Society is no longer based on mass consumption but on mass participation. New forms of collaboration - such as Wikipedia and YouTube - are paving the way for an age in which people want to be players, rather than mere spectators, in the production process. In the 1980s, Charles Leadbeater's prescient book, In Search of Work, anticipated the growth of flexible employment. Now We-think explains how the rise of mass collaboration will affect us and the world in which we live.
‘We Are What We Think’ are the words with which the Buddha begins the Dhammapada, one of the world’s earliest collections of sayings. In this single, short, sharp lesson he reveals that our lives are what we make them and it is up to us to master our own minds. What sets these wise words apart from the cliches and soundbites we encounter every day? When a saying has the power to reach out and change your life it is no longer a platitude or proverb but an aphorism. Self-confessed aphorism addict James Geary takes a whimsical, humorous tour through the history of this remarkable art form and its extraordinary practitioners. He routes his journey through the varied, often idiosyncratic backgrounds of the world’s key thinkers and shows, as eighteenth-century aphorist Vauvenargues puts it, just how much ‘the maxims of men reveal their hearts’. With a scope that reaches from the ancient Eastern prophets to the rise of the American one-liner, the book’s focus is life, the universe and everything. Inspirational and challenging, We Are What We Think and the aphorisms in it sparkle, as Thomas Jefferson quipped, ‘like diamonds in a dunghill.’
We Think the World of You combines acute social realism and dark fantasy, and was described by J.R. Ackerley as “a fairy tale for adults.” Frank, the narrator, is a middle-aged civil servant, intelligent, acerbic, self-righteous, angry. He is in love with Johnny, a young, married, working-class man with a sweetly easygoing nature. When Johnny is sent to prison for committing a petty theft, Frank gets caught up in a struggle with Johnny’s wife and parents for access to him. Their struggle finds a strange focus in Johnny’s dog—a beautiful but neglected German shepherd named Evie. And it is she, in the end, who becomes the improbable and undeniable guardian of Frank’s inner world.
Reader's Promotion: We Think We Think: Captions to the Cartoons We Live, Volume One is a potpourri of essays by author H. Alan Tansson. Runyonesque, in a light-hearted, pickle-barrel style, Tansson has forked up anecdotes from the brine: a mobster who kept fiddling with his gun, a go-go dancer who performed from the ductwork, and a sailor who kept forgetting his ship. Discover old-time corner-store philosophy reinvented for the Twenty-first Century—complete with theoretical pretzels to twist your view of everyday experience. You can explore life through bingo, life by doodling, life with sneezes, snores, and orgasms. Friendship, braggadocio, people-watching, art, cognition; you'll find a bit of everything here, except for religion, politics, and education—which is in the book next-door, Volume Two which is entitled Antidisestablishmentarianistically Speaking. Disbeliever's Promotion: Having learned you don't think at all, you'll be bursting with new ideas. Your blogs will rip the questions off tired old walls. Freed from cultural incrustations, others' arguments will drop to the floor as your voice ricochets across the web, and your witty twitters bring thousands their frabjous song! So if you're anxious for a mental renaissance, this book will do it, we think ... that is, We Think We Think.
An exploration of embodied intelligence and its implications points toward a theory of intelligence in general; with case studies of intelligent systems in ubiquitous computing, business and management, human memory, and robotics. How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment—in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies. This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence—"understanding by building"—to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.
A food psychologist identifies hidden factors, motivations, and cues that cause overeating and offers practical solutions to help avoid these hidden traps and enjoy food without putting on excess pounds.
The Ways We Think critiques predominant approaches to the development of thinking in education and seeks to offer a new account of thought informed by phenomenology, post-structuralism and the ‘ordinary language’ philosophical traditions. Presents an original account of thinking for education and explores how this alternative conception of thought might be translated into the classroom Explores connections between phenomenology, post-structuralism and ordinary language philosophical traditions Examines the relevance of language in accounts of how we think Investigates the philosophical accounts of Gilbert Ryle, Martin Heidegger, John Austin and Jacques Derrida Draws upon experience of own teaching practice as philosopher-in-residence
In How We Think, esteemed scholar and mathematician Alan Schoenfeld proposes a groundbreaking theory and model about how we think and act in the classroom and beyond.
Trace the progress of humanity—from prehistoric times to the present day—through 1,001 ideas that changed how we connect to each other and the world around us. From the ability to control fire to augmented reality, the power of humanity’s ideas has revolutionized how we live and experience the world around us. 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think looks at the innovations and concepts that have played a key role in our progress since before recorded history. Covering a wide range of topics—from political and religious ideas to modern innovations such as social media and clean energy—this captivating volume offers a comprehensive look at how human ideas have evolved over the millennia.
"Today, about 98 percent of scientists affirm that climate change is human made, and about 2 percent still question it. Despite that overwhelming majority, though, about half the population of rich countries, like ours, choose to believe the 2 percent. And, paradoxically, this large camp of deniers grows even larger as more and more alarming proof of climate change has cropped up over the last decades. This disconnect has both climate scientists and activists scratching their heads, growing anxious, and responding, usually, by repeating more facts to 'win' the argument. But, the more climate facts pile up, the greater the resistance to them grows, and the harder it becomes to enact measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the inevitable change ahead. Is humanity up to the task? It is a catch-22 that starts, says psychologist and climate expert Per Espen Stoknes, from an inadequate understanding of the way most humans think, act, and live in the world around them. With dozens of examples, he shows how to retell the story of climate change and apply communication strategies more fit for the task."--Publisher's description.
