God of the Machine

God of the Machine PDF Author: Isabel Paterson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351517155
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The God of the Machine presents an original theory of history and a bold defense of individualism as the source of moral and political progress. When it was published in 1943, Isabel Paterson's work provided fresh intellectual support for the endangered American belief in individual rights, limited government, and economic freedom. The crisis of today's collectivized nations would not have surprised Paterson; in The God of the Machine, she had explored the reasons for collectivism's failure. Her book placed her in the vanguard of the free-enterprise movement now sweeping the world.Paterson sees the individual creative mind as the dynamo of history, and respect for the individual's God-given rights as the precondition for the enormous release of energy that produced the modern world. She sees capitalist institutions as the machinery through which human energy works, and government as a device properly used merely to cut off power to activities that threaten personal liberty.Paterson applies her general theory to particular issues in contemporary life, such as education, .social welfare, and the causes of economic distress. She severely criticizes all but minimal application of government, including governmental interventions that most people have long taken for granted. The God of the Machine offers a challenging perspective on the continuing, worldwide debate about the nature of freedom, the uses of power, and the prospects of human betterment.Stephen Cox's substantial introduction to The God of the Machine is a comprehensive and enlightening account of Paterson's colorful life and work. He describes The God of the Machine as "not just theory, but rhapsody, satire, diatribe, poetic narrative." Paterson's work continues to be relevant because "it exposes the moral and practical failures of collectivism, failures that are now almost universally acknowledged but are still far from universally understo

God of the Machine

God of the Machine PDF Author: Isabel Paterson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351517155
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book

Book Description
The God of the Machine presents an original theory of history and a bold defense of individualism as the source of moral and political progress. When it was published in 1943, Isabel Paterson's work provided fresh intellectual support for the endangered American belief in individual rights, limited government, and economic freedom. The crisis of today's collectivized nations would not have surprised Paterson; in The God of the Machine, she had explored the reasons for collectivism's failure. Her book placed her in the vanguard of the free-enterprise movement now sweeping the world.Paterson sees the individual creative mind as the dynamo of history, and respect for the individual's God-given rights as the precondition for the enormous release of energy that produced the modern world. She sees capitalist institutions as the machinery through which human energy works, and government as a device properly used merely to cut off power to activities that threaten personal liberty.Paterson applies her general theory to particular issues in contemporary life, such as education, .social welfare, and the causes of economic distress. She severely criticizes all but minimal application of government, including governmental interventions that most people have long taken for granted. The God of the Machine offers a challenging perspective on the continuing, worldwide debate about the nature of freedom, the uses of power, and the prospects of human betterment.Stephen Cox's substantial introduction to The God of the Machine is a comprehensive and enlightening account of Paterson's colorful life and work. He describes The God of the Machine as "not just theory, but rhapsody, satire, diatribe, poetic narrative." Paterson's work continues to be relevant because "it exposes the moral and practical failures of collectivism, failures that are now almost universally acknowledged but are still far from universally understo

God, Human, Animal, Machine

God, Human, Animal, Machine PDF Author: Meghan O'Gieblyn
Publisher: Anchor
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 in the Machine

God in the Machine PDF Author: Anne Foerst
Publisher: Dutton Books
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A thought-provoking analysis of the theological implications of artificial intelligence addresses important--and controversial--questions raised by robotics about the definition of humanity, what it means to have a soul, and what robots can teach us about our relationship with God.

Gods and Robots

Gods and Robots PDF Author: Adrienne Mayor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691202265
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Traces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.

Sekret Machines: Gods

Sekret Machines: Gods PDF Author: Tom DeLonge
Publisher: To The Stars
ISBN: 194327228X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
An exceptional examination from award-winning author and producer Tom DeLonge with renowned research author Peter Levenda, Sekret Machines: GODS will take you on an eye-opening journey that transcends speculation and is based on unprecedented access to officials at the highest levels of government, military and industrial agencies who have provided insights and assistance never before experienced by any researchers in this controversial field. GODS takes us beyond speculation to certain knowledge of what exactly lies at the heart of the most important Phenomenon ever to confront human understanding. This first volume introduces the reader to some of the critical issues that are foundational to an intelligent and enlightened grasp of the revelations that will follow in the next two volumes. There is another Force in the universe of our Reality, another context for comprehending what has been going on for millennia and especially in the last seventy years. Sekret Machines is the result of input from scientists, engineers, intelligence officers, and military officials -- a group we call the Advisors -- and transcends the speculation of journalists, historians and others whose conclusions are often either misinformed or only tease around the edges of the Sekret Machines. The reader will not discover wild theories or unfounded claims, but instead will confront a solid -- if often unsettling -- reality, one that demands the collaboration of all of us in every field of human endeavor if we are to understand it and manage its effects. If nothing else, readers will come to the conclusion that the Phenomenon is not what they think it is. It is, in fact, much more serious and potentially much more threatening than they can imagine. Sekret Machines: GODS is volume one of the companion investigation series to the bestselling thriller Sekret Machines: Chasing Shadows by DeLonge and NYTimes bestselling author AJ Hartley. The whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Read together, the thriller series and the investigation series show what cannot be revealed with one approach alone.

