Meet the visionaries, billionaires, professors, and programmers who are using groundbreaking technology to push the limits of the human body - our senses, our intelligence, and our lifespansOnce relegated to the fringes of society, transhumanism (the use of technology to enhance human intellectual and physical capability) is now poised to enter our cultural mainstream. It has found adherents in Silicon Valley billionaires Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis. Google has entered the picture, establishing a biotech subsidiary aimed at solving the problem of aging. In To Be a Machine, journalist Mark OConnell takes a headlong dive into this burgeoning movement. He travels to the laboratories, conferences, and basements of todays foremost transhumanists, where hes presented with the staggering possibilities and moral quandaries of new technologies like mind uploading, artificial superintelligence, cryonics, and device implants. A contributor to Slate, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine, OConnell serves as a sharp and lively guide to the outer limits of technology in the 21st century. In investigating what it means to be a machine, he offers a surprising, singular meditation on what it means to be human.
Doubleday
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9780385540414
|
Audiobook
The Brain Electric
By Gay, Malcolm
Leading neuroscience researchers are racing to unlock the secrets of the mind. On the cusp of decoding brain signals that govern motor skills, they are developing miraculous technologies that will enable paraplegics and wounded soldiers to move prosthetic limbs and will give all of us the power to manipulate computers and other objects through thought alone. These fiercely competitive scientists are vying for government and venture capital funding, prestige, and wealth.Part life-altering cure, part science fiction, part Defense Department dream, these cutting edge brain-computer interfaces promise to improve lives-but they also hold the potential to augment soldiers' combat capabilities. In The Brain Electric, Malcolm Gay follows the dramatic emergence of these technologies, taking us behind the scenes in operating rooms, startups, and research labs, where the future is unfolding. With access to many of the field's top scientists, Gay illuminates this extraordinary race-where science, medicine, profit, and war converge-for the first time. But this isn't just a story about technology. At the heart of the scientists' research is a group of brave patient-volunteers, whose lives are given new meaning through these experiments. The Brain Electric asks us to rethink our relationship to technology, our bodies, even consciousness itself, challenging our assumptions about what it means to be human.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.
|
9780374139841
|
Print book
Quantum Supremacy
By Kaku, Michio
An exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement - quantum computing - which may eventually unravel the deepest mysteries of science and solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease, by the bestselling author of The God Equation. The runaway success of the microchip processor may be reaching its end. Running up against the physical constraints of smaller and smaller sizes, traditional silicon chips are not likely to prove useful in solving humanity's greatest challenges, from climate change, to global starvation, to incurable diseases. But the quantum computer, which harnesses the power and complexity of the atomic realm, already promises to be every bit as revolutionary as the transistor and microchip once were.
Random House Audio
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9780385548366
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Hardcover
Who's Raising the Kids?
By Linn, Susan
From a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of commercial marketing on children, a timely investigation into how big tech is hijacking childhood - and what we can do about itEven before the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technologies had become deeply embedded in children's lives, despite a growing body of research detailing the harms of excessive immersion in the unregulated, powerfully seductive, profit-driven world of the "kid-tech" industry.In Who's Raising the Kids? Linn - one of the world's leading experts on the impact of Big Tech and big business on children - explores the roots and consequences of this monumental shift toward a digitized, commercialized childhood, focusing on kids' values, relationships, and learning. From birth, kids have become lucrative fodder for a range of tech, media, and toy companies, from producers of exploitative games and social media platforms to "educational" technology and branded school curricula of dubious efficacy.
The New Press
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9781620972274
|
Hardcover
Getting Started with 3D Printing
By Kloski, Liza Wallach
The book is written in a casual, conversational style. It is easily accessible to those who have no prior knowledge in 3D printing, yet the book's message is solidly practical, technically accurate, and consumer-relevant. The chapters include contemporary, real-life learning exercises and insights for how to buy, use and maintain 3D printers. It also covers free 3D modeling software, as well as 3D printing services for those who don't want to immediately invest in the purchase of a 3D printer. Particular focus is placed on free and paid resources, the various choices available in 3D printing, and tutorials and troubleshooting guides.
The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11R, and 11Max are faster than ever and have more powerful cameras. With the latest edition of this bestselling guide, you get a funny, gorgeously illustrated guide to the tips, shortcuts, and workarounds that will turn you into an iPhone master.Written by David Pogue - Missing Manual series creator, New York Times columnist, and Emmy-winning tech correspondent for CNBC, CBS, and NPR - this update shows you everything you need to know about new iPhone features and the iOS 13 user interface. Pick up this beautiful full-color book and learn how to get the most out of your iPhone.
