Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Literary Theory for Robots - How...

  Dennis Yi Tenen

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  Literary Theory for Robots reveals the hidden history of modern machine intelligence, taking listeners on a spellbinding journey from medieval Arabic philosophy to visions of a universal language, past Hollywood fiction factories, and missile defense systems trained on Russian folktales. In this provocative reflection on the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides crucial context for recent developments in AI, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology. 
   
   
   
  Intelligence expressed through technology should not be mistaken for a magical genie, capable of self-directed thought or action. Rather, in highly original and effervescent prose with a generous dose of wit, Yi Tenen asks us to read past the artifice—to better perceive the mechanics of collaborative work. Something as simple as a spell-checker or a grammar-correction tool, embedded in every word-processor, represents the culmination of a shared human effort, spanning centuries. 
   
   
   
  With its masterful blend of history, technology, and philosophy, Yi Tenen's work ultimately urges us to view AI as a matter of labor history, celebrating the long-standing cooperation between authors and engineers.

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  In Praise of Floods - The...

  James C. Scott

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  James C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered. It is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees. In demonstrating these threats to the riverine world, award-winning author James C. Scott examines the life history of a particular river, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) of Burma, the heartland and superhighway of Burman culture. Scott opens our understanding of rivers to encompass their entirety—tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, backwaters, eddies, periodic marshlands, and the assemblage of life forms dependent on rivers for their existence and well-being. For anyone interested in the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration, rivers offer a striking example of the consequences of human intervention in trying to control and domesticate a natural process, the complexity and variability of which we barely understand.

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  The World As We Knew It -...

  Tajja Isen, Amy Brady

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  Nineteen leading literary writers from around the globe offer timely, haunting first-person reflections on how climate change has altered their lives 
   
   
   
  In this riveting anthology, leading literary writers reflect on how climate change has altered their lives, revealing the personal and haunting consequences of this global threat. 
   
   
    
  In the opening essay, National Book Award finalist Lydia Millet mourns the end of the Saguaro cacti in her Arizona backyard due to drought. Later, Omar El Akkad contemplates how the rise of temperatures in the Middle East is destroying his home and the wellspring of his art. Gabrielle Bellot reflects on how a bizarre lionfish invasion devastated the coral reef near her home in the Caribbean—a precursor to even stranger events to come. Traveling through Nebraska, Terese Svoboda witnesses cougars running across highways and showing up in kindergartens. 
   
   
    
  As the stories unfold—from Antarctica to Australia, New Hampshire to New York—an intimate portrait of a climate-changed world emerges, captured by writers whose lives jostle against incongruous memories of familiar places that have been transformed in startling ways.

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  Yeast Infection - Causes...

  Lilly Richardsen

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  Yeast infections are a common and often uncomfortable condition caused by an overgrowth of yeast, a type of fungus that naturally resides in the human body. While yeast is typically harmless in balanced amounts, certain conditions can trigger an overproduction, leading to infection. The most common culprit behind yeast infections is Candida albicans, though other species of Candida can also be responsible. This chapter explores what yeast infections are, their various types, and the role of Candida in the human body. 
  A yeast infection occurs when the natural balance of microorganisms is disrupted. In a healthy body, bacteria such as Lactobacillus help keep yeast levels in check. However, factors like antibiotic use, hormonal changes, a weakened immune system, and high sugar intake can upset this balance, allowing yeast to multiply rapidly. The most well-known type of yeast infection is vaginal candidiasis, affecting a significant number of women at some point in their lives. Symptoms typically include itching, burning, redness, swelling, and a thick, white discharge. Although vaginal yeast infections are the most common, yeast infections can also affect other parts of the body, including the mouth (oral thrush), skin folds, and the digestive tract. 
  Yeast infections are not limited to women; men and children can also be affected. Oral thrush is particularly common in infants and individuals with compromised immune systems, such as those undergoing chemotherapy or living with HIV/AIDS. Skin yeast infections often occur in warm, moist areas like under the breasts, in the groin, or between toes, leading to red, itchy rashes that can be difficult to manage without proper treatment. In severe cases, yeast infections can become systemic, affecting internal organs and becoming life-threatening, though this is rare and usually occurs in individuals with severely weakened immune systems.

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  The Word of Dog - What Our...

  Mark Rowlands

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  A heartwarming philosophical meditation on how to live a fulfilling life—inspired by the inherent happiness of dogs. 
   
   
   
  If you have spent any part of your life with a dog, you may have found certain questions popping, unbidden, into your mind: Is my dog living a fulfilled life? Is my dog a good dog? Does my dog love me? Addressing these questions compels you to confront not just your dog's life but yours as well—to think about what fulfillment, and meaning, in life really is. 
   
   
   
  In The Word of Dog, philosopher Mark Rowlands explores these questions and suggests that in dogs we can see hints—faint, shrouded, but discernible—of what a better way of living might look like. Perhaps none of us can be happy in the way a dog can, but The Word of Dog shows us we could do a lot better than we're doing simply by listening to the unspoken wisdom our dogs reveal to us every day of their happy, uncomplicated lives.

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  NASA Programs in the 1970s: The...

  Editors Charles River

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  Space exploration was always an expensive business, and throughout NASA’s history, the agency has had to justify to Congress its need for every dollar it intended to spend. This problem has helped NASA to be more careful and more creative with the money they did receive, and scientists had to justify the equipment they wanted to include on each space probe. They had to justify the size and the power demand, too. If they wanted too much, the entire mission might be scrubbed, and all their work would have been for naught. This made planning and designs leaner and more efficient, as scientists and engineers were more careful with their recommendations. 
  In fact, the Pioneer program was the most diversified sequence of any of NASA’s programs, and though they’re now remembered for being among the first probes in history to reach the Outer Solar System, the elaborate planning changed goals several times over several years before resulting in historic successes. NASA had wanted to do a Grand Tour of the Solar System toward the end of the 1970s to take advantage of the scheduled alignment of planets, which meant the Pioneer missions were meant to be test runs prior to the main events (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2), and a great many things discovered by Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 were essential to the successful planning of the Voyager probes. 
  Voyager 1 and 2 have done far more than accomplish their original missions. In fact, they are now exploring interstellar space, far beyond the outer planets in the cold wasteland between the stars. Each spacecraft carries a copy of a golden record which contains an introduction to Earth, should some alien civilization happen to encounter either Voyager 1 or Voyager 2. In the first Star Trek movie, writers imagined just that, creating a story of a Voyager spacecraft being captured and adapted for its own uses.

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