New Books
Soft Power for the Journey: The Life of a Stem Trailblazer
This is a story of an African American woman working at the highest levels in STEM. Dr. Sandra K. Johnson earned a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University, Houston, Texas, in May 1988, the first Black woman to do so. She then became a successful global technology leader and an IBM Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The story narrates the inextricable human dimension of dealing with various personal and familial challenges that people naturally encounter--with the highs and lows, and exhilarations and disappointments. It portrays her inner strength, persistence, dedication, boldness, quiet resilience, wisdom and strong faith, this soft power she leverages throughout her life. It is a heartwarming, compelling story designed to encourage, be aspirational and awe-inspiring, and uplift the spirits of a broad and diverse readership. From tragically losing her father at the age of two, to being raised by a single mother of four children, Sandra showed promise in math and science, and discipline and unrelenting drive at a young age. Raised in the deep South, she exhibited leadership even while in kindergarten and blazed trails in leadership while in junior high and high schools. Her early education was in segregated schools, with integration coming to her hometown as she started the 5th grade. Dr. Johnson's innate abilities led her to a summer engineering program for high school students, then on to college and graduate school. Dr. Johnson has made innovative contributions in high performance computing - supercomputers - and other areas of computer engineering. She has dozens of technical publications, over 45 pending and issued patents, and a plethora of recognition and honors in her field. The book is a fascinating and intriguing story that conveys in captivating and relatable ways the remarkable life arc of a resilient person from an underprivileged background who persistently overcomes whatever odds and challenges are encountered in her life. It is a riveting human tale of a triumphant spirit, moving forward with soft power to celebrate achievement and handle obstacles with steel willpower, influential support, and faith. Access the authors' webpage here https: //softpowerforthejourney.com/
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience--unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it's also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids' education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights. By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will. The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can't agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities--or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines. In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.
Web3 in Financial Services: How Blockchain, Digital Assets and Crypto Are Disrupting Traditional Finance
In an unprecedented time of disruption, Web3 in Financial Services cuts through the noise to ensure financial service professionals are equipped with the knowledge needed to benefit from Web3. Web3 in Financial Services explains what Web3 means for finance, outlining its key use cases and exploring the unique business opportunities and challenges it presents. It clarifies key developments such as custody, stablecoins, CDBCs and tokenized deposits, payments, asset tokenization, DeFi and digital identity. Investigating how organizations are testing and adopting these emergent technologies, the book is supported by cutting-edge, real-life examples from incumbents and challengers alike, including Fidelity Digital Assets, J.P. Morgan ONYX, Coinbase, Anchorage Digital, Circle, Ripple and Aave. The book reviews what's at stake for major ecosystem players such as banks, investors and regulators and appraises the changes still needed to enable more mainstream adoption of Web3. Web3 in Financial Services answers pressing questions such as: what does Web3 really mean for financial services and what are the use cases with potential for disruption? What are the innovations that companies are actually doing within this space? And how do organizations need to adapt? This is an essential read for finance and fintech professionals, bankers and investors who need to grasp the essentials of Web3, blockchain, digital assets and decentralisation and its ramifications for financial services.
Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write
Literary Theory for Robots reveals the hidden history of modern machine intelligence, taking readers on a spellbinding journey from medieval Arabic philosophy to visions of a universal language, past Hollywood fiction factories and missile defense systems trained on Russian folktales. In this provocative reflection on the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides crucial context for recent developments in AI, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology. Intelligence expressed through technology should not be mistaken for a magical genie, capable of self-directed thought or action. Rather, in highly original and effervescent prose with a generous dose of wit, Yi Tenen asks us to read past the artifice--to better perceive the mechanics of collaborative work. Something as simple as a spell-checker or a grammar-correction tool, embedded in every word-processor, represents the culmination of a shared human effort, spanning centuries. Smart tools, like dictionaries and grammar books, have always accompanied the act of writing, thinking, and communicating. That these paper machines are now automated does not bring them to life. Nor can we cede agency over the creative process. With its masterful blend of history, technology, and philosophy, Yi Tenen's work ultimately urges us to view AI as a matter of labor history, celebrating the long-standing cooperation between authors and engineers.
