail. Your D-'s you keep getting in English? Your superior mind being held hostage by the boring and inferior mind of your teacher. And you'd like to start a family? Good luck finding an intellectual-equal for a spouse. And so while the world obsesses with their own problems or (rightly so) the problems of the disadvantaged, no one is paying attention to the problems of the abnormally intelligent. However, that all changes now with "Curse of the High IQ." "Curse of the High IQ" is the first book specifically written for abnormally intelligent people. It identifies and addresses a litany of problems intelligent people face, as well as analyzes them and provides solutions. But more importantly it aims to bring sanity to those who struggle with abnormally intelligence, especially those who are unaware they have it. So if you're constantly at odds with society, are suffering from depression or ennui, can't find any reason or agency in life, or just plain can't find any friends, consider purchasing "Curse of the High IQ." It's guaranteed to make your life a little easier.




Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language


Book Description

"Entertaining and thought-provoking…Byrne’s enthusiasm for her esoteric subject is contagious, damn it." —Melissa Dahl, New York Times Book Review In this sparkling debut work of popular science, Emma Byrne examines the latest research to show how swearing can be good for you. She explores every angle of swearing—why we do it, how we do it, and what it tells us about ourselves. Packed with the results of unlikely and often hilarious scientific studies—from the “ice-bucket test” for coping with pain, to the connection between Tourette’s and swearing, to a chimpanzee that curses at her handler in sign language—Swearing Is Good for You presents a lighthearted but convincing case for the foulmouthed.




Superintelligence


Book Description

This profoundly ambitious and original book picks its way carefully through a vast tract of forbiddingly difficult intellectual terrain.




Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence


Book Description

Copy the following link for free access to the first chapter of this title: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j23468h304310755/fulltext.pdf This book is a warning. It aims to warn policy-makers, industry, academia, civil society organisations, the media and the public about the threats and vulnerabilities facing our privacy, identity, trust, security and inclusion in the rapidly approaching world of ambient intelligence (AmI). In the near future, every manufactured product – our clothes, money, appliances, the paint on our walls, the carpets on our floors, our cars, everything – will be embedded with intelligence, networks of tiny sensors and actuators, which some have termed “smart dust”. The AmI world is not far off. We already have surveillance systems, biometrics, personal communicators, machine learning and more. AmI will provide personalised services – and know more about us – on a scale dwarfing anything hitherto available. In the AmI vision, ubiquitous computing, communications and interfaces converge and adapt to the user. AmI promises greater user-friendliness in an environment capable of recognising and responding to the presence of different individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and often invisible way. While most stakeholders paint the promise of AmI in sunny colours, there is a dark side to AmI. This book aims to illustrate the threats and vulnerabilities by means of four “dark scenarios”. The authors set out a structured methodology for analysing the four scenarios, and then identify safeguards to counter the foreseen threats and vulnerabilities. They make recommendations to policy-makers and other stakeholders about what they can do to maximise the benefits from ambient intelligence and minimise the negative consequences.




Ungifted


Book Description

Questioning everything we know about the childhood predictors of adult greatness, a cognitive psychologist, who was told as a child that he wasn't smart enough to graduate from high school, explores the latest research to uncover the truth about human potential.




Eugenics


Book Description

Lynn argues that the condemnation of eugenics in the second half of the 20th century went too far and offers a reassessment. The eugenic objectives of eliminating genetic diseases, increasing intelligence, and reducing personality disorders he argues, remain desirable and are achievable by human biotechnology. In this four-part analysis, Lynn begins with an account of the foundation of eugenics by Francis Galton and the rise and fall of eugenics in the twentieth century. He then sets out historical formulations on this issue and discusses in detail desirability of the new eugenics of human biotechnology. After examining the classic approach of attempting to implement eugenics by altering reproduction, Lynn concludes that the policies of classical eugenics are not politically feasible in democratic societies. The new eugenics of human biotechnology--prenatal diagnosis of embryos with genetic diseases, embryo selection, and cloning--may be more likely than classic eugenics to evolve spontaneously in western democracies. Lynn looks at the ethical issues of human biotechnologies and how they may be used by authoritarian states to promote state power. He predicts how eugenic policies and dysgenic processes are likely to affect geopolitics and the balance of power in the 21st century. Lynn offers a provocative analysis that will be of particular interest to psychologists, sociologists, demographers, and biologists concerned with issues of population change and intelligence.




Vajra


Book Description

An ordinary young atheist finds out that he is a God among men and is forced to find his stand in a battle between faith and science, belief and doubt, good and evil, light and dark, thunder and water, heart and the mind.Rules are broken, tears are shed, faith is tested, sacrifices are made, lives are lost and Gods are killed in the quest for a divine weapon by a doctor for his son … a son for his father … a priest for his religion … a woman for her love … a man for this world and … a forgotten God for his revenge.




The Robots Of Gotham


Book Description

A group of misfit humans and machines fight to stop a conspiracy to exterminate humanity in a future Chicago ruled by a brutal artificial intelligence. The future is ruled by intelligent machines. After a brutal war leaving at least one quarter of the United States still under occupation, the remnants of the American government are negotiating for a permanent peace with a coalition of sophisticated but fascist machines that have besieged the country. Barry Simcoe, a businessman from Canada, is in occupied Chicago when his hotel is attacked by a rogue, thirty-foot-tall war drone. In the aftermath, he meets a Russian medic and a badly damaged robot called 19 Black Winter. Together, the trio stumble on a deep conspiracy driven by America’s conquerors that reveal a vicious plan, setting them in a race against time to protect the nation from a fate worse than subjugation. Praise for The Robots of Gotham “This debut novel beautifully combines a postapocalyptic man-versus-machine conflict and a medical thriller . . . This is thrilling, epic SF.” —New York Times “An epic novel . . . full of action, political intrigue, and unexpected twists. Todd McAulty has given us a fresh, compelling take on life during a robot apocalypse.” —Jeff Abbott, New York Times–bestselling author of Blame “A page-turner that kept me riveted from the opening lines to the final chapter. Highly recommended!” —David B. Coe, author of The Case Files of Justis Fearsson series




Deep Thinking


Book Description

Garry Kasparov's 1997 chess match against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue was a watershed moment in the history of technology. It was the dawn of a new era in artificial intelligence: a machine capable of beating the reigning human champion at this most cerebral game. That moment was more than a century in the making, and in this breakthrough book, Kasparov reveals his astonishing side of the story for the first time. He describes how it felt to strategize against an implacable, untiring opponent with the whole world watching, and recounts the history of machine intelligence through the microcosm of chess, considered by generations of scientific pioneers to be a key to unlocking the secrets of human and machine cognition. Kasparov uses his unrivaled experience to look into the future of intelligent machines and sees it bright with possibility. As many critics decry artificial intelligence as a menace, particularly to human jobs, Kasparov shows how humanity can rise to new heights with the help of our most extraordinary creations, rather than fear them. Deep Thinking is a tightly argued case for technological progress, from the man who stood at its precipice with his own career at stake.