From Amazon to Tinder, from Google to Deliveroo, there is no facet of human life which the digital revolution has not streamlined and dematerialised. Its objective was to reduce the cost of physical interactions by forgoing face-to-face interactions, a direct result of the free-market shock of the 1980s, which sought to seamlessly expand the marketplace in every possible dimension. Today, we can be algorithmically entertained, educated, cared for and courted in a way which was impossible in the old industrial society, where institutions structured the social world. Today, these institutions have been replaced by monetised virtual contact.  As with the industrial revolution of the past, the digital revolution is creating a new economy and a new sensibility, bringing about a radical revaluation of society and its representations.  While obsessed with the search for an efficient management of human relations, the new digital capitalism gives rise to an irrational and impulsive Homo numericus prone to an array of addictive behaviours.  Far from producing a new agora, social media produce a radicalization of public debate in which hate-filled speech directed against adversaries becomes the norm.  The good news is that these outcomes are not inevitable. Technologies have not taken control of our lives. The digital revolution also offers an alternative path: one that leads to a world in which every word deserves to be listened to, without a transcendent truth hanging over it.  Are we able to seize the new opportunities opened up by the digital revolution without succumbing to its dark side?

A Sampler of Useful Computational Tools for Applied Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Image Processing shows how to use a collection of mathematical techniques to solve important problems in applied mathematics and computer science areas. The book discusses fundamental tools in analytical geometry and linear algebra. It covers a wide range of topics, from matrix decomposition to curvature analysis and principal component analysis to dimensionality reduction. Written by a team of highly respected professors, the book can be used in a one-semester, intermediate-level course in computer science. It takes a practical problem-solving approach, avoiding detailed proofs and analysis. Suitable for readers without a deep academic background in mathematics, the text explains how to solve non-trivial geometric problems. It quickly gets readers up to speed on a variety of tools employed in visual computing and applied geometry.

How populism is fueled by the demise of the industrial order and the emergence of a new digital society ruled by algorithms In the revolutionary excitement of the 1960s, young people around the world called for a radical shift away from the old industrial order, imagining a future of technological liberation and unfettered prosperity. Industrial society did collapse, and a digital economy has risen to take its place, yet many have been left feeling marginalized and deprived of the possibility of a better life. The Inglorious Years explores the many ways we have been let down by the rising tide of technology, showing how our new interconnectivity is not fulfilling its promise. In this revelatory book, economist Daniel Cohen describes how today's postindustrial society is transforming us all into sequences of data that can be manipulated by algorithms from anywhere on the planet. As yesterday's assembly line was replaced by working online, the leftist protests of the 1960s have given way to angry protests by the populist right. Cohen demonstrates how the digital economy creates the same mix of promises and disappointments as the old industrial order, and how it revives questions about society that are as relevant to us today as they were to the ancients. Brilliant and provocative, The Inglorious Years discusses what the new digital society holds in store for us, and reveals how can we once again regain control of our lives.

Why society’s expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic Economic growth—and the hope of better things to come—is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless cycle. In the United States, eighty percent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the last thirty years and the situation is not much better elsewhere. The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights the obsession with wanting more, and the global tensions that have arisen as a result. Daniel Cohen provides a whirlwind tour of the history of economic growth, from the early days of civilization to modern times, underscoring what is so unsettling today. He examines how a future less dependent on material gain might be considered, and how, in a culture of competition, individual desires might be better attuned to the greater needs of society.

Why society's expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic Economic growth--and the hope of better things to come-is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless cycle. In the United States, eighty percent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the last thirty years and the situation is not much better elsewhere. The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights the obsession with wanting more, and the global tensions that have arisen as a result. Amid finite resources, increasing populations, environmental degradation, and political unrest, the quest for new social and individual goals has never been so critical. Leading economist Daniel Cohen provides a whirlwind tour of the history of economic growth, from the early days of civilization to modern times, underscoring what is so unsettling today. The new digital economy is establishing a "zero-cost" production model, inexpensive software is taking over basic tasks, and years of exploiting the natural world have begun to backfire with deadly consequences. Working hard no longer guarantees social inclusion or income. Drawing on economics, anthropology, and psychology, and thinkers ranging from Rousseau to Keynes and Easterlin, Cohen examines how a future less dependent on material gain might be considered and, how, in a culture of competition, individual desires might be better attuned to the greater needs of society. At a time when wanting what we haven't got has become an obsession, The Infinite Desire for Growth explores the ways we might reinvent, for the twenty-first century, the old ideal of social progress.

