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Books > Professional & Technical > Technology: general issues > History of engineering & technology

The Epochal Event - Transformations in the Entangled Human, Technological, and Natural Worlds (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2020): Zoltan... The Epochal Event - Transformations in the Entangled Human, Technological, and Natural Worlds (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2020)
Zoltan Boldizsar Simon
R1,890 Discovery Miles 18 900 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book is a unique attempt to capture the growing societal experience of living in an age unlike anything the world has ever seen. Fueled by the perception of acquiring unprecedented powers through technologies that entangle the human and the natural worlds, human beings have become agents of a new kind of transformative event. The ongoing sixth mass extinction of species, the prospect of a technological singularity, and the potential crossing of planetary boundaries are expected to trigger transformations on a planetary scale that we deem catastrophic and try to avoid. In making sense of these prospects, Simon's book sketches the rise of a new epochal thinking, introduces the epochal event as an emerging category of a renewed historical thought, and makes the case for the necessity of bringing together the work of the human and the natural sciences in developing knowledge of a more-than-human world.

Ralph (Hardcover): Clarence Ralph Fitz, Mardelle Marie Fitz Meyer Ralph (Hardcover)
Clarence Ralph Fitz, Mardelle Marie Fitz Meyer
R588 Discovery Miles 5 880 Ships in 9 - 17 working days
Penumbra Snippets (Paperback): Nagendra Singh Penumbra Snippets (Paperback)
Nagendra Singh
R866 Discovery Miles 8 660 Ships in 12 - 19 working days
History of Technology, v. 30 - European Technologies in Spanish History (Hardcover): Ian Inkster History of Technology, v. 30 - European Technologies in Spanish History (Hardcover)
Ian Inkster
R6,643 Discovery Miles 66 430 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This book focuses on the development of four key issues in the development of modern Spain; knowledge, manufacturing, energy and telecommunications, and public works. If technology transfer from advanced nations to less developed systems always worked, then the whole world would now be rich. That this is not the case is so obvious, we might well expect that the history of the processes, successes and failures of technology transfer across nations would be a very well-established field of enquiry. In fact, the theme is still a developing one, and the present Special Issue centres on the case of Spain as exemplary in many respects. The collected essays focus upon the four major themes of knowledge, manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications and public works. Essays range in time from the 18th century to the present time, from studies of espionage and early links between craftsmen and savants, to the institutions of technology (from training systems, to private enterprise activity, or patents), to case-studies of silk manufacture, shipbuilding, mining, paper-making, and pharmaceuticals. Each essay offers a broad variety of material to bring to bear on a major problem of world development, past, present, and future.

The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World (Hardcover): John Peter Oleson The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World (Hardcover)
John Peter Oleson
R5,047 Discovery Miles 50 470 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Nearly every aspect of daily life in the Mediterranean world and Europe during the florescence of the Greek and Roman cultures is relevant to the topics of engineering and technology. This volume highlights both the accomplishments of the ancient societies and the remaining research problems, and stimulates further progress in the history of ancient technology. The subject matter of the book is the technological framework of the Greek and Roman cultures from ca. 800 B.C. through ca. A.D. 500 in the circum-Mediterranean world and Northern Europe. Each chapter discusses a technology or family of technologies from an analytical rather than descriptive point of view, providing a critical summation of our present knowledge of the Greek and Roman accomplishments in the technology concerned and the evolution of their technical capabilities over the chronological period. Each presentation reviews the issues and recent contributions, and defines the capacities and accomplishments of the technology in the context of the society that used it, the available "technological shelf," and the resources consumed. These studies introduce and synthesize the results of excavation or specialized studies. The chapters are organized in sections progressing from sources (written and representational) to primary (e.g., mining, metallurgy, agriculture) and secondary (e.g., woodworking, glass production, food preparation, textile production and leather-working) production, to technologies of social organization and interaction (e.g., roads, bridges, ships, harbors, warfare and fortification), and finally to studies of general social issues (e.g., writing, timekeeping, measurement, scientific instruments, attitudestoward technology and innovation) and the relevance of ethnographic methods to the study of classical technology. The unrivalled breadth and depth of this volume make it the definitive reference work for students and academics across the spectrum of classical studies.