O'Reilly Media
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9781492075141
|
Paperback
"Is This Thing On?"
By Stokes, Abby
Like a personal trainer for the digital age, Abby Stokes is the hand-holding, motivating expert that newbies - specifically older newbies - turn to when they want to become digitally literate. And her book, Is This Thing On?, with over 230,000 in print through previous editions, is as smart, comprehensive, reassuring, and jargon-free as she is: the epitome of user-friendly. And it is now completely revised and updated to keep pace with the fast-changing digital landscape, covering tablets, apps, video streaming, social media, and much more. With the skill and assurance of a teacher who for over 20 years has personally taught computer skills to thousands of seniors and technophobes, Stokes covers it all: How to choose, buy, and start using the computer or tablet that's just right for you, plus how to set everything up for maximum comfort and safety.
Workman Publishing
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9780761183808
|
Paperback
C Crash Course
By Lospinoso, Josh
A fast-paced, thorough introduction to modern C++ written for experienced programmers. After reading C++ Crash Course, you'll be proficient in the core language concepts, the C++ Standard Library, and the Boost Libraries.C++ is one of the most widely used languages for real-world software. Wherever performance matters, C++ is the de facto standard. It's the language behind operating systems, embedded devices, games, web browsers, and virtual reality systems. As a C++ developer, you can program efficient software on virtually any platform.C++ Crash Course cuts through the weeds to get you straight to the core of C++17, the most modern revision of the ISO standard. In Part I, you'll learn about all of the essential core language features. Part II introduces you to the C++ Standard Library and Boost Libraries, where you'll learn about high-quality, fully-featured facilities immediately available to you.You'll learn all the major features of modern C++, including:- Fundamental types, reference types, and user-defined types- The object lifecycle including storage duration, memory management, exceptions, call stacks, and the RAII (resource acquisition is initialization) paradigm - Compile-time polymorphism with templates and run-time polymorphism with virtual classes- Advanced expressions, statements, and functions- Smart pointers, data structures, dates and times, numerics, and probability/statistics facilities- Containers, iterators, strings, and algorithms- Streams and files, concurrency, networking, and application development
To Be a Machine
By Oconnell, Mark
Meet the visionaries, billionaires, professors, and programmers who are using groundbreaking technology to push the limits of the human body - our senses, our intelligence, and our lifespansOnce relegated to the fringes of society, transhumanism (the use of technology to enhance human intellectual and physical capability) is now poised to enter our cultural mainstream. It has found adherents in Silicon Valley billionaires Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis. Google has entered the picture, establishing a biotech subsidiary aimed at solving the problem of aging. In To Be a Machine, journalist Mark OConnell takes a headlong dive into this burgeoning movement. He travels to the laboratories, conferences, and basements of todays foremost transhumanists, where hes presented with the staggering possibilities and moral quandaries of new technologies like mind uploading, artificial superintelligence, cryonics, and device implants. A contributor to Slate, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine, OConnell serves as a sharp and lively guide to the outer limits of technology in the 21st century. In investigating what it means to be a machine, he offers a surprising, singular meditation on what it means to be human.
The Brain Electric
By Gay, Malcolm
Leading neuroscience researchers are racing to unlock the secrets of the mind. On the cusp of decoding brain signals that govern motor skills, they are developing miraculous technologies that will enable paraplegics and wounded soldiers to move prosthetic limbs and will give all of us the power to manipulate computers and other objects through thought alone. These fiercely competitive scientists are vying for government and venture capital funding, prestige, and wealth.Part life-altering cure, part science fiction, part Defense Department dream, these cutting edge brain-computer interfaces promise to improve lives-but they also hold the potential to augment soldiers' combat capabilities. In The Brain Electric, Malcolm Gay follows the dramatic emergence of these technologies, taking us behind the scenes in operating rooms, startups, and research labs, where the future is unfolding. With access to many of the field's top scientists, Gay illuminates this extraordinary race-where science, medicine, profit, and war converge-for the first time. But this isn't just a story about technology. At the heart of the scientists' research is a group of brave patient-volunteers, whose lives are given new meaning through these experiments. The Brain Electric asks us to rethink our relationship to technology, our bodies, even consciousness itself, challenging our assumptions about what it means to be human.
Quantum Supremacy
By Kaku, Michio
An exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement - quantum computing - which may eventually unravel the deepest mysteries of science and solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease, by the bestselling author of The God Equation. The runaway success of the microchip processor may be reaching its end. Running up against the physical constraints of smaller and smaller sizes, traditional silicon chips are not likely to prove useful in solving humanity's greatest challenges, from climate change, to global starvation, to incurable diseases. But the quantum computer, which harnesses the power and complexity of the atomic realm, already promises to be every bit as revolutionary as the transistor and microchip once were.
