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Real-Time Structural Health Monitoring of Vibrating Systems
by Basuraj Bhowmik Budhaditya Hazra Vikram PakrashiTargeted at researchers and practitioners in the field of science and engineering, the book provides an introduction to real time structural health monitoring. Most work to date is based on algorithms that require windowing of the accumulated data, this work presents a coherent transition from the traditional batch mode practice to a recently developed array of recursive approaches. The book mainly focuses on the theoretical development and engineering applications of algorithms that are based on first order perturbation (FOP) techniques. The development of real time algorithms aimed at identifying the structural systems and the inflicted damage, online, through theoretical approaches paves the way for an in-depth understanding of the discussed topics. It then continues to demonstrate the solution to a class of inverse dynamic problems through numerically simulated systems. Extensive theoretical derivations supported by mathematical formulations, pivoted around the simple concepts of eigenspace updates, forms the key cornerstone of the book. The output response streaming in real time from multi degree of freedom systems provide key information about the system’s health that is subsequently utilized to identify the modal parameters and the damage, in real time. Damage indicators connotative of the nature, instant and location of damage, identified in a single framework are developed in the light of real time damage case studies. Backed by a comprehensive assortment of experimental test-beds, this book includes demonstrations to emulate real life damage scenarios under controlled laboratory conditions. Applicability of the proposed recursive methods towards practical problems demonstrate their robustness as viable candidates for real time structural health monitoring.
Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis: Tools for the Practitioner
by Phillip A. Laplante Seppo J. OvaskaThe leading text in the field explains step by step how to write software that responds in real time From power plants to medicine to avionics, the world increasingly depends on computer systems that can compute and respond to various excitations in real time. <P><P>The Fourth Edition of Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis gives software designers the knowledge and the tools needed to create real-time software using a holistic, systems-based approach. The text covers computer architecture and organization, operating systems, software engineering, programming languages, and compiler theory, all from the perspective of real-time systems design. The Fourth Edition of this renowned text brings it thoroughly up to date with the latest technological advances and applications. This fully updated edition includes coverage of the following concepts: Multidisciplinary design challenges Time-triggered architectures Architectural advancements Automatic code generation Peripheral interfacing Life-cycle processes The final chapter of the text offers an expert perspective on the future of real-time systems and their applications. The text is self-contained, enabling instructors and readers to focus on the material that is most important to their needs and interests. Suggestions for additional readings guide readers to more in-depth discussions on each individual topic. In addition, each chapter features exercises ranging from simple to challenging to help readers progressively build and fine-tune their ability to design their own real-time software programs. Now fully up to date with the latest technological advances and applications in the field, Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis remains the top choice for students and software engineers who want to design better and faster real-time systems at minimum cost.
The Real Wolf: The Science, Politics, and Economics of Coexisting with Wolves in Modern Times
by Ted B Lyon Will N. GravesThe Real Wolf is an in-depth study of the impact that wolves have had on big game and livestock populations as a federally protected species. Expert authors Ted B. Lyon and Will N. Graves, sift through the myths and misinformation surrounding wolves and present the facts about wolves in modern times. Each chapter in the book is meticulously researched and written by authors, biologists, geneticists, outdoor enthusiasts, and wildlife experts who have spent years studying wolves and wolf behavior. Every section describes a unique aspect of the wolf in the United States. The Real Wolf does not call for the eradication of wolves from the United States but rather advocates a new system of species management that would allow wolves, game animals, and farmers to coexist with one another in a way that is environmentally sustainable.Contributors to this groundbreaking environmental book include:Cat Urbigkit, award-winning wildlife author and photographerDr. Valerius Geist, foremost expert of big game in North AmericaMatthew Cronin, environmental researcher and geneticistRob Arnaud, president of Montana Outfitters and Guides Association
The Real Work of Data Science: Turning data into information, better decisions, and stronger organizations
