In the midst of spiraling ecological devastation, multispecies feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway offers provocative new ways to reconfigure our relations to the earth and all its inhabitants. She eschews referring to our current epoch as the Anthropocene, preferring to conceptualize it as what she calls the Chthulucene, as it more aptly and fully describes our epoch as one in which the human and nonhuman are inextricably linked in tentacular practices. The Chthulucene, Haraway explains, requires sym-poiesis, or making-with, rather than auto-poiesis, or self-making. Learning to stay with the trouble of living and dying together on a damaged earth will prove more conducive to the kind of thinking that would provide the means to building more livable futures. Theoretically and methodologically driven by the signifier SF-string figures, science fact, science fiction, speculative feminism, speculative fabulation, so far-Staying with the Trouble further cements Haraway's reputation as one of the most daring and original thinkers of our time.

For religious persons, the notion of human being is tied inextricably to the notion of God (or the gods) and turns on this question: what is human being? How did we, with our almost infinite capacities for thought, change, and domination, come to be? Imbued with powers far beyond any other animal, humans are too faulty to be considered gods themselves. Yet, the idea of God (or the gods) appears in all distinctive human cultures: it names the other pole of human-it designates a being who realizes perfectly our imperfectly realized nature. With the rise of new sciences come ancient anxieties about how we should define human being. In the nineteenth century, electricity and magnetism fascinated experts and captivated the lay public. In the twenty-first century, advances in neuroscience open up vast new possibilities of mimicking, and perhaps emulating human being. In this book twelve scholars and scientists ask what-if anything-distinguishes Brain from Mind, and Mind from Self and Soul.

Social Impacts of Smart Grids: The Future of Smart Grids and Energy Market Design explores the significant, unexplored societal consequences of our meteoric evolution towards intelligent, responsive and sustainable power generation and distribution systems-the so-called 'smart grid'. These consequences include new patterns of consumption behavior, systems planning under increasing uncertainty, and the ever- growing complexities involved. The work covers the historical impact of the transformation, examines the changing role of production and consumption behavior, articulates the principles and options for socially responsible smart grid power market design, and explores social acceptance of the smart grid. Where relevant, it examines adjacent literatures from P2P electricity markets, electric vehicles, smart homes and smart cities, and related 'internet of energy' developments. Finally, it provides insights into mitigating the likely social consequences of our integrated low-carbon energy future.

Spiritual masters through the ages have devised methods different than those of science for investigating the great mystery of nature by, for example, immersing themselves in it, making use of silence, stillness, and solitude. The scientific and spiritual quests have been the two great quests of humanity, but somehow a feeling has developed that science is antagonistic to spirituality. Since the whole of reality is built up of both matter and consciousness, why should the quest for the understanding of order in the external world be antagonistic to the quest for the understanding of order in the inner world of our consciousness? Science and Spirituality for a Sustainable World brings together theories, methodologies, new ideas, experiences, and applications emphasizing the importance of both spirituality and skill for leadership and sustainable management, sensitizing leaders and management practitioners toward the spirituality-skill paradigm, skill-based leadership, and highlighting the role of spiritual values for environmental sustainability. Featuring a wide range of topics that focus on the relationship between spirituality and science such as spiritual education, management practices, and traditional wisdom, this book is essential for researchers, academicians, administrators, managers, professionals, policymakers, and students.

Since the dawn of civilization, new technologies-from the plow to the locomotive to the computer-have transformed human lives. These changes have often been for the better, but occasionally also for the worse. No matter what consequence, these changes have always been irrevocable and pervasive. Today's new technologies, from the well-connected computer to the digital communication infrastructure, are not exception. They are dramatically changing the way we work, play and live. The central theme of Our Virtual World: The Transformation of Work, Play and Life via Technology is the interplay of the ubiquity of the virtual environment and our evolving interactions in this changed context.

