Robo Sapiens

Robo Sapiens PDF Author: Peter Menzel
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262632454
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Information about intelligent robots and their makers, including photographis, interviews, behind-the-scenes information and technical date about machines that is easy to understand.

Robo Sapiens

Robo Sapiens PDF Author: Peter Menzel
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262632454
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Information about intelligent robots and their makers, including photographis, interviews, behind-the-scenes information and technical date about machines that is easy to understand.

Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow (Omnibus)

Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow (Omnibus) PDF Author: Toranosuke Shimada
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
ISBN: 1685792901
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
In the future, robots are more than machines. Autonomous "cyber-persons" with A.I. brains are part of society, interacting with humans while developing their own culture. In fact, they may be surpassing humans, as biological homo sapiens have begun to die out and give way to robo sapiens. But are humans truly disappearing, or are robots the newest form of humanity? This millennia-spanning, speculative science fiction manga of interconnected stories, both human and robotic, was awarded the Division Grand Prize at the 2020 Japan Media Arts Festival.

Robo Sapiens Japanicus

Robo Sapiens Japanicus PDF Author: Jennifer Robertson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520283198
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Japan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in mass and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus, Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourse of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots—humanoids, androids, and animaloids—are “imagineered” in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether “civil rights” should be granted to robots. Similarly, she juxtaposes how robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the “normal” body with a deconstruction of the much-invoked Theory of the Uncanny Valley.

Our Molecular Future

Our Molecular Future PDF Author: Douglas Mulhall
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922679
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
This is a vital book for those who care about the environment, society and deploying new technology to check the destructive power of humankind.- Allan Thornton, President, Environmental Investigation Agency, Washington, DC., and recipient of the Albert Schweitzer MedalThis book will shake conventional environmental wisdom to its roots. ... A landmark work that should be read by environmentalists and businesspersons alike.- Patrick Moore, cofounder, Greenpeace; president, GreenspiritIn Our Molecular Future [Mulhall] neatly outlines why our increasing ability to manipulate single atoms and molecules is a concern, and lays out the opportunities and threats this technology presents. And it''s surprisingly readable, unlike most of the nanobabble in the science journals. In the end, as Mulhall admits, he poses more questions than he answers. But that''s a good place to start.-New ScientistI just finished reading Douglas Mulhall''s outstanding new book Our Molecular Future . . . and I highly recommend it. Put this one at the top of your list! . . . In an easy to read format, with very few forays into geek-speak, Mulhall presents his well considered and thoroughly researched theories. Overall, an excellent overview for those who wish to understand how disruptive and enabling technologies may save us from ourselves and from mother nature. And along the way you will learn a lot about how nanoscale technologies may enhance our lives, provide abundance for all, and greatly raise the standard of living for everyone. . . . Rating: five stars out of five.- Rocky Rawstern, Nanotech NowWhat Alvin Toffler''s Future Shock was to the 20th century, Our Molecular Future will be to the 21st century.'What will happen to our jobs, health care, and investments when the molecular revolution hits?How might artificial intelligence transform our lives?How can molecular technologies help us cope with climate changes, earthquakes, and other extreme natural threats?Our Molecular Future explores some intriguing possibilities that answer these questions and many others. Douglas Mulhall describes the exponential changes that are about to be wrought by the nanotechnology and robotic revolutions, which promise to reduce the scale of computing to the nanometerùa billionth of a meterùwhile increasing computing power to almost unimaginable levels.The resulting convergence of genetics, robotics, and artificial intelligence may give us hitherto undreamed-of capacities to transform our environment and ourselves. In the not-so-distant future, our world may include machines that scour our arteries to prevent heart disease, cars and clothes that change color at our whim, exotic products built in our own desktop factories, and enhancements to our personal financial security despite greatly accelerated obsolescence.But while technology is making these fantastic leaps, we may also encounter surprises that throw us into disarray: climate changes, earthquakes, or even a seemingly improbable asteroid collision. These extremes are not the nightmare scenarios of sensationalists, Mulhall stresses, nor are many of them human induced. Instead, they may be part of nature''s cycleùrecurring more often than we''ve thought possible.The good news is that this convergence of catastrophe and technological transformation may work to our advantage. If we''re smart, according to Mulhall, we can use molecular machines to protect ourselves from nature''s worst extremes, and harness their potential benefits to usher in an economic renaissance.This visionary link between future technology and past disasters is a valuable guide for every one of us who wants to be prepared for the twenty-first century.Further Praise for OUR MOLECULAR FUTURE:A provocative and profoundly convincing message from the future.- Graham Hancock, archaeological journalist and author of Fingerprints of the GodsIn a breezy, journalistic style, Our Molecular Future takes us on a tour through some of the issues that will preoccupy ma

Muslim Rulers and Rebels

Muslim Rulers and Rebels PDF Author: Thomas M. McKenna
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520919645
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
In this first ground-level account of the Muslim separatist rebellion in the Philippines, Thomas McKenna challenges prevailing anthropological analyses of nationalism as well as their underlying assumptions about the interplay of culture and power. He examines Muslim separatism against a background of more than four hundred years of political relations among indigenous Muslim rulers, their subjects, and external powers seeking the subjugation of Philippine Muslims. He also explores the motivations of the ordinary men and women who fight in armed separatist struggles and investigates the formation of nationalist identities. A skillful meld of historical detail and ethnographic research, Muslim Rulers and Rebels makes a compelling contribution to the study of protest, rebellion, and revolution worldwide.