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "The conscience of the AI revolution" (Fortune) explains how we've arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls. "Dr. Joy Buolamwini has been an essential figure in bringing irresponsible, profit-hungry tech giants to their knees. If you're going to read only one book about AI, this should be it."--Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation A LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * Shortlisted for the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award To most of us, it seems like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humankind. But to Dr. Joy Buolamwini, who has been at the forefront of AI research, this moment has been a long time in the making. After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Memphis and then developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini followed her lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art to MIT in 2015. As a graduate student at the "Future Factory," she did groundbreaking research that exposed widespread racial and gender bias in AI services from tech giants across the world. Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls "the coded gaze"--the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products--and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both the tech industry and the research sector, she shows how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity "excoded" and therefore vulnerable in a world rapidly adopting AI tools. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them. Encouraging experts and non-experts alike to join this fight, Buolamwini writes, "The rising frontier for civil rights will require algorithmic justice. AI should be for the people and by the people, not just the privileged few."
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON AI * FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2023 From Dr. Fei-Fei Li, one of TIME's 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL in AI, comes "a powerful plea for keeping humanity at the centre of our latest technological transformation" (Financial Times). Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li "one of a tiny group of scientists--a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table--who are responsible for AI's recent remarkable advances." Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. As immigrants, her family faced a difficult transition from China's middle class to American poverty. And their lives were made all the harder as they struggled to care for her ailing mother, who was working tirelessly to help them all gain a foothold in their new land. Fei-Fei's adolescent knack for physics endured, however, and positioned her to make a crucial contribution to the breakthrough we now call AI, placing her at the center of a global transformation. Over the last decades, her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities--and the extraordinary dangers--of the technology she loves. The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century's defining moments from the inside. It provides a riveting story of a scientist at work and a thrillingly clear explanation of what artificial intelligence actually is--and how it came to be. Emotionally raw and intellectually uncompromising, this book is a testament not only to the passion required for even the most technical scholarship but also to the curiosity forever at its heart.
Konrad Zuse's Early Computers: The Quest for the Computer in Germany
This book describes the historical development of the architectures of the first computers built by the German inventor Konrad Zuse in Berlin between 1936 and 1945. Zuse's machines are historically important because they anticipated many features of modern computers. Specifically, these include the separation of processor and memory, the ability to compute with floating-point numbers, a hardware architecture based on microprogramming of the instruction set, and a layered design with a high-level programming language on top. In fact, Zuse's early computers are closer to modern computers than the Harvard Mark I or ENIAC, two other contenders for the title of "world's first computer." The theoretical program first conceived by Zuse in 1936/37 was fulfilled with a series of machines built before and during World War II: the Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4. Separate chapters deal with the architecture of each computer, culminating in the description of Plankalkül, the first proposal for a high-level programming language. Students of the sciences and practitioners of computer science should have no trouble following the material. The concise introductory summary sets the reader on the historical path to retrace this remarkable intellectual adventure.
Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World's First Modern Computer
Discover a fascinating look into the lives of six historic trailblazers in this World War II-era story of the American women who programmed the world's first modern computer. After the end of World War II, the race for technological supremacy sped on. Top-secret research into ballistics and computing, begun during the war to aid those on the front lines, continued across the United States as engineers and programmers rushed to complete their confidential assignments. Among them were six pioneering women, tasked with figuring out how to program the world's first general-purpose, programmable, all-electronic computer--better known as the ENIAC--even though there were no instruction codes or programming languages in existence. While most students of computer history are aware of this innovative machine, the great contributions of the women who programmed it were never told--until now. Over the course of a decade, Kathy Kleiman met with four of the original six ENIAC Programmers and recorded extensive interviews with the women about their work. Proving Ground restores these women to their rightful place as technological revolutionaries. As the tech world continues to struggle with gender imbalance and its far-reaching consequences, the story of the ENIAC Programmers' groundbreaking work is more urgently necessary than ever before, and Proving Ground is the celebration they deserve.