Video Recording Technology - Its Impact on Media and Home Entertainment (Hardcover): Aaron Foisi Nmungwun Video Recording Technology - Its Impact on Media and Home Entertainment (Hardcover)
Aaron Foisi Nmungwun
R4,490 Discovery Miles 44 900 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Video recording has recently become an important phenomenon. Although the majority of American homes have at least one video recording set, not much is known about video recording's past and about its continual effect on affiliated industries. This text documents the history of magnetic recording, stressing its importance in consumer as well as commercial applications from the advent of magnetism through the invention of such new technologies as Digital Audio Tape (DAT), High Definition Television (HDTV), and a multitude of sophisicated Digital Video Cassette Recorders.

Consuming Landscapes - What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters (Hardcover): Thomas Zeller Consuming Landscapes - What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters (Hardcover)
Thomas Zeller
R1,095 Discovery Miles 10 950 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

What we see through our windshields reflects ideas about our national identity, consumerism, and infrastructure. For better or worse, windshields have become a major frame for viewing the nonhuman world. The view from the road is one of the main ways in which we experience our environments. These vistas are the result of deliberate historical forces, and humans have shaped them as they simultaneously sought to be transformed by them. In Consuming Landscapes, Thomas Zeller explores how what we see while driving reflects how we view our societies and ourselves, the role that consumerism plays in our infrastructure, and ideas about reshaping the environment in the twentieth century. Zeller breaks new ground by comparing the driving experience and the history of landscaped roads in the United States and Germany, two major automotive countries. He focuses specifically on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the United States and the German Alpine Road as case studies. When the automobile was still young, an early twentieth-century group of designers-landscape architects, civil engineers, and planners-sought to build scenic infrastructures, or roads that would immerse drivers in the landscapes that they were traversing. As more Americans and Europeans owned cars and drove them, however, they became less interested in enchanted views; safety became more important than beauty. Clashes between designers and drivers resulted in different visions of landscapes made for automobiles. As strange as it may seem to twenty-first-century readers, many professionals in the early twentieth century envisioned cars and roads, if properly managed, as saviors of the environment. Consuming Landscapes illustrates how the meaning of infrastructures changed as a result of use and consumption. Such changes indicate a deep ambivalence toward the automobile and roads, prompting the question: can cars and roads bring us closer to nature while deeply altering it at the same time?

History of Technology Volume 29 (Hardcover, New): Ian Inkster History of Technology Volume 29 (Hardcover, New)
Ian Inkster
R6,638 Discovery Miles 66 380 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This book offers a new way of looking at Chinese history through their technological advances. The technical problems confronting different societies and periods and the measures taken to solve them form the concern of this annual collection of essays. It deals with the history of technical discovery and change and explores the relationship of technology to other aspects of life - social, cultural and economic - and shows how technological development has shaped, and been shaped by, the society in which it occurred.

Technological Change and the Evolution of Corporate Innovation - The Structure of Patenting 1890-1990 (Hardcover): Birgitte... Technological Change and the Evolution of Corporate Innovation - The Structure of Patenting 1890-1990 (Hardcover)
Birgitte Andersen
R3,497 Discovery Miles 34 970 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This book represents an original study of long term patterns in technological development and innovation in large corporations. The author is primarily concerned with understanding open-ended transformation processes in the evolution of industrialised societies. US patent data from 1890 to 1990 is employed within an evolutionary framework. The book offers an overview of an intellectual agenda associated with a highly important and pervasive set of phenomena and challenges several dogmas currently alive within economic reasoning including: * technological paradigms governing trajectories of opportunity * the S-shaped image of the technological growth cycle and technological dynamics * long waves * industrial dynamics * the variety of firms' technological profiles and corporate trajectories * corporate technological leadership * socio-economic transformation processes and underpinning 'rules'. Technological Change and the Evolution of Corporate Innovation details historically how the innovative and competitive landscapes within industrialised societies have become increasingly complex. This book will appeal to industrial and business economists, technology historians, researchers, students, policymakers and business analysts.

