Loving the Machine
Loving the Machine

Author: Timothy N. Hornyak

Publisher: Kodansha International

Published: 2006-05-25

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9784770030122

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

While the US sponsors robot-on-robot destruction contests, Japan's feature tasks that mimic non-violent human activities. Why is this? What accounts for Japan's unique relationship with robots as potential colleagues in life, rather than potential adversaries? This book answers this query by looking at Japan's historical connections with robots. Japan stands out for its long love affair with robots, a phenomenon that is creating what will likely be the world's first mass robot culture. While US companies have created robot vacuum cleaners and war machines, Japan has

The Robot's Rebellion
The Robot's Rebellion

Author: Keith E. Stanovich

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-10-15

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 0226771199

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The idea that we might be robots is no longer the stuff of science fiction; decades of research in evolutionary biology and cognitive science have led many esteemed scientists to the conclusion that, according to the precepts of universal Darwinism, humans are merely the hosts for two replicators (genes and memes) that have no interest in us except as conduits for replication. Richard Dawkins, for example, jolted us into realizing that we are just survival mechanisms for our own genes, sophisticated robots in service of huge colonies of replicators to whom concepts of rationality, intelligence, agency, and even the human soul are irrelevant. Accepting and now forcefully responding to this decentering and disturbing idea, Keith Stanovich here provides the tools for the "robot's rebellion," a program of cognitive reform necessary to advance human interests over the limited interest of the replicators and define our own autonomous goals as individual human beings. He shows how concepts of rational thinking from cognitive science interact with the logic of evolution to create opportunities for humans to structure their behavior to serve their own ends. These evaluative activities of the brain, he argues, fulfill the need that we have to ascribe significance to human life. We may well be robots, but we are the only robots who have discovered that fact. Only by recognizing ourselves as such, argues Stanovich, can we begin to construct a concept of self based on what is truly singular about humans: that they gain control of their lives in a way unique among life forms on Earth—through rational self-determination.

Small Robots
Small Robots

Author: Thomas Heasman-Hunt

Publisher: Unbound Publishing

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1783528230

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Whether you need a robotic companion to remember the names of people you meet at parties, an algorithmic pal to help you stomp on the crispy leaves in autumn, or just a really, really big 'bot for no particular reason at all, Small Robots is your spotter's guide to the wonderful world of robotic friends. They bring tea, complain in restaurants, retrieve lost balloons, but they also tackle more serious problems: mental health, disability, discrimination and grief, and will, when called upon, fiercely defend the marginalised and oppressed. This collection of one hundred of the best and most beloved 'bots delves into the functions, features, dimensions and backstories of these wonderful but often bafflingly obtuse creations. Discover how they perform their all-important tasks in the world of their large human friends, revealing how acts of kindness can be achieved in the littlest and most unexpected ways.

Glow
Glow

Author: Tim Jordan

Publisher: Watkins Media Limited

Published: 2021-02-23

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 0857668870

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A man battles his addiction to a devastating nanotech drug that steals identities and threatens the survival and succession of mankind as a galactic species. After the Nova-Insanity shattered Earth’s civilization, the Genes and Fullerenes Corporation promised to bring humanity back from the brink. Many years later, various factions have formed, challenging their savior and vying for a share of power and control. Glow follows the lives of three very different beings, all wrestling mental instability in various forms; Rex – a confused junkie battling multiple voices in his head; Ellayna – the founder of the GFC living on an orbital satellite station and struggling with paranoia; and Jett – a virtually unstoppable robotic assassin, questioning his purpose of creation. All of them are inextricably linked through the capricious and volatile Glow; an all controlling nano-tech drug that has the ability to live on through multiple hosts, cutting and pasting memories and personas in each new victim. In this tech-crazed world where nothing seems impossible, many questions are posed: what makes us who we are? What is our ultimate purpose and place in this world? And, most frightening of all, what are we capable of doing to survive? File Under: Science Fiction [ Hivemind | One More Fix | No Escape | Run Like Hell ]

Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater
Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater

Author: Scott J. Miller

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0810863197

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan opened its doors to the West and underwent remarkable changes as it sought to become a modern nation. Accompanying the political changes that Western trade ushered in were widespread social and cultural changes. Newspapers, novels, poems, and plays from the Western world were soon adapted and translated into Japanese. The combination of the rich storytelling tradition of Japan with the realism and modernism of the West produced some of the greatest literature of the modern age. Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature_narrative, poetry, and drama_in modern Japan. This book offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Japanese literature.

The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater
The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater

Author: Scott J. Miller

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1461731887

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan opened its doors to the West and underwent remarkable changes as it sought to become a modern nation. Accompanying the political changes that Western trade ushered in were widespread social and cultural changes. Newspapers, novels, poems, and plays from the Western world were soon adapted and translated into Japanese. The combination of the rich storytelling tradition of Japan with the realism and modernism of the West produced some of the greatest literature of the modern age. The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature-narrative, poetry, and drama-in modern Japan. This book offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Japanese literature.

Imagining AI
Imagining AI

Author: Oxford

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-05-25

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 0192865366

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

AI is now a global phenomenon. Yet Hollywood narratives dominate perceptions of AI in the English-speaking West and beyond, and much of the technology itself is shaped by a disproportionately white, male, US-based elite. However, different cultures have been imagining intelligent machines since long before we could build them, in visions that vary greatly across religious, philosophical, literary and cinematic traditions. This book aims to spotlight these alternative visions. Imagining AI draws attention to the range and variety of visions of a future with intelligent machines and their potential significance for the research, regulation, and implementation of AI. The book is structured geographically, with each chapter presenting insights into how a specific region or culture imagines intelligent machines. The contributors, leading experts from academia and the arts, explore how the encounters between local narratives, digital technologies, and mainstream Western narratives create new imaginaries and insights in different contexts across the globe. The narratives they analyse range from ancient philosophy to contemporary science fiction, and visual art to policy discourse. The book sheds new light on some of the most important themes in AI ethics, from the differences between Chinese and American visions of AI, to digital neo-colonialism. It is an essential work for anyone wishing to understand how different cultural contexts interplay with the most significant technology of our time.