God, Human, Animal, Machine

God, Human, Animal, Machine PDF Author: Meghan O'Gieblyn
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525562710
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States. • "At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues awaiting our future." —Phillip Lopate “[A] truly fantastic book.”—Ezra Klein For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—urgently require rethinking. Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.

God, Human, Animal, Machine

God, Human, Animal, Machine PDF Author: Meghan O'Gieblyn
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525562710
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States. • "At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues awaiting our future." —Phillip Lopate “[A] truly fantastic book.”—Ezra Klein For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—urgently require rethinking. Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.

Interior States

Interior States PDF Author: Meghan O'Gieblyn
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385543840
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Winner of The Believer Book Award for Nonfiction "Meghan O'Gieblyn's deep and searching essays are written with a precise sort of skepticism and a slight ache in the heart. A first-rate and riveting collection." --Lorrie Moore A fresh, acute, and even profound collection that centers around two core (and related) issues of American identity: faith, in general and the specific forms Christianity takes in particular; and the challenges of living in the Midwest when culture is felt to be elsewhere. What does it mean to be a believing Christian and a Midwesterner in an increasingly secular America where the cultural capital is retreating to both coasts? The critic and essayist Meghan O'Gieblyn was born into an evangelical family, attended the famed Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for a time before she had a crisis of belief, and still lives in the Midwest, aka "Flyover Country." She writes of her "existential dizziness, a sense that the rest of the world is moving while you remain still," and that rich sense of ambivalence and internal division inform the fifteen superbly thoughtful and ironic essays in this collection. The subjects of these essays range from the rebranding (as it were) of Hell in contemporary Christian culture ("Hell"), a theme park devoted to the concept of intelligent design ("Species of Origin"), the paradoxes of Christian Rock ("Sniffing Glue"), Henry Ford's reconstructed pioneer town of Greenfield Village and its mixed messages ("Midwest World"), and the strange convergences of Christian eschatology and the digital so-called Singularity ("Ghosts in the Cloud"). Meghan O'Gieblyn stands in relation to her native Midwest as Joan Didion stands in relation to California - which is to say a whole-hearted lover, albeit one riven with ambivalence at the same time.

Animal Cruelty and Freedom of Speech

Animal Cruelty and Freedom of Speech PDF Author: Abigail Perdue
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1557536333
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
A collaboration between an attorney and an animal protection advocate, this work utilizes the extremely controversial and high-profile "crush video" case, US v. Stevens, to explore how American society attempts to balance the protection of free speech and the prevention of animal cruelty. Starting from the detailed case study of a single prominent ruling, the authors provide a masterful survey of important issues facing society in the area of animal welfare. The Stevens case included various "hot topic" elements connected to the role of government as arbiter of public morality, including judicial attitudes to sexual deviance and dogfighting. Because it is one of only two animal rights cases that the US Supreme Court has handled, and the only case discussing the competing interests of free speech and animal cruelty, it will be an important topic for discussion in constitutional and animal law courses for decades to come. The Stevens case arose from the first conviction under 18 USC § 48 (Section 48), a federal law enacted in 1999, which criminalized the creation, sale, and/or possession of certain depictions of animal cruelty. The US Congress intended Section 48 to end the creation and interstate trafficking of depictions of animal cruelty in which animals are abused or even killed for entertainment's sake. Proponents of Section 48 predicted that countless benefits to both humans and animals would flow from its enforcement. Opponents of the law argued that it was too far-reaching and would stifle protected speech. Critics of Section 48 appeared to have prevailed when the US Supreme Court struck the law down as unconstitutionally overbroad. Although a law tailored to address the Supreme Court's concerns was quickly enacted, the free speech/animal cruelty controversy is far from over.

The Human Machine

The Human Machine PDF Author: Arnold Bennett
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3734094658
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original: The Human Machine by Arnold Bennett

Thinking Animals

Thinking Animals PDF Author: Paul Shepard
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820342343
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
In a world increasingly dominated by human beings, the survival of other species becomes more and more questionable. In this brilliant book, Paul Shepard offers a provocative alternative to an "us or them" mentality, proposing that other species are integral to humanity's evolution and exist at the core of our imagination. This trait, he argues, compels us to think of animals in order to be human. Without other living species by which to measure ourselves, Shepard warns, we would be less mature, care less for and be more careless of all life, including our own kind.

