Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, yet it causes damage to society in ways that can't be fixed. Instead of helping to address our current crises, AI causes divisions that limit people's life chances, and even suggests fascistic solutions to social problems. This book provides an analysis of AI's deep learning technology and its political effects and traces the ways that it resonates with contemporary political and social currents, from global austerity to the rise of the far right. Dan McQuillan calls for us to resist AI as we know it and restructure it by prioritising the common good over algorithmic optimisation. He sets out an anti-fascist approach to AI that replaces exclusions with caring, proposes people's councils as a way to restructure AI through mutual aid and outlines new mechanisms that would adapt to changing times by supporting collective freedom. Academically rigorous, yet accessible to a socially engaged readership, this unique book will be of interest to all who wish to challenge the social logic of AI by reasserting the importance of the common good.

Building on the work of Elinor Ostrom (Governing the Commons) the author examines how the different shared goods of a democratic society are shaped by technology and demonstrates how club goods, common pool resources, and public goods are supported, enhanced, and disrupted by technology. He further argues that as the common good is undermined by different interests, it should be possible to reclaim technology, if the members of the society conclude that they have something in common.

The field of ethics in science aims to improve the way the audience perceives science, and this unique workbook discusses the areas of ethics and scientific misconduct. It provides assessments and exercises for learners to work through in groups or alone. Completion of the workbook but especially the assessment and tests will earn the learner a certificate for scientific misconduct training compiled by the author, and the certificate is available from the author's own website. This volume is a companion to the author's published volume, Ethics in Science: Ethical Misconduct in Scientific Research, Second Edition and will appeal to undergraduates, graduates and even high school students. Features: A unique training workbook in ethics and good conduct, easliy accessible and user friendly Unlike books in this area which mostly cover the theoretical foundations of ethics in science, here the author provides a practical workbook and ancillaries Case studies and a PowerPoint presentation are provided and readers will receive a certificate of completion There is a wealth of instructor resources available from the homepage A knowledge of scientific misconduct is of utmost importance in an era of mass higher education

This book addresses how our revisionary practices account for relations between texts and how they are read. It offers an overarching philosophy of revision concerning works of fiction, fact, and faith, revealing unexpected insights about the philosophy of language, the metaphysics of fact and fiction, and the history and philosophy of science and religion. Using the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien as exemplars, the authors introduce a fundamental distinction between the purely physical and the linguistic aspects of texts. They then demonstrate how two competing theories of reference-descriptivism and referentialism-are instead constitutive of a single semantic account needed to explain all kinds of revision. The authors also propose their own metaphysical foundations of fiction and fact. The next part of the book brings the authors' philosophy of revision into dialogue with Thomas Kuhn's famous analysis of factual, and specifically scientific, change. It also discusses a complex episode in the history of paleontology, demonstrating how scientific and popular texts can diverge over time. Finally, the authors expand their philosophy of revision to religious texts, arguing that, rather than being distinct, such texts are always read as other kinds, that faith tends to be more important as evidence for religious texts than for others, and that the latter explains why religious communities tend to have remarkable historical longevity. Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith offers a unique and comprehensive account of the philosophy of revision. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of language, metaphysics, philosophy of literature, literary theory and criticism, and history and philosophy of science and religion.

Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population: Towards Universal Design presents age-friendly design guidelines that are well-established, agreed-upon, research-based, actionable, and applicable across a variety of modern technology platforms. The book offers guidance for product engineers, designers, or students who want to produce technological products and online services that can be easily and successfully used by older adults and other populations. It presents typical age-related characteristics, addressing vision and visual design, hand-eye coordination and ergonomics, hearing and sound, speech and comprehension, navigation, focus, cognition, attention, learning, memory, content and writing, attitude and affect, and general accessibility. The authors explore characteristics of aging via realistic personas which demonstrate the impact of design decisions on actual users over age 55.

