Wiring the World

Wiring the World PDF Author: Simone M. Müller
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
The successful laying of a transatlantic cable in 1866 remade world communications. A message could travel across the ocean in minutes, shrinking the space between continents, cultures, and nations. An eclectic group of engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and media visionaries then developed this technology into a telecommunications system that spread a particular vision of civilization—but not everyone wanted to wire the world the same way. Wiring the World is a cultural and social history that explores how the large Anglo-American cable companies won out over alternative visions. Bitter rivalries emerged over telegram prices, visions for world peace, scientific innovation, and the role of the nation-state. Such struggles determined the growth of cable technology, which in turn influenced world history. Filled with fascinating characters and new insights into pivotal events, Wiring the World traces globalization's diverse paths and close ties to business and politics.

Wiring the World

Wiring the World PDF Author: Simone M. Müller
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

Get Book Here

Book Description
The successful laying of a transatlantic cable in 1866 remade world communications. A message could travel across the ocean in minutes, shrinking the space between continents, cultures, and nations. An eclectic group of engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and media visionaries then developed this technology into a telecommunications system that spread a particular vision of civilization—but not everyone wanted to wire the world the same way. Wiring the World is a cultural and social history that explores how the large Anglo-American cable companies won out over alternative visions. Bitter rivalries emerged over telegram prices, visions for world peace, scientific innovation, and the role of the nation-state. Such struggles determined the growth of cable technology, which in turn influenced world history. Filled with fascinating characters and new insights into pivotal events, Wiring the World traces globalization's diverse paths and close ties to business and politics.

The Digital Silk Road

The Digital Silk Road PDF Author: Jonathan E. Hillman
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063046296
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
An expert on China’s global infrastructure expansion provides an urgent look at the battle to connect and control tomorrow’s networks. From the ocean floor to outer space, China’s Digital Silk Road aims to wire the world and rewrite the global order. Taking readers on a journey inside China’s surveillance state, rural America, and Africa’s megacities, Jonathan Hillman reveals what China’s expanding digital footprint looks like on the ground and explores the economic and strategic consequences of a future in which all routers lead to Beijing. If China becomes the world’s chief network operator, it could reap a commercial and strategic windfall, including many advantages currently enjoyed by the United States. It could reshape global flows of data, finance, and communications to reflect its interests. It could possess an unrivaled understanding of market movements, the deliberations of foreign competitors, and the lives of countless individuals enmeshed in its networks. However, China’s digital dominance is not yet assured. Beijing remains vulnerable in several key dimensions, the United States and its allies have an opportunity to offer better alternatives, and the rest of the world has a voice. But winning the battle for tomorrow’s networks will require the United States to innovate and take greater risks in emerging markets. Networks create large winners, and this is a contest America cannot afford to lose.

Connectome

Connectome PDF Author: Sebastian Seung
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547508174
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
“Accessible, witty . . . an important new researcher, philosopher and popularizer of brain science . . . on par with cosmology’s Brian Greene and the late Carl Sagan” (The Plain Dealer). One of the Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year and a Publishers Weekly “Top Ten in Science” Title Every person is unique, but science has struggled to pinpoint where, precisely, that uniqueness resides. Our genome may determine our eye color and even aspects of our character. But our friendships, failures, and passions also shape who we are. The question is: How? Sebastian Seung is at the forefront of a revolution in neuroscience. He believes that our identity lies not in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cells—our particular wiring. Seung and a dedicated group of researchers are leading the effort to map these connections, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. It’s a monumental effort, but if they succeed, they will uncover the basis of personality, identity, intelligence, memory, and perhaps disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Connectome is a mind-bending adventure story offering a daring scientific and technological vision for understanding what makes us who we are, as individuals and as a species. “This is complicated stuff, and it is a testament to Dr. Seung’s remarkable clarity of exposition that the reader is swept along with his enthusiasm, as he moves from the basics of neuroscience out to the farthest regions of the hypothetical, sketching out a spectacularly illustrated giant map of the universe of man.” —TheNew York Times “An elegant primer on what’s known about how the brain is organized and how it grows, wires its neurons, perceives its environment, modifies or repairs itself, and stores information. Seung is a clear, lively writer who chooses vivid examples.” —TheWashington Post

The World Without Us

The World Without Us PDF Author: Alan Weisman
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312427900
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
A penetrating take on how our planet would respond without the relentless pressure of the human presence

The World's Advance

The World's Advance PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electricity
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description


Electrical Wizard

Electrical Wizard PDF Author: Elizabeth Rusch
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 1536245852
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
“An engaging volume that will encourage both budding scientists and anyone intrigued by the creative process.” — Kirkus Reviews Here is the story of the ambitious young man who brought life-changing ideas to America, despite the obstructive efforts of his hero-turned-rival, Thomas Edison. From using alternating current to light up the Chicago World’s Fair to harnessing Niagara Falls to electrify New York City and beyond, Nikola Tesla was a revolutionary ahead of his time. Established biographer Elizabeth Rusch sheds light on this extraordinary figure, while fine artist Oliver Dominguez brings his life and inventions to vivid color. Back matter includes additional information about Tesla, scientific notes and explanations, source notes, a bibliography, and suggestions for further reading.

