I was a musician before I was anything else. That's how I first used technology-not through code or commerce, but through sound. In the late 1980s, I stood in an "electronic music studio" at Bennington College in Vermont, staring at a new keyboard called The Synclavier. I didn't know how it worked, but I could feel what sounds it wanted to make. It wasn't just a machine-it was a co-conspirator. It could emulate, sample, sequence, and distort. I could pull emotion out of circuitry. At the t...

The Art of Game Design guides you through the design process step-by-step, helping you to develop new and innovative games that will be played again and again. It explains the fundamental principles of game design and demonstrates how tactics used in classic board, card and athletic games also work in top-quality video games.Good game design happens when you view your game from as many perspectives as possible, and award-winning author Jesse Schell presents over 10...

'One of the best music books of the year' – Neil McCormick, Daily TelegraphWhat if the song that would change your life is already out there – buried somewhere in 100 million tracks, one skipped click away?In You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song, former Spotify "Data Alchemist" Glenn McDonald opens the black box of music streaming and shows how it is quietly transforming what we hear, how artists earn a living and what music means in...

A freewheeling, sharp-shooting indictment of a tech-besotted culture.With razor wit, Nicholas Carr cuts through Silicon Valley’s unsettlingly cheery vision of the technological future to ask a hard question: Have we been seduced by a lie? Gathering a decade’s worth of posts from his blog, Rough Type, as well as his seminal essays, Utopia Is Creepy is “Carr’s best hits for those who missed the last decade of his stream of thoughtful commentary about our lov...

A fascinating look at Artificial Intelligence, from its humble Cold War beginnings to the dazzling future that is just around the corner.When most of us think about Artificial Intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some...

Artificial intelligence may change the world more than the iPhone, the internet, or even electricity. It’s bound to change education. (It already has.) But how? AI for Educators is a readable, relatable book about the impact of AI on the classroom -- today and in the future. It's super practical, giving you ideas and strategies you can use in class right away: It translates AI through a teacher lens; It provides practical ideas you can use in class right away; It unlocks powerful ways to s...

Whether you're a game player, a designer of any kind, or someone who wants to know more about design, The Rules We Break will open your mind to creative and thought-provoking approaches to design. Play through more than 20 hands-on, real-world games and exercises to explore how people think, how games and systems work, and how to move through a creative process.Everyone can learn from game design: interaction designers and software developers, graphic desi...

Focussing on the independent videogames sector, this book provides readers with a vocabulary to articulate and build their games writing practice; whether studying games or coming to games from another storytelling discipline. Writing for Games offers resources for communication, collaboration, reflection, and advocacy, inviting the reader to situate their practice in a centuries-long heritage of storytelling, as well as considering the material affordances of videogames, and the ...

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 ...

**To chat with the author, ask your Alexa device to "open the voice computing book."**The next great technological disruption is comingThe titans of Silicon Valley are racing to build the last, best computer that the world will ever need. They know that whoever successfully creates it will revolutionize our relationship with technology—and make billions of dollars in the process. They call it conversational AI.Computers that can speak and think like h...

As we program machines to be more like humans, how will they know what we value, if we don't know ourselves?The notion of robots gaining consciousness is beginning to become a reality, but the future of human happiness is dependent on our ability to teach machines what we value the most today. Featuring pragmatic solutions drawing on economics, emerging technologies, and positive psychology, Heartificial Intelligence provides a road map to help readers emb...

"Finally, the research-driven guide for navigating the digital world we’ve been waiting for! ...Nuanced, compassionate, and clearly written" (Ethan Kross), this is a revelatory exploration of how our online lives can enrich human connections rather than destroy them, to help us all stay sane without staying offline.While it’s great to go outside and touch grass, the reality is that we spend most of life with our screens, whether for school, work, or socializing. Lu...