This volume represents both recent research in pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), as well as emerging innovations in how PCK is applied in practice. The notion of "research to practice" is critical to validating how effectively PCK works within the clinic and how it can be used to improve STEM learning. As the need for more effective educational approaches in STEM grows, the importance of developing, identifying, and validating effective practices and practitioner competencies are needed. This book covers a wide range of topics in PCK in different school levels (middle school, college teacher training, teacher professional development), and different environments (museums, rural). The contributors believe that vital to successful STEM education practice is recognition that STEM domains require both specialized domain knowledge as well as specialized pedagogical approaches. The authors of this work were chosen because of their extensive fieldwork in PCK research and practice, making this volume valuable to furthering how PCK is used to enlighten the understanding of learning, as well as providing practical instruction. This text helps STEM practitioners, researchers, and decision-makers further their interest in more effective STEM education practice, and raises new questions about STEM learning.

The relationships between science and religion are about to enter a new phase in our contemporary world, as scientific knowledge has become increasingly relevant in ordinary life, beyond the institutional public spaces where it traditionally developed. The purpose of this volume is to analyze the relationships, possible articulations and contradictions between religion and science as forms of life: ways of engaging human experience that originate in particular social and cultural formations. Contributions use this theoretical and ethnographic research to explore different scientific and religious cultures in the contemporary world.

In The Multiplicity of Interpreted Worlds: Inner and Outer Perspectives, Donald A. Crosby examines whether there is such a thing as an uninterpreted, unitary, in-itself world or if all claims about the world-whether scientific historical, cultural, communal, or individual-are necessarily partial and limited. If the latter is so, then ultimately many different worlds call for recognition, ranging in scope and reliability, but none of them-including those of the most allegedly "hard" science-either is or can be free of the limitations, disagreements, and fallibilities among even the most qualified experts in a particular field of investigation. The inward and the outward, the subjective and the objective, are thus crucially dependent on one another, and neither is finally intelligible as such apart from the other. Crosby argues that there is no such thing as a completely objective view of the world. This observation is pertinent to our treatment of other natural beings and their ecological domains because it makes us aware that they too have different relations to and perspectives on their environments or worlds in a manner similar to our own irreducibly different outlooks on such worlds from within.

Entropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920. According to the second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, the entropy of any closed system will inevitably increase in time, meaning that the system will decay and eventually end in a dead state of equilibrium. Application of the law to the entire universe, first proposed in the 1850s, led to the prediction of a future 'heat death', where all life has ceased and all organization dissolved. In the late 1860s it was pointed out that, as a consequence of the heat death scenario, the universe can have existed only for a finite period of time. According to the 'entropic creation argument', thermodynamics warrants the conclusion that the world once begun or was created. It is these two scenarios, allegedly consequences of the science of thermodynamics, which form the core of this book. The heat death and the claim of cosmic creation were widely discussed in the period 1870 to 1920, with participants in the debate including European scientists, intellectuals and social critics, among them the physicist William Thomson and the communist thinker Friedrich Engels. One reason for the passion of the debate was that some authors used the law of entropy increase to argue for a divine creation of the world. Consequently, the second law of thermodynamics became highly controversial. In Germany in particular, materialists and positivists engaged in battle with Christian - mostly Catholic - scholars over the cosmological consequences of thermodynamics. This heated debate, which is today largely forgotten, is reconstructed and examined in detail in this book, bringing into focus key themes on the interactions between cosmology, physics, religion and ideology, and the public way in which these topics were discussed in the latter half of the nineteenth and the first years of the twentieth century.