Natural General Intelligence: How Understanding the Brain Can Help Us Build AI
Since the time of Turing, computer scientists have dreamed of building artificial general intelligence (AGI) - a system that can think, learn and act as humans do. Over recent years, the remarkable pace of progress in machine learning research has reawakened discussions about AGI. But what would a generally intelligent agent be able to do? What algorithms, architectures, or cognitive functions would it need? To answer these questions, we turn to the study of natural intelligence. Humans (and many other animals) have evolved precisely the sorts of generality of function that AI researchers see as the defining hallmark of intelligence. The fields of cognitive science and neuroscience have provided us with a language for describing the ingredients of natural intelligence in terms of computational mechanisms and cognitive functions and studied their implementation in neural circuits. Natural General Intelligence describes the algorithms and architectures that are driving progress in AI research in this language, by comparing current AI systems and biological brains side by side. In doing so, it addresses deep conceptual issues concerning how perceptual, memory and control systems work, and discusses the language in which we think and the structure of our knowledge. It also grapples with longstanding controversies about the nature of intelligence, and whether AI researchers should look to biology for inspiration. Ultimately, Summerfield aims to provide a bridge between the theories of those who study biological brains and the practice of those who are seeking to build artificial brains.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the Image of God: Can Machines Attain Consciousness and Receive Salvation?
Can artificial intelligence (AI) attain human-level consciousness? And if so, should the church minister salvation to AI? Through engaging philosophy of mind, AI research, the cognitive sciences, neuroscience, and theological anthropology, Dr. Bellini attempts to answer these questions. The hypothesis is if the hard problem of consciousness can be solved, and if human consciousness is replicable in AI, then attaining artificial general conscious intelligence (AGCI) is possible, and perhaps needs to be evangelized or discipled, as some claim. On the contrary, if the hard problem of consciousness cannot be solved and human consciousness is not replicable in AI, then AGCI is not possible, and it does not need to be evangelized. And in either case, how can the church begin a theological conversation with AI with its potential to match and exceed human intelligence and performance? A theological position on consciousness and the image of God is proposed, demonstrating the uniqueness of human consciousness in contrast with AI and artificial consciousness. A thorough exposition of the image of God is offered to serve as a cornerstone for any future conversation on a theological perspective of machines (AI).
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Project Description: Theories are part and parcel of every human activity that involves knowing about the world and our place in it. In all areas of inquiry from the most commonplace to the most scholarly and esoteric, theorizing plays a fundamental role. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics focuses on the ways that various STEM disciplines theorize about their subject matter. How is thinking about the subject organized? What methods are used in moving a novice in given field into the position of a competent student of that subject? Within the pages of this landmark work, readers will learn about the complex decisions that are made when framing a theory, what goes into constructing a powerful theory, why some theories change or fail, how STEM theories reflect socio-historical moments in time and how - at their best - they form the foundations for exploring and unlocking the mysteries of the world around us. Featuring more than 200 authoritative articles written by experts in their respective fields, the encyclopedia includes a Reader's Guide that organizes entries by broad themes; lists of Further Readings and cross-references that conclude each article; and a Resource Guide listing classic books in the field, leading journals, associations, and key websites.