A study of the nature and the policy implication of changes in the global economy in relationship to the process of regional integration, conducted using the newest techniques of economic analysis. The principal message drawn from these analytical and policy insights is that in a world characterised by trade distortions and nonlinearities, regional integration may or may not foster global integration, and may or may not advance regional or global convergence. The key is good economic policy based on sound economic analysis. Part one of the volume covers three international trade policy issues: regionalism and multilateralism; the political economy of trade policy; and trade income inequality. Part two (chapters 7-11) focuses on three 'domestic' problems faced by regional groups: labour migration; exchange rate arrangements; and real convergence.

Neuroscience, Selflessness, and Spiritual Transcendence conveys the manner by which selflessness serves as a neuropsychological and religious foundation for spiritually transcendent experiences. The book combines neurological case studies and neuroscience research with religious accounts of transcendence experiences from the perspective of both the neurosciences and the history of religions. Chapters cover the subjective experience of transcendence, an historical summary of different philosophical and religious perspectives, a review of the neuroscience research that describes the manner by which the brain processes and creates a self, and more. The book presents a model that bridges the divide between neuroscience and religion, presenting a resource that will be critical reading for advanced students and researchers in both fields.

Most of us would agree that we want to live a successful life. But what constitutes a successful life? How do we measure a life well lived?Mining for Gold: Essays Exploring the Relevancy of Torah in the Modern World focuses on these questions of life's values. Editor Rabbi Daniel Cohen has compiled essays from twenty leading rabbis in North America and Israel to reveal how the gold standard of living well can be reached in the modern world. Their conclusions find that ultimate wealth comes from having a good name or a virtuous character. The time to earn that good name is now, not when one is lying on a deathbed. If one's life is infused with the timeless values of family, friends, faith, and goodness, the end of life will come with few regrets. In this book, new insights on amplifying these values in your life are provided.One person who lived these values every day was Lester Gold. Mining for Gold: Essays Exploring the Relevancy of Torah in the Modern World is a tribute to his life and the timeless values he embodied. He understood that the answers to life's mysteries emerge from the Bible, the Torah. These essays and reflections from Lester's friends and family will help you do the same.

Most of us would agree that we want to live a successful life. But what constitutes a successful life? How do we measure a life well lived?Mining for Gold: Essays Exploring the Relevancy of Torah in the Modern World focuses on these questions of life's values. Editor Rabbi Daniel Cohen has compiled essays from twenty leading rabbis in North America and Israel to reveal how the "gold standard" of living well can be reached in the modern world. Their conclusions find that ultimate wealth comes from having a good name or a virtuous character. The time to earn that good name is now, not when one is lying on a deathbed. If one's life is infused with the timeless values of family, friends, faith, and goodness, the end of life will come with few regrets. In this book, new insights on amplifying these values in your life are provided.One person who lived these values every day was Lester Gold. Mining for Gold: Essays Exploring the Relevancy of Torah in the Modern World is a tribute to his life and the timeless values he embodied. He understood that the answers to life's mysteries emerge from the Bible, the Torah. These essays and reflections from Lester's friends and family will help you do the same.

In this volume, Mark Daniel Cohen offers, in the first part, a fresh and intelligent look at Sophocles, re-writing Antigone almost as a Beckettian version of Tristan and Isolde. The modern-day domestic drama is continued in the second part of the volume, in which selected poems aptly combine the trivial and the sublime, the mark and measure of every great classic. Camelia Elias writes the introduction under a contaminated spell.

