Watchbird

Watchbird PDF Author: Robert Sheckley
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1528781783
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
This is a classic science fiction short story by Robert Sheckley, a Hugo and Nebula Award nominated author. The story deals with the subject of artificial intelligence and the questions that arise from allowing them to have the power to decide right from wrong. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

Watchbird

Watchbird PDF Author: Robert Sheckley
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1528781783
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 38

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is a classic science fiction short story by Robert Sheckley, a Hugo and Nebula Award nominated author. The story deals with the subject of artificial intelligence and the questions that arise from allowing them to have the power to decide right from wrong. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

The Watchbird

The Watchbird PDF Author: Philip Rushlow
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595096018
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
By the time she entered her middle years Sunny Raymond was disappointed. She found men to be generally unskilled and uncaring lovers, something she was certain she could correct in young Richard Saunders. She trained him well but unfortunately the world began to turn upside down just as her student reached his peak years, years during which the women for whom he was trained, began to exercise social dominance. What is a man, trained for one kind of world, to do when that world gives way to a new order? Does he become an uncaring technician? And how do these young, aggressive and take-charge women view him? Does he become a challenge or a toy?

Store of the Worlds

Store of the Worlds PDF Author: Robert Sheckley
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590174941
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
An NYRB Classics Original Robert Sheckley was an eccentric master of the American short story, and his tales, whether set in dystopic city­scapes, ultramodern advertising agencies, or aboard spaceships lighting out for hostile planets, are among the most startlingly original of the twentieth century. Today, as the new worlds, alternate universes, and synthetic pleasures Sheckley foretold become our reality, his vision begins to look less absurdist and more prophetic. This retrospective selection, chosen by Jonathan Lethem and Alex Abramovich, brings together the best of Sheckley’s deadpan farces, proving once again that he belongs beside such mordant critics of contemporary mores as Bruce Jay Friedman, Terry Southern, and Thomas Pynchon.

A Banner Education for Teachers

A Banner Education for Teachers PDF Author: Elinor Miller
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595466850
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Elinor Miller, a long-time classroom teacher and curriculum specialist, provides her insights into educating students with diverse backgrounds and learning abilities. This book, a sequel to A Banner Experience, describes her educational experiences before she moved to Frederick, MD, and explains why and how she established The Banner School there in 1982. Elinor is a teacher's teacher for sure! Not only does she understand the many obligations teachers have, she is also a grammarian of the first order, providing detailed direction on this subject. Her understanding of the benefits of challenging students to master difficult work and memorize poetry will motivate many teachers. Her award-winning methods and high level of experience with organizing interdisciplinary science and social studies topics will encourage others to immerse their students in any of ten science topics and sixteen cultures of both the Old and New World. This book is worth more than its price just for its extensive resources, including Word Web Vocabulary(R), 101 Ways to Attack a Writing Assignment(c) and CommuniCards(c), the latter a must for every classroom as it pinpoints the confusion many students exhibit with specific mathematical and language concepts.

Notions: Unlimited

Notions: Unlimited PDF Author: Robert Sheckley
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497650577
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
In “Gray Flannel Armor,” a man named Hanley finds perfection in a rigidly regular structure of social interaction—including for romance—and devises a system that the whole of humanity adopts. The eleven other stories in this collection are “Gray Flannel Armor,” “The Leech,” “Watchbird,” “A Wind Is Rising,” “Morning After,” “The Native Problem,” “Feeding Time,” “Paradise II,” “Double Indemnity,” “Holdout,” “Dawn Invader,” and “The Language of Love.” From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers, and fellow authors as a master storyteller and the wittiest satirist working in the science fiction field. Open Road is proud to republish his acclaimed body of work, with nearly thirty volumes of full-length fiction and short story collections. Rediscover, or discover for the first time, a master of science fiction who, according to the New York Times, was “a precursor to Douglas Adams.”