Centering Race in the STEM Education of African American K-12 Learners boldly advocates for a transformative approach to the teaching of STEM to African American K-12 learners. The achievement patterns of African American learners, so often described as an "achievement gap" between them and their White peers, is in fact the historical legacy of slavery and the racial hierarchy that was necessary to maintain it. The achievement gap is a contemporary manifestation of the racial hierarchy that continues in STEM to the present time. The racial hierarchy in STEM education is upheld by structural arrangements, policies, and practices, sometimes invisible, but ultimately denies access and depresses performance of African American K-12 learners in STEM. This book argues that disrupting these patterns of achievement and realizing more equitable outcomes for this demographic is essentially a political act that requires that race be overtly addressed and centered in the STEM education of these children-an approach called "race-visible pedagogy." While this approach incorporates some of the elements of culturally responsive pedagogy and other anti-racist or liberatory pedagogies, it advances the thinking about such approaches by shifting the emphasis from the outcomes of such pedagogies to the experience of them. This book covers a range of issues related to the STEM education of African American K-12 learners and includes theoretical pieces that offer insightful, new, and asset-based, as opposed to deficit-based, frameworks for understanding and disrupting the patterns of achievement of African American children, as well examples of the practice of race-visible pedagogies.

'An exciting, astute analysis of how our capacity for desire has been slotted into the grooves of digital capitalism, and made to work for profit - from porn to Pokemon' - Richard Seymour We are in the middle of a 'desirevolution' - a fundamental and political transformation of the way we desire as human beings. Perhaps as always, new technologies - with their associated and inherited political biases - are organising and mapping the future. What we don't seem to notice is that the primary way in which our lives are being transformed is through the manipulation and control of desire itself. Our very impulses, drives and urges are 'gamified' to suit particular economic and political agendas, changing the way we relate to everything from lovers and friends to food and politicians. Digital technologies are transforming the subject at the deepest level of desire - re-mapping its libidinal economy - in ways never before imagined possible. From sexbots to smart condoms, fitbits to VR simulators and AI to dating algorithms, the 'love industries' are at the heart of the future smart city and the social fabric of everyday life. This book considers these emergent technologies and what they mean for the future of love, desire, work and capitalism.

This new text is a detailed study of an important process in modern Indian history. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, India experienced an intellectual renaissance, which owed as much to the influx of new ideas from the West as to traditional religious and cultural insights.

Gosling examines the effects of the introduction of Western science into India, and the relationship between Indian traditions of thought and secular Western scientific doctrine. He charts the early development of science in India, its role in the secularization of Indian society, and the subsequent reassertion, adaptation and rejection of traditional modes of thought. The beliefs of key Indian scientists, including Jagadish Chandra Bose, P.C. Roy and S.N. Bose are explored and the book goes on to reflect upon how individual scientists could still accept particular religious beliefs such as reincarnation, cosmology, miracles and prayer.

Science and the Indian Tradition gives an in-depth assessment of results of the introduction of Western science into India, and will be of interest to scholars of Indian history and those interested in the interaction between Western and Indian traditions of intellectual thought.

This foundational text examines the intersection of AI, psychology, and ethics, laying the groundwork for the importance of ethical considerations in the design and implementation of technologically supported education, decision support, and leadership training. AI already affects our lives profoundly, in ways both mundane and sensational, obvious and opaque. Much academic and industrial effort has considered the implications of this AI revolution from technical and economic perspectives, but the more personal, humanistic impact of these changes has often been relegated to anecdotal evidence in service to a broader frame of reference. Offering a unique perspective on the emerging social relationships between people and AI agents and systems, Hampton and DeFalco present cutting-edge research from leading academics, professionals, and policy standards advocates on the psychological impact of the AI revolution. Structured into three parts, the book explores the history of data science, technology in education, and combatting machine learning bias, as well as future directions for the emerging field, bringing the research into the active consideration of those in positions of authority. Exploring how AI can support expert, creative, and ethical decision making in both people and virtual human agents, this is essential reading for students, researchers, and professionals in AI, psychology, ethics, engineering education, and leadership, particularly military leadership.