The Unknown Technology in Homer (Hardcover, 2010 ed.): S. A. Paipetis The Unknown Technology in Homer (Hardcover, 2010 ed.)
S. A. Paipetis
R2,890 Discovery Miles 28 900 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Using such terms as science and technology, which have been relatively - cently adopted, to write about situations and events that occurred 2,500 years ago, may be a paradox. The Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, refer to the Mycenean Era, a civilisation that ?ourished from the 16th to 12th c- tury BCE. The seeming paradox ceases to be one when modern specialists, searching through the ancients texts, discover knowledge and applications so advanced, that can be termed as scienti?c or technological in the modern sense of the words. The present book is based on extensive research performed by the author and his associates at the University of Patras, along with the presentations of other researchers at two international symposia, which he organized in 1 Ancient Olympia. It consists of ?ve parts, of which Part I is introductory, including such chapters as Homer and Homeric Epics, Troy and the mythological causes of the War, Achilles and his wrath, the siege and fall of Troy, Odysseus' long way home, the Trojan war and the cultural tradition, scienti?c knowledge in the Homeric Epics and ?nally an account on science and technology. Part II includes three chapters on applications of principles of natural s- ence, including chariot racing and the laws of curvilinear motion, creep in wood and hydrodynamics of vortices and the gravitational sling.

Heinkel He 111 (Paperback): Franz Kober Heinkel He 111 (Paperback)
Franz Kober
R304 R278 Discovery Miles 2 780 Save R26 (9%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The He 111 flew over every front from the first day of the Second World War to the last and was among the most produced aircraft of the Luftwaffe. Aerodynamically a very clean aircraft, it was a superior bomber during the first two years of the war. This volume is dedicated to this aircraft.

Anti-Computing - Dissent and the Machine (Hardcover): Caroline Bassett Anti-Computing - Dissent and the Machine (Hardcover)
Caroline Bassett
R2,374 Discovery Miles 23 740 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

We live in a moment of high anxiety around digital transformation. Computers are blamed for generating toxic forms of culture and ways of life. Once part of future imaginaries that were optimistic or even utopian, today there is a sense that things have turned out very differently. Anti-computing is widespread. This book seeks to understand its cultural and material logics, its forms, and its operations. Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten histories of dissent - moments when the imposition of computational technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital humanities and associated fields at all levels. -- .

Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022): Daniel Martin Varisco Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022)
Daniel Martin Varisco
R3,912 Discovery Miles 39 120 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This book is the first in English to survey indigenous knowledge of seasonal, astronomical, and agricultural information in Arab Gulf almanacs. It provides an extensive analysis of the traditional information available, based on local almanacs, Arabic texts and poetry by Gulf individuals, ethnographic interviews, and online forums. A major feature of the book is tracing the history of terms and concepts in the local seasonal knowledge of the Gulf, including an important genre about weather stars, stemming back to the ninth century CE. Also covered are pearl diving, fishing, seafaring, and pastoral activities. This book will be of interest to scholars who study the entire Arab region, since much of the lore was shared and continues through the present. It will also be of value to scholars who work on the Indian Ocean and Red Sea Trade Network, as well as the history of folk astronomy in the Arab World.

Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe - Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Survival and Preparedness (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022):... Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe - Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Survival and Preparedness (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022)
Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbol, Casper Sylvest
R1,654 Discovery Miles 16 540 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This open access edited collection brings together established and new perspectives on Cold War civil defence in Western Europe within a common analytical framework that also facilitates comparative and transnational dimensions. The current interest in creating disaster-resilient societies demands new histories of civil defence. Historical contextualization is essential in order to understand what is at stake in preparing, devising, and implementing forms of preparedness, protection, and security that are specifically targeted at societies and citizens. Applying the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to civil defence history, the chapters of this volume cover a range of new themes, from technology and materiality to media, memory, and everyday experience. The book underlines the social embeddedness of civil defence by detailing how it both prompted new forms of social interaction and reflected norms and visions of the 'good society' in an age where nuclear technology seemed to hold the key to both doom and salvation.

