Terrestrial Things
Terrestrial Things

Author: Ingrid De Kok

Publisher: NB Publishing

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13:

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Ingrid de Kok is arguably the most lucid and composed voice in contemporary South African English poetry. Terrestrial Things is her third volume. In it she brings her art to the great dramas of our time: the burden revealed in the tragic Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings and the ceaseless ravaging of the AIDS pandemic. Two other parts of the work provide wider perspectives: one is focused on the formative family bonds and the landscapes of childhood; the other brings her love of Italy to life. A work of great courage, the book grants us the possibility of sustaining the emotional freight of our place and time without breakdown. Anchored in the personal life its dark central vision is carefully framed and steadied by the resources of poetry in the hands of a fine and mature talent.

The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence
The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence

Author: Mieczyslaw Taube

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9789810232696

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The research on human intelligence is based on almost all disciplines of modern science. The following questions must be answered: What is information? How does information processing emerge? Can we trace the long and tortuous path of biotic evolution from reflex, through instinct, towards intelligence? The brain, as the most complex system of macro- and micro-structures, unifies energetic, electrical and chemical phenomena and carries human intelligence. Brain functions include memory, emotions, attention, etc. Are there gender differences? Speech, self-consciousness and the feeling of free will are tools of intelligence. What about genius, common sense and personality? Lies, myths, aesthetics and morality are inseparable parts of human intelligence. What about the chances and threats for human intelligence in the distant future? M Taube, a nuclear chemist specializing in the cosmic evolution of matter and energy, and K Leenders, an academic neurologist and head of the positron emission tomography (PET) program at the Paul Scherrer Institute, address those questions in this fascinating book on human intelligence.