This foundational text examines the intersection of AI, psychology, and ethics, laying the groundwork for the importance of ethical considerations in the design and implementation of technologically supported education, decision support, and leadership training. AI already affects our lives profoundly, in ways both mundane and sensational, obvious and opaque. Much academic and industrial effort has considered the implications of this AI revolution from technical and economic perspectives, but the more personal, humanistic impact of these changes has often been relegated to anecdotal evidence in service to a broader frame of reference. Offering a unique perspective on the emerging social relationships between people and AI agents and systems, Hampton and DeFalco present cutting-edge research from leading academics, professionals, and policy standards advocates on the psychological impact of the AI revolution. Structured into three parts, the book explores the history of data science, technology in education, and combatting machine learning bias, as well as future directions for the emerging field, bringing the research into the active consideration of those in positions of authority. Exploring how AI can support expert, creative, and ethical decision making in both people and virtual human agents, this is essential reading for students, researchers, and professionals in AI, psychology, ethics, engineering education, and leadership, particularly military leadership.

This book presents a pragmatic response to arguments against religion made by the New Atheism movement. The author argues that analytic and empirical philosophies of religion-the mainstream approaches in contemporary philosophy of religion-are methodologically unequipped to address the "Threefold Challenge" made by popular New Atheist thinkers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. The book has three primary motivations. First, it provides an interpretation of the New Atheist movement that treats their claims as philosophical arguments and not just rhetorical exercises or demagoguery. Second, it assesses and responds to these claims by elaborating four distinct contemporary philosophical perspectives- analytic philosophy, empirical philosophy, continental philosophy, and pragmatism-as well as contextualizing these perspectives in the history of the philosophy of religion. Finally, the book offers a metaphilosophical critique, returning again and again to the question of method. In the end, the author settles upon a modified version of pragmatism that he concludes is best suited for articulating the terms and stakes of the God Debate. Challenging the New Atheism will be of interest to scholars and students of American philosophy and philosophy of religion.

Former vicar Mark Silversides tackles one of the most challenging questions of our day: should we have faith in the age of science? Claims made in favour of both atheism and religious observation are examined engagingly and sensitively. Proponents of both viewpoints will find Faith in the Age of Science a challenging and deeply interesting read.

"An outstanding book, and a much needed one, presenting a reasoned response to atheism. Appreciating the great scientific advances of our time and their religious components, the book is user friendly, even to readers who are not trained scientists. Mindbending terms and maths are explained clearly as far as such can be, and the judgements feel fair not partisan. I recommend it to my students and colleagues for reading, studying and underlining-my special accolade. I found it hard to put down." - Rabbi Lionel Blue, Contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4

Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, pioneering research psychologist David DeSteno shows why religious practices and rituals are so beneficial to those who follow them-and to anyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof). Scientists are beginning to discover what believers have known for a long time: the rewards that a religious life can provide. For millennia, people have turned to priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, and others to help them deal with issues of grief and loss, birth and death, morality and meaning. In this absorbing work, DeSteno reveals how numerous religious practices from around the world improve emotional and physical well-being. With empathy and rigor, DeSteno chronicles religious rites and traditions from cradle to grave. He explains how the Japanese rituals surrounding childbirth help strengthen parental bonds with children. He describes how the Apache Sunrise Ceremony makes teenage girls better able to face the rigors of womanhood. He shows how Buddhist meditation reduces hostility and increases compassion. He demonstrates how the Jewish practice of sitting shiva comforts the bereaved. And much more. DeSteno details how belief itself enhances physical and mental health. But you don't need to be religious to benefit from the trove of wisdom that religion has to offer. Many items in religion's "toolbox" can help the body and mind whether or not one believes. How God Works offers advice on how to incorporate many of these practices to help all of us live more meaningful, successful, and satisfying lives.