World Wide Mind

World Wide Mind PDF Author: Michael Chorost
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439141207
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
What if digital communication felt as real as being touched? This question led Michael Chorost to explore profound new ideas triggered by lab research around the world, and the result is the book you now hold. Marvelous and momentous, World Wide Mind takes mind-to-mind communication out of the realm of science fiction and reveals how we are on the verge of a radical new understanding of human interaction. Chorost himself has computers in his head that enable him to hear: two cochlear implants. Drawing on that experience, he proposes that our Paleolithic bodies and our Pentium chips could be physically merged, and he explores the technologies that could do it. He visits engineers building wearable computers that allow people to be online every waking moment, and scientists working on implanted chips that would let paralysis victims communicate. Entirely new neural interfaces are being developed that let computers read and alter neural activity in unprecedented detail. But we all know how addictive the Internet is. Chorost explains the addiction: he details the biochemistry of what makes you hunger to touch your iPhone and check your email. He proposes how we could design a mind-to-mind technology that would let us reconnect with our bodies and enhance our relationships. With such technologies, we could achieve a collective consciousness—a World Wide Mind. And it would be humankind’s next evolutionary step. With daring and sensitivity, Chorost writes about how he learned how to enhance his own relationships by attending workshops teaching the power of touch. He learned how to bring technology and communication together to find true love, and his story shows how we can master technology to make ourselves more human rather than less. World Wide Mind offers a new understanding of how we communicate, what we need to connect fully with one another, and how our addiction to email and texting can be countered with technologies that put us—literally—in each other’s minds.

The World's Work

The World's Work PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 884

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Book Description
A history of our time.

Don't Watch This

Don't Watch This PDF Author: Michael Rosenblum
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510758763
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
An unfiltered look at the addictive properties of social media, TV, and movies on our culture, with strategies to help you reclaim control over your life. Today, the average person spends an astonishing eight hours a day watching TV or videos online. Watching social media stories, movies, and TV is now our number one activity, outpacing everything else that we do, including sleep. This habit has an incredibly powerful influence on our lives – from what we think to what we buy to whom we elect. Media are more than entertainment; they are a drug. This media addiction wreaks havoc on our mental health, causing increased stress, depression, and anxiety, and ruining personal relationships. It also drives us deeper and deeper into debt. In Don’t Watch This, former TV producer and Ivy League professor Michael Rosenblum reveals the hidden psychology driving us to media addiction. He describes why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off our devices, but about learning how to use media for good. Rosenblum reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of you. Inside, you’ll learn: How to take control of the media How to use your phone’s camera to spread stories worth telling How having a former reality TV star in the Oval Office has changed the scope of media Why posting selfies on Instagram isn’t going to change the world, and what you can post instead Enlightening and empowering, Don’t Watch This provides actionable, revolutionary techniques and insight to control your media addiction—helping you live the life you really want.

Innate

Innate PDF Author: Kevin J. Mitchell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691204152
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"What makes you the way you are--and what makes each of us different from everyone else? In Innate, leading neuroscientist and popular science blogger Kevin Mitchell traces human diversity and individual differences to their deepest level: in the wiring of our brains. Deftly guiding us through important new research, including his own groundbreaking work, he explains how variations in the way our brains develop before birth strongly influence our psychology and behavior throughout our lives, shaping our personality, intelligence, sexuality, and even the way we perceive the world. We all share a genetic program for making a human brain, and the program for making a brain like yours is specifically encoded in your DNA. But, as Mitchell explains, the way that program plays out is affected by random processes of development that manifest uniquely in each person, even identical twins. The key insight of Innate is that the combination of these developmental and genetic variations creates innate differences in how our brains are wired--differences that impact all aspects of our psychology--and this insight promises to transform the way we see the interplay of nature and nurture. Innate also explores the genetic and neural underpinnings of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, and how our understanding of these conditions is being revolutionized. In addition, the book examines the social and ethical implications of these ideas and of new technologies that may soon offer the means to predict or manipulate human traits. Compelling and original, Innate will change the way you think about why and how we are who we are."--Provided by the publisher.