Uniting Thomas Lawson's essays on the cognitive science of religion, this volume explores theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena such as religion, the role of imagination, and the experiments that emerge from these theories. The book begins with Lawson's influential essay “Towards a Cognitive Science of Religion,” which was the first to employ the phrase, and has since become widely adopted in many different disciplines. It signals to scholars in the humanities that the cognitive revolution has finally reached them and serves to introduce them to the world of science. The rest of the book focuses on theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena and describes experiments by scholars working on the connections between cognition and culture. Described as "the grandfather of the cognitive science of religion," Lawson offers a unique perspective on the development of the field and the principles that underlie it, which will be relevant to both newcomers and established scholars.

This second edition of the Handbook of Research on Techno-Entrepreneurship, edited by Francois Therin, evidences a burgeoning field of research, and a growing cohort of international researchers working in this field who have produced works for this volume. The papers cover a variety of topics that intersect the realm of technovation with other fields of enquiry, such as economic development, sustainability, venture capital, new venture incubation, and academic entrepreneurship. This Handbook represents a convenient place to find and read this broad array of recent papers in this field.' - Evan J. Douglas, Griffith Business School, Australia'In this Handbook, Francois Therin assembles a group of researchers with diverse perspectives to enrich our understanding of the nature, antecedents and consequences of techno-entrepreneurship. The Handbook is comprehensive in its scope, deep in its analyses, informative and interesting to read. It opens many avenues for research while communicating well with managers and policy makers.' - Shaker A. Zahra, University of Minnesota, US Techno-entrepreneurship is broadly defined as the entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activities of both existing and nascent companies operating in technology-intensive environments. This second edition examines the latest trends in techno-entrepreneurship. Comprising entirely new contributions by international experts, this edition covers among others: - Family business - Green and sustainable techno-entrepreneurship - Effectuation - Techno-intrapreneurship - Academic entrepreneurship -Frugal innovation With chapters focusing on China, India, Southeast Asia and South America, the Handbook explores views on the new hot spots in techno-entrepreneurship development. Providing a comprehensive, highly accessible and innovative first insight into the developing sphere of techno-entrepreneurship, this international study will be essential reading for postgraduate students, academics and researchers with an interest in management and entrepreneurship. Managerial and entrepreneurial professionals in high-tech industries will also find much to interest them within this Handbook. Contributors include: R. Abdullah, P.M. Banerjee, B. Bhardwaj, V. Blok, J. Borchardt, A. Brem, W. Carter, G. Criaco, C. Dessi, C. Fitzgerald, M. Floris, Z. Fuquan, M. Hoppe, J. Houterman, D.A. Isabelle, D. Jolly, T. Kollmann, K.-H. Lai, M. Ledwith, A. Leirner, L. Manral, T. Minola, L.M. Nor, O. Omta, R. O Shea, H. Othman, J. Pellikka, M.Saeed Siddiq, M.S. Salimath, A.Sanna, C. Serarols-Tarres, J. Woolley, A.Yash Bhatiya, M. Yusof, N. Zakaria

The "Statistical Handbook on Technology" is the first easy-to-use resource to provide the general reader with comprehensive statistical information on how technology affects all areas of our lives. More than 250 charts, tables, and graphs are featured, making it easy for users to quickly find answers to such questions as: How has the number of ATM transactions per month grown since 1988? What percentage of U.S. public libraries offers access to the Internet? How many CD players have been sold in the U.S. since 1983? What is the most prescribed drug? What is the average age of the U.S. aviation fleet? Each of the book's 13 chapters includes a short essay introducing the topic and describing the statistics that follow. The Handbook also provides insightful forecasts, information that is normally difficult to find.