In these retellings, Daniel Cohen draws on ancient myths, ballads and tales with an insightful new twist, telling them against the conventional grain to act as a critique of men and society. His stories teach us much about ourselves, providing new insights into gender roles, especially those involving heroism today. We have a real need for magical champions, but not male heroes who dominate. Daniel reveals heroes who relate. These stories address men's relationships with women and each other, and their role in the natural world. They are designed to support men in using their talents and strengths to heal rather than harm, to find new and non-oppressive ways of behaving. The insights of feminism and Goddess spirituality shine through the stories. To Cohen, stories form a prism through which we see the world. We define our lives by the stories we tell ourselves and each other about our childhoods, friends, work, ambitions, and hopes. It is not the world of facts, he says, which gives us meaning, but the world of imagination, making stories supremely important. But his depth of understanding of the world brings to his tales many fine details that other storytellers might miss. Old stories, says Cohen, have great power, because they relate to matters that have remained important through many changes in society. That is why they have survived. Public stories help define our culture, telling us what is permissible and what is not, what and who are admired, and how we wish to treat each other.By changing the stories we tell we can change our understanding and behaviour. The stories in this remarkable little book are not presented here merely as teaching tools. These well-crafted tales have their own intrinsic value and their own life. They are told because they simply came bubbling up, insisting that they be heard, and would not let go of the author until he wrote them down and shared them with the world. Daniel Cohen's retellings of Greek and Celtic myths take my breath away and make my spine tingle, pointing the way to a transformation of the cultures of domination that have shaped our world, causing so much damage to all of us and the web of life. Carol P. Christ (author of Rebirth of the Goddess and She Who Changes.) Daniel draws on ancient texts, myths, ballads and tales with an insightful new twist, wry and uniquely his own. Robin Williamson (bard, storyteller, founder-member of the Incredible String Band.) These retellings are brave, beautiful and original, combining a genuine appreciation of the original myths and legends with a rigorous new system of ethics. Ronald Hutton (author of The Triumph of the Moon, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, and many other books and articles.) I've read no better storyteller than Daniel Cohen. And my standards are high. I laugh with joy at his mysticism and perceptive wit, sigh with relief, find healing through his gifts. Francesca De Grandis (author of Bardic Alchemy: Enchanted Tales about the Quest for Goddess and Self.) This witty, insightful book inspires us to incubate myths in the rich ground of daily life and discover how they can still surprise us. Caitlin Matthews (author of Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, King Arthur's Raid. Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, and many other books.) Cohen's stories teach us insights into gender roles, especially those involving heroism today. The author sees behind stories' seams through his critical eye and voice. These are long-polished re-viewing and re-insighting narratives of classical and late-European stories. They make me wish I had children to tell them to. Notes at the end explain starting points for these engaging narratives. William G. Doty (author of Myths: a Handbook, Myths of Masculinity, and other writings on myth.) This small but mould-shattering volume left me stunned and breathless many times over. Wildheart

Chime for a Change is a short book that will show you how to change your behavior, attain enlightenment, transform your relationships, nurture your family, empower your friends, motivate your workplace and effect world peace using a digital watch.

This volume presents the proceedings of the first French-Soviet workshop on algebraic coding, held in Paris in July 1991. The idea for the workshop, born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1990, was to bring together some of the best Soviet coding theorists. Scientists from France, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Spain, and the United States also attended. The papers in the volume fall rather naturally into four categories: - Applications of exponential sums - Covering radius - Constructions -Decoding.

This book presents a selection of the papers presented at EUROCODE '90, the symposium on coding theory held in Udine, Italy, November 1990. It gives the state of the art on coding in Europe and ranges from theoretical top- ics like algebraic geometry and combinatorial coding to applications like modulation, real-space decoding and VLSI implementation. The book is divided into eight sections: - Algebraic codes - Combinatorial codes - Geometric codes - Protection of information - Convolutional codes - Information theory - Modulation - Applications of coding. Five of the sections are introduced by an invited contribution.

This book contains a selection of papers presented at a Symposium on coding theory: "3 Journees sur le Codage," held November 24-26, 1986, in Cachan near Paris, France. It gives an account of the state of the art of research in France on Coding, ranging from rather theoretical topics like algebraic geometry and combinatorial coding to applications like modulation, real-space decoding and implementation of coding algorithms on microcomputers. The symposium was the second one of this type. With its broad spectrum, it was a unique opportunity for contacts between university and industry on the topics of information and coding theory.

