This timely book is an innovative look at how blockchain technology will transform the structure of social and economic life. The security of blockchain supports the provision and maintenance of reliable databases and the creation of rule-based governance protocols. Leading contributors expertly review the impact of blockchain on existing structures of law, monetary systems, supply chains and business organizations. Using economic and institutional theory, the book presents a vision for understanding the future development of blockchain technology and outlines the likely path of transformation that blockchain will drive in industry, supply chains and firms. Furthermore, it answers key questions such as: will Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency become the money of the future? How has blockchain already begun transforming economic activity? How can we evaluate the likely trajectory of technological development and application? This informative book is an excellent resource for academics or professionals interested in a theoretically sound perspective on blockchain. Written in an accessible prose, it provides an introduction for non-experts looking to learn more about the wide-ranging implications of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about 'minds' that are not human? Science now has plenty to say about the properties of mind. In recent decades, the mind - both human and otherwise - has been explored by scientists in fields ranging from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found - including in plants, aliens, and God - Philip Ball pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured, and to think about the 'space of possible minds'. By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions. What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will? The more we learn about the minds of other creatures, from octopuses to chimpanzees, and to imagine the potential minds of computers and alien intelligences, the greater the perspective we have on if and how our own is different. Ball's thrillingly ambitious The Book of Minds about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.

This volume contains eighteen papers that have been collected by the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics. It showcases rigorously-reviewed contemporary scholarship on an interesting variety of topics in the history and philosophy of mathematics, as well as the teaching of the history of mathematics.   Some of the topics explored include Arabic editions of Euclid’s Elements from the thirteenth century and their role in the assimilation of Euclidean geometry into the Islamic intellectual tradition Portuguese sixteenth century recreational mathematics as found in the Tratado de Prática Darysmetica  A Cambridge correspondence course in arithmetic for women in England in the late nineteenth century The mathematical interests of the famous Egyptologist Thomas Eric (T. E.) Peet  The history of Zentralblatt für Mathematik and Mathematical Reviews and their role in creating a publishing infrastructure for a global mathematical literature The use of Latin squares for agricultural crop experiments at the Rothamsted Experimental Station The many contributions of women to the advancement of computing techniques at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in the 1960s The volume concludes with two short plays, one set in Ancient Mesopotamia and the other in Ancient Egypt, that are well suited for use in the mathematics classroom. Written by leading scholars in the field, these papers are accessible not only to mathematicians and students of the history and philosophy of mathematics, but also to anyone with a general interest in mathematics.

Sapiens showed us where we came from. In uncertain times, Homo Deus shows us where we’re going.

Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond – from overcoming death to creating artificial life.

It asks the fundamental questions: how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold?

'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before’ Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

A pioneer in forensic anthropology, Dr. Bill Bass created the world's first laboratory dedicated to the study of human decomposition--three acres on a hillside in Tennessee where human bodies are left to the elements. His research has revolutionized forensic science, but during a career that has spanned half a century, Bass and his work have ranged far beyond the gates of the "Body Farm."

In this riveting book, the renowned bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science and takes readers deep into the real world of crime scene investigation. Beyond the Body Farm is an extraordinary journey through some of the most fascinating investigations of Dr. Bass's career--and a remarkable look at the high-tech science used to crack the most perplexing cases.