Títulos em História e Cultura

In this riveting account of an area of Appalachia known as the Quiet Zone where cell phones and Wi-Fi are banned, journalist Stephen Kurczy explores the pervasive role of technology in our lives and the innate human need for quiet.

Over the past five decades, the tech industry has grown into one of the most important sectors of the global economy, and Silicon Valley - replete with sprawling office parks, sky-high rents, and countless self-made millionaires - is home to many of its key players. But the origins of Silicon Valley and the tech sector are much humbler. At a time when tech companies’ influence continues to grow, The Big Score chronicles how they began.

On the evening of April 13, 1970, the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13 were just hours from the third lunar landing in history. But as they soared through space, 200,000 miles from Earth, an explosion badly damaged their spacecraft. Thirteen is the shocking and miraculous true story of how the astronauts and ground crew guided Apollo 13 back to Earth. Expanding on dispatches written for The New Yorker, Henry S. F. Cooper Jr. brings listeners unparalleled detail on the moment-by-moment developments of one of NASA’s most dramatic missions.

How did a balloonist circumnavigate the earth without fuel? How did an inventor design a device that creates electrical power from human footsteps? How did the WHO figure out how to treat and reduce the transmission of Ebola? They all used alien thinking. For over a decade, innovation experts Cyril Bouquet, Jean-Louis Barsoux and Michael Wade have studied individuals around the world who have made leaps of creative genius. Their research shows that they are five patterns of thinking that distinguish true innovators from the rest of us.

Delve into the species known as humans, how we live and have lived. On a mission to find what drives us and that life purpose many strive for. With the capability of so much love, yet still so many atrocities occur, are we a virus? What are we as a species and where are we heading? There are also some who wish for immortality, and with the advances in technology and modern movements the question arises, “Are such things possible?”

"Obéissance et irresponsabilité, voilà les deux Mots Magiques qui ouvriront demain le Paradis de la Civilisation des Machines. La civilisation française, héritière de la civilisation hellénique, a travaillé pendant des siècles pour former des hommes libres, c'est-à-dire pleinement responsables de leurs actes : la France refuse d'entrer dans le Paradis des Robots."

In Blockchain Chicken Farm, the technologist and writer Xiaowei Wang explores the political and social entanglements of technology in rural China. Their discoveries force them to challenge the standard idea that rural culture and people are backward, conservative, and intolerant. Instead, they find that rural China has not only adapted to rapid globalization but has actually innovated the technology we all use today. Wang unravels the ties between globalization, technology, agriculture, and commerce in unprecedented fashion.

In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising - the beating heart of the internet - is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008. From the unreliability of advertising numbers and the unregulated automation of advertising bidding wars, to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang demonstrates that the true value of consumers' attention is wildly misrepresented.

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 urgently require rethinking.

Locked away in refrigerated vaults, sanitized by gas chambers, and secured within bombproof caverns deep under mountains are America's most prized materials: the ever-expanding collection of records that now accompany each of us from birth to death. This data complex backs up and protects our most vital information against decay and destruction, and yet it binds us to corporate and government institutions whose power is also preserved in its bunkers, infrastructures, and sterilized spaces.

In Democratizing Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Everyone, Dr. Jacques Ludik takes us on a holistic sense-making journey to synthesize and better our understanding of AI, its applications, its benefits, its risks, its limitations, its progress, and its likely future paths. As a founder of multiple AI companies with three decades of experience in AI and its world-wide applications, Dr. Ludik's audiobook offers specific solutions that address designing for social good, building human-compatible AI, and so many more ideas for reshaping civilization for beneficial outcomes!

Restart: Designing a Healthy Post Pandemic Life addresses how to work through the stress of the past year, tend to our physical and mental health, and re-align our relationship with technology. Emphasis is placed on habits created during quarantine that may have an impact on mental and physical health. Tools for resolving stress, anxiety, and depression resulting from sheltering in place will be highlighted. Practical tips and tools help listeners walk through the development of norms that will help them live healthier embodied lives.

In this inspirational and informative book, Latham demonstrates how the power of sound entrepreneurial thinking can lead to positive results in the most daunting of circumstances. Latham’s company, Thermagon Inc., evolved as an offshoot of the explosive growth of silicon chips driving the computer industry and the information age. As a female, Latham defied all odds by successfully creating the products, the facilities, and the funding for a thriving and much sought-after company in a world of technology overwhelmingly dominated by men.

L'accelerazionismo è Legione: proprio come il demone biblico, esso è una miriade di forze contrastanti, uno spettro multiforme che aspetta di incarnarsi e gridare il proprio nome. Non è una via d'uscita dal capitalismo, né un'alternativa valida in cui sperare: è soprattutto una nuova e radicale modalità di vivere il presente e le sue infinite contraddizioni".

An entertaining, scientifically rigorous exploration of the social and biological effects of our wireless world. The way we use technology is affecting our health and happiness. Engaging and entertaining yet scientifically rigorous, this fully revised and updated second edition of i-Minds comprehensively explores an era of screen-based technology's assimilation into our lives, pondering it as both godsend and plague. i-Minds is for anyone interested in fostering health and happiness or who is struggling with the role of screened technology in our lives.

In this provocative, utterly original work of 'scientific fiction', Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and best-selling author of AI Superpowers, joins forces with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In 10 gripping short stories, set 20 years in the future, they introduce listeners to an array of eye-opening 2041 settings.

Over the last decade, Azeem Azhar - writer, technologist and creator of the Exponential View platform - has become our leading thinker on how technology is transforming business, politics and society. Now, Azhar offers a holistic way to think about the effects of new tech. Our society, Azhar argues, is afflicted by an 'exponential gap' - the gulf between the growing pace of technological change, and our institutions' struggle to keep up.

What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots offers a vision for how robots can survive in the real world and how they will change our relationship to technology. From teaching them manners, to robot-proofing public spaces, to planning for their mistakes, this audiobook answers every question you didn't know you needed to ask about the robots on the way.

In this sequel to his prescient New York Times best seller Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford presents us with a striking vision of the very near future. He argues that AI is a uniquely powerful technology, a kind of 'electricity of intelligence' that is altering every dimension of human life, often for the better with advanced science being done by machines who can solve problems humans can not. AI has the potential to help us fight climate change or the next pandemic, but it also has a capacity for profound harm.

As time increases and the ability to be yourself changes, technology is increasing and man's ability is constantly decreasing. Who are you, and where did you come from? Why are you here, and what is keeping you in this place? What is your purpose in this illusion? Well, let me explain as I take you on a journey to discovering yourself in this illusion you call life.