Authors: Zohar Manna. Amir Pnueli.
Hardcover, 448 pages
Publisher: Springer
Publication Date: 1991-12-18
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Reactive systems are computing systems which are interactive, such as real-time systems, operating systems, concurrent systems, control systems, etc. They are among the most difficult computing systems to program. Temporal logic is a formal tool/language which yields excellent results in specifying reactive systems. This volume, the first of two, subtitled Specification, has a self-contained introduction to temporal logic and, more important, an introduction to the computational model for reactive programs, developed by Zohar Manna and Amir Pnueli of Stanford University and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, respectively....

Authors: Klaus Mainzer.
Hardcover, 482 pages
Publisher: Springer
Publication Date: 2007-11-09
Edition: 5th rev. and enlarged ed.

Reviews :

   

The theory of nonlinear, complex systems has become by now a proven problem-solving approach in the natural sciences. And it is now also recognized that many if not most of our social, ecological, economical and political problems are essentially of a global, complex and nonlinear nature. And it is now further accepted than any holistic perspective of the human mind and brain can hardly be achieved by any other approach. In this wide-ranging, scholarly but very concise treatment, physicist, computer scientist and philosopher Klaus Mainzer discusses, in essentially nontechnical language, the common framework behind these ideas and challenges. Emphasis is given to the evolution of new structures in natural and cultural systems and we are lead to see clearly how the new integrative approach can give insights not available from traditional reductionistic methods. The fifth edition enlarges and revises almost all sections and supplements an entirely new chapter on the complexity of economic systems.

From the reviews of the fourth edition:

"This book is ambitious, incredibly erudite with 22 pages of references, and is indisputably clearly and beautifully written and illustrated. It is perfectly suited to a first course on the science of complexity. Even beginners and young graduate students will have something to learn from this book." (Andre Hautot, Physicalia, Vol. 57 (3), 2005)

"All-in-all, this highly recommended book is a wonderful resource for intuitive basic ideas in the need of rigorous formulation." (Albert A. Mullin, Zentralblatt MATH, vol. 1046, 2004)

"Readers of this book will enjoy Mainzer's exposition, which is based on a tight coupling between classical and historical concepts from Plato and Aristotle to modern, mathematical and physical developments  . Every chapter begins with a section designed to orient the reader to the perspective of philosophical developments through the ages pertinent to the topic at hand.  The author takes pains to point out essential differences between classical science and the science of complexity. Thinking in Complexity is an outstandingly readable book." (Anutosh Moitra, The Industrial Physicist, August/September, 2004)

...

    Chaos is cropping up everywhere these days. As it becomes ever more apparent that Newtonian mechanics is inadequate for modeling nonlinear systems, or systems that have too many degrees of freedom to handle easily, researchers in all fields are turning toward nonlinear dynamics as a refreshing alternative. This is a paradigm shift à la Kuhn, and Klaus Mainzer guides us through it with an astounding range of historical and scientific knowledge. From quantum physics to consciousness to economics, Mainzer shows us how thinking complexly can solve problems over which standard, linear thinking continually stumbles. Instead of simplifying, however, Mainzer revels in the complexity of complexity, so the reader should be prepared for advanced concepts in such varied fields as mathematics, physics, and economics. Difficult, but worthwhile reading....

Authors: Paul Levinson.
Paperback, 276 pages
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 1998-10-01
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Boldly extending and deepening the pathways blazed by Marshall McLuhan, Paul Levinson presents an engaging tour of how communications media have been responsible for major developments in history and for the significant changes in our personal and social lives today. The Soft Edge explores how information technologies influence events in decisive ways at crucial times in history and how they are selected for survival based on how well they accommodate human needs. Using often original and unusual interpretations of both historic and recent events, Levinson brilliantly displays the role new media plays in society, the effects that human choice has on this (r)evolution, and what's in store for us in the future.

...

    According to Paul Levinson, it would be improper to portray information technology as the cause of change in our world. However, Levinson clarifies that its role in enabling change can hardly be overestimated. He also points out--through riveting examples--that inventions have unintended consequences and uses. Why is it, for example, that the move from polytheism to monotheism failed when attempted by the pharaoh Ikhnaton, yet took solid root among the Hebrews who were taken out of Egypt by Moses only about 150 years later? Levinson argues that communication technology played a key role: The awkward Egyptian hieroglyphics failed to carry the ideology as well as the Hebrew alphabetic system. From there, Levinson examines the early social changes that became possible because of what the author calls "the first digital medium"--the alphabet. He considers how the Reformation, economic and political movements, and the scientific revolution were largely enabled by the printing press. He then discusses the influence of photographic communications and electronic technology such as the telegraph, the telephone, and broadcasting.

Levinson devotes the second half of the book to our present digital revolution, from word processing to the Internet and beyond. One of his key points is that new technology doesn't necessarily displace the old so much as it expands it. Therefore, he doesn't see any end to using paper anytime soon. However, he sees great need for changes in the way we view creative rights. He proposes what he calls an"electronic watermark" for intellectual property--a universal patent number that will be embedded in intellectual property and will notify users in any medium of the property's creators. Levinson puts forth his ideas in a manner that is both formal and engaging. He has a knack for making his reader feel intelligent and respected--and never more so than when he looks at issues of ethics and a speculative future....