by Ron S. Kenett Thomas C. RedmanThe essential guide for data scientists and for leaders who must get more from their data science teams The Economist boldly claims that data are now "the world's most valuable resource." But, as Kenett and Redman so richly describe, unlocking that value requires far more than technical excellence. The Real Work of Data Science explores understanding the problems, dealing with quality issues, building trust with decision makers, putting data science teams in the right organizational spots, and helping companies become data-driven. This is the work that spells the difference between a good data scientist and a great one, between a team that makes marginal contributions and one that drives the business, between a company that gains some value from its data and one in which data truly is "the most valuable resource." "These two authors are world-class experts on analytics, data management, and data quality; they've forgotten more about these topics than most of us will ever know. Their book is pragmatic, understandable, and focused on what really counts. If you want to do data science in any capacity, you need to read it."—Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished Professor, Babson College and Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy "I like your book. The chapters address problems that have faced statisticians for generations, updated to reflect today's issues, such as computational Big Data."—Sir David Cox, Warden of Nuffield College and Professor of Statistics, Oxford University "Data science is critical for competitiveness, for good government, for correct decisions. But what is data science? Kenett and Redman give, by far, the best introduction to the subject I have seen anywhere. They address the critical questions of formulating the right problem, collecting the right data, doing the right analyses, making the right decisions, and measuring the actual impact of the decisions. This book should become required reading in statistics and computer science departments, business schools, analytics institutes and, most importantly, by all business managers." —A. Blanton Godfrey, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished University Professor, Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University
Real World AI Ethics for Data Scientists: Practical Case Studies (Chapman & Hall/CRC Data Science Series)
by Nachshon (Sean) Goltz Tracey DowdeswellIn the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, big data is weighed in gold, placing enormous power in the hands of data scientists – the modern AI alchemists. But great power comes with greater responsibility. This book seeks to shape, in a practical, diverse, and inclusive way, the ethical compass of those entrusted with big data. Being practical, this book provides seven real-world case studies dealing with big data abuse. These cases span a range of topics from the statistical manipulation of research in the Cornell food lab through the Facebook user data abuse done by Cambridge Analytica to the abuse of farm animals by AI in a chapter co-authored by renowned philosophers Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse. Diverse and inclusive, given the global nature of this revolution, this book provides case-by-case commentary on the cases by scholars representing non-Western ethical approaches (Buddhist, Jewish, Indigenous, and African) as well as Western approaches (consequentialism, deontology, and virtue). We hope this book will be a lighthouse for those debating ethical dilemmas in this challenging and ever-evolving field.
Real-World Crime Scene Investigation: A Step-by-Step Procedure Manual
by Gabriele SubochReal-World Crime Scene Investigation: A Step-by-Step Procedure Manual is designed as a field guide providing instruction on how to document a crime scene, including sketching, mapping, searching, collecting, and preserving physical evidence. It also addresses how to document a crime scene using photography and videography. It introduces modern fore
Real World Ecology
by Susan Carstenn Martha Nungesser Shili MiaoEcological and environmental research has increased in scope and complexity in the last few decades, from simple systems with a few managed variables to complex ecosystems with many uncontrolled variables. These issues encompass problems that are inadequately addressed using the types of carefully controlled experiments that dominate past ecological research. Contemporary challenges facing ecologists include whole ecosystem responses to planned restoration activities and ecosystem modifications, as well as unplanned catastrophic events such as biological invasions, natural disasters, and global climate changes. Major perturbations implicated in large-scale ecological alterations share important characteristics that challenge traditional experimental design and statistical analyses. These include: * Lack of randomization, replication and independence * Multiple scales of spatial and temporal variability * Complex interactions and system feedbacks. In real world ecology, standard replicated designs are often neither practical nor feasible for large-scale experiments, yet ecologists continue to cling to these same standard designs and related statistical analyses. Case studies that fully elucidate the currently available techniques for conducting large-scale unreplicated analyses are lacking. Real World Ecology: Large-Scale and Long-Term Case Studies and Methods is the first to focus on case studies to demonstrate how ecologists can investigate complex contemporary problems using new and powerful experimental approaches. This collection of case studies showcases innovative experimental designs, analytical options, and interpretation possibilities currently available to theoretical and applied ecologists, practitioners, and biostatisticians. By illustrating how scientists have answered pressing questions about ecosystem restoration, impact and recovery, global warming, conservation, modeling, and biological invasions, this book will broaden the acceptance and application of modern approaches by scientists and encourage further methodological development.
