Author : Derrick Jensen
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 28,78 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Computers
ISBN : 1931498520
Jensen and Draffan look at the way machine readable devices that track our identities and purchases have infiltrated our lives and have come to define our culture.
Author : Ellen Ullman
Publisher : Picador
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 17,18 MB
Release : 2012-02-28
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1250024587
With a New Introduction by Jaron Lanier A Salon Best Book of the Year In 1997, the computer was still a relatively new tool---a sleek and unforgiving machine that was beyond the grasp of most users. With intimate and unflinching detail, software engineer Ellen Ullman examines the strange ecstasy of being at the forefront of the predominantly male technological revolution, and the difficulty of translating the inherent messiness of human life into artful and efficient code. Close to the Machine is an elegant and revelatory mediation on the dawn of the digital era.
Author : Brian Merchant
Publisher : Little, Brown
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 44,3 MB
Release : 2023-09-26
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0316487732
"The most important book to read about the AI boom" (Wired): The "gripping" (New Yorker) true story of the first time machines came for human jobs—and how the Luddite uprising explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech and AI today Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, Wired, and the Financial Times • A Next Big Idea Book Club "Must-Read" The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods. The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines—on punishment of death—and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle brought nineteenth-century England to its knees. Today, technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are crowding factory floors, and artificial intelligence will soon pervade every aspect of our economy. How will this change the way we live? And what can we do about it? The answers lie in Blood in the Machine. Brian Merchant intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world—and is shaping our future.
Author : Vicki Ruebel
Publisher : Martingale
Page : 99 pages
File Size : 20,7 MB
Release : 2019-12-02
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN : 168356068X
Welcome to a machine-quilting book like no other. It's a helpful guide to machine-quilting designs for a dozen classic quilt blocks! No guessing, no stressing--these 61 designs show you exactly how to quilt specific blocks, and you choose the challenge. With four to six ways to quilt each block, you'll find machine-quilting designs for beginners, advanced quilters, and everyone in between. Designs are rated with one, two, or three spools: One spool: Light quilting, no marking, easy to stitch--perfect for finishing quilts quickly. Two spools: A little more adventurous--try swirls, pebbles, feathers, and more. Three spools: Dense quilting, grid work, and ruler work--plus more feathers! Start with an introduction to basic tools, supplies, and best practices. Then jump right in with color-coded illustrations that tell you which path to follow and when. Yes, you can quilt it--begin with any of the blocks below and Vicki Ruebel will show you how! Log Cabin * Snowball * Bear's Paw * Sawtooth Star * Courthouse Steps * Churn Dash * Granny Square * Eight-Pointed Star * Nine Patch * Double X * Friendship Star * Ohio Star
Author : Glenn Povey
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 27,66 MB
Release : 1998-06-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780312191757
From gigs in tiny church halls in the mid-sixties to multimillion-selling albums and spectacular stadium shows all around the world, the Pink Floyd story is a pop legend. Pink Floyd: In the Flesh combines, for the first time, a detailed listing of every single Pink Floyd show with a biographical account of the band's collective and individual careers. Illustrated throughout with scores of previously unpublished photographs and a wealth of rare graphic memorabilia, including posters, advertisements, handbills and tickets from every era of the band's remarkable thirty-year history.
Author : Arthur I. Miller
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 429 pages
File Size : 48,32 MB
Release : 2019-10-01
Category : Computers
ISBN : 0262042851
An authority on creativity introduces us to AI-powered computers that are creating art, literature, and music that may well surpass the creations of humans. Today's computers are composing music that sounds “more Bach than Bach,” turning photographs into paintings in the style of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and even writing screenplays. But are computers truly creative—or are they merely tools to be used by musicians, artists, and writers? In this book, Arthur I. Miller takes us on a tour of creativity in the age of machines. Miller, an authority on creativity, identifies the key factors essential to the creative process, from “the need for introspection” to “the ability to discover the key problem.” He talks to people on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, encountering computers that mimic the brain and machines that have defeated champions in chess, Jeopardy!, and Go. In the central part of the book, Miller explores the riches of computer-created art, introducing us to artists and computer scientists who have, among much else, unleashed an artificial neural network to create a nightmarish, multi-eyed dog-cat; taught AI to imagine; developed a robot that paints; created algorithms for poetry; and produced the world's first computer-composed musical, Beyond the Fence, staged by Android Lloyd Webber and friends. But, Miller writes, in order to be truly creative, machines will need to step into the world. He probes the nature of consciousness and speaks to researchers trying to develop emotions and consciousness in computers. Miller argues that computers can already be as creative as humans—and someday will surpass us. But this is not a dystopian account; Miller celebrates the creative possibilities of artificial intelligence in art, music, and literature.