A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs that Made Our Brains
"I found this book amazing. I read it through quickly because it was so interesting, then turned around and read much of it again."--Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and bestselling author of Thinking Fast & Slow "I've been recommending A Brief History of Intelligence to everyone I know. A truly novel, beautifully crafted thesis on what intelligence is and how it has developed since the dawn of life itself."--Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit Equal parts Sapiens, Behave, and Superintelligence, but wholly original in scope, A Brief History of Intelligence offers a paradigm shift for how we understand neuroscience and AI. Artificial intelligence entrepreneur Max Bennett chronicles the five "breakthroughs" in the evolution of human intelligence and reveals what brains of the past can tell us about the AI of tomorrow. In the last decade, capabilities of artificial intelligence that had long been the realm of science fiction have, for the first time, become our reality. AI is now able to produce original art, identify tumors in pictures, and even steer our cars. And yet, large gaps remain in what modern AI systems can achieve--indeed, human brains still easily perform intellectual feats that we can't replicate in AI systems. How is it possible that AI can beat a grandmaster at chess but can't effectively load a dishwasher? As AI entrepreneur Max Bennett compellingly argues, finding the answer requires diving into the billion-year history of how the human brain evolved; a history filled with countless half-starts, calamities, and clever innovations. Not only do our brains have a story to tell--the future of AI may depend on it. Now, in A Brief History of Intelligence, Bennett bridges the gap between neuroscience and AI to tell the brain's evolutionary story, revealing how understanding that story can help shape the next generation of AI breakthroughs. Deploying a fresh perspective and working with the support of many top minds in neuroscience, Bennett consolidates this immense history into an approachable new framework, identifying the "Five Breakthroughs" that mark the brain's most important evolutionary leaps forward. Each breakthrough brings new insight into the biggest mysteries of human intelligence. Containing fascinating corollaries to developments in AI, A Brief History of Intelligence shows where current AI systems have matched or surpassed our brains, as well as where AI systems still fall short. Simply put, until AI systems successfully replicate each part of our brain's long journey, AI systems will fail to exhibit human-like intelligence. Endorsed and lauded by many of the top neuroscientists in the field today, Bennett's work synthesizes the most relevant scientific knowledge and cutting-edge research into an easy-to-understand and riveting evolutionary story. With sweeping scope and stunning insights, A Brief History of Intelligence proves that understanding the arc of our brain's history can unlock the tools for successfully navigating our technological future.
Mathematical Intelligence: A Story of Human Superiority over Machines
A fresh exploration into the 'human nature versus technology' argument, revealing an unexpected advantage that humans have over our future robot masters: we're actually good at mathematics. There's so much discussion about the threat posed by intelligent machines that it sometimes seems as though we should simply surrender to our robot overlords now. But Junaid Mubeen isn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. As far as he is concerned, we have the creative edge over computers, because of a remarkable system of thought that humans have developed over the millennia. It's familiar to us all, but often badly taught in schools and misrepresented in popular discourse--math. Computers are, of course, brilliant at totting up sums, pattern-seeking, and performing mindless tasks of, well, computation. For all things calculation, machines reign supreme. But Junaid identifies seven areas of intelligence where humans can retain a crucial edge. And in exploring these areas, he opens up a fascinating world where we can develop our uniquely human mathematical talents. Just a few of the fascinating subjects covered in MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCE include: -Humans are endowed with a natural sense of numbers that is based on approximation rather than precise calculation. Our in-built estimation skills complement the precision of computers. Interpreting the real world depends on both. -What sets humans apart from other animals is language and abstraction. We have an extraordinary ability to create powerful representations of knowledge-- more diverse than the binary language of computers. -Mathematics confers the most robust, logical framework for establishing permanent truths. Reasoning shields us from the dubious claims of pure pattern-recognition systems. -All mathematical truths are derived from a starting set of assumptions, or axioms. Unlike computers, humans have the freedom to break free of convention and examine the logical consequences of our choices. Mathematics rewards our imagination with fascinating and, on occasion, applicable concepts that originate from breaking the rules. -Computers can be tasked to solve a range of problems, but which problems are worth the effort? Questioning is as vital to our repertoire of thinking skills as problem-solving itself.
