Although enormous industrial advances were made in the USSR, the country still lagged behind the West in the post-industrial age. What the Soviets could not build or manufacture, they had to get from the West. The final outcome was a culture developed in which there was no regard for consumerism and no respect for the environment. The author traces the development of the Soviet malaise, but warns that a future authoritarian regime could still revive the technological race. Conversely, he also replies to the academic debate on the excesses of modern technology in the West, with a sharp criticism of feminist and post-modernist perspectives.

Modern thought on economics and technology is no less magical than the world views of non-modern peoples. This book reveals how our ideas about growth and progress ignore how money and machines throughout history have been used to exploit less affluent parts of world society. The argument critically explores a middle ground between Marxist political ecology and Actor-Network Theory.

The cover of Lifeconscious helps to explain its topic in a nutshell. The background shows a cliff face that reveals the catastrophic boundary between two historical epochs. In this case the Valles Caldera super volcanic eruption 1.4 million years ago. The thin boundary line separating the two epochs is plainly visible and provides stark evidence that this is just one of many catastrophes of biblical proportions that life has had to overcome during our Earth's turbulent history. Lifeconscious will reveal how nature can generate New Species through assimilation and not through the tedious genetic mutations that evolution preaches. The inset picture of the Venus of Willendorf harks back to a time when Man was a hunter/gatherer and when Women were still regarded in high esteem as the mysterious providers of human life. Lifeconscious will demonstrate how life is an unending linear transference of species-specific memories from females to their unborn young. It will finally provide answers to the puzzling questions of What is instinct?, How are new species generated? and Why can't evolution explain the existence of living fossils?. novel light.

The editors have assembled a collection of original essays offering a holistic view of how technology shapes the modern world. Consideration is given to several major issues, such as the dehumanizing effects of technology, which tends to objectify social life; the emphasis on productivity and the accumulation of material goods; and the intricacies involved in creating a responsible technology that would establish more socially sensitive principles, values, and beliefs. Technology is examined not simply as machinery, but as a procedure that can be used to define every aspect of social existence, and the book demonstrates how to bring about the changes that are necessary to remedy this alienating situation.

There is nothing like this in print anywhere! So, you know history . . . well, Brough explains it. He applies evolutionary natural selection to the whole of human history and prehistory, showing how social evolution works. He fully explains what makes civilizations rise and fall-our own, for example. No wonder all this was never known before: religion-influenced academic thinking stood in the way! If anything is capable of bringing Free Thinkers "out of the closet" so they can come together and organize, this is it. This extensive research effectively explains what the Religious-Right does to a society because the research is objective, impartial. Every Free Thinker who reads it will find out why Religious Reaction is growing, what it did in previous societies (yes, in every civilization, even in prehistory) and what is happening this time.

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 relation of technology to other aspects of life.

In this age of global communication, local identities and nation-states reassert themselves when cultural boundaries are dissolved and reconstructed. This collection of essays by noted scholars in many fields provides a wide range of theoretical approaches and empirical studies that, together, shed light on how local cultural identities resist the forces of globalization by virtue of tradition, transculturation, domestication and hybridization. Examining how people make sense of the world and their own identities as cultural and national boundaries are crossed, In Search of Boundaries transcends many traditional dichotomies between East and West and, more importantly, between tradition and modernity. Interest in the study of boundaries has grown in sociology, anthropology, geography, and other social sciences, but it has not focused on communication processes. This book fills that void with a series of wide-ranging approaches, from the critical to the liberal, the empirical to the cultural, and the Occidental to the Oriental, and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the increasingly global nature of nationality, culture, and identity.

Since the earliest days of our species, technology and language have evolved in parallel. This book examines the processes and products of this age-old relationship: a phenomenon we're calling technolingualism -- the mutually influential relationship between language and technology. One the one hand, as humans advance technology to master, control, and change the world around us, our language adapts. More sophisticated social-cultural practices give rise to new patterns of linguistic communication. Language changes in its vocabulary, structures, social conventions, and ideologies. Conversely-and this side of the story has been widely overlooked-the unique features of human language can influence a technology's physical forms and technical processes. Technolingualism explores the fascinating ways, past and present, by which language and technology have informed each other's development. The book reveals important corollaries about the universal nature of language and, most importantly, what it means to be human. From our first babbling noises to the ends of our lives, we are innately attuned to the technologies around us, and our language reflects this. We are, all of us, technolinguals.

This book takes the reader on a journey, navigating the enigmatic aspects of cooperation; a journey that starts inside the body and continues via our thoughts to the human super-organism. Cooperation is one of life's fundamental principles. We are all made of parts - genes, cells, organs, neurons, but also of ideas, or 'memes'. Our societies too are made of parts - us humans. Is all this cooperation fundamentally the same process? From the smallest component parts of our bodies and minds to our complicated societies, everywhere cooperation is the organizing principle. Often this cooperation has emerged because the constituting parts have benefited from the interactions, but not seldom the cooperating units appear to lose on the interaction. How then to explain cooperation? How can we understand our intricate societies where we regularly provide small and large favors for people we are unrelated to, know, or even never expect to meet again? Where does the idea come from that it is right to risk one's life for country, religion or freedom? The answers seem to reside in the two processes that have shaped humanity: biological and cultural evolution.

