Amazon | Given the volatile state of the world, it is no coincidence that superheroes have captured our imagination like never before. Everywhere you look, superheroes have broken free from their comic book pages and become a dynamic aspect of the culture at large. Superheroes are imbued with magical powers that challenge the laws of space and time, offering us a vision of a world that can change.… read more
Amazon | Three beloved teachers, one incredible journey.
New York Times bestselling authors and internationally acclaimed leaders in the field of new thought, Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford, and Marianne Williamson have joined together to share their knowledge on one of the most crucial obstacles to happiness we face — the shadow. These three luminaries, each with a signature approach, bring to light the parts of ourselves we deny… read more
Amazon | Two bestselling authors first met in a televised Caltech debate on “the future of God,” one an articulate advocate for spirituality, the other a prominent physicist. This remarkable book is the product of that serendipitous encounter and the contentious — but respectful — clash of worldviews that grew along with their friendship.
In War of the Worldviews these two great thinkers battle over the cosmos, evolution and… read more
Amazon | What if digital communication felt as real as being touched?
This question led Michael Chorost to explore profound new ideas triggered by lab research around the world, and the result is the book you now hold. Marvelous and momentous, World Wide Mind takes mind-to-mind communication out of the realm of science fiction and reveals how we are on the verge of a radical new understanding… read more
Amazon | The Most Human Human is a provocative, exuberant, and profound exploration of the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human. Its starting point is the annual Turing Test, which pits artificial intelligence programs against people to determine if computers can “think.”
Named for computer pioneer Alan Turing, the Turing Test convenes a panel of judges who… read more
Nathan Myhrvold, Founder and CEO, Intellectual Ventures:
“A delightfully opinionated, visionary and controversial romp through synthetic biology, which is one of the most important technologies of our time.”
Eric Topol, Professor of Genomics, The Scripps Research Institute, and author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine:
“Literally reinventing nature could provide solutions to intractable problems with the energy supply, global warming, and human health. In Regenesis, George… read more
From Robocop to the Terminator to Eve 8, no image better captures our deepest fears about technology than the cyborg, the person who is both flesh and metal, brain and electronics. But philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark sees it differently. Cyborgs, he writes, are not something to be feared–we already are cyborgs.
In Natural-Born Cyborgs, Clark argues that what makes humans so different from other species is our… read more
Penguin Group | In his fiction debut, The Scorpion’s Gate, Richard A. Clarke, former counterterrorism czar for Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, projected a world in 2010 in which the United States and China were competing politically and economically for a dwindling supply of increasingly expensive oil and gas. That competition naturally took them to the Persian Gulf where the largest oil deposits remained, where the United States… read more
Amazon | Richard A. Clarke warned America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national security — and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. This is the first book about the war of the future — cyber war — and a convincing argument… read more
Publisher’s Weekly | Clegg (Before the Big Bang) explores how runaway science and other disasters might destroy humanity. He begins with the much discussed but highly speculative concerns over the operation of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The collider is designed to recreate energies equal to those existing at the time of the big bang, which some theorists say might create a chain reaction that would dissolve the… read more
There has been increasing interest in the potential social impact of new technologies, such as virtual reality (as may be seen in utopian literature, within the social sciences, and in popular culture). Mychilo S. Cline, in his book, Power, Madness, and Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality, argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life and activity. He argues that:
*… read more
Young Wade Watts takes refuge in the OASIS, the “globally networked virtual reality” that nearly all of humanity relies on. It’s 2044, the year before the Singularity futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts will inextricably unite humans and computers. … — Booklist Review
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part… read more
Whereas standard approaches to risk and vulnerability presuppose a strict separation between humans and their world, this book develops an existential-phenomenological approach according to which we are always already beings-at-risk. Moreover, it is argued that in our struggle against vulnerability, we create new vulnerabilities and thereby transform ourselves as much as we transform the world. Responding to the discussion about human enhancement and information technologies, the book then shows… read more
Amazon | For more than a quarter of a century, while the Central Intelligence Agency turned a dismissive eye, a globe-straddling network run by Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan sold the equipment and expertise to make nuclear weapons to a rogues’ gallery of nations. Among its known customers were Iran, Libya, and North Korea. When the United States finally took action to stop the network in late… read more
After a tumultuous year in which her mentor is murdered and her estranged father comes back into her life, Pia Grazdani, the embattled medical student from Death Benefit, decides to take a year off from her medical studies and escape New York City. Intrigued by the promise of the burgeoning field of medical technology and the chance to clear her head, Pia takes a job at Nano, LLC, a lavishly… read more