Authored by London-based Researcher from Imperial, Exponential Progress takes readers on a journey through over seven decades of progress, as technology has shaped and controlled everything from banking and business to education, medicine, and the very basis of the human genome. It is a must read for anyone look to learn about fascinating emerging technologies that will disrupt our lives over the next ten years. Humanity is progressing towards a world that will be dominated by the end-results the scientific inventions that will evolve over the next decade. Technological progress has accelerated over the past decade - it was slow and buggy at the beginning, but the rate of improvement is now exponential. The growth is accelerating faster than we could have ever imagined. From a business perspective, these ground-breaking technologies are expected to be the best investments for the next decade. That is why investors and entrepreneurs are tenacious to grow rapidly. But where did it all start? How far have we come in the past 70 years since we developed the first digital computer? Thousands of innovators are in the process of developing the building blocks of these technologies, that will radically grow over the next decade and potentially dominate the century. But now, civilisation has reached a point when this progress cannot be controlled. The author cuts to the core of what humanity has achieved since the invention of the digital computer, where the new jaw-dropping technological innovation will come from, and where the line is drawn between fact and fad. This nonfiction meticulously looks back at the history, analyse current progress and what the researchers have achieved until now. The author attempts to comprehend the need for advancement and in parallel, the potential over the next decade, and reflecting on the necessity of control. If you are interested in new technologies, this will be one of the best books to read. Prepared to be mind-blown with the ideas you are going to find. Farabi, the author of Exponential Progress, is the Head of Research at IntelXSys(TM) and working as one of the Research Experience Leads for Clinical Research and Innovation (CRI) module at the Imperial College London. He has worked with over 100 companies as a technology consultant and spoken at a number of international conferences around the world.

Urban Mobility and the Smartphone: Transportation, Travel Behavior and Public Policy provides a global synthesis of the transformation of urban mobility by the smartphone, clarifying the definitions of new concepts and objects in mobility studies, accounting for the changes in transportation and travel behavior triggered by the spread of the smartphone, and discussing the implications of these changes for policy-making and research. Urban mobility is approached here as a system of actors: the perspectives of individual behavior (including lifestyles), the supply of mobility services (including actors, business models), and public policy-making are considered. The book is based on an extensive review of the academic literature as well as systematic observation of the development of smartphone-based mobility services around the world. In addition, case studies provide practical illustrations of the ongoing transformation of mobility services influenced by the dissemination of smartphones. The book not only consolidates existing research, but also picks up on weak signals that help researchers and practitioners anticipate future changes in urban mobility systems. Key Features * Synthesizes existing research into one reference, providing researchers and policy-makers with a clear and complete understanding of the changes triggered by the spread of the smartphone. * Analyzes numerous case studies throughout developed and developing countries providing practical illustrations of the influence of the smartphone on travel behavior, transportation systems, and policy-making. * Provides insights for researchers and practitioners looking to engage with the "smart cities" and "smart mobility" discourse.

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A SPECTATOR AND FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022 'If you read just one book about how the modern world is driving us crazy, read this one' TELEGRAPH 'This book is exactly what the world needs right now' OPRAH WINFREY 'A beautifully researched and argued exploration of the breakdown of humankind's ability to pay attention' STEPHEN FRY 'A really important book . . . Everyone should read it' PHILIPPA PERRY Why have we lost our ability to focus? What are the causes? And, most importantly, how do we get it back? For Stolen Focus, internationally bestselling author Johann Hari went on a three-year journey to uncover the reasons behind our shortening attention spans. He interviewed the leading experts in the world on attention, and learned that everything we think about this subject is wrong. We think our inability to focus is a personal failing - a flaw in each one of us. It is not. This has been done to all of us by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen. Johann discovered there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He shows us how in a thrilling journey that ranges from Silicon Valley dissidents, to a favela in Rio where attention vanished, to an office in New Zealand that found a remarkable way to restore our attention. Crucially, he learned how - as individuals, and as a society - we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it.