Language and the Rise of the Algorithm
A wide-ranging history of the algorithm. Bringing together the histories of mathematics, computer science, and linguistic thought, Language and the Rise of the Algorithm reveals how recent developments in artificial intelligence are reopening an issue that troubled mathematicians well before the computer age: How do you draw the line between computational rules and the complexities of making systems comprehensible to people? By attending to this question, we come to see that the modern idea of the algorithm is implicated in a long history of attempts to maintain a disciplinary boundary separating technical knowledge from the languages people speak day to day. Here Jeffrey M. Binder offers a compelling tour of four visions of universal computation that addressed this issue in very different ways: G. W. Leibniz's calculus ratiocinator; a universal algebra scheme Nicolas de Condorcet designed during the French Revolution; George Boole's nineteenth-century logic system; and the early programming language ALGOL, short for algorithmic language. These episodes show that symbolic computation has repeatedly become entangled in debates about the nature of communication. Machine learning, in its increasing dependence on words, erodes the line between technical and everyday language, revealing the urgent stakes underlying this boundary. The idea of the algorithm is a levee holding back the social complexity of language, and it is about to break. This book is about the flood that inspired its construction.
Multimedia Comprehension
Multimedia messages use combinations of texts, pictures, maps, and graphs as tools for communication. This book provides a synthesis of theory and research about how people comprehend multimedia. It adopts the perspectives of cognitive psychology, semiotics, anthropology, linguistics, education, and art. Its central idea is that information displays can be categorized into two different but complementary forms of representations, which service different purposes in human cognition and communication. Specific interaction between these representations enhances comprehension, thinking, and problem solving, as illustrated by numerous examples. Multimedia Comprehension is written for a broad audience with no special prior knowledge. It is of interest to everyone trying to understand how people comprehend multimedia, from scholars and students in psychology, communication, and education, to web- and interface-designers and instructors.
Gender and Security in Digital Space: Navigating Access, Harassment, and Disinformation
Digital space offers new avenues, opportunities, and platforms in the fight for gender equality, and for the social, economic, and political participation of women and marginalised communities. However, the very same space plays host to gender inequalities and security threats with gendered implications. This edited volume ventures into complexities at the intersection of gender, security, and digital space, with a particular focus on the persistent problems of access, harassment, and disinformation. Scholars and practitioners in this volume tackle various facets of the issue, presenting an array of research, experiences, and case studies that span the globe. This knowledge lends itself to potential policy considerations in tackling inequalities and threats with gendered implications in cyber space towards digital spaces that are safe and equal. This book is a must-read for students, scholars, and practitioners seeking to expand their knowledge on the gendered threats in digital space and potential remedies against them.
Artificial Intelligence Applications Using ChatGPT in Education: Case Studies and Practices
Within the realm of education, a pivotal dilemma has arisen, beckoning for inventive resolutions: How can academic scholars effectively employ Artificial Intelligence to reshape the landscape of medical learning? An answer materializes through Artificial Intelligence Applications Using ChatGPT in Education: Case Studies and Practices , authored by Muhammad Shahzad Aslam and Saima Nisar. With comprehensive expertise in Medical and Health Education, and Health Informatics, the authors present an insightful exploration of AI's potential to redefine medical education. Traditional methods of medical education often confront challenges in keeping pace with the burgeoning expanse of knowledge and the ever-adapting nuances of medical science. Both educators and students grapple with the overwhelming influx of information, seeking effective ways to impart and assimilate intricate concepts. Ethical quandaries, including plagiarism detection, further compound the complexities faced by academic scholars. Amidst these intricacies, the demand for an innovative solution becomes apparent - one that harmonizes progressive technology with pedagogical principles. Artificial Intelligence Applications Using ChatGPT in Education presents an inspired solution to the dilemmas of contemporary medical education. Through an exploration of ChatGPT's capabilities, an AI-driven chatbot, the authors unveil a potent instrument for self-guided learning. Drawing from enlightening case studies and in-depth examinations, they illuminate how ChatGPT can evolve into a personalized tutor, aiding students in comprehending intricate medical facets in their own stride. Furthermore, the book conducts a just analysis of the ethical dimensions of AI integration, casting light on the moral employment of AI within academic realms.
Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement--quantum computing--which may supercharge artificial intelligence, solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease, and eventually illuminate the deepest mysteries of science, by the bestselling author of The God Equation. * "Expertly describes and rectifies common misconceptions about quantum computing." --Science "[Kaku's] lucid prose and thought process make abundant sense of this technological turning point." --The New York Times Book Review The runaway success of the microchip may finally be reaching its end. As shrinking transistors approach the size of atoms, the phenomenal growth of computational power inevitably collapses. But this change heralds the birth of a revolutionary new type of computer, one that calculates on atoms themselves. Quantum computers promise unprecedented gains in computing power, enabling advancements that could overturn every aspect of our daily lives. While the media has mainly focused on their startling potential to crack any known encryption method, the race is already on to exploit their incredible power to revolutionize industry. Automotive makers, medical researchers, and consulting firms are all betting on quantum computing to design more efficient vehicles, create life-saving new drugs, and streamline businesses. But this is only the beginning. Quantum computing could be used to decode the complex chemical processes needed to produce cheap fertilizers and unleash a second Green Revolution; create a super battery that will enable the Solar Age; or design nuclear fusion reactors to generate clean, safe, renewable energy. It may even unravel the fiendishly difficult protein folding that lies at the heart of as-yet-incurable diseases like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's. Already, quantum computers are being put to work to help solve the greatest mystery in science--the origin of the universe. There is no single problem humanity faces that might not be addressed by quantum computers. With his signature clarity and enthusiasm, Dr. Michio Kaku, who has spent his entire professional life working on the quantum theory, tells the thrilling story of this exciting scientific frontier and the race to claim humanity's future.
Privacy Is Hard and Seven Other Myths: Achieving Privacy Through Careful Design
An expert on computer privacy and security shows how we can build privacy into the design of systems from the start. We are tethered to our devices all day, every day, leaving data trails of our searches, posts, clicks, and communications. Meanwhile, governments and businesses collect our data and use it to monitor us without our knowledge. So we have resigned ourselves to the belief that privacy is hard--choosing to believe that websites do not share our information, for example, and declaring that we have nothing to hide anyway. In this informative and illuminating book, a computer privacy and security expert argues that privacy is not that hard if we build it into the design of systems from the start. Along the way, Jaap-Henk Hoepman debunks eight persistent myths surrounding computer privacy. The website that claims it doesn't collect personal data, for example; Hoepman explains that most data is personal, capturing location, preferences, and other information. You don't have anything to hide? There's nothing wrong with wanting to keep personal information--even if it's not incriminating or embarrassing--private. Hoepman shows that just as technology can be used to invade our privacy, it can be used to protect it, when we apply privacy by design. Hoepman suggests technical fixes, discussing pseudonyms, leaky design, encryption, metadata, and the benefits of keeping your data local (on your own device only), and outlines privacy design strategies that system designers can apply now.
The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things
A compelling biography of Mark Weiser, a pioneering innovator whose legacy looms over the tech industry's quest to connect everything--and who hoped for something better. When developers and critics trace the roots of today's Internet of Things--our smart gadgets and smart cities--they may single out the same creative source: Mark Weiser (1952-99), the first chief technology officer at Xerox PARC and the so-called "father of ubiquitous computing." But Weiser, who died young at age 46 in 1999, would be heartbroken if he had lived to see the ways we use technology today. As John Tinnell shows in this thought-provoking narrative, Weiser was an outlier in Silicon Valley. A computer scientist whose first love was philosophy, he relished debates about the machine's ultimate purpose. Good technology, Weiser argued, should not mine our experiences for saleable data or demand our attention; rather, it should quietly boost our intuition as we move through the world. Informed by deep archival research and interviews with Weiser's family and colleagues, The Philosopher of Palo Alto chronicles Weiser's struggle to initiate a new era of computing. Working in the shadows of the dot-com boom, Weiser and his collaborators made Xerox PARC headquarters the site of a grand experiment. Throughout the building, they embedded software into all sorts of objects--coffeepots, pens, energy systems, ID badges--imbuing them with interactive features. Their push to integrate the digital and the physical soon caught on. Microsoft's Bill Gates flagged Weiser's Scientific American article "The Computer for the 21st Century" as a must-read. Yet, as more tech leaders warmed to his vision, Weiser grew alarmed about where they wished to take it. In this fascinating story of an innovator and a big idea, Tinnell crafts a poignant and critical history of today's Internet of Things. At the heart of the narrative is Weiser's desire for deeper connection, which animated his life and inspired his notion of what technology at its best could be.
