Hard Science Fiction Films that Predict Future Technology“As the breakneck advance of technology takes us into a world that is both exciting and menacing, sci-fi films give us an inkling of what is to come, and what we should avoid.” —Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, and host of Big Picture Science#1 Best Seller in Nanotechnology, Computers & Technology, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mechanical Engineering, and ...

How do you rediscover what makes you you in a world where AI can replicate everything you do?In AI and the Art of Being Human, leading experts Jeffrey Abbott and Andrew Maynard explore how to embrace your full humanity at a time when machines are increasingly able to mirror your every move. Blending storytelling and practical insight while drawing on their own work and experiences, they reveal what becomes possible when technology reflects who we ...

Nanotechnology, clean technology, and geoengineering span the scale of human ingenuity, from the imperceptibly small to the unimaginably large. Yet they are united by a commonality of ethics that permeates how and why they are developed, and how the resulting consequences are managed. The articles in this volume provide a comprehensive account of current thinking around the ethics of development and use within each of the technological domains, and addresses challenges and opportunities th...

An awareness of one’s own ethical assumptions and how these inform everyday practice is crucial for all student social workers. Social workers who genuinely wish to do the right thing by their services users have no alternative but to constantly think and rethink the principles and assumptions that inform their actions, and this book supports them on their journey to do just that.This third edition is set out in two parts: Part I deals with broad ideas about values and ethics in ge...

A Compelling Vision of the Future. If you enjoy nonfiction like Homo Deus, Sapiens, and A Short History of Nearly Everything, then you'll love FUTURE RISING.Over the course of 14 billion years, humanity has gained the ability not only to imagine the future, but to design and engineer it. Entertaining and profound, Future Rising by Dr. Andrew Maynard, provides a highly original perspective on our relationship with the future. Written to be easy to pick up and hard to put down, Futur...

Learn how movies reveal the future of technologyFans of The Science of Interstellar, The Second Machine Age, and Physics of the Future will love Films from the Future.Science, technology, and society: In Films from the Future, former physicist Andrew Maynard threads together his love of science fiction movies with his expertise on emerging technologies to engage, entertain, and m...

Who owns the past and the objects that physically connect us to history? And who has the right to decide this ownership, particularly when the objects are sacred or, in the case of skeletal remains, human? Is it the museums that care for the objects or the communities whose ancestors made them? These questions are at the heart of Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits.Today, hundreds of tribes use the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to help them recover...

General Benedict Arnold's failed attempt to betray the fortress of West Point to the British in 1780 stands as one of the most infamous episodes in American history. In the light of a shining record of bravery and unquestioned commitment to the Revolution, Arnold's defection came as an appalling shock. Contemporaries believed he had been corrupted by greed; historians have theorized that he had come to resent the lack of recognition for his merits and sacrifices. In this provocative book S...

Paul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe by collecting the best writing on travel from the books that shaped him, as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, part miscellany, part reminiscence, The Tao of Travel enumerates “The Contents of Some Travelers’ Bags” and exposes “Writers Who Wrote about Places They Never Visited”; tracks extreme journeys in “Travel as an Ordeal” and highlights some of “Travelers’ Favorite Places.” Excerpts from the best of Th...

In this wickedly satiric romp, Paul Theroux captures the essence of Hawaii as it has never been depicted. The novel's narrator, a down-on-his-luck writer, escapes to Waikiki and soon finds himself the manager of the Hotel Honolulu, a low-rent establishment a few blocks off the beach. Honeymooners, vacationers, wanderers, mythomaniacs, soldiers, and families all check in to the hotel. Like the Canterbury pilgrims, every guest has come in search of something -- sun, love, happiness, objects ...

In this acclaimed biography that earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous "enemies list," Garry Wills takes a thoughtful, in-depth, and often "very amusing" look at the thirty-seventh US president, and draws some surprising conclusions about a man whose name has become synonymous with scandal and the abuse of power (Kirkus Reviews).Arguing that Nixon was a reflection of the country that elected him, Wills examines not only the psychology of the man himself and his relationshi...

“A vivid, haunting mix of horror and fantasy woven together through a complex fugue of short stories” from the award-winning author of Kissing Carrion (Entertainment Weekly).One of Canada’s most acclaimed horror writers, Gemma Files presents a mosaic of interconnected stories about interconnected families. After fleeing Scotland, five clans settled in the fictional town of Dourvale in northern Ontario. Known as the Five-Family Coven, they are the ...