The Robosapien Companion

The Robosapien Companion PDF Author: James Samans
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1430200561
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
* Dr. Mark Tilden, the inventor of Robosapien,has provided the author with exclusive access to the Robosapien v2 program. * Provides access to the 20-plus "Easter eggs" (the hidden secrets) programmed into Robosapien. * Over 2 million Robosapiens have sold since 2004.

Hibakusha Cinema

Hibakusha Cinema PDF Author: Mick Broderick
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136883258
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
First Published in 1996. This collection of works is in response to American film scholar and long-term resident of Japan, Donald Richie, words:’ The Japanese failure to come to terms with Hiroshima is one which is shared by everybody in the world today,’ from over thirty years ago, when responding to the Japanese subgenre of cinema which had dealt with the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Three decades on, the question lingers, does this appraisal remain valid? Hibakusha Cinema is an attempt - perhaps momentarily - to reorient critical focus upon a rarely discussed, yet important feature of Japanese cinema. The essays collected here represent a mix of Japanese and western (pan-Pacific) scholarship harnessing multidisciplinary methodologies, ranging from close textual analysis, archival and historical argument, anthropological assessment, literary and film comparative analyses to psychological and ideological hermeneutics.

Barren Cove

Barren Cove PDF Author: Ariel S. Winter
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476797870
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee Ariel S. Winter’s Barren Cove, humans are nearly extinct and robots are now the dominant life-form on Earth. The aged robot Sapien is the recent victim of a debilitating accident. The socially acceptable thing to do in robot culture is deactivate, but Sapien is not ready to end his life. Instead he orders spare parts for himself and rents a remote beach house in order to repair and ponder why he wants to go on. While there, he becomes obsessed with his landlords, the peculiar robot family living on the rambling estate perched at the top of the cliff. He is convinced that the elusive and enigmatic Beachstone, the head of the family, holds the answers to his existential quandary. Invoking the works of the great supernatural and science fiction writers Mary Shelley, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick, Barren Cove is a gothic tale in an unusual future.

Empire of Hope

Empire of Hope PDF Author: David Leheny
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150172908X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Empire of Hope asks how emotions become meaningful in political life. In a diverse array of cases from recent Japanese history, David Leheny shows how sentimental portrayals of the nation and its global role reflect a durable story of hopefulness about the country's postwar path. From the medical treatment of conjoined Vietnamese children, victims of Agent Orange, the global promotion of Japanese popular culture, a tragic maritime accident involving a US Navy submarine, to the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, this story has shaped the way in which political figures, writers, officials, and observers have depicted what the nation feels. Expressions of national emotion do several things: they construct the boundaries of the national body, they inform and discipline appropriate expression, and they depoliticize messy problems that threaten to produce divisive questions about winners and losers. Most important, they work because they appear to be natural, simple and expected expressions of how the nation shares feeling, even when they paper over the extraordinary divergence in how the nation's citizens experience each incident. In making its arguments, Empire of Hope challenges how we read the relations between emotion and politics by arguing—unlike those who build from the neuroscientific turn in the social sciences or those developing affect theory in the humanities—that the focus should be on emotional representation rather than on emotion itself.

East Asian Medicine in Urban Japan

East Asian Medicine in Urban Japan PDF Author: Margaret M. Lock
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520052314
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
"An excellent description and analysis of East Asian medicine ... Based on fieldwork conducted in Japan during 1973 and 1974, which involved the use of a variecy of participant-observer techniques, as well as extensive reading in primary and secondary sources in Japanese and English, Lock's study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of an important dimension of life in Japan. . . In well-written chapters dealing with the philosophical foundations and historical development of East Asian medicine, Japanese attitudes regarding health, illness, and the human body, detailed description of kanpo clinics, herbal pharmacies, acupuncture and moxibustion clinics, shiatsu and anma clinics, East Asian medical schools as well as the interactions between various providers and patients (customers), Lock develops the cultural thesis ... In the process, she provides information on things most visitors to Japan have seen, heard, felt, and smelled but rarely understood."-Journal of Asian Studies "Breaks important new ground . . Lock discusses concrete medical practice and its cultural significance in general. ... rich in comparisons, engrossing to read, and analytically penetrating .... an important and absorbing book. It is an engaging account of how at least some Japanese people respond to universal problems. Most readers will obtain from it their first clear impression of what East Asian medicine actually is and does."-Journal of Japanese Studies "Of considerable significance for comparative cross-cultural studies of medicine, of which this is the best account for a Japanese setting that we now possess." --Monumenta Nipponica "Both Japan specialists and medical anthropologists will be stimulated, challenged, and engaged by this book.' --Medical Anthropology Newsletter