A History of Popular Music Before Rock Music, Scaruffi Piero

Автор: Scaruffi Piero
Название: Intelligence Is Not Artificial: Why the Singularity Is Not Coming Any Time Soon and Other Meditations on the Post-Human Condition and the Future of In
ISBN: 0976553198 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780976553199
Издательство: Неизвестно
Цена: 28740.00 T
Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: (Note that an updated and expanded edition was published in 2018: https: //www.amazon.com/Intelligence-not-Artificial-Expanded-Singularity/dp/1984101455 ) Writers, inventors and entrepreneurs, impressed by progress in several scientific fields, are debating whether we may be heading for a "singularity" in which machines with super-human intelligence will arise and multiply. In parallel enthusiastic coverage in the media has widely publicized machines performing sophisticated tasks, from beating the world's chess champion to driving a car, from recognizing animals in videos to beating human experts on quiz shows. These stories have reignited interest in the discipline of Artificial Intelligence, whose goal is to create machines that are as intelligent as humans. First of all, this book provides a "reality check" of sorts on simulating human intelligence and achieving superhuman intelligence. I show that, in a society driven by media that desperately need sensational news to make money and in an academic world increasingly driven by the desire to turn research into Silicon Valley start-ups, technological progress in general, and progress in computer science in particular, is often overrated. I wanted to dispel some notions, and my version of the facts may sound controversial until you read my explanations. For example: non-human intelligence is already among us, and is multiplying rapidly, but it is not a machine. For example: progress in Artificial Intelligence has been negligible and one reason is, ironically, that computers have become so much more powerful. For example: the program of turning machines into humans is not very successful yet, but the program of turning humans into machines (via an almost infinite repertory of rules and regulations) is very successful. The new generations missed the debates of the previous decades (the "Turing test," the "ghost in the machine," the "Chinese room," etc) and some of us think that these new generations, trained in hyper-specialized disciplines, don't have the knowledge to understand them even if they were forced to read them. Therefore it is much easier for the new A.I. practitioners to impress the new generations. I have summarized the various philosophical arguments in favor of and against the feasibility of machine intelligence in my book "The Nature of Consciousness" and i won't repeat them here. I will, however, at least caution the new generations that i "grew up" (as far as cognitive science goes) at a time when the term "intelligence" was not "cool" at all: too vague, too unscientific, too abused in popular literature to lend itself to scientific investigation. In fact, the mother of all problems in this debate is at the very source: "singularity" and "superhuman intelligence" are non-scientific terms based on non-scientific chatting. The term "intelligence" itself is hardly scientific. Ask one hundred psychologists and you will get one hundred different definitions. Ask philosophers and you will get thick tomes written in a cryptic language. Ask neurobiologists and they may simply ignore you. I also feel that this discussion should be complemented with an important (more important?) discussion about the changes in human intelligence due to the increased "intelligence" of machines. This change in human intelligence may have a stronger impact on the future of human civilization than the improvements in machine intelligence. Finally, i am intrigued by another sociological/anthropological aspect of this discussion: humans seem to have a genetic propensity to believe in higher forms of intelligence (gods, saints, UFOs, ...) and the myth of the Singularity could simply be its manifestation in our post-religious 21st century

Автор: Scaruffi Piero
Название: History of Rock and Dance Music Vol. 2
ISBN: 0976553163 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780976553168
Издательство: Неизвестно
Цена: 28740.00 T
Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: "A History of Rock and Dance Music " is the second edition of what is arguably the most comprehensive history of the genre ever published. When the first edition came out, it marked the first time that someone had written a history of rock music without paying attention to the charts. It was meant as a history of the great ideas introduced by rock musicians over 50 years of relentless innovation (regardless of how many copies they sold). The new edition continues the story to the first decade of the new century. It maintains a multidisciplinary approach, starting with the genres that existed before rock n roll and ending with the many genres that have been born since the 1990s, including dance music and electronic/digital styles. The author's background in classical music and science gives it a unique flavor, crossing boundaries and questioning stereotypes. "A History of Rock Music" was the first book in a bold project to synthesize the music of the 20th century. "A History of Rock Music" and "A History of Popular Music", by the same authors, are the complementary pieces of this project. Volume 2 covers the period from 1990 to 2008.

Автор: Witham Larry
Название: Piero`s Light: In Search of Piero Della Francesca: A Renaissance Painter and the Revolution in Art, Science, and Religion
ISBN: 1605986933 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781605986937
Издательство: HarperCollins UK
Рейтинг:
Цена: 8790.00 T
Наличие на складе: Невозможна поставка.
Описание: In this engaging narrative, Larry Witham transports us to Piero's tumultuous age, a world of princes and popes, soldiers and schisms. Piero's Light also reveals how he was part of the philosophical revival of Platonism, an ancient worldview that would shape art, religion, and science's transition toward modernity. Just sixteen of Piero's paintings survive, but these images and his writings would fuel some of the greatest art historical debates of all time Through Witham's wide research, Piero emerges as a figure who marks a turning point in Western culture. Our past understanding of faith, beauty, and knowledge has been radically altered by a secular age, and the story of Piero helps us understand how this has taken place. The search for Piero has continued among both intrepid scholars and art lovers of all kinds, and it is no wonder: few artists in history take us as deeply into the intellectual excitement of the Renaissance as Piero della Francesca.