Cyberspace, Social Conflict, and Humanity: A Framework for Collapsing Disciplinary Barriers to Ethical Technology examines how our increasingly connected and digitized world is shaping our social experiences and interactions globally. It offers a new approach to human versus machine debate and builds the case for strategic collaboration between academia, industry, and governments who are committed to the humane advancement of knowledge and innovation. The text demonstrates how data and information can be used for or against any person, group, or a nation; the implication of cyber anxiety for states and nations; and how lack of ethical framework for the advancement of technology can lead to harmful results. It focuses on questions related to technological influence on society, individual privacy, cybercrimes and espionage, the battle over economy of attention and online engagement. By offering the latest case studies and examples, it offers ways to recognize and minimize the biases, misinformation, or disinformation within political and social context. Cyberspace, Social Conflict, and Humanity is ideal for courses in conflict resolution, social sciences, humanities, engineering, programming and multidisciplinary studies looking to the future of technology and society.

From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher’s stone, humanity’s eternal quest for immortality – and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures – has always been our most mortal endeavour.

But now the giants of invention and investment are building a fountain of youth of their own creation: one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, the latest expression of a hubris that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to ‘cure’ ageing, and funding cutting-edge – and often controversial – research, today’s immortalists are locked in an arms race to be the first to pocket the profits of longevity.

What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington’s corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from those cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son’s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations.

This razor-sharp, powerful and at times chilling investigation empowers us to consider what we lose when death is treated as a glitch, asking: do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?

This work is a handy desk reference for academic and public library music reference collections as well as teachers, musicians, and composers. The more than 250 books discussed represent a core bibliography on this late 20th-century phenomenon that is very much in transition as the concepts of electronic and computer merge into a single music, whether acoustic or electronic in origin. Of special interest is an up-to-date listing of on-line sources found on the Internet, including World Wide Web sites and electronic discussion lists. Topics represented include history, literature on synthesis and synthesizers, electronic music instruments and devices, electronic music composition, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), the teaching of computer and electronic music, bibliographies and dictionaries. Covered by way of appendices are major dissertations and theses, lists of periodicals that have dealt with the subject, and a compilation of electronic music instrument and device system manuals currently in print.

Data have almost no value in and for themselves. What's important is how they are used to create the information one needs to make informed decisions, and this is particularly true in making marketing decisions. Thus, Samli's new book dwells on the art and science of information generation and on how to convert it to practical knowledge. Without information and knowledge, says Samli, the firm faces great risk in the marketplace and its survival probabilities in the long run are very low. Samli explains, first, the various data generating procedures, with special emphasis on data analysis, and second, the procedures for creating information out of data -- all in a clear, systematic presentation that marketing managers will understand and benefit from immediately. Their MIS colleagues, whose goal should be to make data and information decision-maker friendly, will also benefit. A unique, valuable book for both.

The problem is not information overload as some contend, says Samli, but data overload. Data have almost no value in and for themselves. What's important is how data are used to create the information marketers need in order to make knowledgeable decisions. Thus, Samli's newest book dwells on the art and science of information generation and on how to convert it to practical knowledge. Without information and knowledge -- and another essential ingredient, wisdom -- the firm faces great risk in the marketplace and its survival probabilities in the long run are very low, says the author.

Samli starts by presenting the key elements that contribute to an information gap in the use of data for marketing decisions. He describes the evolution of information in decision making, the distinction between data and information, and the reasons why data gathering and processing have become so sophisticated and difficult to use. Samli goes on to discuss data collecting techniques, the dimensions and uses of internal data and their parameters, and identifies the best but most underrated data gathering method: observation. Surveys, experimentation, and research are covered next, including attitude and motivation research, with a careful analysis of how the research operation, as well as its products, should be managed. He goes on to explain how information is elicited from data and how it should be used; then, the various control mechanisms for information systems overall, and ends with his own agenda for the improvement of the entire information-driven marketing decision process. A clear, systematic presentation that marketing managers, and their MIS colleagues (who appreciate the need to make data and information decision-maker friendly), will find valuable and immediately beneficial.

Detailed mathematical models are increasingly being used by companies to gain competitive advantage through such applications as model-based process design, control and optimization. Thus, building various types of high quality models for processing systems has become a key activity in Process Engineering. This activity involves the use of several methods and techniques including model solution techniques, nonlinear systems identification, model verification and validation, and optimal design of experiments just to name a few. In turn, several issues and open-ended problems arise within these methods, including, for instance, use of higher-order information in establishing parameter estimates, establishing metrics for model credibility, and extending experiment design to the dynamic situation.
The material covered in this book is aimed at allowing easier development and full use of detailed and high fidelity models. Potential applications of these techniques in all engineering disciplines are abundant, including applications in chemical kinetics and reaction mechanism elucidation, polymer reaction engineering, and physical properties estimation. On the academic side, the book will serve to generate research ideas.
- Contains wide coverage of statistical methods applied to process modelling
- Serves as a recent compilation of dynamic model building tools
- Presents several examples of applying advanced statistical and modelling methods to real process systems problems

McGonagle and Vella maintain that competitive intelligence as we know it is just the first step toward the creation of true corporate intelligence. Their book thus explores ways in which new channels of communication and new uses of information and intelligence will change corporations, and how these changes can be anticipated now in an organization's strategic planning, crisis management, benchmarking, reverse engineering, and defensive intelligence activities. In doing so, they introduce readers to new techniques, such as shadow benchmarking and fractal management analysis. Readable, with useful checklists, forms, reminders, and drawing from real world cases, this book will be essential reading for executives in the public and private sectors, and their colleagues in the academic business community.

Vella and McGonagle premise their book on the evidence that modern companies throughout the world are undergoing radical, involuntary transformations, the result of an explosion of raw information suddenly available to them. Not only does this demand new ways to collect, process, and use information, but also a new way to look at and link information sources that until now have been unconnected. After discussing the importance of intelligence today and its greater importance tomorrow, Vella and McGonagle develop the concept of Cyber-Intelligence(TM), then show how it applies to strategy-creation, marketing, crisis management, benchmarking, and other organizational functions. They turn next to data gathering in the context of their Cyber-Intelligence(TM) concept, ending with a thoughtful discussion of where C-I is going next.