Why are some countries better than others at science and technology (S&T)? Written in an approachable style, The Politics of Innovation provides readers from all backgrounds and levels of expertise a comprehensive introduction to the debates over national S&T competitiveness. It synthesizes over fifty years of theory and research on national innovation rates, bringing together the current political and economic wisdom, and latest findings, about how nations become S&T leaders. Many experts mistakenly believe that domestic institutions and policies determine national innovation rates. However, after decades of research, there is still no agreement on precisely how this happens, exactly which institutions matter, and little aggregate evidence has been produced to support any particular explanation. Yet, despite these problems, a core faith in a relationship between domestic institutions and national innovation rates remains widely held and little challenged. The Politics of Innovation confronts head-on this contradiction between theory, evidence, and the popularity of the institutions-innovation hypothesis. It presents extensive evidence to show that domestic institutions and policies do not determine innovation rates. Instead, it argues that social networks are as important as institutions in determining national innovation rates. The Politics of Innovation also introduces a new theory of "creative insecurity" which explains how institutions, policies, and networks are all subservient to politics. It argues that, ultimately, each country's balance of domestic rivalries vs. external threats, and the ensuing political fights, are what drive S&T competitiveness. In making its case, The Politics of Innovation draws upon statistical analysis and comparative case studies of the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, Israel, Russia and a dozen countries across Western Europe.

Slated as 'the next big thing in tech', augmented reality promises to take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via 'smart spectacles'. As a pervasive, invisible interface between the world and our senses, AR offers unparalleled capacity to reveal hidden digital depths, but it also comes at a cost to our privacy, our property, and our reality. In this crucial and provocative book, Mark Pesce draws on over thirty years' experience to offer the first mainstream exploration of augmented reality. He discusses the exciting and beneficial features of AR as well as the issues and risks raised by this still-emerging technology - a technology that moulds us by shaping what we see and hear. Augmented Reality is essential reading for anyone interested in the growing influence of this impressive but deeply concerning technology. As the book reveals, reality - once augmented - will never be the same.

This book provides in-depth and wide-ranging analyses of the emergence, and subsequent ubiquity, of algorithms in diverse realms of social life. The plurality of Algorithmic Cultures emphasizes: 1) algorithms' increasing importance in the formation of new epistemic and organizational paradigms; and 2) the multifaceted analyses of algorithms across an increasing number of research fields. The authors in this volume address the complex interrelations between social groups and algorithms in the construction of meaning and social interaction. The contributors highlight the performative dimensions of algorithms by exposing the dynamic processes through which algorithms - themselves the product of a specific approach to the world - frame reality, while at the same time organizing how people think about society. With contributions from leading experts from Media Studies, Social Studies of Science and Technology, Cultural and Media Sociology from Canada, France, Germany, UK and the USA, this volume presents cutting edge empirical and conceptual research that includes case studies on social media platforms, gaming, financial trading and mobile security infrastructures.

Named one of "The five best books to understand AI" by The Economist The impact AI will have is profound, but the economic framework for understanding it is surprisingly simple. Artificial intelligence seems to do the impossible, magically bringing machines to life-driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI brings can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? In the face of such uncertainty, many either cower in fear or predict an impossibly sunny future. But in Prediction Machines, three eminent economists recast the rise of AI as a drop in the cost of prediction. With this masterful stroke, they lift the curtain on the AI-is-magic hype and provide economic clarity about the AI revolution as well as a basis for action by executives, policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs. In this new, updated edition, the authors illustrate how, when AI is framed as cheap prediction, its extraordinary potential becomes clear: Prediction is at the heart of making decisions amid uncertainty. Our businesses and personal lives are riddled with such decisions. Prediction tools increase productivity-operating machines, handling documents, communicating with customers. Uncertainty constrains strategy. Better prediction creates opportunities for new business strategies to compete. The authors reset the context, describing the striking impact the book has had and how its argument and its implications are playing out in the real world. And in new material, they explain how prediction fits into decision-making processes and how foundational technologies such as quantum computing will impact business choices. Penetrating, insightful, and practical, Prediction Machines will help you navigate the changes on the horizon.