Real-World Software Projects for Computer Science and Engineering Students
by Varun Gupta Anh Nguyen-DucDeveloping projects outside of a classroom setting can be intimidating for students and is not always a seamless process. Real-World Software Projects for Computer Science and Engineering Students is a quick, easy source for tackling such issues. Filling a critical gap in the research literature, the book: Is ideal for academic project supervisors. Helps researchers conduct interdisciplinary research. Guides computer science students on undertaking and implementing research-based projects This book explains how to develop highly complex, industry-specific projects touching on real-world complexities of software developments. It shows how to develop projects for students who have not yet had the chance to gain real-world experience, providing opportunity to become familiar with the skills needed to implement projects using standard development methodologies. The book is also a great source for teachers of undergraduate students in software engineering and computer science as it can help students prepare for the risk and uncertainty that is typical of software development in industrial settings.
La realidad no existe: Cómo entender el mundo cuando entiendes que no entiendes nada
by Jaime Rodríguez de SantiagoEl primer libro del creador del exitoso pódcast Kaizen. ¿Cuánto confías en lo que ves, sientes, piensas o recuerdas? ¿Y si fuera todo mentira? En este libro aprenderás que tu universo no es igual que el de tu perro ni que el del camarón mantis púrpura, que no ves el mar del mismo color que los griegos del siglo vii a.C., que tu pueblo es uno de los rincones más exóticos que existen, aunque no lo creas, o que puedes llegar a recordar cosas horribles que nunca sucedieron. Y es que la realidad en la que vivimos es muy frágil. Nos engañan los sentidos, el cerebro y la cultura; nos engañan hasta las leyes de la física. Pero, a pesar del vértigo que puede generarnos pensarlo, ser conscientes de nuestros filtros y nuestra percepción limitada de las cosas es el primer paso para empezar a entenderlas de verdad. Tras desarrollar BlaBlaCar en España y mientras dirige FreeNow en el sur y oeste de Europa, a Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago le ha dado tiempo de convertirse en un gran divulgador con su exitoso pódcast Kaizen. En estas páginas nos brinda la oportunidad de abrir nuestro foco y descubrir nuevos matices en todo lo que nos rodea, desmontando nuestras aparentes certezas y aportando herramientas y habilidades para construir nuestro mundo con una mirada distinta. Este libro cuenta que...•«Hay muchas cosas que existen, pero no forman parte de nuestra realidad y, a la vez, hay otras muchas que forman parte de nuestra realidad, pero no existen». •«Construimos nuestras explicaciones simplificando la realidad». •«Hay un conjunto de mecanismos psicológicos que nos empujan a no cambiar de opinión, hasta el punto de hacernos manipulables o, incluso, de reescribir nuestros recuerdos».•«La historia de la humanidad es la de una eterna búsqueda de sentido en la que tratamos de explicarnos las reglas del juego. Curiosamente, con cada paso que hemos dado, nos hemos alejado más y más de lo que al principio nos parecía obvio». •«Nos movemos por la vida tomando decisiones y actuando en virtud de lo que sabemos y, como mucho, con un ojo puesto en aquello de lo que somos conscientes que desconocemos. Pero hay una inmensidad que nos es tan completamente ajena que ni siquiera somos conscientes de que existe».
Realism for Realistic People: A New Pragmatist Philosophy of Science
by Hasok ChangIn this innovative book, Hasok Chang constructs a philosophy of science for 'realistic people' interested in understanding and promoting the actual practices of inquiry in science and other knowledge-focused areas of life. Inspired by pragmatist philosophy, he reconceives the very notions of reality and truth on the basis of his concept of the 'operational coherence' of epistemic activities, and offers new pragmatist conceptions of truth and reality as operational ideals achievable in actual scientific practice. Rejecting the version of scientific realism that is concerned with claiming that our theories correspond to an ultimate reality, he proposes instead an 'activist realism': a commitment to do all that we can actually do to improve our knowledge of realities. His book will appeal to scholars and students in philosophy, science and the history of science, and all who are concerned about the place of science and empirical truth in society.
Realism, Value, and Transcendental Arguments between Neopragmatism and Analytic Philosophy (Vienna Circle Institute Library #7)
by Sami PihlströmThe essays collected in this volume and authored by Sami Pihlström emphasize that our relation to the world we live in and seek to represent and get to know better through our practices of conceptualization and inquiry is irreducibly valuational. There is no way of even approaching, let alone resolving, the philosophical issue of realism without drawing due attention to the ways in which human values are inextricably entangled with even the most purely “factual” projects of inquiry we engage in.This entanglement of the factual and the normative is, as explicitly argued in Chapter 7 but implicitly suggested in all the other chapters as well, both pragmatic (practice-embedded and practice-involving) and transcendental (operating at the level of the necessary conditions for the possibility of our representing and cognizing the world in general). The author claims we need to carefully examine the complex relations of realism, value, and transcendental arguments at the intersection of pragmatism and analytic philosophy. This book does so by offering case-studies of various important neopragmatists and philosophers close to the pragmatist tradition, including Hilary Putnam, Nicholas Rescher, Joseph Margolis, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. It appeals to scholars and advanced graduate students focusing on pragmatism and analytic philosophy.