Sharing Our Science: How to Write and Speak STEM
A personal, practical, and inspirational guide to written and oral STEM communications for scientists and technical professionals. In Sharing Our Science, scientist-turned-writing teacher Brandon Brown offers an eminently useful guidebook for STEM practitioners looking to communicate their technical work to either a technical or a broader audience. Professionals are increasingly required to communicate their work through blogs, podcasts, and newsletters and to submit to traditional media. After seeing his colleagues struggle to find a writing guide that tackled the unique challenges of writing and speaking about scientific topics, Brown set out to write the definitive handbook to assist STEM students, scientists, engineers, and tech workers alike. In this practical and relevant book, Brown uses his experience as a proven science communicator to cover three levels of writing: fundamental craft considerations, such as narrative tension, structure, sentences, and audience; unique scientific considerations, such as conveying numbers and utilizing metaphors; and finally, social considerations, such as public speaking and writing inside and outside of silos. In place of a reference manual, Brown's engaging narrative guide clarifies the fundamental principles that impact all scientific communication tasks, from white papers and slide decks to Zoom meetings and emails. Sharing Our Science represents the culmination of a lifetime of writing, research, and teaching that will enrich scientists' careers and illuminate the ways in which science is done and conveyed to the world.
Being Human in STEM: Partnering with Students to Shape Inclusive Practices and Communities
For all STEM faculty, chairs, administrators, and faculty developers who work to support students' learning and thriving in STEM - especially those students who have felt unwelcome and unsupported in their past STEM experiences - this book offers sustainable strategies that are now being widely adopted to create inclusive environments in undergraduate STEM classes and programs. Further, this book presents a framework for partnering with students to collaboratively envision how STEM can be a space that fosters a sense of belonging for, and promotes the success of, all individuals in STEM. This book presents the Being Human in STEM Initiative, or HSTEM, as a model for challenging the assumptions we make, and how we communicate to students, about who belongs and who can thrive in STEM. This work arose out of a time of conflict at Amherst College: A four-day sit-in, protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and bringing attention to related experiences of exclusion and marginalization that minoritized students experienced on campus. What emerged from that conflict has been transformative for the college, its students, and for its faculty and staff. In this book, the authors share how the HSTEM course came into being, offer a course overview, readings, and resources for developing an HSTEM course at your own institution, provide recommendations for evaluating the multi-level impact of inclusive change initiatives, and profile models of how the HSTEM course has been adapted at colleges and universities across the country. In addition to providing a road map for developing your own HSTEM course, the authors articulate ways that you can make any course or institutional structure more inclusive through active listening and validation, and through reflective practice and partnership, to progressively make incremental and sustainable changes in STEM education. Through listening and reflecting, the model facilitates uncovering the disconnects that can impede inclusivity in our classrooms and laboratories. While the authors offer a proven process and model for change, originally motivated by the urgent need to respond to students' demands, they recognize that larger institutional culture shifts require the identification and commitment to common values, a shared sense of purpose in the work of change, and the provision of agency and resources to individuals tasked with making change happen. How might we shift institutional STEM culture? The HSTEM model provides one solution: By reflecting on our own lived experiences and identities, engaging with the literature on the factors that enhance and limit full inclusion in STEM, and partnering with students to identify actionable ways to bring about sustainable change in our scientific communities, we can all work towards creating a more inclusive, and human, STEM ecosystem.Each chapter opens with a set of guiding reflective questions to help you connect these ideas, frameworks, and strategies to your own teaching and institutional context. While each chapter builds on the previous ideas and frameworks, the book can also be used as a resource to identify a just-in-time strategy to address particular questions you may have about making your teaching more inclusive. The appendices offer an array of Facilitator Guides, each of which outlines a student-endorsed exercise, based on the pedagogical literature, that can foster a sense of belonging and inclusion in your classrooms and laboratory spaces.