This book contains a selection of papers presented at a Symposium on coding theory: "3 Journ es sur le Codage," held November 24-26, 1986, in Cachan near Paris, France. It gives an account of the state of the art of research in France on Coding, ranging from rather theoretical topics like algebraic geometry and combinatorial coding to applications like modulation, real-space decoding and implementation of coding algorithms on microcomputers. The symposium was the second one of this type. With its broad spectrum, it was a unique opportunity for contacts between university and industry on the topics of information and coding theory.

How populism is fueled by the demise of the industrial order and the emergence of a new digital society ruled by algorithms In the revolutionary excitement of the 1960s, young people around the world called for a radical shift away from the old industrial order, imagining a future of technological liberation and unfettered prosperity. Industrial society did collapse, and a digital economy has risen to take its place, yet many have been left feeling marginalized and deprived of the possibility of a better life. The Inglorious Years explores the many ways we have been let down by the rising tide of technology, showing how our new interconnectivity is not fulfilling its promise. In this revelatory book, economist Daniel Cohen describes how today's postindustrial society is transforming us all into sequences of data that can be manipulated by algorithms from anywhere on the planet. As yesterday's assembly line was replaced by working online, the leftist protests of the 1960s have given way to angry protests by the populist right. Cohen demonstrates how the digital economy creates the same mix of promises and disappointments as the old industrial order, and how it revives questions about society that are as relevant to us today as they were to the ancients. Brilliant and provocative, The Inglorious Years discusses what the new digital society holds in store for us, and reveals how can we once again regain control of our lives.

The end of the Second World War in Europe gave way to a gigantic refugee crisis. Thoroughly prepared by Allied military planners, the swift repatriation of millions of former forced laborers, concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war nearly brought this dramatic episode top a close. Yet in September 1945, the number of displaced persons placed under the guardianship of Allied armies and relief agencies in occupied Germany amounted to 1.5 million. A costly burden for the occupying powers, the Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Yugoslav and Baltic DPs unwilling to return to their countries of origin presented a complex international problem. Massed in refugee camps stretched from Northern Germany to Sicily, the DPs had become long-term asylum seekers. Based on the records of the International Refugee Organization, this book describes how the European DP crisis impinged on the shape of the postwar order. The DP question directly affected the outbreak of the Cold War; the transformation of the "West" into a new geopolitical entity; the conduct of political purges and retribution; the ideology and methods of modern humanitarian interventions; the appearance of international agencies and non-governmental organizations; the emergence of an international human rights system; the organization of migration movements and the redistribution of "surplus populations"; the advent of Jewish nationhood; and postwar categorizations of political and humanitarian refugees.

Hiram Bingham was the ideal explorer-adventurer handsome, rich, intelligent, brave, and tough. His life seems like something out of film hero Indiana Jones s exploits in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The descendant of strong-willed missionaries, Bingham was born in Hawaii in 1875, At Yale he specialized in South American studies and became a college teacher. Gradually, the romance of the past took hold of his practical soul. Obsessed by the Incas and his dream of uncovering lost cities, Bingham initiated and expedition to Peru that would lead him to uncharted territories. Using quotations from Bingham s accounts, Cohen describes how in 1911 Bingham made the greatest archaeological find of the century, the rediscovery of Machu Picchu, the abandoned Inca city in the remote Peruvian mountains. On later expeditions he discovered other lost cities, as he continued his research on the mysteries of Machu Picchu and the last of the Incans, despite the physical hardships and dangers of exploration. When World War I broke out, Bingham learned to fly no small accomplishment in those pioneering days of aviation. He eventually joined the American forces in France as head of the largest Allied flight training base in Europe. After the war, the ambitious and restless Bingham entered a new career, politics, and was elected senator from Connecticut in a landslide victory. But he was too proud an individualist to do well in government. Bingham spent the rest of his life writing and lecturing. Bingham led the kind of action-packed life that most people only dream of. Daniel Cohen has written a story sure to capture the imagination of everyone who likes history enlivened by cliff-hanging adventures."