Who's Raising the Kids?
By Linn, Susan
From a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of commercial marketing on children, a timely investigation into how big tech is hijacking childhood - and what we can do about itEven before the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technologies had become deeply embedded in children's lives, despite a growing body of research detailing the harms of excessive immersion in the unregulated, powerfully seductive, profit-driven world of the "kid-tech" industry.In Who's Raising the Kids? Linn - one of the world's leading experts on the impact of Big Tech and big business on children - explores the roots and consequences of this monumental shift toward a digitized, commercialized childhood, focusing on kids' values, relationships, and learning. From birth, kids have become lucrative fodder for a range of tech, media, and toy companies, from producers of exploitative games and social media platforms to "educational" technology and branded school curricula of dubious efficacy.
Getting Started with 3D Printing
By Kloski, Liza Wallach
The book is written in a casual, conversational style. It is easily accessible to those who have no prior knowledge in 3D printing, yet the book's message is solidly practical, technically accurate, and consumer-relevant. The chapters include contemporary, real-life learning exercises and insights for how to buy, use and maintain 3D printers. It also covers free 3D modeling software, as well as 3D printing services for those who don't want to immediately invest in the purchase of a 3D printer. Particular focus is placed on free and paid resources, the various choices available in 3D printing, and tutorials and troubleshooting guides.
Means of Control
By Tau, Byron
You are being surveilled right now. This sweeping exposé reveals how the U.S. government allied with data brokers, tech companies, and advertisers to monitor us through the phones we carry and the devices in our home.. "A revealing . . . startling . . . timely . . . fascinating, sometimes terrifying examination of the decline of privacy in the digital age." - Kirkus Reviews. "That evening, I was given a glimpse inside a hidden world. . . . An entirely new kind of surveillance program - one designed to track everyone.". For the past five years - ever since a chance encounter at a dinner party - journalistByron Tau has been piecing together a secret story: how the whole of the internet and every digital device in the world became a mechanism of intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring.
iPhone
By Pogue, David
The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11R, and 11Max are faster than ever and have more powerful cameras. With the latest edition of this bestselling guide, you get a funny, gorgeously illustrated guide to the tips, shortcuts, and workarounds that will turn you into an iPhone master.Written by David Pogue - Missing Manual series creator, New York Times columnist, and Emmy-winning tech correspondent for CNBC, CBS, and NPR - this update shows you everything you need to know about new iPhone features and the iOS 13 user interface. Pick up this beautiful full-color book and learn how to get the most out of your iPhone.
"Is This Thing On?"
By Stokes, Abby
Like a personal trainer for the digital age, Abby Stokes is the hand-holding, motivating expert that newbies - specifically older newbies - turn to when they want to become digitally literate. And her book, Is This Thing On?, with over 230,000 in print through previous editions, is as smart, comprehensive, reassuring, and jargon-free as she is: the epitome of user-friendly. And it is now completely revised and updated to keep pace with the fast-changing digital landscape, covering tablets, apps, video streaming, social media, and much more. With the skill and assurance of a teacher who for over 20 years has personally taught computer skills to thousands of seniors and technophobes, Stokes covers it all: How to choose, buy, and start using the computer or tablet that's just right for you, plus how to set everything up for maximum comfort and safety.
C Crash Course
By Lospinoso, Josh
A fast-paced, thorough introduction to modern C++ written for experienced programmers. After reading C++ Crash Course, you'll be proficient in the core language concepts, the C++ Standard Library, and the Boost Libraries.C++ is one of the most widely used languages for real-world software. Wherever performance matters, C++ is the de facto standard. It's the language behind operating systems, embedded devices, games, web browsers, and virtual reality systems. As a C++ developer, you can program efficient software on virtually any platform.C++ Crash Course cuts through the weeds to get you straight to the core of C++17, the most modern revision of the ISO standard. In Part I, you'll learn about all of the essential core language features. Part II introduces you to the C++ Standard Library and Boost Libraries, where you'll learn about high-quality, fully-featured facilities immediately available to you.You'll learn all the major features of modern C++, including:- Fundamental types, reference types, and user-defined types- The object lifecycle including storage duration, memory management, exceptions, call stacks, and the RAII (resource acquisition is initialization) paradigm - Compile-time polymorphism with templates and run-time polymorphism with virtual classes- Advanced expressions, statements, and functions- Smart pointers, data structures, dates and times, numerics, and probability/statistics facilities- Containers, iterators, strings, and algorithms- Streams and files, concurrency, networking, and application development