The Engines Of God

The Engines Of God PDF Author: Jack McDevitt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101532742
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The first Priscilla Hutchins novel from Jack McDevitt, hailed by Stephen King as “the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.” Humans call them the Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues on distant planets in the galaxy. Each relic is different. Each inscription defies translation. Yet all are heartbreakingly beautiful. And for planet Earth, on the brink of disaster, they may hold the only key to survival for the entire human race.

Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows

Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows PDF Author: Tom DeLonge
Publisher: To The Stars
ISBN: 1943272166
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Book Description
For those who know... that something is going on... The witnesses are legion, scattered across the world and dotted through history, people who looked up and saw something impossible lighting up the night sky. What those objects were, where they came from, and who—or what—might be inside them is the subject of fierce debate and equally fierce mockery, so that most who glimpsed them came to wish they hadn’t. Most, but not everyone. Among those who know what they’ve seen, and—like the toll of a bell that can’t be unrung—are forever changed by it, are a pilot, an heiress, a journalist, and a prisoner of war. From the waning days of the 20th century’s final great war to the fraught fields of Afghanistan to the otherworldly secrets hidden amid Nevada’s dusty neverlands—the truth that is out there will propel each of them into a labyrinth of otherworldly technology and the competing aims of those who might seek to prevent—or harness—these beings of unfathomable power. Because, as it turns out, we are not the only ones who can invent and build...and destroy. Featuring actual events and other truths drawn from sources within the military and intelligence community, Tom DeLonge and A.J. Hartley offer a tale at once terrifying, fantastical, and perhaps all too real. Though it is, of course, a work of... fiction?

The Machine God

The Machine God PDF Author: MeiLin Miranda
Publisher: Sans Culotte Press
ISBN: 1926959310
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Folklore Professor Oladel Adewole has lost tenure, and the beloved, much-younger sister he's raised has died; with no reason to stay, he leaves his homeland for the University of Eisenstadt. One thing makes his new life bearable: the mysterious island floating a mile above the city, his all-consuming interest for years. When a brilliant engineer makes it to the island in her new invention, the government sends Adewole up with its first survey team. The expedition finds civilization, and Adewole finds a powerful, forbidden fusion of magic and metal: the Machine God. The government wants it. So does a sociopath bent on ruling Eisenstadt. But when Adewole discovers who the mechanical creature is--and what it can do--he risks his heart and his life to protect the Machine God from the world, and the world from the Machine God. Interests: African hero, lost civilization, betrayal, adventure, fantasy adventure, science fiction adventure, science fantasy, magic, folklore, Victorian, Victorianesque, 19th century, first contact, fantasy first contact, survival, exile, academia, academic politics, academic hero, child, talking birds, owls, German-based culture, African-based culture, mythology, steampunk fantasy, black lead character

God & Golem, Inc.

God & Golem, Inc. PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262730112
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to Norbert Wiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it—cybernetics. In God & Golem, Inc., the author concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues.The first point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almost exclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only can be programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience and improve on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It did win," writes the author, "and it did learn to win; and the method of its learning was no different in principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers. A second point concerns machines which have the capacity to reproduce themselves. It is our commonly held belief that God made man in his own image. The propagation of the race may also be interpreted as a function in which one living being makes another in its own image. But the author demonstrates that man has made machines which are "very well able to make other machines in their own image," and these machine images are not merely pictorial representations but operative images. Can we then say: God is to Golem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, golem is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fully created, hence a monster, an automation.The third point considered is that of the relation between man and machine. The concern here is ethical. "render unto man the things which are man's and unto the computer the things which are the computer's," warns the author. In this section of the book, Dr. Wiener considers systems involving elements of man and machine. The book is written for the intellectually alert public and does not involve any highly technical knowledge. It is based on lectures given at Yale, at the Société Philosophique de Royaumont, and elsewhere.

Machines for Making Gods

Machines for Making Gods PDF Author: Jon Bialecki
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823299376
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
The Mormon faith may seem so different from aspirations to transcend the human through technological means that it is hard to imagine how these two concerns could even exist alongside one another, let alone serve together as the joint impetus for a social movement. Machines for Making Gods investigates the tensions between science and religion through which an imaginative group of young Mormons and ex-Mormons have found new ways of understanding the world. The Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) believes that God intended humanity to achieve Mormonism’s promise of theosis through imminent technological advances. Drawing on a nineteenth-century Mormon tradition of religious speculation to reimagine Mormon eschatological hopes as near-future technological possibilities, they envision such current and possible advances as cryonic preservation, computer simulation, and quantum archeology as paving the way for the resurrection of the dead, the creation of worlds without end, and promise of undergoing theosis—of becoming a god. Addressing the role of speculation in the anthropology of religion, Machines for Making Gods undoes debates about secular transhumanism’s relation to religion by highlighting the differences an explicitly religious transhumanism makes. Charting the conflicts and resonances between secular transhumanism and Mormonism, Bialecki shows how religious speculation has opened up imaginative horizons to give birth to new forms of Mormonism, including a particular progressive branch of the faith and even such formations as queer polygamy. The book also reveals how the MTA’s speculative account of God and technology together has helped to forestall some of the social pressure that comes with apostasy in much of the Mormon Intermountain West. A fascinating ethnography of a group with much to say about crucial junctures of modern culture, Machines for Making Gods illustrates how the scientific imagination can be better understood when viewed through anthropological accounts of myth.