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Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution

July 16, 2010

Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution

Author:
Francis Fukuyama
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2002)

Amazon | Fukuyama (The End of History and the Last Man; Trust) is no stranger to controversial theses, and here he advances two: that there are sound nonreligious reasons to put limits on biotechnology, and that such limits can be enforced. Fukuyama argues that “the most significant threat” from biotechnology is “the possibility that it will alter human nature and thereby move us into a ‘posthuman’ stage of history.”… read more

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution

March 16, 2011

The Origins of Political Order book cover

Author:
Francis Fukuyama
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2011)

Amazon | Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their citizens. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s… read more

Handbook of Augmented Reality

March 10, 2013

Handbook of Augmented Reality

Author:
Borko Furht
Publisher:
Springer (2011)

Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the merging of a live view of the physical, real world with context-sensitive, computer-generated images to create a mixed reality. Through this augmented vision, a user can digitally interact with and adjust information about their surrounding environment on-the-fly. Handbook of Augmented Reality provides an extensive overview of the current and future trends in Augmented Reality, and chronicles the dramatic growth in this field. The… read more

One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science

June 1, 2011

One Two Three Infinity book cover

Author:
George Gamow
Publisher:
Dover Publications (1988)

Goodreads | One of the world’s foremost nuclear physicists (celebrated for his theory of radioactive decay, among other accomplishments), George Gamow possesses the unique ability of making the world of science accessible to the general reader.

He brings that ability to bear in this delightful expedition through the problems, pleasures and puzzles of modern science. Among the topics scrutinized with the author’s celebrated good humor and pedagogical… read more

Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory

June 1, 2011

Thirty Years That Shook Physics book cover

Author:
George Gamow
Publisher:
Dover Publications (1985)

Goodreads | In 1900, German physicist Max Planck postulated that light, or radiant energy can exist only in the form of discrete packages or quanta. This profound insight, along with Einstein’s equally momentous theories of relativity, completely revolutionized man’s view of matter, energy, and the nature of physics itself.

In this lucid layman’s introduction to quantum theory, an eminent physicist and noted popularizer of science traces the… read more

Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Are Next to Worthless, and You Can Do Better

April 4, 2011

Future Babble book cover

Author:
Dan Gardner
Publisher:
Dutton Adult (2011)

Amazon | An award-winning journalist uses landmark research to debunk the whole expert prediction industry, and explores the psychology of our obsession with future history.

In 2008, experts predicted gas would hit $20 a gallon; it peaked at $4.10. In 1967, they said the USSR would be the world’s fastest-growing economy by 2000; by 2000, the USSR no longer existed. In 1908, it was pronounced that… read more

The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos

June 29, 2011

Intelligent Universe book cover

Author:
James N. Gardner
Publisher:
New Page Books (2007)

Amazon | What is the ultimate destiny of our universe? That is the striking question addressed by James Gardner in The Intelligent Universe.

Traditionally, scientists (and Robert Frost) have offered two bleak answers to this profound issue: fire or ice.

The cosmos might end in fire — a cataclysmic Big Crunch in which galaxies, planets, and life forms are consumed in a raging inferno as the universe… read more

Multis and Monos: What the Multicultured Can Teach the Monocultured Towards the Creation of a Global State

December 15, 2010

multimonos

Author:
Hugo de Garis
Publisher:
ETC Publications (2010)

Amazon | Dr. de Garis’ main thrust in his book is to advocate the creation of one global state (Globa). To do this, he strongly advocates that the world’s citizens need to be more “Multi” persons; living, working, and touristing in other countries. Mono-cultured persons are largely ignorant of what other countries have to better offer their own country. Dr. de Garis cites early thinkers such as… read more

The Artilect War: Cosmists Vs. Terrans

December 15, 2010

Theartilectwar

Author:
Hugo de Garis
Publisher:
ETC Publications (2005)

Amazon |  This book’s main idea is that this century’s global politics will be dominated by the “species dominance” issue.  21st century technologies will enable the building of artilects (artificial intellects, artificial intelligences, massively intelligent machines) with 1040 components, using reversible, heatless, 3D, molecular scale, self assembling, one bit per atom, nano-teched, quantum computers, which may dwarf human intelligence levels by a factor of trillions of trillions… read more

Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human

April 9, 2009
Author:
Joel Garreau
Publisher:
Doubleday (2005)

Washington Post reporter Garreau takes readers on a cross-country trip into the future as he interviews scientists and other thinkers grappling with the implications of our newfound—and, to some, frightening—knowledge of the genome. Highlighting what he calls “the Curve”—the rate of exponential change in technology—Garreau (Edge City: Life on the New Frontier) breaks the central part of his book into four scenarios. In “Heaven,” genetic engineering will… read more

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

July 14, 2010

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Author:
Atul Gawande
Publisher:
Metropolitan Books (2009)

Amazon | That humblest of quality-control devices, the checklist, is the key to taming a high-tech economy, argues this stimulating manifesto. Harvard Medical School prof and New Yorker scribe Gawande (Complications) notes that the high-pressure complexities of modern professional occupations overwhelm even their best-trained practitioners; he argues that a disciplined adherence to essential procedures—by ticking them off a list—can prevent potentially fatal mistakes and corner cutting. He examines checklists… read more

Who’s in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain

December 14, 2011

whosincharge

Author:
Michael S. Gazzaniga
Publisher:
Ecco (2011)

Amazon | The father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions.

A powerful orthodoxy in the study of the brain has taken hold in recent years: Since physical laws govern the physical world and our own brains are part of that world, physical

read more

Futures from Nature

January 3, 2011

futuresfromnature

Author:
Henry Gee
Publisher:
Tor Books (2007)

Amazon | Here are 100 very short stories on the subject of the future and what it might be like. The authors include scientists, journalists, and many of the most famous SF writers in the world. Futures from Nature includes everything from satires and vignettes to compressed stories and fictional book reviews, science articles, and journalism, in eight-hundred word modules. All of them are entertaining and as a group they… read more

America-Lite: How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered In the Obamacrats)

October 10, 2012

America Lite

Author:
David Gelernter
Publisher:
Encounter Books (2012)

America-Lite (where we all live) is just like America, only turned into an amusement park or a video game or a supersized Pinkberry, where the past and future are blank and there is only a big NOW. How did we come to expect no virtue and so much cynicism from our culture, our leaders—and each other?

In this refreshingly judgmental book, David Gelernter connects the historical… read more

Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality

July 8, 2010

Apocalyptic AI cover

Author:
Robert Geraci
Publisher:
Oxford University Press (2010)

Amazon | Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into machines or cyberspace and live forever, is a surprisingly wide-spread and influential idea, affecting everything from the world view of online gamers to government research funding and philosophical thought. In Apocalyptic AI, Robert Geraci offers the first serious account of this “cyber-theology” and the people who promote it.

Drawing on interviews with roboticists… read more

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