A City Is Not a Computer

A City Is Not a Computer PDF Author: Shannon Mattern
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691208050
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book offers a reassessment of "smart cities" and reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers. -- Publisher's description.

A City Is Not a Computer

A City Is Not a Computer PDF Author: Shannon Mattern
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069122675X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models. Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the "city-as-computer" metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs. Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.

A City Is Not a Computer

A City Is Not a Computer PDF Author: Shannon Mattern
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691208050
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book offers a reassessment of "smart cities" and reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers. -- Publisher's description.

Artificial Unintelligence

Artificial Unintelligence PDF Author: Meredith Broussard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026253701X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
A guide to understanding the inner workings and outer limits of technology and why we should never assume that computers always get it right. In Artificial Unintelligence, Meredith Broussard argues that our collective enthusiasm for applying computer technology to every aspect of life has resulted in a tremendous amount of poorly designed systems. We are so eager to do everything digitally—hiring, driving, paying bills, even choosing romantic partners—that we have stopped demanding that our technology actually work. Broussard, a software developer and journalist, reminds us that there are fundamental limits to what we can (and should) do with technology. With this book, she offers a guide to understanding the inner workings and outer limits of technology—and issues a warning that we should never assume that computers always get things right. Making a case against technochauvinism—the belief that technology is always the solution—Broussard argues that it's just not true that social problems would inevitably retreat before a digitally enabled Utopia. To prove her point, she undertakes a series of adventures in computer programming. She goes for an alarming ride in a driverless car, concluding “the cyborg future is not coming any time soon”; uses artificial intelligence to investigate why students can't pass standardized tests; deploys machine learning to predict which passengers survived the Titanic disaster; and attempts to repair the U.S. campaign finance system by building AI software. If we understand the limits of what we can do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we should do with it to make the world better for everyone.

What a City Is For

What a City Is For PDF Author: Matt Hern
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262334070
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
An investigation into gentrification and displacement, focusing on the case of Portland, Oregon's systematic dispersal of black residents from its Albina neighborhood. Portland, Oregon, is one of the most beautiful, livable cities in the United States. It has walkable neighborhoods, bike lanes, low-density housing, public transportation, and significant green space—not to mention craft-beer bars and locavore food trucks. But liberal Portland is also the whitest city in the country. This is not circumstance; the city has a long history of officially sanctioned racialized displacement that continues today. Over the last two and half decades, Albina—the one major Black neighborhood in Portland—has been systematically uprooted by market-driven gentrification and city-renewal policies. African Americans in Portland were first pushed into Albina and then contained there through exclusionary zoning, predatory lending, and racist real estate practices. Since the 1990s, they've been aggressively displaced—by rising housing costs, developers eager to get rid of low-income residents, and overt city policies of gentrification. Displacement and dispossessions are convulsing cities across the globe, becoming the dominant urban narratives of our time. In What a City Is For, Matt Hern uses the case of Albina, as well as similar instances in New Orleans and Vancouver, to investigate gentrification in the twenty-first century. In an engaging narrative, effortlessly mixing anecdote and theory, Hern questions the notions of development, private property, and ownership. Arguing that home ownership drives inequality, he wants us to disown ownership. How can we reimagine the city as a post-ownership, post-sovereign space? Drawing on solidarity economics, cooperative movements, community land trusts, indigenous conceptions of alternative sovereignty, the global commons movement, and much else, Hern suggests repudiating development in favor of an incrementalist, non-market-driven unfolding of the city.

The Image of the City

The Image of the City PDF Author: Kevin Lynch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262620017
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.

Computer Engineering for Babies

Computer Engineering for Babies PDF Author: Chase Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781735208701
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
An introduction to computer engineering for babies. Learn basic logic gates with hands on examples of buttons and an output LED.

B C, Before Computers

B C, Before Computers PDF Author: Stephen Robertson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The idea that the digital age has revolutionized our day-to-day experience of the world is nothing new, and has been amply recognized by cultural historians. In contrast, Stephen Robertson's BC: Before Computers is a work which questions the idea that the mid-twentieth century saw a single moment of rupture. It is about all the things that we had to learn, invent, and understand - all the ways we had to evolve our thinking - before we could enter the information technology revolution of the second half of the twentieth century. Its focus ranges from the beginnings of data processing, right back to such originary forms of human technology as the development of writing systems, gathering a whole history of revolutionary moments in the development of information technologies into a single, although not linear narrative. Treading the line between philosophy and technical history, Robertson draws on his extensive technical knowledge to produce a text which is both thought-provoking and accessible to a wide range of readers. The book is wide in scope, exploring the development of technologies in such diverse areas as cryptography, visual art and music, and the postal system. Through all this, it does not simply aim to tell the story of computer developments but to show that those developments rely on a long history of humans creating technologies for increasingly sophisticated methods of manipulating information. Through a clear structure and engaging style, it brings together a wealth of informative and conceptual explorations into the history of human technologies, and avoids assumptions about any prior knowledge on the part of the reader. As such the expert and the general reader alike will find it of interest.

The Solarians

The Solarians PDF Author: Norman Spinrad
Publisher: Gateway
ISBN: 0575117192
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
Earth was programmed for destruction in the mad war of the computer worlds - unless the Solarians could stop the machines! Three hundred years ago the Solarians retreated to the safety of their Fortress as Earth became embroiled in the first of the computer wars with the dread Duglaari Empire. The Solarians' final word to all humanity was a promise to reappear one day and bring it to victory. Suddenly, with Earth on the verge of becoming a helpless victim of the merciless Duglaars, the Solarians made contact with Fleet Commander Jay Palmer. It was an offer of aid. But the Solarians' plan was so cunning, so fraught with danger, that Jay faced the greatest decision of his life - and that of Earth's: Accept their ingenious strategy as a stroke of genius or reject it as a trick designed to destroy human life forever.

Hertz Corporation V. City of Chicago

Hertz Corporation V. City of Chicago PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description


Redemption of a City

Redemption of a City PDF Author: James D. Rasmussen
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532023855
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
Redemption of a City is a fictional, futuristic look at consequences of a technically and economically challenged present and future contentment. The story is fast-paced with a look at controversial subject matters and situations, based upon the fictional aspects of the story. Stephanie is an Investigative Journalist in the city of Chicago in the year 2056. She is investigating the events of the past 44 years that have led to the current state of her city. She exposes corruption and deception. But her biggest discovery is unbelievable. Will the story end here? The sequel to Redemption of a City, entitled The Search for Them, will be released in fall 2017.