Authors: Loren R. Graham.
Hardcover, 565 pages
Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr
Publication Date: 1987-06

Authors:
Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Springer
Publication Date: 2008-10-24
Edition: 1

Reviews :

   

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, ANTS 2008, held in Brussels, Belgium, in September 2008.

The 17 revised full papers, 24 revised short papers, and 10 extended abstracts presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 91 submissions. The papers cover theoretical and foundational aspects of computational intelligence and related disciplines with special focus on swarm intelligence and are devoted to behavioral models of social insects and new algorithmic approaches, empirical and theoretical research in swarm intelligence, applications such as ant colony optimization or particle swarm optimization, and theoretical and experimental research in swarm robotics systems.

...

Authors: Martin Kevorkian.
Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication Date: 2006-01-12


Reviews :

    "Color Monitors looks at a particular subset of imagined computer use, focusing on scenarios that demand from the person at the keyboard an intimate technical knowledge. My research has uncovered a peculiar pattern: race comes into sharp relief when computer use is depicted as difficult labor requiring special expertise. Time and again, in such scenarios, the helpful person of color is there to take the call—to provide technical support, to deal with the machines. In interpreting such images, Color Monitors analyzes the computer-fearing strain in American whiteness, an aspect of white identity that defines itself against information technology and the racial other imagined to love it and excel at it."—Martin Kevorkian

Following up on Ralph Ellison’s intimation that blacks serve as "the machines inside the machine," Color Monitors examines the designation of black bodies as natural machines for the information age. Martin Kevorkian shows how African Americans are consistently depicted as highly skilled, intelligent, and technologically savvy as they work to solve complex computer problems in popular movies, corporate advertising, and contemporary fiction. But is this progress? Or do such seemingly positive depictions have more disturbing implications? Kevorkian provocatively asserts that whites’ historical "fear of a black planet" has in the age of microprocessing converged with a new fear of computers and the possibility that digital imperatives will engulf human creativity.

Analyzing escapist fantasies from Mission: Impossible to Minority Report, Kevorkian argues that the placement of a black man in front of a computer screen doubly reassures audiences: he is nonthreatening, safely occupied—even imprisoned—by the very machine he attempts to control, an occupation that simultaneously frees the action heroes from any electronic headaches. The study concludes with some alternatives to this scheme, looking to a network of recent authors, with shared affinities for Ellison and Pynchon, willing to think inside the black box of technology....

Authors: Petr Hájek.
Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Springer
Publication Date: 2001-11-30
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    This book presents a systematic treatment of deductive aspects and structures of fuzzy logic understood as many valued logic sui generis. Some important systems of real-valued propositional and predicate calculus are defined and investigated. The aim is to show that fuzzy logic as a logic of imprecise (vague) propositions does have well-developed formal foundations and that most things usually named `fuzzy inference' can be naturally understood as logical deduction.
There are two main groups of intended readers. First, logicians: they can see that fuzzy logic is indeed a branch of logic and may find several very interesting open problems. Second, equally important, researchers involved in fuzzy logic applications and soft computing. As a matter of fact, most of these are not professional logicians so that it can easily happen that an application, clever and successful as it may be, is presented in a way which is logically not entirely correct or may appear simple-minded. (Standard presentations of the logical aspects of fuzzy controllers are the most typical example.) This fact would not be very important if only the bon ton of logicians were harmed; but it is the opinion of the author (who is a mathematical logician) that a better understanding of the strictly logical basis of fuzzy logic (in the usual broad sense) is very useful for fuzzy logic appliers since if they know better what they are doing, they may hope to do it better. In addition, a better mutual understanding between (classical) logicians and researchers in fuzzy logic, promises to lead to deeper cooperation and new results....

Authors: Edward Walters.
Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Publication Date: 2005-04-25
Edition: 1st Taylor Trade Publishing Ed

Reviews :

    A crash course in locating information about the Lone Star State. Each chapter begins with an engaging, little known, even quirky story and then shows the reader how to follow the printed and electronic trail to uncover more detail....

Authors: Sean Stalzer.
Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Avari Press
Publication Date: 2007-08-15


Reviews :

    Embark on a fascinating look at the history of Online Gaming through the eyes of one of the most successful online organizations in the history of gaming. Discover the origins of the modern gaming era. Relive the challenges and triumphs that helped shape The Syndicate and, by extension, the development of a community of more than 8 million people from around the world....

Authors:
Paperback, 338 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2004-10-01


Reviews :

    The vast social apparatus of the computer network has aligned people with technology in unprecedented ways. The intimacy of the human-computer interface has made it impossible to distinguish technology from the social and cultural business of being human. Cyberculture is the broader name given to this process of becoming through technological means. This book shows that cyberculture has been a long time coming.

In Prefiguring Cyberculture, media critics and theorists, philosophers, and historians of science explore the antecedents of such aspects of contemporary technological culture as the Internet, the World Wide Web, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, virtual reality, and the cyborg. The contributors examine key texts that anticipate cybercultural practice and theory, including Plato's "Simile of the Cave"; the Renaissance Ars Memoria; Descartes's Meditations (on the mind-body split); Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Alan Turing's Computing Machinery and Intelligence; Philip K. Dick's Man, Android, and Machine; William Gibson's Neuromancer; and Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future. In the final section, a number of cyberculture artists explore how cybercultural themes have been taken up and critiqued in the electronic arts.

This book is not for sale in Australia and New Zealand....