Our Scientists today, have come to believe in a new god, "The Scientific Method." However, virtually all of the greatest scientists of all time, e.g. Einstein, Franklin, Newton, Euclid, and many more, believed in a personal, omnipotent, omniscient, and all loving God who has provided a place for our ego, soul, spirit, or whatever you choose to call it, following our body's death. This book is dedicated to showing that science and theology are all part of the same. The Story A newspaper reporter from outside our culture is asked to investigate a place referred to as New Jerusalem. He soon learns: What: It is the Heaven that the soals of the followers of Jesus Christ go to following their Earthly body's death and others may go later. When: Does it occur and is it the same for all Where: Is New Jerusalim located, is it perhaps in inter-dimensional space. Why: Has God prepared this for his children? How: Is this process explained scientifically? Is this explanation scientifically reasonable?

#1 Amazon.com Book of the Year8 * #1 TIME magazine Novel of the Year * GoodReads Winner for Best Fiction * APPLE Book of the Year * The 2022 book that everyone should read' PANDORA SYKES * This is not a romance, but it is about love. 'One of the best books I've ever read' JOHN GREEN Sam and Sadie meet in a hospital in 1987. Sadie is visiting her sister, Sam is recovering from a car crash. The days and months are long there, but playing together brings joy, escape, fierce competition -- and a special friendship. Then all too soon that time is over, and they must return to their normal lives. When the pair spot each other eight years later in a crowded train station, they are catapulted back to that moment. The spark is immediate, and together they get to work on what they love - creating virtual worlds to delight, challenge and immerse, finding an intimacy in the digital realm that eludes them in their real lives. Their collaborations make them superstars. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sadie and Sam build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow takes us on a dazzling imaginative quest, examining identity, creativity and our need to connect. 'A book that spawns great conversations' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, Guardian 'A must-read' NEIL DRUCKMANN, creator of The Last of Us 'Brilliant' KAREN JOY FOWLER, Guardian

What are we doing on planet earth? Why are we here? Did we evolve? Or, are we created? Many of us, as we age, don't so easily accept many philosophies and teachings about life. We come to realize the degree to which truth is bent and shaped by special interests in social, political, and religious affairs. After 40 years in the making, In Search of Destiny brings to you a gripping scientific and spiritual search for human destiny. Are we here to just be born, grow old, and die on planet earth? Or, is there evidence beyond this? In Search of Destiny draws a decisive conclusion.

""God made the universe simplistic; man made the understanding of the universe complicated." "The modern world has so many theories-so many voices expounding on how the universe began, how it works, and how it may end-it's no wonder there is mass confusion that can end in miscommunication, hatred, and war. On deeper examination of the facts, however, we find that all these theories and voices have more in common than they believe. In "The Summation of Elohim, " author Deick Conrad Williams simplifies and unifies societal beliefs of science and spirituality-the beliefs of our civilization-and shows how understanding our universe on a new level helps us understand our relationship to God, to each other, and to ourselves.Williams, a philosopher and mathematician who has devoted his life to studying the workings of the universe though the lens of numerous disciplines, first explores the universe's beginnings, the advent of humanity, and how organized religion allowed civilization to flourish. Then, with minimal mathematical equations and ample analogies to modern life, Williams offers fresh, valuable insights on the algorithms governing our universe-and the chaos inherent to its existence. From exploring the chakras and how to produce multiple orgasms to the Freudian id manifest in the seven deadly sins, "The Summation of Elohim" takes an enlightening journey toward understanding our universe and our vital role within it.

The modern world has so many theories-so many voices expounding on how the universe began, how it works, and how it may end-it's no wonder there is mass confusion that can end in miscommunication, hatred, and war. On deeper examination of the facts, however, we find that all these theories and voices have more in common than they believe. In "The Summation of Elohim," author Deick Conrad Williams simplifies and unifies societal beliefs of science and spirituality-the beliefs of our civilization- and shows how understanding our universe on a new level helps us understand our relationship to God, to each other, and to ourselves.

Williams, a philosopher and mathematician who has devoted his life to studying the workings of the universe though the lens of numerous disciplines, first explores the universe's beginnings, the advent of humanity, and how organized religion allowed civilization to flourish. Then, with minimal mathematical equations and ample analogies to modern life, Williams offers fresh, valuable insights on the algorithms governing our universe-and the chaos inherent to its existence.

From exploring the chakras and how to produce multiple orgasms to the Freudian id manifest in the seven deadly sins, "The Summation of Elohim" takes an enlightening journey toward understanding our universe and our vital role within it.