A Realist Approach For Qualitative Research
by Joseph A. MaxwellThis ground-breaking book makes the case for adopting a realist philosophical perspective for qualitative research. Joseph Maxwell argues for critically applying a realist ontology to a number of important theoretical and methodological issues. This can provide a stronger justification for what qualitative researchers do, he contends, and significantly contribute to current theories and practices. The book outlines critical realism and considers its implications for how we conceptualize meaning and culture, causation, and diversity. The author applies critical realist ideas and approaches to the design and methods of qualitative research, and presents two in-depth case studies of projects he conducted, describing how realist (and other) perspectives informed the research, the methods, and the conclusions.
A Realist Theory of Science (Radical Thinkers)
by Roy Bhaskar<i>A Realist Theory of Science</i> is one of the few books that have changed our understanding of the philosophy of science. In this analysis of the natural sciences, with a particular focus on the experimental process itself, Roy Bhaskar provides a definitive critique of the traditional, positivist conception of science and stakes out an alternative, realist position. Since it original publication in 1975, a movement known as ‘Critical Realism’, which is both intellectually diverse and international in scope, has developed on the basis of key concepts outlined in the text. The book has been hailed in many quarters as a ‘Copernican Revolution’ in the study of the nature of science, and the implications of its account have been far-reaching for many fields of the humanities and social sciences.
The realistic empiricism of Mach, James, and Russell
by Erik C. BanksIn the early twentieth century, Ernst Mach, William James, and Bertrand Russell founded a philosophical and scientific movement known as 'neutral monism', based on the view that minds and physical objects are constructed out of elements or events which are neither mental nor physical, but neutral between the two. This movement offers a unified scientific outlook which includes sensations in human experience and events in the world of physics under one roof. In this book Erik C. Banks discusses this important movement as a whole for the first time. He explores the ways in which the three philosophers can be connected, and applies their ideas to contemporary problems in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science - in particular the relation of sensations to brain processes, and the problem of constructing extended bodies in space and time from particular events and causal relations.
Realistic Rationalism
by Jerrold J. KatzJerrold J. Katz develops a new philosophical position integrating realism and rationalism. Realism here means that the objects of study in mathematics and other formal sciences are abstract; rationalism means that our knowledge of them is not empirical.
Realitätstreue, Natürlichkeit, Plausibilität
by Clemens Kuhn-RahloffDieses Buch richtet sich an Ingenieure und Forscher im Bereich der Kommunikationsakustik und anderen Gebieten der Wahrnehmungsforschung. Es bewegt sich im interdisziplinären Feld von Kommunikationsakustik, Informationstheorie und Wahrnehmungspsychologie und liefert einen wesentlichen Beitrag zum Verständnis der akustischen Wahrnehmung. Im Zentrum steht dabei der Begriff der Plausibilität als grundlegender Bestandteil kommunikationsakustischer Technik. Um Eigenschaften von Plausibilitätsurteilen bei der akustischen Wahrnehmung zu von Menschen zu erörtern, stellt das Buch ausgewählte top-down-Prozesse der Wahrnehmung in den Vordergrund, die das Urteilsverhalten beeinflussen. Plausibilität wird im Kontext existierender Modelle für perzeptive Messungen dargestellt und die Anforderungen werden diskutiert, die an den Begriff gestellt werden, wenn er im psychoakustischen Sinn als Messgröße aufgefasst wird.
Reality and Its Order
by Werner HeisenbergAvailable here for the first time in English, "Reality and Its Order" is a remarkable philosophical text by Werner Heisenberg, the father of quantum mechanics and one of the leading scientists of the 20th century. Written during the wartime years and initially distributed only to his family and trusted friends, the essay describes Heisenberg’s philosophical view of how we understand the natural world and our role within it. In this volume, the essay is introduced by the physicist Helmut Rechenberg and annotated by the science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. The content, particularly within its historical context, will be of great interest to many physicists, philosophers and historians of science.