The Flying Man - Otto Lilienthal-History, Flights and Photographs (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022): Markus Raffel, Bernd Lukasch The Flying Man - Otto Lilienthal-History, Flights and Photographs (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022)
Markus Raffel, Bernd Lukasch
R753 Discovery Miles 7 530 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

"Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. His greatness appeared in every phase of the problem. No one equaled him in power to draw new recruits to the cause; no one equaled him in fullness and dearness of understanding of the principles of flight; no one did so much to convince the world of the advantages of curved wing surfaces; and no one did so much to transfer the problem of human flight to the open air where it belonged." These words were spoken by Wilbur Wright, who successfully accomplished the first powered flight together with his brother Orville in 1903 on the sand dunes of the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina. Wilbur was talking about the most important of their predecessors, Otto Lilienthal. Lilienthal attracted worldwide attention due to the spectacular photographs showing him in flight, made possible by technology that had only just been developed by him. This fortuitous union between a pioneer of aviation and the pioneers of so-called "instantaneous photography" is responsible for the immense contemporary popularity of Lilienthal's flights around the globe, the first ever free flights performed by man. This book traces the life of the German aviation pioneer, focusing on the designs of his many aircraft and the photographic documentation that has survived. The presentation ends with a remarkable research project conducted by one of the authors, right up to and including his own training exercises with Lilienthal's "normal soaring apparatus" and "large biplane". This project offered new insight into Lilienthal's work, and also led to a spectacular aerial meeting of Lilienthal's 1895 biplane and the Wright brothers' 1902 biplane at a historic location on the Outer Banks. The book provides access to video material, largely stemming from this project.

Gone (Hardcover): Oj Modjeska Gone (Hardcover)
Oj Modjeska
R551 Discovery Miles 5 510 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Oriana - Memoirs of a Patagonian (Hardcover): Oriana Josseau Oriana - Memoirs of a Patagonian (Hardcover)
Oriana Josseau
R730 R652 Discovery Miles 6 520 Save R78 (11%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

It is November 6, 1920, in Chilean Patagonia when Oriana Josseau is born into a lively family with two grandparents, two parents, and sixteen young aunts and uncles, most within easy reach of her robust cries. And so begins the life of an independent-minded girl from the bottom of the world who somehow manages to overcome the restrictions and biases of a conservative patriarchal society and eventually becomes a scientist.

As her family relocates to the idyllic countryside of central Chile and then to the hectic complex society of Santiago, Oriana vividly recalls her reactions to such diverse events as the birth of her brothers; the abrupt transition from wealth to near poverty; her first earthquake; the turmoil of student politics; the challenges of mountain adventures; the exploration of friendship, love and sex; and her first encounter with raw anti-female bias in a male-dominated research world. As she details her life from early childhood on, it soon becomes evident that Oriana must prevail over frequent conflicts with prejudice in order to become a strong, free woman long before the advent of the feminist movement.

Oriana describes beautifully, with humor and empathy, the idiosyncrasies, strengths, and foibles of one woman, and those around her, as she embarks on a unique coming-of-age journey in a different society and different time.

Broken Genius - The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (Hardcover, 2nd ed. 2006): J. Shurkin Broken Genius - The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (Hardcover, 2nd ed. 2006)
J. Shurkin
R1,472 Discovery Miles 14 720 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This is the first biography of William Shockley, founding father of Silicon Valley - one of the most significant and reviled scientists of the 20th century. Drawing upon unique access to the private Shockley archives, veteran technology historian and journalist Joel Shurkin gives an unflinching account of how such promise ended in such ignominy.

Optical Media (Hardcover, English): F Kittler Optical Media (Hardcover, English)
F Kittler
R1,972 Discovery Miles 19 720 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This major new book provides a concise history of optical media from Renaissance linear perspective to late twentieth-century computer graphics. Kittler begins by looking at European painting since the Renaissance in order to discern the principles according to which modern optical perception was organized. He also discusses the development of various mechanical devices, such as the camera obscura and the laterna magica, which were closely connected to the printing press and which played a pivotal role in the media war between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

After examining this history, Kittler then addresses the ways in which images were first stored and made to move, through the development of photography and film. He discusses the competitive relationship between photography and painting as well as between film and theater, as innovations like the Baroque proscenium or "picture-frame" stage evolved from elements that would later constitute cinema. The central question, however, is the impact of film on the ancient monopoly of writing, as it not only provoked new forms of competition for novelists but also fundamentally altered the status of books. In the final section, Kittler examines the development of electrical telecommunications and electronic image processing from television to computer simulations.

