Other books that might interest you

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  Eternity Soup - Inside the Quest...

  Greg Critser

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  What happens when you mix modern medical entrepreneurship with one of the most ancient of human desires—the desire to live forever? The answer is today's multibillion-dollar antiaging industry, which promises everything from restoring lost vitality to actually turning back the hands of time for aging boomers. But who, exactly, makes up the antiaging movement, and what do they expect from the vast and growing antiaging apothecary? Who is simply manufacturing money from spurious claims and dubious products, and who is performing legitimate scientific research? One thing is clear: by the mid-twenty-first century, America will have one million centenarians. How much older, then, can (and should) we get? 
   
  Sharp, funny, fast-paced, and deeply informed, Eternity Soup is a full-course meal about our quest for immortality, spiced with human vanity, chicanery, and cutting-edge science.

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  How We Think - Digital Media and...

  N. Katherine Hayles

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  “How do we think?” N. Katherine Hayles poses this question at the beginning of this bracing exploration of the idea that we think through, with, and alongside media. As the age of print passes and new technologies appear every day, this proposition has become far more complicated, particularly for the traditionally print-based disciplines in the humanities and qualitative social sciences. With a rift growing between digital scholarship and its print-based counterpart, Hayles argues for contemporary technogenesis—the belief that humans and technics are coevolving—and advocates for what she calls comparative media studies, a new approach to locating digital work within print traditions and vice versa.Hayles examines the evolution of the field from the traditional humanities and how the digital humanities are changing academic scholarship, research, teaching, and publication. She goes on to depict the neurological consequences of working in digital media, where skimming and scanning, or “hyper reading,” and analysis through machine algorithms are forms of reading as valid as close reading once was. Hayles contends that we must recognize all three types of reading and understand the limitations and possibilities of each. In addition to illustrating what a comparative media perspective entails, Hayles explores the technogenesis spiral in its full complexity. She considers the effects of early databases such as telegraph code books and confronts our changing perceptions of time and space in the digital age, illustrating this through three innovative digital productions—Steve Tomasula’s electronic novel, TOC; Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts; and Mark Z. Danielewski’s Only Revolutions. Deepening our understanding of the extraordinary transformative powers digital technologies have placed in the hands of humanists, How We Think presents a cogent rationale for tackling the challenges facing the humanities today.

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  The Spell of the Sensuous -...

  David Abram

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  For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people but with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patterns) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relationship with the breathing earth? 
   
    
   
  In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which—even at its most abstract—echoes the calls and cries of the earth. In this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

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  Weird Math - A Teenage Genius...

  David Darling, Agnijo Banerjee

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  A teenage genius and his teacher take listeners on a wild ride to the extremes of mathematics 
   
   
   
  Everyone has stared at the crumpled page of a math assignment and wondered, where on Earth will I ever use this? It turns out, Earth is precisely the place. As teen math prodigy Agnijo Banerjee and his teacher David Darling reveal, complex math surrounds us. If we think long enough about the universe, we're left not with material stuff, but a ghostly and beautiful set of equations. Packed with puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts, and surprising solutions, Weird Math leads us from a lyrical exploration of mathematics in our universe to profound questions about God, chance, and infinity. A magical introduction to the mysteries of math, it will entrance beginners and seasoned mathematicians alike.

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  Hindsight - In Search of Lost...

  Jenna Watt

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  "Essential reading for lovers of the Great outdoors" —Roger Cox, Scotsman magazine 
   
   
   
  Longlisted for the 2022 Highland Book Prize 
   
   
   
  In 2019, Jenna Watt took part in the stalking of a hind on the vast Highland estate of Corrour: part of an immersive attempt to understand the ideas that lie behind 'rewilding', and what it means emotionally and physically to participate in Scotland's deer cull. Piece by piece and chapter by chapter she unravels the story of that one day spent hunting the hind, interlaced with her discovery that her ancestors were deer stalkers, game keepers, and ghillies on a Highland estate, who once took part in increasingly controversial land practices like muirburn and species persecution. 
   
   
   
  This exploration leads her into the complex and often conflict-ridden world of the rewilding movement. 
   
   
   
  In the process, Jenna comes to better understand the meaning of 'wildness', the shifting baselines of 'rewilding', and, in a world beset by climate change and species extinction, how to cope, both as an individual and as a society, with the concept of ecological grief.

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  Navigating Tomorrow - A Journey...

  Chuck Sherman

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  In the not-so-distant future, the world of transportation is on the cusp of a radical transformation. "Navigating Tomorrow: A Journey into the World of Autonomous Vehicles" takes you on an exhilarating expedition through the groundbreaking realm of self-driving cars and beyond. 
  Imagine a world where vehicles pilot themselves with precision, navigating bustling city streets and open highways without a human hand on the wheel. This book unveils the captivating technology that propels us into this new era, providing a comprehensive exploration of the past, present, and potential future of autonomous vehicles. 
  From the earliest days of experimental robotics to the most recent advancements in artificial intelligence, this book traces the evolution of self-driving technology. Delve into the mechanics that power these incredible machines, uncovering the intricate dance of sensors, cameras, lidar, and algorithms that fuse together to create an autonomous intelligence capable of interpreting the world like never before. 
  "Navigating Tomorrow" unravels the mysteries of perception, as vehicles learn to see and understand the environment around them with astonishing clarity. It takes you behind the scenes of decision-making processes that blend real-time data analysis, rule-based programming, and ethical considerations, all while exploring the ongoing quest for absolute safety in an unpredictable world. 
  Beyond technology, this book ventures into uncharted territories of law and society. Discover the legal landscape that navigates the complexities of liability and regulation in an autonomous world. Explore the profound implications for urban planning, as self-driving cars reshape cities and communities, promising reduced congestion and a greener future.

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