Author : David Blot
Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 23,52 MB
Release : 2019-10-08
Category : Music
ISBN : 031652624X
A pulsating graphic novel on the epic history of electronic music, from the heyday of disco in the 1970s to the rave culture of the 1990s and beyond. With a foreword from house music legends Daft Punk, The Song of the Machine is a celebration of a musical wave that swept across the world over decades, demographics, and dance styles. Originally published in 2000 in France, and updated through today for this first English edition, the electrifying narrative introduces readers to the harbingers of the genre, such as David Mancuso, Larry Levan, and Frankie Knuckles (known as the "Godfather of House Music"); the prototypes of modern-day nightclubs and dance venues, like The Loft and Studio 54 in New York City, the Palace in Paris, and the Hacienda in Manchester, England, and of course, the technology and machines that first produced and synthesized the records that galvanized a movement. Told through exciting illustrations that evolve with the era they describe, and complete with specially curated playlists for each and every decade, The Song of the Machine recounts the influences and inspirations, the people and epic parties that created and defined this revolutionary music.
Author : Ryan North
Publisher : Machines of Death LLC
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 41,59 MB
Release : 2010
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0982167121
MACHINE OF DEATH tells thirty-four different stories about people who know how they will die. Prepare to have your tears jerked, your spine tingled, your funny bone tickled, your mind blown, your pulse quickened, or your heart warmed. Or better yet, simply prepare to be surprised. Because even when people do have perfect knowledge of the future, there's no telling exactly how things will turn out.
Author : Jason G. Strange
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 39,92 MB
Release : 2020-03-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0252051890
”You’re either buried with your crystals or your shotgun.” That laconic comment captures the hippies-versus-hicks conflict that divides, and in some ways defines, modern-day homesteaders. It also reveals that back to-the-landers, though they may seek lives off the grid, remain connected to the most pressing questions confronting the United States today. Jason Strange shows where homesteaders fit, and don't fit, within contemporary America. Blending history with personal stories, Strange visits pig roasts and bohemian work parties to find people engaged in a lifestyle that offers challenge and fulfillment for those in search of virtues like self-employment, frugality, contact with nature, and escape from the mainstream. He also lays bare the vast differences in education and opportunity that leave some homesteaders dispossessed while charting the tensions that arise when people seek refuge from the ills of modern society—only to find themselves indelibly marked by the system they dreamed of escaping.
Author : Caroline Baillie
Publisher : Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Page : 339 pages
File Size : 46,41 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1598296620
Engineers work in an increasingly complex entanglement of ideas, people, cultures, technology, systems and environments. Today, decisions made by engineers often have serious implications for not only their clients but for society as a whole and the natural world. Such decisions may potentially influence cultures, ways of living, as well as alter ecosystems which are in delicate balance. In order to make appropriate decisions and to co-create ideas and innovations within and among the complex networks of communities which currently exist and are shaped by our decisions, we need to regain our place as professionals, to realise the significance of our work and to take responsibility in a much deeper sense. Engineers must develop the 'ability to respond' to emerging needs of all people, across all cultures. To do this requires insights and knowledge which are at present largely within the domain of the social and political sciences but which need to be shared with our students in ways which are meaningful and relevant to engineering. This book attempts to do just that. In Part 1 Baillie introduces ideas associated with the ways in which engineers relate to the communities in which they work. Drawing on scholarship from science and technology studies, globalisation and development studies, as well as work in science communication and dialogue, this introductory text sets the scene for an engineering community which engages with the public. In Part 2 Catalano frames the thinking processes necessary to create ethical and just decisions in engineering, to understand the implications of our current decision making processes and think about ways in which we might adapt these to become more socially just in the future. In Part 3 Baillie and Catalano have provided case studies of everyday issues such as water, garbage and alarm clocks, to help us consider how we might see through the lenses of our new knowledge from Parts 1 and 2 and apply this to our every day existence as engineers.
