Showing titles in Science & Technology

How can digital cash truly be "trustless"? What does it mean that blockchain offers a new paradigm of the "rule of code"? How are decisions made when a blockchain system faces an emergency, and who gets to make those decisions? In Blockchain Governance, Primavera De Filippi, Wessel Reijers, and Morshed Mannan offer answers to these questions and more, in an accessible, critical overview of legal and political issues related to blockchain technology.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan created one of the dumbest talking points of all time: "I'm not a scientist, but..." Since then, politicians have repeatedly committed egregious transgressions against scientific knowledge prefaced by this seemingly innocuous phrase. Yet, as science journalist Dave Levitan reveals, that line is just the tip of the melting iceberg when it comes to rhetorical tools wielded to attack scientific findings that don't cooperate with political agendas.

The United States is experiencing a profound crisis when it comes to mental health care. In a recent Senate Committee on Finance hearing on youth mental health, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy shared that Americans wait 11 years, on average, between onset of symptoms and first receiving treatment. The consequences are plain to see: higher suicide and drug overdose rates, more Americans without a safe place to sleep, more children experiencing depression and anxiety. The house is on fire, and the nation is short on firefighters equipped to put out the blaze.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Newt Gingrich explains how America is on the cusp of an unprecedented era of prosperity fueled by President Trump’s historic presidency. In a follow-up to the bestseller Trump’s Triumph, the former House Speaker shows what this new golden age will look...

Brought to you by Penguin. Before Bill Gates became an expert on climate science, he was known as one of the few who studied pandemics - how they start, how they spread, how they can be controlled. He warned us years ago in a now-famous TED Talk of their arrival in our future. The future, of...

Reunião dos principais artigos de um dos mais influentes especialistas em tecnologia e em internet do mundo, Evgeny Morozov. Big tech problematiza a lógica do chamado "solucionismo" tecnológico, que enxerga a tecnologia como panaceia para problemas que instituições falharam em resolver.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and author of the classic The First Three Minutes, Weinberg shares his views on some of the most fundamental and fascinating aspects of physics and the universe. But he does not seclude science behind disciplinary walls or shy away from politics, taking on what he sees as the folly of manned spaceflight, the harms of inequality, and the importance of public goods. His point of view is rationalist, realist, reductionist, and devoutly secularist.

Science and politics have collaborated throughout human history and science is repeatedly invoked today in political debates, from pandemic management to climate change. Leading policy analyst Geoff Mulgan here calls attention to the growing frictions caused by the expanding—and unsolicited—authority being heaped upon science. As science increasingly competes with politics, a defined plan of cooperation is urgently needed.

New York Times bestselling author and former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb provides a glimpse of a promising future that is quickly approaching: a world with cures for chronic illnesses and cancers. While traditional drugs mostly help us manage the effects of disease, cell therapies promise...

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, North American and European governments generously funded the discoveries of such famous paleontologists and geologists as Henry de la Beche, William Buckland, Richard Owen, Thomas Hawkins, Edward Drinker Cope, O. C. Marsh, and Charles W. Gilmore. In this book, Jane Davidson explores the motivation behind this rush to fund exploration, arguing that eagerness to discover strategic resources like coal deposits was further fueled by patrons who had a genuine passion for paleontology and the fascinating creatures that were being unearthed.

As AI and robotics eliminate jobs across the spectrum, governmental revenues will plummet while the debt increases dramatically. This crisis of limited resources on all levels - underfunded or nonexistent pensions, health problems, lack of savings, and job destruction without comparable job creation - will drive many into homelessness and produce a dramatic rise in violence as we fight over shrinking resources.

This richly detailed book exposes the consequences of Big Tech’s digital surveillance, exploitative use of AI, and monopolistic and anticompetitive practices. It offers actionable solutions to these problems and a clear path forward for individuals and policymakers to advocate for change. By containing the excesses of Big Tech, we will ensure our civil rights are respected and preserved, our economy is competitive, and our democracy is protected.

Epidemiologists and national security agencies warned for years about the potential for a deadly pandemic, but global surveillance and warning systems were not enough to avert the Covid-19 disaster. In The Covid-19 Intelligence Failure, Erik J. Dahl demonstrates that understanding how intelligence warnings work and how they fail shows why the years of predictions were not enough.

A Ph.D. biochemist and immunologist goes through the data on one of the greatest public policy disasters in human history—the lockdown response to COVID. How deadly was COVID originally and after it had evolved for a year or two? How many COVID deaths were prevented by the lockdowns? How many people did the lockdowns throw into depression? How many people did the lockdowns kill by deaths of despair? But the good news from the lockdowns is it shows citizens are willing to make enormous sacrifices for their society and that we can transform society on a dime.

Der Medienexperte Martin Andree führt scharf und mit plakativen Illustrationen vor Augen, dass wir schon bald unumkehrbar in der Gewalt einer Handvoll US-Konzerne sein werden, die zunehmend auf der dunklen Seite der Macht agieren. Mit jedem Quartal, das ohne Widerstand vergeht, werden die Digitalkonzerne unbesiegbarer und das Internet unfreier. Sein Buch ist ein Manifest der Gegenwehr.

COVID-19 has killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history, but the scale and grim human toll of the pandemic were not inevitable. Pandemic Politics examines how Donald Trump politicized COVID-19, shedding new light on how his administration tied the pandemic to the president’s political fate in an election year and chose partisanship over public health. This book draws on a wealth of new data on public opinion to show how pandemic politics has touched all aspects of our lives, and puts America’s COVID-19 response in global perspective.

Discover how the United States can beat China, Russia, Iran, and ISIS in the coming information-technology wars from the New York Times bestselling author and veteran Washington Times columnist Bill Gertz. America is at war, but most of its citizens don’t realize it. Covert information warfare...

In this rambling essay, Bertrand Russell reflects on the future of the world while the memory of the First World War was still strong in the public imagination. Russell notes the concomitant development of technology and the rise of political autocracies and explores whether man can be considered fit to handle the vast new powers at his disposal.

In this bracing book, Michael Chertoff makes clear that our laws and policies surrounding the protection of personal information, written for an earlier time, need to be completely overhauled in the Internet era. In offering his compelling call for action, Chertoff argues that what is at stake is not so much the simple loss of privacy, which is almost impossible to protect, but of individual autonomy - the ability to make personal choices free of manipulation or coercion.

Silicon Valley is imperializing the planet. With nearly bottomless supplies of cash and ambition, a small group of companies have been gradually seizing symbolic and practical civic leadership in America and worldwide. But Silicon Valley does not answer to the electorate; nor have they been voted into office. And the perils of their influence are only now making themselves known.