R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262371898
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life by : Karel Capek

Download or read book R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life written by Karel Capek and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-01-16 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new translation of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R.—which famously coined the term “robot”—and a collection of essays reflecting on the play’s legacy from scientists and scholars who work in artificial life and robotics. Karel Čapek's “R.U.R.” and the Vision of Artificial Life offers a new, highly faithful translation by Štěpán Šimek of Czech novelist, playwright, and critic Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots, as well as twenty essays from contemporary writers on the 1920 play. R.U.R. is perhaps best known for first coining the term “robot” (in Czech, robota means serfdom or arduous drudgery). The twenty essays in this new English edition, beautifully edited by Jitka Čejková, are selected from Robot 100, an edited collection in Czech with perspectives from 100 contemporary voices that was published in 2020 to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the play. Čapek’s robots were autonomous beings, but biological, not mechanical, made of chemically synthesized soft matter resembling living tissue, like the synthetic humans in Blade Runner, Westworld, or Ex Machina. The contributors to the collection—scientists and other scholars—explore the legacy of the play and its connections to the current state of research in artificial life, or ALife. Throughout the book, it is impossible to ignore Čapek’s prescience, as his century-old science fiction play raises contemporary questions with respect to robotics, synthetic biology, technology, artificial life, and artificial intelligence, anticipating many of the formidable challenges we face today. Contributors Jitka Čejková, Miguel Aguilera, Iñigo R. Arandia, Josh Bongard, Julyan Cartwright, Seth Bullock, Dominique Chen, Gusz Eiben, Tom Froese, Carlos Gershenson, Inman Harvey, Jana Horáková, Takashi Ikegami, Sina Khajehabdollahi, George Musser, Geoff Nitschke, Julie Nováková, Antoine Pasquali, Hemma Philamore, Lana Sinapayen, Hiroki Sayama, Nathaniel Virgo, Olaf Witkowski

Karel Čapek's R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780262371902
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (719 download)

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Book Synopsis Karel Čapek's R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life by : Karel Čapek

Download or read book Karel Čapek's R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life written by Karel Čapek and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new translation of Karel Capek's 1920 play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), with essays from contemporary writers and scientists"--

R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262544504
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life by : Karel Capek

Download or read book R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life written by Karel Capek and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-01-16 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new translation of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R.—which famously coined the term “robot”—and a collection of essays reflecting on the play’s legacy from scientists and scholars who work in artificial life and robotics. Karel Čapek's “R.U.R.” and the Vision of Artificial Life offers a new, highly faithful translation by Štěpán Šimek of Czech novelist, playwright, and critic Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots, as well as twenty essays from contemporary writers on the 1920 play. R.U.R. is perhaps best known for first coining the term “robot” (in Czech, robota means serfdom or arduous drudgery). The twenty essays in this new English edition, beautifully edited by Jitka Čejková, are selected from Robot 100, an edited collection in Czech with perspectives from 100 contemporary voices that was published in 2020 to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the play. Čapek’s robots were autonomous beings, but biological, not mechanical, made of chemically synthesized soft matter resembling living tissue, like the synthetic humans in Blade Runner, Westworld, or Ex Machina. The contributors to the collection—scientists and other scholars—explore the legacy of the play and its connections to the current state of research in artificial life, or ALife. Throughout the book, it is impossible to ignore Čapek’s prescience, as his century-old science fiction play raises contemporary questions with respect to robotics, synthetic biology, technology, artificial life, and artificial intelligence, anticipating many of the formidable challenges we face today. Contributors Jitka Čejková, Miguel Aguilera, Iñigo R. Arandia, Josh Bongard, Julyan Cartwright, Seth Bullock, Dominique Chen, Gusz Eiben, Tom Froese, Carlos Gershenson, Inman Harvey, Jana Horáková, Takashi Ikegami, Sina Khajehabdollahi, George Musser, Geoff Nitschke, Julie Nováková, Antoine Pasquali, Hemma Philamore, Lana Sinapayen, Hiroki Sayama, Nathaniel Virgo, Olaf Witkowski

Design, Development and Sensemaking of Human-Robot Interaction in Care Settings

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3658452331
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (584 download)

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Book Synopsis Design, Development and Sensemaking of Human-Robot Interaction in Care Settings by : Felix Carros

Download or read book Design, Development and Sensemaking of Human-Robot Interaction in Care Settings written by Felix Carros and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 2: Technicisation