A fascinating look at the historical relationship between environmental issues and scientific study, social attitudes, and public policy from the 17th century to the present. The Environment and Science: Social Impact and Interaction explores the history of how science investigates nature and how those studies both shape and are shaped by the social attitudes, philosophies, and politics of their times. It follows the changes in perceptions of the natural world and humankind's place in it from the European colonization of North America through the Industrial Revolution and westward expansion, to the rise of the consumer economy and the recent hardening of the ideological battle lines over environmental policy. Coverage includes the emergence of ecology as a science and conservation as a movement, the long history of conflicts between business interests and environmentalists, and the role of scientific studies in debates over atomic and nuclear power, pesticides, toxic emissions, and other human-made sources of environmental degradation. Biographical sketches of major contributors to the study of human/environment interaction, including Carolus Linnaeus, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, and Barry Commoner Primary source documents from key environmental writers

Fascination with satellite television and Internet technology has become an obsession. People throughout the world watch television and believe what they see and hear--without realizing that pictures are selected and stories are sometimes distorted. Concurrently, the world's elite are drawn to the increasing availability of news on the Internet, effectively widening the gap between those who have and do not have access to the new technologies. This analysis of the worldwide impact of new communications technologies shows how ordinary citizens can protect themselves from media brainwashing. Interviews from across the globe shed light on this dynamic and on the roles of viewers as victims or victors in different situations. This is a book for the media professional; students and scholars in the fields of journalism, communications, political science, international relations, and business; as well as for government officials and concerned citizens who do not want to be controlled by the media.

What is 'technology'? What does it help us to do? What does it force us to consider about our experience of being in the world? In Challenging the Phenomena of Technology, technology is positioned as an experience with specific features, rather than as a class of objects, and this enables a reflection on the ways in which amateurs and experts interact with the artefacts that all humans rely upon. Using e-readers, such as the Kindle and iPad, as a case study, Hayler argues that the use of technology is both more complicated and more human than public discussion often gives it credit for, forcing us to consider its impacts on perception, cognition, and what it means to know anything at all.

Spracklen explores the impact of the internet on leisure and leisure studies, examining the ways in which digital leisure spaces and activities have become part of everyday leisure. Covering a range of issues from social media and file-sharing to romance on the Internet, this book presents new theoretical directions for digital leisure.

No rational mind - given the evidence of buttons and buttonholes in an article of clothing - would deny that both "intelligence" and "design" played roles in the fabrication of such a garment, but - mystery of mysteries - the brightest and most educated in our culture, reject such considerations for all the infinitely more complex living organisms, insisting (dogmatically) that they somehow "evolved" by haphazard, sequential, random mutations. A challenge is therefore, proposed - to anyone anti-"Intelligent Designer," who believes he has not been "brain-washed," but who has at least a "hair-line crack" to open-mindedness - to refute the material herein - the non-factuality and astronomical improbabilities of pure random-chance-mutations of individual elements (among the multi-billions in the DNA helix) as a credible belief system in explaining: the spider, butterfly, or bacterium flagellum (Pajaro Dunes Micro-Biology Conference - scientists challenging Darwinism); male-female sexuality feelings: irresistible sex-drive before; gratification after - evoking propagation and proliferation of mammalian species; the (simple, yet ever so complex) umbilical cord concept for mammals - from kittens to humans? This book is a scholarly review (in layman terms) of all pertinent aspects of Science versus Bible in all applicable fields: Archaeology, Astronomy, Biology, Cosmology, Egyptology, Paleontology, Physics, etc., with over 300 references to the arcane writings of world-class scientists, historians, mathematicians and adventurers.

The book demonstrates that food safety is a multidisciplinary scientific discipline that is specifically designed to prevent foodborne illness to consumers. It is generally assumed to be an axiom by both nonprofessionals and professionals alike, that the most developed countries, through their intricate and complex standards, formal trainings and inspections, are always capable of providing much safer food items and beverages to consumers as opposed to the lesser developed countries and regions of the world. Clearly, the available data regarding the morbidity and the mortality in different areas of the world confirms that in developing countries, the prevalence and the incidence of presumptive foodborne illness is much greater. However, other factors need to be taken into consideration in this overall picture: First of all, one of the key issues in developing countries appears to be the availability of safe drinking water, a key element in any food safety strategy. Second, the availability of healthcare facilities, care providers, and medicines in different parts of the world makes the consequences of foodborne illness much more important and life threatening in lesser developed countries than in most developed countries. It would be therefore ethnocentric and rather simplistic to state that the margin of improvement in food safety is only directly proportional to thelevel of development of the society or to the level of complexity of any given national or international standard. Besides standards and regulations, humans as a whole have evolved and adapted different strategies to provide and to ensure food and water safety according to their cultural and historical backgrounds. Our goal is to discuss and to compare these strategies in a cross-cultural and technical approach, according to the realities of different socio-economic, ethnical and social heritages.

This important book develops an evolutionary conception of growth in East Asia, in which technology, organizations and institutions interact and co-evolve to advance productivity. Episodic crises are seen as disruptions which bring to the fore structural and institutional flaws that need reform.The author begins with a thorough analysis of the neo-classical theory of technical change and shows that it fails to capture crucial aspects of the various learning processes involved. He goes on to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding technological progress. Productivity growth is seen as deriving from knowledge hard-coded in equipment and structures, and soft-coded in human skill, organizations and institutions that guide economic activity. The role of exports in promoting faster growth is also examined, as are the channels of technological capability acquisition. This book will be welcomed by academics, policymakers, students, government bodies and business people interested in East Asian growth and in understanding technological change in general.