Reality and Measurement in Algebraic Quantum Theory: Nagoya, Japan, March 9-13 2015 (Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics #261)
by Masanao Ozawa Jeremy Butterfield Hans Halvorson Miklós Rédei Yuichiro Kitajima Francesco BuscemiThis volume contains papers based on presentations at the “Nagoya Winter Workshop 2015: Reality and Measurement in Algebraic Quantum Theory (NWW 2015)”, held in Nagoya, Japan, in March 2015. The foundations of quantum theory have been a source of mysteries, puzzles, and confusions, and have encouraged innovations in mathematical languages to describe, analyze, and delineate this wonderland. Both ontological and epistemological questions about quantum reality and measurement have been placed in the center of the mysteries explored originally by Bohr, Heisenberg, Einstein, and Schrödinger. This volume describes how those traditional problems are nowadays explored from the most advanced perspectives. It includes new research results in quantum information theory, quantum measurement theory, information thermodynamics, operator algebraic and category theoretical foundations of quantum theory, and the interplay between experimental and theoretical investigations on the uncertainty principle. This book is suitable for a broad audience of mathematicians, theoretical and experimental physicists, and philosophers of science.
The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World
by Ziya TongFrom one of the world's most engaging science journalists, a groundbreaking and wonder-filled look at the hidden things that shape our lives in unexpected and sometimes dangerous ways.Our naked eyes see only a thin sliver of reality. We are blind in comparison to the X-rays that peer through skin, the mass spectrometers that detect the dead inside the living, or the high-tech surveillance systems that see with artificial intelligence.And we are blind compared to the animals that can see in infrared, or ultraviolet, or in 360-degree vision. These animals live in the same world we do, but they see something quite different when they look around.With all of the curiosity and flair that drives her broadcasting, Ziya Tong illuminates this hidden world, and takes us on a journey to examine ten of humanity's biggest blind spots.First, we are introduced to the blind spots we are all born with, to see how technology reveals an astonishing world that exists beyond our human senses. It is with these new ways of seeing that today's scientists can image everything from an atom to a black hole. In Section Two, our collective blind spots are exposed. It's not that we can't see, Tong reminds us. It's that we don't. In the 21st century, there are cameras everywhere, except where our food comes from, where our energy comes from, and where our waste goes. Being in the dark when it comes to how we survive makes it impossible to navigate our future.Lastly, the scope widens to our civilizational blind spots. Here, the blurred lens of history reveals how we inherit ways of thinking about the world that seem natural or inevitable but are in fact little more than traditions, ways of seeing the world that have come to harm it. This vitally important new book shows how science, and the curiosity that drives it, can help civilization flourish by opening our eyes to the landscape laid out before us. Fast-paced, utterly fascinating, and deeply humane, The Reality Bubble gives voice to the sense we've all had -- that there is more to the world than meets the eye.
Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future
by Donald R. ProtheroA thought-provoking look at science denialism &“for popular science readers who want better to be able to explain and defend science and scientific methods to others&” (Library Journal). The battles over evolution, climate change, childhood vaccinations, and the causes of AIDS, alternative medicine, oil shortages, population growth, and the place of science in our country—all are reaching a fevered pitch. Many people and institutions have exerted enormous efforts to misrepresent or flatly deny demonstrable scientific reality to protect their nonscientific ideology, their power, or their bottom line. To shed light on this darkness, Donald R. Prothero explains the scientific process and why society has come to rely on science not only to provide a better life but also to reach verifiable truths no other method can obtain. He describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, anthropogenic global warming, vaccination, the HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been attacked with totally unscientific arguments and methods. Prothero argues that science deniers pose a serious threat to society, as their attempts to subvert the truth have resulted in widespread scientific ignorance, increased risk of global catastrophes, and deaths due to the spread of diseases that could have been prevented. &“Prothero&’s treatise will give the science-minded something to cheer about, a brief summary of the real data that supports so many critical aspects of modern life.&” —Publishers Weekly
Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
by Carlo Rovelli Erica Segre Simon Carnell<P><P>From the New York Times–bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, a closer look at the mind-bending nature of the universe.What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? <P><P>Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the universe today. <P><P>In elegant and accessible prose, Rovelli takes us on a wondrous journey from Democritus to Albert Einstein, from Michael Faraday to gravitational waves, and from classical physics to his own work in quantum gravity. <P><P>As he shows us how the idea of reality has evolved over time, Rovelli offers deeper explanations of the theories he introduced so concisely in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. <P><P>This book culminates in a lucid overview of quantum gravity, the field of research that explores the quantum nature of space and time, seeking to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. <P><P>Rovelli invites us to imagine a marvelous world where space breaks up into tiny grains, time disappears at the smallest scales, and black holes are waiting to explode—a vast universe still largely undiscovered.
