Parables for the Virtual

Parables for the Virtual PDF Author: Brian Massumi
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822383578
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Although the body has been the focus of much contemporary cultural theory, the models that are typically applied neglect the most salient characteristics of embodied existence—movement, affect, and sensation—in favor of concepts derived from linguistic theory. In Parables for the Virtual Brian Massumi views the body and media such as television, film, and the Internet, as cultural formations that operate on multiple registers of sensation beyond the reach of the reading techniques founded on the standard rhetorical and semiotic models. Renewing and assessing William James's radical empiricism and Henri Bergson's philosophy of perception through the filter of the post-war French philosophy of Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault, Massumi links a cultural logic of variation to questions of movement, affect, and sensation. If such concepts are as fundamental as signs and significations, he argues, then a new set of theoretical issues appear, and with them potential new paths for the wedding of scientific and cultural theory. Replacing the traditional opposition of literal and figural with new distinctions between stasis and motion and between actual and virtual, Parables for the Virtual tackles related theoretical issues by applying them to cultural mediums as diverse as architecture, body art, the digital art of Stelarc, and Ronald Reagan's acting career. The result is an intriguing combination of cultural theory, science, and philosophy that asserts itself in a crystalline and multi-faceted argument.

Parables for the Virtual

Parables for the Virtual PDF Author: Brian Massumi
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822383578
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
Although the body has been the focus of much contemporary cultural theory, the models that are typically applied neglect the most salient characteristics of embodied existence—movement, affect, and sensation—in favor of concepts derived from linguistic theory. In Parables for the Virtual Brian Massumi views the body and media such as television, film, and the Internet, as cultural formations that operate on multiple registers of sensation beyond the reach of the reading techniques founded on the standard rhetorical and semiotic models. Renewing and assessing William James's radical empiricism and Henri Bergson's philosophy of perception through the filter of the post-war French philosophy of Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault, Massumi links a cultural logic of variation to questions of movement, affect, and sensation. If such concepts are as fundamental as signs and significations, he argues, then a new set of theoretical issues appear, and with them potential new paths for the wedding of scientific and cultural theory. Replacing the traditional opposition of literal and figural with new distinctions between stasis and motion and between actual and virtual, Parables for the Virtual tackles related theoretical issues by applying them to cultural mediums as diverse as architecture, body art, the digital art of Stelarc, and Ronald Reagan's acting career. The result is an intriguing combination of cultural theory, science, and philosophy that asserts itself in a crystalline and multi-faceted argument.

Under the Net

Under the Net PDF Author: Iris Murdoch
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101495804
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Iris Murdoch's debut—a comic novel about work and love, wealth and fame Jake Donaghue, garrulous artist, meets Hugo Bellfounder, silent philosopher. Jake, hack writer and sponger, now penniless flat-hunter, seeks out an old girlfriend, Anna Quentin, and her glamorous actress sister, Sadie. He resumes acquaintance with the formidable Hugo, whose ‘philosophy’ he once presumptuously dared to interpret. These meetings involve Jake and his eccentric servant-companion, Finn, in a series of adventures that include the kidnapping of a film-star dog and a political riot on a film set of ancient Rome. Jake, fascinated, longs to learn Hugo’s secret. Perhaps Hugo’s secret is Hugo himself? Admonished, enlightened, Jake hopes at last to become a real writer.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built PDF Author: Becky Chambers
Publisher: Tordotcom
ISBN: 1250236223
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
Winner of the Hugo Award! In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, bestselling Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk and Robot series, gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They're going to need to ask it a lot. Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Idea Man

Idea Man PDF Author: Paul Allen
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241953715
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
What's it like to start a revolution? How do you build the biggest tech company in the world? And why do you walk away from it all? Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft. Together he and Bill Gates turned an idea - writing software - into a company and then an entire industry. This is the story of how it came about: two young mavericks who turned technology on its head, the bitter battles as each tried to stamp his vision on the future and the ruthless brilliance and fierce commitment.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism PDF Author: Shoshana Zuboff
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610395700
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 683

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Book Description
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.

Being Heumann

Being Heumann PDF Author: Judith Heumann
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 080701950X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for Nonfiction "...an essential and engaging look at recent disability history."— Buzzfeed One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism—from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington—Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann’s memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong.

The Oral History Reader

The Oral History Reader PDF Author: Robert Perks
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415133521
Category : Historiography
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
Arranged in five thematic parts, "The Oral History Reader" covers key debates in the post-war development of oral history.

Deconstructing Development Discourse

Deconstructing Development Discourse PDF Author: Andrea Cornwall
Publisher: Practical Action Pub
ISBN: 9781853397066
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Andrea Cornwall is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. --

Mapping Cyberspace

Mapping Cyberspace PDF Author: Martin Dodge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113463899X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Mapping Cyberspace is a ground-breaking geographic exploration and critical reading of cyberspace, and information and communication technologies. The book: * provides an understanding of what cyberspace looks like and the social interactions that occur there * explores the impacts of cyberspace, and information and communication technologies, on cultural, political and economic relations * charts the spatial forms of virutal spaces * details empirical research and examines a wide variety of maps and spatialisations of cyberspace and the information society * has a related website at http://www.MappingCyberspace.com. This book will be a valuable addition to the growing body of literature on cyberspace and what it means for the future.

Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung Fu Cavemen from the Future

Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung Fu Cavemen from the Future PDF Author: Dav Pilkey
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545513162
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
Tra-la-laaa! Dav Pilkey -- ahem -- we mean, George and Harold, the authors of SUPER DIAPER BABY, are back with their second epic novel! Meet Ook and Gluk, the stars of this sensationally silly graphic novel from the creators of Captain Underpants! It's 500,001 BC, and Ook and Gluk's hometown of Caveland, Ohio, is under attack by an evil corporation from the future. When Ook, Gluk, and their little dinosaur pal Lily are pulled through a time portal to 2222, they discover a future world that's even more devastated than their own. Luckily, they find a friend in Master Wong, a martial arts instructor who trains them in the ways of kung fu. Now all they have to do is travel back in time 502,223 years and save the day!