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004688285
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (46 download)

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Book Synopsis Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 2: Technicisation by :

Download or read book Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 2: Technicisation written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-08-29 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume revisits one of the great challenges of our time - the global circulation of technology and the resulting technicisation. Together, the introductory essay and six case studies argue that while circulation inevitably leads to the global standardisation of some forms, successful technicisation depends on local appropriation that takes place in the interstitial zones of translation. These zones, characterised by their asymmetrical power relations, need to be constantly renegotiated, recreated, and maintained in order to sustain decolonial translations. The aim of this volume is to stimulate further experimental praxiographic studies of decolonial translation in processes of technicisation, and thereby ignite novel, forward-looking theoretical debates. Contributors are Sarah Biecker, Marc Boeckler, Jude Kagoro, Jochen Monstadt, Sung-Joon Park, Eva Riedke, Richard Rottenburg, Klaus Schlichte, Jannik Schritt, Alena Thiel, Christiane Tristl, Jonas van der Straeten.

Rossum Universal Robots

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Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN 13 : 9781481969536
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (695 download)

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Book Synopsis Rossum Universal Robots by : Karel Capek

Download or read book Rossum Universal Robots written by Karel Capek and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013-01-12 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 2010, US scientists succeeded in creating the first self-replicating synthetic life. The advance has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. In 1920, Karel Capek predicted this exact scenario in his prescient Rossum Universal Robots (R.U.R.) Predating Huxely's Brave New World by two decades, R.U.R. claims the same footing in history as the earliest masterpiece that depicts the decline of Homo Sapiens and their replacement by the Post Humans. Karel Capek was the most famous author in the Czech Republic in the first half of the 20th century. His work widely translated and still inspires story tellers and movie directors the world over. R.U.R inspired Spielberg' A.I., Will Smith' I Robot and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator series, among others. "Capek's play is immortal for that one word it contributed, 'Robot', not only to English but, through English, to all the languages." Isaac Asimov

Artificial Life

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Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 9780679743897
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Artificial Life by : Steven Levy

Download or read book Artificial Life written by Steven Levy and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1992 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enthralling book alerts us to nothing less than the existence of new varieties of life. Some of these species can move and eat, see, reproduce, and die. Some behave like birds or ants. One such life form may turn out to be our best weapon in the war against AIDS. What these species have in common is that they exist inside computers, their DNA is digital, and they have come into being not through God's agency but through the efforts of a generation of scientists who seek to create life in silico. But even as it introduces us to these brilliant heretics and unravels the intricacies of their work. Artificial Life examines its subject's dizzying philosophical implications: Is a self-replicating computer program any less alive than a flu virus? Are carbon-and-water-based entities merely part of the continuum of living things? And is it possible that one day "a-life" will look back at human beings and dismiss us as an evolutionary way station -- or, worse still, a dead end?

Silicon Second Nature

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520918770
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Silicon Second Nature by : Stefan Helmreich

Download or read book Silicon Second Nature written by Stefan Helmreich and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1998-11-16 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silicon Second Nature takes us on an expedition into an extraordinary world where nature is made of bits and bytes and life is born from sequences of zeroes and ones. Artificial Life is the brainchild of scientists who view self-replicating computer programs—such as computer viruses—as new forms of life. Anthropologist Stefan Helmreich's look at the social and simulated worlds of Artificial Life—primarily at the Santa Fe Institute, a well-known center for studies in the sciences of complexity—introduces readers to the people and programs connected with this unusual hybrid of computer science and biology. When biology becomes an information science, when DNA is downloaded into virtual reality, new ways of imagining "life" become possible. Through detailed dissections of the artifacts of Artifical Life, Helmreich explores how these novel visions of life are recombining with the most traditional tales told by Western culture. Because Artificial Life scientists tend to see themselves as masculine gods of their cyberspace creations, as digital Darwins exploring frontiers filled with primitive creatures, their programs reflect prevalent representations of gender, kinship, and race, and repeat origin stories most familiar from mythical and religious narratives. But Artificial Life does not, Helmreich says, simply reproduce old stories in new software. Much like contemporary activities of cloning, cryonics, and transgenics, the practice of simulating and synthesizing life in silico challenges and multiplies the very definition of vitality. Are these models, as some would claim, actually another form of the real thing? Silicon Second Nature takes Artifical Life as a symptom and source of our mutating visions of life itself.