In short, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of image production that is indispensable for anyone wishing to understand the prevailing audiovisual conditions of contemporary culture.

Reflections on the Work of C.A.R. Hoare (Hardcover, 2010 ed.): Cliff B. Jones, A.W. Roscoe, Kenneth R Wood Reflections on the Work of C.A.R. Hoare (Hardcover, 2010 ed.)
Cliff B. Jones, A.W. Roscoe, Kenneth R Wood
R4,605 Discovery Miles 46 050 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

ThisvolumehasitsoriginsinameetingheldatMicrosoftResearch,Cambridge,in April2009tocelebrateTonyHoare's75thBirthday(actually11Jan2009). Allthe technicalpapersexceptforthosewrittenbyAbramsky,Jackson,JonesandMeyer arebased-sometimesclosely,sometimesnot-onpresentationsgivenatthatme- ing. TheideaforthemeetingaroseinconversationsbetweenourselvesandAndrew HerbertofMicrosoft,whohostedatrulymemorableandhappyevent. ThemeetingwasorganisedbyourselvesandKenWood,withthe?nancials- portofMicrosoftResearchandFormalSystems(Europe)Ltd,andheldovertwo days. We wouldlike to recordparticularthanksto Angela Still of Microsoftfor makingallthelocalarrangementsatCambridgeandmuchmore:themeetingwould nothavehappenedwithouther. Whilethemajorityofthepapersinthisvolumearetechnical,weaskedauthorsto re?ectonthein?uenceofHoare'sworkontheirown?eldsandtomakeappropriate remarksonit. Allthetechnicalpaperswererefereed. DiscussionswithWayneWheelerofSpringerinspiredthetwoofustowritethe scienti?cbiographyofHoarethatisthe?rstpaperinthisvolume. Thoughwehave bothknownTonywellformanyyears,wewereamazedathowmanydiscoveries abouthimwemadeduringtheprocessofwritingthisarticle. WewouldlikethankWayneandhisassistantSimonReesfortheirhelpinprep- ingthisvolumeaswellastheirpatience. Muchoftheworkingatheringthepapers, ensuringconsistencyofLaTeXstyles,etc. ,wasdonebyLucyLiofOxfordUniv- sityComputingLaboratoryandwethankherwarmly. Tragically,KenWood'swifeLisadiedafteralongillnessinSeptember2009. Wededicatethisvolumetohermemory. January2010 CliffJones BillRoscoe ix Contents 1 Insight,InspirationandCollaboration...1 C. B. JonesandA. W. Roscoe 2 FromCSPtoGameSemantics...33 SamsonAbramsky 3 OnMereologiesinComputingScience...47 DinesBjorner 4 Roles,Stacks,Histories:ATripleforHoare...71 Johannes Borgstrom, .. Andrew D. Gordon, andRiccardoPucella 5 ForwardwithHoare...101 MikeGordonandHel 'ene ' Collavizza 6 ProbabilisticProgrammingwithCoordination...123 HeJifeng 7 TheOperationalPrincipleandProblemFrames...143 MichaelJackson 8 TheRoleofAuxiliaryVariablesintheFormal DevelopmentofConcurrentPrograms...167 C. B. Jones 9 AvoidaVoid:TheEradicationofNullDereferencing...189 BertrandMeyer,AlexanderKogtenkov,andEmmanuelStapf 10 UnfoldingCSP...213 MikkelBundgaardandRobinMilner xi xii Contents 11 Quicksort:CombiningConcurrency,Recursion, andMutableDataStructures...2 29 DavidKitchin,AdrianQuark,andJayadevMisra 12 TheThousand-and-OneCryptographers...255 A. K. McIverandC. C. Morgan 13 On Process-AlgebraicExtensions of Metric TemporalLogic...283 ChristophHaase,Joel .. Ouaknine,andJamesWorrell 14 FunwithTypeFunctions...301 OlegKiselyov,SimonPeytonJones,andChung-chiehShan 15 OnCSPandtheAlgebraicTheoryofEffects...333 RobvanGlabbeekandGordonPlotkin 16 CSPisExpressiveEnoughfor ...371 A. W. Roscoe 17 TheTokeneerExperiments...405 JimWoodcock,EmineGokc .. ,eAydal,andRodChapman Chapter1 Insight,InspirationandCollaboration C. B. JonesandA. W. Roscoe Abstract TonyHoare'smanycontributionstocomputingsciencearemarkedby insightthatwasgroundedinpracticalprogramming. Manyofhispapershavehada profoundimpactontheevolutionofour?eld;theyhavemoreoverprovidedasource ofinspirationtoseveralgenerationsofresearchers. Weexaminethedevelopmentof hisworkthroughareviewofthedevelopmentofsomeofhismostin?uentialpieces ofworksuchasHoarelogic,CSPandUnifyingTheories. 1. 1 Introduction To many who know Tony Hoare only through his publications, they must often looklikepolishedgemsthatcomefromamindthatrarelymakesfalsesteps,nor evenperhapshastoworkattheircreation. Assooften,thisimpressionisafurther complimenttosomeonewhoactuallyaddstoveryhardworkandmanydiscarded attempts the ?nal polish thatmakes complexideas relatively easy for the reader tocomprehend. Asindicatedonpagexiof[HJ89],hisideastypicallygothrough manyrevisions. ThetwoauthorsofthecurrentpapereachhadthehonourofTonyHoaresuperv- ingtheirdoctoralstudiesinOxford. Theyknowat?rsthandhiskindandgenerous styleandwillcountitasanachievementifthispapercanconveysomethingofthe workingmethodsofsomeonebigenoughtoeschewcompetitionandpointscoring. Indeedit willbe apparentfromthe followingsectionshowoften,havingstarted somenewwayofthinkingorexcitingideas,hehappilyleavestheirexplorationand developmenttoothers. Wehavebothbene?tedpersonallyfromthis. C. B. Jones( ) SchoolofComputingScience,NewcastleUniversity,UK e-mail:cliff. jones@ncl. ac. uk A. W. Roscoe OxfordUniversityComputingLaboratory,UK e-mail:Bill. Roscoe@comlab. ox. ac. uk C. B. Jonesetal. (eds. ),Re?ectionsontheWorkofC. A. R.