Weather, Religion and Climate Change is the first in-depth exploration of the fascinating way in which the weather impacts on the fields of religion, art, culture, history, science, and architecture. In critical dialogue with meteorology and climate science, this book takes the reader beyond the limits of contemporary thinking about the Anthropocene and explores whether a deeper awareness of weather might impact on the relationship between nature and self. Drawing on a wide range of examples, including paintings by J.M.W. Turner, medieval sacred architecture, and Aristotle's classical Meteorologica, Bergmann examines a geographically and historically wide range of cultural practices, religious practices, and worldviews in which weather appears as a central, sacred force of life. He also examines the history of scientific meteorology and its ambivalent commodification today, as well as medieval "weather witchery" and biblical perceptions of weather as a kind of "barometer" of God's love. Overall, this volume explores the notion that a new awareness of weather and its atmospheres can serve as a deep cultural and spiritual driving force that can overcome the limits of the Anthropocene and open a new path to the "Ecocene", the age of nature. Drawing on methodologies from religious studies, cultural studies, art history and architecture, philosophy, environmental ethics and aesthetics, history, and theology, this book will be of great interest to all those concerned with studying the environment from a transdisciplinary perspective on weather and wisdom.

Dancing humanoids, robotic art installations, and music generated by mathematically precise methods are no longer science fiction; in fact they are the subject of this book. This first-of-its-kind anthology assembles technical research that makes such creations possible. In order to mechanize something as enigmatic and personal as dance, researchers must delve deeply into two distinct academic disciplines: control theory and art.Broadly, this research uses techniques from the world of art to inspire methods in control, enables artistic endeavours using advanced control theory and aids in the analysis of art using metrics devised by a systems theoretic approach.

To ensure that artistic influences are well represented, the individual chapters are focused so that they relate their contribution to the arts meaningfully and explicitly. Specially composed introductions set up the contributions either in terms of inspiration by artistic principles or their contribution to the arts through new analysis tools. To facilitate this, the majority of the chapters are authored jointly by experts in control theory and by artists, including dancers, choreographers, puppeteers and painters. Connections between controls and art then permeate the text so that these important relationships play a central role in the book.

"Controls and Art" surveys current projects in this area including a disco dancing robot, a reactive museum exhibit and otherworldly music and illuminates open problems and topics for research in this emerging interdisciplinary field. It will draw attention both from experts in robotics and control interested in developing the artistic side of their creations and from academics studying dance, theater, music and the visual arts with an interest in "avant-garde "means of production."

'An extraordinary book . . . It will shake up your most fundamental beliefs about everyday experience, and it just might change your life.' Paul Bloom ___ For the millions of people who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris's new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology. Throughout the book, Harris argues that there are important truths to be found in the experience of contemplatives such as Jesus, Buddha and other saints and sages of history-and, therefore, that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow. Waking Up is part seeker's memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris-a scientist, philosopher, and famous sceptic-could write it. ___ 'A demanding, illusion-shattering book.' Kirkus Reviews 'A pleasure to read.' Huffington Post

For mainstream economics, cultural production raises no special questions: creative expression is to be harvested for wealth creation like any other form of labour. As Karl Marx saw it, however, capital is hostile to the arts because it cannot fully control the process of creativity. But while he saw the arts as marginal to capital accumulation, that was before the birth of the mass media. Engaging with the major issues in Marxist theory around art and capitalism, From Printing to Streaming traces how the logic of cultural capitalism evolved from the print age to digital times, tracking the development of printing, photography, sound recording, newsprint, advertising, film and broadcasting, exploring the peculiarities of each as commodities, and their recent transformation by digital technology, where everything melts into computer code. Showing how these developments have had profound implications for both cultural creation and consumption, Chanan offers a radical and comprehensive analysis of the commodification of artistic creation and the struggle to realise its potential in the digital age.

In The Mobile Phone Revolution in Morocco, Hsain Ilahiane examines how Moroccans use the mobile phone to redefine core notions of gender and space, honor and shame, placemaking, and surveillance and control. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with urban street vendors, urban micro-entrepreneurs, urban female domestic workers, and smallholder farmers in urban and rural Morocco, Ilahiane illustrates how the mobile phone has the endowed capacity to inform, rearrange, and transform almost every aspect of Moroccan society.