The Charisma Machine

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262537443
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis The Charisma Machine by : Morgan G. Ames

Download or read book The Charisma Machine written by Morgan G. Ames and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating examination of technological utopianism and its complicated consequences. In The Charisma Machine, Morgan Ames chronicles the life and legacy of the One Laptop per Child project and explains why—despite its failures—the same utopian visions that inspired OLPC still motivate other projects trying to use technology to “disrupt” education and development. Announced in 2005 by MIT Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop per Child promised to transform the lives of children across the Global South with a small, sturdy, and cheap laptop computer, powered by a hand crank. In reality, the project fell short in many ways—starting with the hand crank, which never materialized. Yet the project remained charismatic to many who were captivated by its claims of access to educational opportunities previously out of reach. Behind its promises, OLPC, like many technology projects that make similarly grand claims, had a fundamentally flawed vision of who the computer was made for and what role technology should play in learning. Drawing on fifty years of history and a seven-month study of a model OLPC project in Paraguay, Ames reveals that the laptops were not only frustrating to use, easy to break, and hard to repair, they were designed for “technically precocious boys”—idealized younger versions of the developers themselves—rather than the children who were actually using them. The Charisma Machine offers a cautionary tale about the allure of technology hype and the problems that result when utopian dreams drive technology development.

Rise of the Self-Replicators

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030482340
Total Pages : 121 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Rise of the Self-Replicators by : Tim Taylor

Download or read book Rise of the Self-Replicators written by Tim Taylor and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to design robots and other machines that can reproduce and evolve? And, if so, what are the implications: for the machines, for ourselves, for our environment, and for the future of life on Earth and elsewhere? In this book the authors provide a chronological survey and comprehensive archive of the early history of thought about machine self-reproduction and evolution. They discuss contributions from philosophy, science fiction, science and engineering, and uncover many examples that have never been discussed in the Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life literature before now. In the final chapter they provide a synthesis of the concepts discussed, offer their views on the field’s future directions, and call for a broad community discussion about the significant implications of intelligent evolving machines. The book will be of interest to general readers, and a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and historians engaged with ideas in artificial intelligence, artificial life, robotics, and evolutionary computing.

R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots).

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781420949681
Total Pages : 64 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (496 download)

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Book Synopsis R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). by : Karel Čapek

Download or read book R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). written by Karel Čapek and published by . This book was released on with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

New Laws of Robotics

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674975227
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis New Laws of Robotics by : Frank Pasquale

Download or read book New Laws of Robotics written by Frank Pasquale and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AI is poised to disrupt our work and our lives. We can harness these technologies rather than fall captive to them—but only through wise regulation. Too many CEOs tell a simple story about the future of work: if a machine can do what you do, your job will be automated. They envision everyone from doctors to soldiers rendered superfluous by ever-more-powerful AI. They offer stark alternatives: make robots or be replaced by them. Another story is possible. In virtually every walk of life, robotic systems can make labor more valuable, not less. Frank Pasquale tells the story of nurses, teachers, designers, and others who partner with technologists, rather than meekly serving as data sources for their computerized replacements. This cooperation reveals the kind of technological advance that could bring us all better health care, education, and more, while maintaining meaningful work. These partnerships also show how law and regulation can promote prosperity for all, rather than a zero-sum race of humans against machines. How far should AI be entrusted to assume tasks once performed by humans? What is gained and lost when it does? What is the optimal mix of robotic and human interaction? New Laws of Robotics makes the case that policymakers must not allow corporations or engineers to answer these questions alone. The kind of automation we get—and who it benefits—will depend on myriad small decisions about how to develop AI. Pasquale proposes ways to democratize that decision making, rather than centralize it in unaccountable firms. Sober yet optimistic, New Laws of Robotics offers an inspiring vision of technological progress, in which human capacities and expertise are the irreplaceable center of an inclusive economy.

