Philosophy Technology

The human race is caught in the crosshairs of twin threats stemming from exponential advances in technology. In Crisis of Control, Peter Scott lays out the stark choices and consequences facing us in clear, provocative, and sometimes humorous language.

Look around. Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why? Where are the Bronze Age beavers? The Iron Age iguanas? Byron Reese argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in. Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, and predict—and eventually master—the future.

Dive into the enthralling world of "Echoes of Infinity: Navigating the Ethical Labyrinth of Parallel Universes," a groundbreaking book that explores the intersection of quantum physics and ethics. This enlightening journey reveals the complex moral landscapes forged by the concepts of parallel universes and quantum mechanics, making these challenging topics accessible and engaging for all readers. "Echoes of Infinity" is not just a book; it's a journey into the heart of quantum ethics, a realm where morality extends beyond our known universe, stretching into an infinite array of ...

On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life, seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government's Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich.

We face a collapsing society with advancing technology—a dreadful situation. Here are some of the questions INTELLOPY answers by applying facts of reality and reason...

Arranged in chronological order, the book covers key themes in the physical and natural sciences, such as geochemistry and the elements. Within each chapter, a series of articles traces the history of scientific thought and introduces the work of the scientists who have shaped the subject such as John Dalton, Marie Curie, Dmitri Mendeleev, Kathleen Lonsdale and Stephanie Kwolek. Along the way, the audiobook addresses some of the most fundamental questions in science, such as what is the universe made of, how is matter created and what are the chemical bonds that make life possible?

"Fascinating" - Maria Popova "Illuminating" - Cory Doctorow As I turned forty I decided to reach out to and converse with a remarkable group of Americans whose work had inspired and helped me over my younger years (and will continue to do so into my future). I was extremely fortunate in being able to secure all the people I really wanted to interview and ask them my specific questions. As I wrapped up the series I wanted to collect the interviews in a handy format. This ebook is the result. It includes interviews with: Ted Chiang on Writing Daniel Kottke on Searching for Magic with Steve ...

From the Pulitzer Prize winner and number one international best-selling author of The World Is Flat, an essential and entertaining field guide to thriving in the 21st century. We all sense it - something big is going on. You feel it in your workplace. You feel it when you talk to your children. You can't miss it when you read the newspapers or watch the news. Our lives are speeding up - and it is dizzying.

The British believe that, through ingenuity and scientific prowess, they alone have a war-winning weapon: radar. They are wrong. The Germans have it too. They believe that their unique maritime history means their pilots have no need of navigational aids. Flying above the clouds they, like the seafarers of old, had the stars to guide them, and that is all that is required. They are wrong. Most of the bombs the RAF will drop in the first years of the war land miles from their target.

The Victorians invented the idea of the future. They saw it as an undiscovered country, one ripe for exploration and colonization. And to get us there, they created a new way of ordering and transforming nature, built on grand designs and the mass-mobilization of the resources of the British Empire.

Unravelling the Double Helix covers the most colourful period in the history of DNA, from the discovery of 'nuclein' in the late 1860s to the publication of Watson's The Double Helix in 1968. This is a saga packed with awful mistakes as well as brilliant science, with a wonderful cast of heroes and villains. Surprisingly, much of it is unfamiliar because the early history is largely neglected by books which focus on the episode of the double helix.

Bill McKibben, examines the dangers inherent in an array of technologies that threaten not just our survival, but our identity. Imagine a future where lab workers can reprogram human embryos to make our children "smarter" or "more sociable" or "happier." Enough examines such possibilities, and explains how we can avoid their worst consequences while still enjoying the fruits of our new scientific understandings.

We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts. We'd nail down the facts and move on. But in the Internet age, knowledge has moved onto networks. There's more knowledge than ever, of course, but it's different. Topics have no boundaries, and nobody agrees on anything.Yet this is the greatest time in history to be a knowledge seeker - if you know how.

Science is in trouble. Real questions in desperate need of answers—especially those surrounding ethnicity, gender, climate change, and almost anything related to “health and safety”—are swiftly buckling to the fiery societal demands of what ought to be rather than what is. Can true, fact-based discovery be redeemed? In Science in an Age of Unreason, legendary professor of psychology and biology, John Staddon, unveils the identity crisis afflicting today’s scientific community, and provides an actionable path to recovery.

Written by a former election campaign consultant for a major political party, How to Win an Indian Election takes listeners into the forbidden world of election war-rooms and gives them a glimpse of how strategy is formulated, what works with voters on the ground and what doesn't. Based on research, interviews and the author's own experiences, this book is invaluable for its insight into the inner workings of politics, political parties and what really makes for a winning election campaign.

The following essays focus on consciousness, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, computer science, virtual and augmented reality, and more. Each chapter stands on its own and doesn’t require prior knowledge about the subject, though having a background in philosophical and scientific thinking is a plus. These essays, with a few exceptions, were originally published in Europe on the Integral World website during the past decade.

Discover a groundbreaking exploration of virtual realities and their profound philosophical implications in "Beyond Pixels: Probing the Depths of Virtual Realities." This insightful book delves into the fascinating intersection of technology and philosophy, offering a unique perspective on the virtual experiences that are increasingly becoming part of our daily lives. What's Inside: The Digital Frontier: Understand the emergence of virtual realities and their significance in modern philosophy. Existence in Virtual Worlds: Explore the nature of existence, identity, and self in digital spaces...

Charles Darwin did not deliberately set out to be the destroyer of mythical beliefs,” some of which, in his early days as a young Christian, he had previously espoused. He was a modest man who liked to avoid controversy of any kind, yet paradoxically, he was to be the cause of the greatest controversy in the history of science and religion.When Darwin embarked on the HMS Beagle in late December 1831, bound for the southern hemisphere, he could not have imagined that the experience would lead him to formulate a theory that would totally revolutionize the way in which we viewed the natural world.

This entertaining account, offering a plethora of little known facts and insights from previously classified military projects, shows how the real-world science of the Cold War followed in the footsteps of SF - and how the two together changed our perception of both science and scientists, and paved the way to the world we live in today.

Cody Wilson, a self-described crypto-anarchist and rogue thinker, combines the controversial yet thrilling story of the production of the first ever 3D printable gun with a startling philosophical manifesto that gets to the heart of the 21st-century debate over the freedom of information and ideas.