Short Description: Many Christians reject the consensus of contemporary science about the age of the universe, the implications of genetics, and so on. This book presents interviews with 15 eminent scientists who discuss the compatibility of their Christian faith and their mainstream scientific commitments. Features John Polkinghorne, Alister McGrath, John Lennox, Francis Collins, and John Houghton. A collection of exclusive interviews in which 15 eminent scientists talk about their science and their Christian faith. In this collection of interviews, scientists show how Bible-believing Christianity is compatible with contemporary scientific thinking. Christians do not have to choose, they say, between big bang and the Bible. Genesis and genetics can go together. In this book, big questions of the past, the present and the future are asked and answered; the physical impacts and moral implications of climate change are investigated and the intricacies of human DNA and the morality of genetic engineering are unravelled. Physicists, immunologists, astrophysicists, biochemists and mathematicians discuss what it means for humankind to be made in the image of God and how Christians can translate the gospel for our science-savvy society.

Eighty years ago, Ettore Majorana, a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. How is it possible that the most talented physicist of his generation vanished without leaving a trace? It has long been speculated that Majorana decided to abandon physics, disappearing because he had precociously realized that nuclear fission would inevitably lead to the atomic bomb. This book advances a different hypothesis. Through a careful analysis of Majorana's article "The Value of Statistical Laws in Physics and Social Sciences," which shows how in quantum physics reality is dissolved into probability, and in dialogue with Simone Weil's considerations on the topic, Giorgio Agamben suggests that, by disappearing into thin air, Majorana turned his very person into an exemplary cipher of the status of the real in our probabilistic universe. In so doing, the physicist posed a question to science that is still awaiting an answer: What is Real?

Scientific and technological innovation continues at a rapid pace, but the public is increasingly aware of possible risks and demanding greater involvement in decisions about new technologies. This edited volume brings together leading social scientists who address recent evidence and debates about public engagement and trust in experts. The chapters consider different methods of public consultation and 'deliberation' in relation to a variety of new technologies, including genetically modified foods, mobile telecommunications, nanotechnology, and hydrogen energy.

DEBUNKING THE "EVIDENCE" BEHIND THE EVOLUTIONIST WORLDVIEW: Throughout the last half of the twentieth century, and now into the new millennium, the public has been fed a steady diet of anti-Biblical propaganda by an increasingly determined cadre of evolutionist scientists, educators and media outlets. The result of this concerted effort has been a shifting of public consciousness away from Biblical truth and into a new paradigm in which belief in some form of Darwinian evolution has become a Litmus test of acceptability in our society. But is this paradigm shift founded on legitimate scientific evidence? The answer to this question is a resounding NO. Over the last several decades, scientists in widely varied disciplines have refuted much of the "evidence" behind today's various competing evolution theories. The time has finally come to expose evolution for what it is: delusion. Kenneth Lawrence was born in British Columbia, Canada, where he currently resides. He has had an intense interest in science most of his life. A believer in Darwinian evolution for many years, Ken became a Christian at the age of twenty-three, but had difficulty accepting a straightforward reading of the Bible's account of origins for many years. In his late forties, Ken began to seriously investigate the scientific claims of evolution theory. Nearly a decade of personal research has resulted in an invigorated faith in the God of the Bible and in the writing of this book.

This book brings together history and theory in art and media to examine the effects of artificial intelligence and machine learning in culture, and reflects on the implications of delegating parts of the creative process to AI. In order to understand the complexity of authorship and originality in relation to creativity in contemporary times, Navas combines historical and theoretical premises from different areas of research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to provide a rich historical and theoretical context that critically reflects on and questions the implications of artificial intelligence and machine learning as an integral part of creative production. As part of this, the book considers how much of postproduction and remix aesthetics in art and media preceded the current rise of metacreativity in relation to artificial intelligence and machine learning, and explores contemporary questions on aesthetics. The book also provides a thorough evaluation of the creative application of systematic approaches to art and media production, and how this in effect percolates across disciplines including art, design, communication, as well as other fields in the humanities and social sciences. An essential read for students and scholars interested in understanding the increasing role of AI and machine learning in contemporary art and media, and their wider role in creative production across culture and society.