Robots That Kill

Robots That Kill PDF Author: Judith A. Markowitz
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476636397
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book describes real-world killer robots using a blend of perspectives. Overviews of technologies, such as autonomy and artificial intelligence, demonstrate how science enables these robots to be effective killers. Incisive analyses of social controversies swirling around the design and use of killer robots reveal that science, alone, will not govern their future. Among those disputes is whether fully-autonomous, robotic weapons should be banned. Examinations of killers from the golem to Frankenstein's monster reveal that artificially-created beings like them are precursors of real 21st century killer robots. This book laces the death and destruction caused by all these killers with science and humor. The seamless combination of these elements produces a deeper and richer understanding of the robots around us.

Computer After Me, The: Awareness And Self-awareness In Autonomic Systems

Computer After Me, The: Awareness And Self-awareness In Autonomic Systems PDF Author: Jeremy Pitt
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1783264195
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
We are increasingly seeing computer systems which are expected to function without operator intervention. This is perhaps acceptable for running computer networks or traffic lights; however, we are now seeing computer systems deployed to qualitatively influence human judgments such as rulings on legal disputes or fitness for work to evaluate disability benefits. In keeping with the precautionary principle, it is important that those who are developing this capability — technologists and scientists — think through its potential implications.The aim of this book is to explore the technological and social and implications of computers and robots becoming increasingly ‘aware’ of their environment and the people in it, and their being increasingly ‘self-aware’ of their own existence within it.The wide-ranging scope of the text covers three different angles of the concept of ‘the computer after me’: (1) the next generation of computationally powerful aware systems; (2) systems in which the computer is aware of qualitatively impact human concerns such as law, health and rules; and (3) computers and robots which are aware of themselves.

Broadening Critical Boundaries in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture

Broadening Critical Boundaries in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture PDF Author: Amie A. Doughty
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527520706
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
This collection of essays explores a wealth of topics in children’s and young adult (YA) literature and culture. The contributions include an examination of the Watchbird cartoons by Munro Leaf and their attempts to teach morals and manners; an ethnographic study about the role of public youth librarians; and an exploration of the role popular video games can play in the secondary classroom. Other topics investigated here encompass the presentation of environmentalism in Hayao Miyazaki’s films, psychological analyses, and the role of race, gender, and culture in children’s and YA literature.

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt PDF Author: Andrea Bobotis
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1492678872
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
"Andrea Bobotis is a new, original voice as Southern as they come! In The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt, she unravels a complicated web of dirty Southern secrets. Using masterful writing and a perfectly calculated reveal of damaged history, she ends up weaving a tapestry that is so much more."—LEAH WEISS, bestselling author of If the Creek Don't Rise In the hard-luck cotton town of Bound, South Carolina, some bury their secrets close to home. Others scatter them to the wind and hope they land somewhere far away. Judith Kratt inherited everything her family had to offer—the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder no one talks about. She's presided over the Carolina house quite well, thank you very much, with a little help from her companion, Olva. When her wayward sister suddenly returns, Judith must make an inventory of all that belongs to them—and her sister is determined to include the skeletons the Kratt family had hoped to take to their graves. Interweaving the present with chilling flashbacks from one fateful evening in 1929, Judith pieces together the devastating influence of the Kratt family on their small South Carolina cotton town, learning that the effects of dark family secrets can last a lifetime and beyond. Perfect for fans of Kim Michele Richardson, Hannah Pittard, and Sue Monk Kidd—Andrea Bobotis presents a book of small-town, Southern charm and dark family drama.

Who's Killing the Great Writers of America?

Who's Killing the Great Writers of America? PDF Author: Robert Kaplow
Publisher: Phoenix Books
ISBN: 1614670668
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
What do bestselling writers Sue Grafton, Danielle Steel, Curtis Sittenfeld (Prep) and Tom Clancy all have in common? They’ve all been shockingly murdered in a manner both gruesome and appropriate to their style. Now, an extremely paranoid Stephen King is convinced that he will be the next victim. With great trepidation, he leaves his heavily-barricaded fortress in Bangor, Maine, to discover Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America? This hilarious send-up of the world of publishing by the author of Me and Orson Welles and The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun takes us from Venice to Paris to Swan’s Island and offers cameo appearances by Steve Martin, Gérard Depardieu, as well as quite a few surprises. A must- read for anyone who loves to laugh!