Thinking Machines

Thinking Machines PDF Author: Luke Dormehl
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1524704415
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A fascinating look at Artificial Intelligence, from its humble Cold War beginnings to the dazzling future that is just around the corner. When most of us think about Artificial Intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways, the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate. In Thinking Machines, technology journalist Luke Dormehl takes you through the history of AI and how it makes up the foundations of the machines that think for us today. Furthermore, Dormehl speculates on the incredible--and possibly terrifying--future that's much closer than many would imagine. This remarkable book will invite you to marvel at what now seems commonplace and to dream about a future in which the scope of humanity may need to broaden itself to include intelligent machines.

Humans, Animals, Machines

Humans, Animals, Machines PDF Author: Glen A. Mazis
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791475560
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Examines the overlap and blurring of boundaries among humans, animals, and machines.

The Human Zoo

The Human Zoo PDF Author: Desmond Morris
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409020622
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
A must-read for anyone who has ever wondered why people do what they do, from the popular author of The Naked Ape. This study concerns the city dweller. Morris finds remarkable similarities with captive zoo animals and looks closely at the aggressive, sexual and parental behaviour of the human species under the stresses and pressures of urban living. ‘Compelling and absorbing...Morris is concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture, as it is expressed in power, sex, status and war games’ New York Times

Anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism PDF Author: Rob Boddice
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004214941
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Anthropocentrism is a charge of human chauvinism and an acknowledgement of human ontological boundaries. Anthropocentrism has provided order and structure to humans’ understanding of the world, while unavoidably expressing the limits of that understanding. This collection explores the assumptions behind the label ‘anthropocentrism’, critically enquiring into the meaning of ‘human’. It addresses the epistemological and ontological problems of charges of anthropocentrism, questioning whether all human views are inherently anthropocentric. In addition, it examines the potential scope for objective, empathetic, relational, or ‘other’ views that trump anthropocentrism. With a principal focus on ethical questions concerning animals, the environment and the social, the essays ultimately cohere around the question of the non-human, be it animal, ecosystem, god, or machine.

Artificial Intelligence for Big Data

Artificial Intelligence for Big Data PDF Author: Anand Deshpande
Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1788476018
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Build next-generation Artificial Intelligence systems with Java Key Features Implement AI techniques to build smart applications using Deeplearning4j Perform big data analytics to derive quality insights using Spark MLlib Create self-learning systems using neural networks, NLP, and reinforcement learning Book Description In this age of big data, companies have larger amount of consumer data than ever before, far more than what the current technologies can ever hope to keep up with. However, Artificial Intelligence closes the gap by moving past human limitations in order to analyze data. With the help of Artificial Intelligence for big data, you will learn to use Machine Learning algorithms such as k-means, SVM, RBF, and regression to perform advanced data analysis. You will understand the current status of Machine and Deep Learning techniques to work on Genetic and Neuro-Fuzzy algorithms. In addition, you will explore how to develop Artificial Intelligence algorithms to learn from data, why they are necessary, and how they can help solve real-world problems. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to implement various Artificial Intelligence algorithms for your big data systems and integrate them into your product offerings such as reinforcement learning, natural language processing, image recognition, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic systems. What you will learn Manage Artificial Intelligence techniques for big data with Java Build smart systems to analyze data for enhanced customer experience Learn to use Artificial Intelligence frameworks for big data Understand complex problems with algorithms and Neuro-Fuzzy systems Design stratagems to leverage data using Machine Learning process Apply Deep Learning techniques to prepare data for modeling Construct models that learn from data using open source tools Analyze big data problems using scalable Machine Learning algorithms Who this book is for This book is for you if you are a data scientist, big data professional, or novice who has basic knowledge of big data and wish to get proficiency in Artificial Intelligence techniques for big data. Some competence in mathematics is an added advantage in the field of elementary linear algebra and calculus.