American Technological Sublime

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262640343
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis American Technological Sublime by : David E. Nye

Download or read book American Technological Sublime written by David E. Nye and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996-02-28 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Technological Sublime continues the exploration of the social construction of technology that David Nye began in his award-winning book Electrifying America. Here Nye examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" (a term coined by Perry Miller) as a key to the nation's history, using as examples the natural sites, architectural forms, and technological achievements that ordinary people have valued intensely. Technology has long played a central role in the formation of Americans' sense of selfhood. From the first canal systems through the moon landing, Americans have, for better or worse, derived unity from the common feeling of awe inspired by large-scale applications of technological prowess. American Technological Sublime continues the exploration of the social construction of technology that David Nye began in his award-winning book Electrifying America. Here Nye examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" (a term coined by Perry Miller) as a key to the nation's history, using as examples the natural sites, architectural forms, and technological achievements that ordinary people have valued intensely. American Technological Sublime is a study of the politics of perception in industrial society. Arranged chronologically, it suggests that the sublime itself has a history - that sublime experiences are emotional configurations that emerge from new social and technological conditions, and that each new configuration to some extent undermines and displaces the older versions. After giving a short history of the sublime as an aesthetic category, Nye describes the reemergence and democratization of the concept in the early nineteenth century as an expression of the American sense of specialness. What has filled the American public with wonder, awe, even terror? David Nye selects the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the Erie Canal, the first transcontinental railroad, Eads Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, the major international expositions, the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909, the Empire State Building, and Boulder Dam. He then looks at the atom bomb tests and the Apollo mission as examples of the increasing ambivalence of the technological sublime in the postwar world. The festivities surrounding the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986 become a touchstone reflecting the transformation of the American experience of the sublime over two centuries. Nye concludes with a vision of the modern-day "consumer sublime" as manifested in the fantasy world of Las Vegas.

Artificial Life and Virtual Reality

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Artificial Life and Virtual Reality by : Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann

Download or read book Artificial Life and Virtual Reality written by Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann and published by . This book was released on 1994-12-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the association between artificial life (AI) and virtual reality, which presents the results of a workshop on the subject, held at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1993.

Tools for Thought

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262681155
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (811 download)

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Book Synopsis Tools for Thought by : Howard Rheingold

Download or read book Tools for Thought written by Howard Rheingold and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000-04-13 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a highly engaging style, Rheingold tells the story of what he calls the patriarchs, pioneers, and infonauts of the computer, focusing in particular on such pioneers as J. C. R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor, and Alan Kay. The digital revolution did not begin with the teenage millionaires of Silicon Valley, claims Howard Rheingold, but with such early intellectual giants as Charles Babbage, George Boole, and John von Neumann. In a highly engaging style, Rheingold tells the story of what he calls the patriarchs, pioneers, and infonauts of the computer, focusing in particular on such pioneers as J. C. R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor, and Alan Kay. Taking the reader step by step from nineteenth-century mathematics to contemporary computing, he introduces a fascinating collection of eccentrics, mavericks, geniuses, and visionaries. The book was originally published in 1985, and Rheingold's attempt to envision computing in the 1990s turns out to have been remarkably prescient. This edition contains an afterword, in which Rheingold interviews some of the pioneers discussed in the book. As an exercise in what he calls "retrospective futurism," Rheingold also looks back at how he looked forward.

Virtual Organisms

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Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1466874309
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Virtual Organisms by : Mark Ward

Download or read book Virtual Organisms written by Mark Ward and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-06-24 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harmless artificial life forms are on the loose on the Internet. Computer viruses and even robots are now able to evolve like their biological counterparts. Telecommunications companies are sending small packets of software to go forth and multiply to cope with ever-increasing telephone traffic. Protein-based computers are on the agenda, and a team in Japan is building an organic brain as clever as a kitten. Welcome to the startling world of Artificial Life. Artificial Life scientists are taking inanimate materials such as computer software and robots and making them behave just like living organisms. In the process they are discovering much about what drives evolution and just what it means to say that something is alive. Virtual Organisms traces the origins of this field from the days when it was practiced by a few maverick scientists to the present and the current boom in Alife research. Leading technology correspondent Mark Ward presents a fascinating survey of current ideas about the origins of life and the engines of evolution. Through interviews with leading developers of Artificial Life, and through his own compelling research, Ward shows how the convergence of technology with biology has enormous implications. In an accessible, entertaining manner, Virtual Organisms reveals an unexplored avenue in predicting the future of Artificial Life, and whether new forms of Alife may be evolving beyond their designer's control.

Women Becoming Mathematicians

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262632461
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (324 download)

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Book Synopsis Women Becoming Mathematicians by : Margaret Anne Marie Murray

Download or read book Women Becoming Mathematicians written by Margaret Anne Marie Murray and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women mathematicians of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and how they built professional identities in the face of social and institutional obstacles.