Abstractions and Embodiments - New Histories of Computing and Society (Paperback): Janet Abbate, Stephanie Dick Abstractions and Embodiments - New Histories of Computing and Society (Paperback)
Janet Abbate, Stephanie Dick
R979 Discovery Miles 9 790 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Cutting-edge historians explore ideas, communities, and technologies around modern computing to explore how computers mediate social relations. Computers have been framed both as a mirror for the human mind and as an irreducible other that humanness is defined against, depending on different historical definitions of "humanness." They can serve both liberation and control because some people's freedom has historically been predicated on controlling others. Historians of computing return again and again to these contradictions, as they often reveal deeper structures. Using twin frameworks of abstraction and embodiment, a reformulation of the old mind-body dichotomy, this anthology examines how social relations are enacted in and through computing. The authors examining "Abstraction" revisit central concepts in computing, including "algorithm," "program," "clone," and "risk." In doing so, they demonstrate how the meanings of these terms reflect power relations and social identities. The section on "Embodiments" focuses on sensory aspects of using computers as well as the ways in which gender, race, and other identities have shaped the opportunities and embodied experiences of computer workers and users. Offering a rich and diverse set of studies in new areas, the book explores such disparate themes as disability, the influence of the punk movement, working mothers as technical innovators, and gaming behind the Iron Curtain. Abstractions and Embodiments reimagines computing history by questioning canonical interpretations, foregrounding new actors and contexts, and highlighting neglected aspects of computing as an embodied experience. It makes the profound case that both technology and the body are culturally shaped and that there can be no clear distinction between social, intellectual, and technical aspects of computing. Contributors: Janet Abbate, Marc Aidinoff, Troy Kaighin Astarte, Ekaterina Babinsteva, Andre Brock, Maarten Bullynck, Jiahui Chan, Gerardo Con Diaz, Liesbeth De Mol, Stephanie Dick, Kelcey Gibbons, Elyse Graham, Michael J. Halvorson, Mar Hicks, Scott Kushner, Xiaochang Li, Zachary Loeb, Lisa Nakamura, Tiffany Nichols, Laine Nooney, Elizabeth Petrick, Cierra Robson, Hallam Stevens, Jaroslav Svelch

Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed? (Hardcover): N.J. Mackintosh Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed? (Hardcover)
N.J. Mackintosh
R1,793 Discovery Miles 17 930 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

When Sir Cyril Burt died in 1971, he was widely recognized as Britain's most eminent educational psychologist whose studies of gifted and delinquent children, contributions to the development of factor analysis, and research on the inheritance of intelligence brought widespread acclaim. Within five years of his death, however, he was publicly denounced as a fraud who had fabricated data to conclude that intelligence is genetically determined. Examiners of the published data found serious inconsistencies that raised questions about their authenticity; the case has divided the scientific community ever since. Were the charges justified, or was he a victim of critics fearful of validating such a politically unacceptable scientific theory? This is an up-to-date and unbiased analysis of one of the most notorious scandals in science, now more timely and widely discussed than ever with the publication of The Bell Curve, the best-selling polemic that raises arguments comparable to Burt's. The distinguished contributors examine the controversial areas of Burt's work and argue that his defenders have sometimes, but by no means always, been correct, and that his critics have often jumped to hasty conclusions. In their haste, however, these critics have missed crucial evidence that is not easily reconciled with Burt's total innocence, leaving the perception that both cases are seriously flawed. An introductory chapter lays the background to the case, followed by an examination of Burt's work that relates to the controversy. The book concludes with a chapter on Burt's character, other cases of apparent scientific fraud, and the impact of Burt's alleged fabrications. These findings have profound implications not only for the study of psychology, but for the wider issues relating to integrity in scientific research, and the impact of intelligence testing on social policy.

Leonardo to the Internet - Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present (Paperback, third edition): Thomas J. Misa Leonardo to the Internet - Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present (Paperback, third edition)
Thomas J. Misa
R878 Discovery Miles 8 780 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Now updated - A comprehensive, 500-year history of technology in society. Historian Thomas J. Misa's sweeping history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shaped-and have been shaped by-the cultures in which they arose. Spanning the preindustrial past, the age of scientific, political, and industrial revolutions, as well as the more recent eras of imperialism, modernism, and global security, this compelling work evaluates what Misa calls "the question of technology." In this edition, Misa brings his acclaimed text up to date by drawing on current scholarship while retaining sharply drawn portraits of individual people, artifacts, and systems. Each chapter has been honed to relate to contemporary concerns. Globalization, Misa argues, looks differently considering today's virulent nationalism, cultural chauvinism, and trade wars. A new chapter focuses on the digital age from 1990 to 2016. The book also examines how today's unsustainable energy systems, insecure information networks, and vulnerable global shipping have helped foster geopolitical risks and instability and takes a look at the coronavirus pandemic from the perspective of Wuhan, China's high-tech district. A masterful analysis of how technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world.

Inventions - Makers of the Modern World (Hardcover): Lida Low Inventions - Makers of the Modern World (Hardcover)
Lida Low
R1,948 Discovery Miles 19 480 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Charles Babbage and The Countess (Hardcover): Patricia S. Warrick Charles Babbage and The Countess (Hardcover)
Patricia S. Warrick
R979 Discovery Miles 9 790 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Charles Babbage was thirty years old in 1821, as was his close friend, John Herschel, and in English intellectual circles they were both regarded as brilliant mathematicians. One day as Babbage worked in preparing logarithmic tables, a tedious and boring task, he commented to Herschel that he thought he could invent a machine to do these calculations with far more speed and accuracy than a human calculator could. And so was born an idea that would fascinate, tantalize, and absorb him for the remainder of his life. Over the years he drew plans, expanded them, modified them, and finally invented two machines, the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. The first was capable only of generating tables, but the Analytical Engine could do much more. It could convert into numbers and print the results of any formula that might be required. It could also develop any analytical formula the laws of whose formation were given. Using punched cards it could store early results in a calculation and then use them to make further calculations when they were required. He had invented the first mechanical computer.

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R314 R288 Discovery Miles 2 880

 

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