Institutional review boards (IRBs) are panels charged with protecting the rights of humans who participate in research studies ranging from biomedicine to social science. Regulating Human Research provides a fresh look at these influential and sometimes controversial boards, tracing their historic transformation from academic committees to compliance bureaucracies: non-governmental offices where specialized staff define and apply federal regulations. In opening the black box of contemporary IRB decision-making, author Sarah Babb argues that compliance bureaucracy is an adaptive response to the dynamics and dysfunctions of American governance. Yet this solution has had unforeseen consequences, including the rise of a profitable ethics review industry.

Nations around the globe consider physics education an important tool of economic and social development and currently advocate the use of innovative strategies to prepare students for knowledge and skills acquisition. Particularly in the last decade, a series of revisions were made to physics curricula in an attempt to cope with the changing needs and expectations of society. Educational transformation is a major challenge due to educational systems' resistance to change. Updated curriculum content, pedagogical facilities (for example, computers in a school), new teaching and learning strategies and the prejudice against girls in physics classes are all issues that have to be addressed. Educational research provides a way to build schemas and resources to promote changes in physics education. This volume presents physics teaching and learning research connected with the main educational scenarios.

China is surging in the tech race - and will continue to outperform the United States. The rising power has done exceptionally in Super Apps, bullet trains, 5G, electric vehicles, digital currency, smart cities, blockchain applications, and quantum communications in space, among others. Its payment platforms are increasingly adopted along the entire Silk Road.The genesis of this book was to discover an 'Apollo Program' for the US to catch up in these areas, but we discovered a much deeper need for a social/mental health Apollo Program for millennials who are bogged down by a host of under-appreciated and intertwined issues which cause anxiety and alienation and lead to massive losses in workplace productivity. This book proposes two Apollo programs - one for tech and one for millennials - by a millennial. Strategies for cracking the highly competitive Chinese Super App ecommerce market are also revealed.Related Link(s)

Shortlisted for the 2022 ESSE Book Awards How has humanity sought to harness the power of the Sun, and what roles have literature, art and other cultural forms played in imagining, mythologizing and reflecting the possibilities of solar energy? What stories have been told about solar technologies, and how have these narratives shaped developments in science and culture? What can solar power's history tell us about its future, within a world adapting to climate crisis? Identifying the history of capturing solar radiance as a focal point between science and the imagination, Imagining Solar Energy argues that the literary, artistic and mythical resonances of solar power - from the Renaissance to the present day - have not only been inspired by, but have also cultivated and sustained its scientific and technological development. Ranging from Archimedes to Isaac Asimov, John Dee to Humphry Davy, Aphra Behn to J. G. Ballard, the book argues that solar energy translates into many different kinds of power (physical, political, intellectual and cultural), and establishes for the first time the importance of solar energy to many literary and scientific endeavours.

On May 28, 2007, the Creation Museum opened in Petersburg, Kentucky. Aimed at scientifically demonstrating that the universe was created less than ten thousand years ago by a Judeo-Christian god, the museum is hugely popular, attracting millions of visitors over the past eight years. Surrounded by themed topiary gardens and a petting zoo with camel rides, the site conjures up images of a religious Disneyland. Inside, visitors are met by dinosaurs at every turn and by a replica of the Garden of Eden that features the Tree of Life, the serpent, and Adam and Eve. In Righting America at the Creation Museum, Susan L. Trollinger and William Vance Trollinger, Jr., take readers on a fascinating tour of the museum. The Trollingers vividly describe and analyze its vast array of exhibits, placards, dioramas, and videos, from the Culture in Crisis Room, where videos depict sinful characters watching pornography or considering abortion, to the Natural Selection Room, where placards argue that natural selection doesn't lead to evolution. The book also traces the rise of creationism and the history of fundamentalism in America. This compelling book reveals that the Creation Museum is a remarkably complex phenomenon, at once a "natural history" museum at odds with contemporary science, an extended brief for the Bible as the literally true and errorless word of God, and a powerful and unflinching argument on behalf of the Christian right.