Ambient Assisted Living and Enhanced Living Environments: Principles, Technologies and Control separates the theoretical concepts concerning the design of such systems from their real-world implementations. For each important topic, the book bridges theory and practice, introducing the instruments needed by professionals in their activities. To this aim, topics are presented in a logical sequence, with the introduction of each topic motivated by the need to respond to claims and requirements from a wide range of AAL/ELE applications. The advantages and limitations of each model or technology are presented through concrete case studies for AAL/ELE systems. The book also presents up-to-date technological solutions to the main aspects regarding AAL/ELE systems and applications, a highly dynamic scientific domain that has gained much interest in the world of IT in the last decade. In addition, readers will find discussions on recent AAL/ELE technologies that were designed to solve some of the thorniest business problems that affect applications in areas such as health and medical supply, smart city and smart housing, Big Data and Internet of Things, and many more.

This volume examines the way in which cultural ideas about "the heavens" shape religious ideas and are shaped by them in return. Our approaches to cosmology have a profound effect on the way in which we each deal with religious questions and participate in the imaginative work of public and private world-building. Employing an interdisciplinary team of international scholars, each chapter shows how religion and cosmology interrelate and matter for real people. Historical and contemporary case studies are included to demonstrate the lived reality of a variety of faith traditions and their interactions with the cosmos. This breadth of scope allows readers to get a unique overview of how religion, science and our view of space have, and will continue to, impact our worldviews. Offering a comprehensive exploration of humanity and its relationship with cosmology, this book will be an important reference for scholars of Religion and Science, Religion and Culture, Interreligious Dialogue and Theology, as well as those interested in Science and Culture and Public Education.

This book examines the causes of a growing wave of digital activism across developing countries, arguing that it is driven by social change, rather than technological advancement alone Beginning with an investigation into the modernisation of 'middle-income countries' and its ramifications for political culture, the book examines large-scale social media protest during political controversies in Indonesia It departs from a narrow 'digital divide' framing whereby Internet access produces Internet activism and introduces the concepts of 'digital self-expression' and of 'middle-class struggles' to capture the value-stratified nature of political engagement in the online sphere Drawing on a blend of 'big-data' text analyses, representative opinion research and socioeconomic household analyses, a rich picture of the determinants of digital activism emerges This truly cross-disciplinary book will appeal particularly to students and scholars in Political Science, Sociology, International Development, and Communication, but also to anyone eager to learn about political activism, social transformation, and new media from a global perspective

This book places Indonesia at the forefront of the global debate about the impact of ""disruptive"" digital technologies. Digital technology is fast becoming the core of life, work, culture and identity. Yet, while the number of Indonesians using the internet has followed the upward global trend, some groups - the poor, the elderly, women, the less well-educated, people living in remote communities - are disadvantaged. This interdisciplinary collection of essays by leading researchers and scholars, as well as e-governance and e-commerce insiders, examines the impact of digitalisation on the media industry, governance, commerce, informal sector employment, education, cybercrime, terrorism, religion, artistic and cultural expression, and much more. It presents groundbreaking analysis of the impact of digitalisation in one of the worlds most diverse, geographically vast nations. In weighing arguments about the opportunities and challenges presented by digitalisation, it puts the very idea of a technological revolution into critical perspective.

This book explores the interface of bodies and religion by investigating the impacts human-induced global warming will have on the embodied and performed practices of religion in ecologies of place. By utilizing analytical insights from religion and nature theory, posthumanism, queer ecologies, ecological animisms, indigenous knowledges, material feminisms, and performance studies the book advocates for a need to update how religious studies theorizes bodies and religion. It does so by in the first half of the book advocating for religious studies as a field, and the academy as a whole, to take the ongoing and deleterious future impacts of climate change seriously--to re-member that those laboring as scholars in religious studies, and the communities they study, have always been bodies in material bio-ecological places--and to let this inform the questions religious studies scholars ask. The book argues that this will lead to very different forms of engaged, liberatory scholarship that demands a different type of scholarship and public advocacy for resilience in the face of climate change. The second half of the book offers case study example of how scholars may better engage religious bodies within petrocultures, while attending to new, emerging materialist posthuman assemblages of religious bodies. This book will be of interest to those in religious studies, the environmental humanities, and those working at the interface of the body and the natural world.