The Reality of Brain Injury: Am I Still Me? (After Brain Injury: Survivor Stories)
by Andrew TillyardA respected medical professional, family man, and keen athlete, Andrew Tillyard had a full and active life until a vehicle crash changed it all. He sustained a serious head injury and was airlifted to the hospital where he worked, having only just survived. In this book, he recounts the raw, uncompromising struggles he faced to rebuild his life. Drawing from regular blog entries written throughout his rehabilitation, Andrew provides an authentic reflection of the lived experience at some of the key stages along the road to recovery, from pragmatic concerns about new daily difficulties to wider concerns about his new place in life. He highlights the specific challenges and support he encountered as a person with a medical background who finds themselves in a healthcare system as a patient. With frank honesty, he takes readers beyond the simple message that things can and do improve, by demonstrating that negativity, bitterness, and occasional rage are all necessary parts of the journey. However, he also describes the many little victories that helped him keep battling on, knowing there is always hope for the future. In particular, he narrates how he learnt to do things the doctors said he would never do: walking, reading, running, and ultimately writing this book. With the perspective of ten years since his injury, the book also charts a longer-term view of the ebb and flow of recovery. This is essential reading for neuropsychologists, neurologists, and other rehabilitation therapists, as well as students in medicine, nursing, allied health, and neuropsychology. This is also a compelling and compassionate story for anyone who has survived a brain injury, who feels – as Andrew did at times – that life might not be worth living anymore, as it can show that there is always hope for the future.
The Reality of the Artificial
by Massimo NegrottiThe human ambition to reproduce and improve natural objects and processes has a long history, and ranges from dreams to actual design, from Icarus's wings to modern robotics and bioengineering. This imperative seems to be linked not only to practical utility but also to our deepest psychology. Nevertheless, reproducing something natural is not an easy enterprise, and the actual replication of a natural object or process by means of some technology is impossible. In this book the author uses the term naturoid to designate any real artifact arising from our attempts to reproduce natural instances. He concentrates on activities that involve the reproduction of something existing in nature, and whose reproduction, through construction strategies which differ from natural ones, we consider to be useful, appealing or interesting. The development of naturoids may be viewed as a distinct class of technological activity, and the concept should be useful for methodological research into establishing the common rules, potentialities and constraints that characterize the human effort to reproduce natural objects. The author shows that a naturoid is always the result of a reduction of the complexity of natural objects, due to an unavoidable multiple selection strategy. Nevertheless, the reproduction process implies that naturoids take on their own new complexity, resulting in a transfiguration of the natural exemplars and their performances, and leading to a true innovation explosion. While the core performances of contemporary naturoids improve, paradoxically the more a naturoid develops the further it moves away from its natural counterpart. Therefore, naturoids will more and more affect our relationships with advanced technologies and with nature, but in ways quite beyond our predictive capabilities. The book will be of interest to design scholars and researchers of technology, cultural studies, anthropology and the sociology of science and technology.
The Reality of Time Flow: Local Becoming in Modern Physics (The Frontiers Collection)
by Richard T. ArthurIt is commonly held that there is no place for the 'now’ in physics, and also that the passing of time is something subjective, having to do with the way reality is experienced but not with the way reality is. Indeed, the majority of modern theoretical physicists and philosophers of physics contend that the passing of time is incompatible with modern physical theory, and excluded in a fundamental description of physical reality. This book provides a forceful rebuttal of such claims. In successive chapters the author explains the historical precedents of the modern opposition to time flow, giving careful expositions of matters relevant to becoming in classical physics, the special and general theories of relativity, and quantum theory, without presupposing prior expertise in these subjects. Analysing the arguments of thinkers ranging from Aristotle, Russell, and Bergson to the proponents of quantum gravity, he contends that the passage of time, understood as a local becoming of events out of those in their past at varying rates, is not only compatible with the theories of modern physics, but implicit in them.
Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
by David J. ChalmersA leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.