Author: Stanislaw Lem
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547538510
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
“Lem has an almost Dickensian genius for vividly realizing the tragedy and comedy of future machines.” —The New York Times Book Review These are the stories of Trurl and Klapaucius, master inventors and engineers known as “constructors,” who have created marvels for kingdoms. Friends and rivals, they are constantly outdoing and challenging each other to reveal the next great evolution in cybernetics, and the exploits of these brilliant men are nothing short of incredible. From tales of love, in which a robotic prince must woo a robotic princess enchanted by pleasures of true flesh, to epics of battle, in which the heroic constructors must use their considerable wit to outsmart a monarch obsessed with hunting, to examinations of humanity, wherein Trurl and Klapaucius must confront the limits of their skills and the meaning of true perfection, these stories are rich with profound questions, unimaginable marvels, and remarkable feats. Hailed as “the most completely successful of [Lem’s] books,” The Cyberiad is an outrageously funny and incomparably wise collection of short stories, taking an insightful look at mechanics, technology, invention, and human ambition (The Boston Globe).
The Cyberiad
Author: Stanislaw Lem
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547538510
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
“Lem has an almost Dickensian genius for vividly realizing the tragedy and comedy of future machines.” —The New York Times Book Review These are the stories of Trurl and Klapaucius, master inventors and engineers known as “constructors,” who have created marvels for kingdoms. Friends and rivals, they are constantly outdoing and challenging each other to reveal the next great evolution in cybernetics, and the exploits of these brilliant men are nothing short of incredible. From tales of love, in which a robotic prince must woo a robotic princess enchanted by pleasures of true flesh, to epics of battle, in which the heroic constructors must use their considerable wit to outsmart a monarch obsessed with hunting, to examinations of humanity, wherein Trurl and Klapaucius must confront the limits of their skills and the meaning of true perfection, these stories are rich with profound questions, unimaginable marvels, and remarkable feats. Hailed as “the most completely successful of [Lem’s] books,” The Cyberiad is an outrageously funny and incomparably wise collection of short stories, taking an insightful look at mechanics, technology, invention, and human ambition (The Boston Globe).
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547538510
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
“Lem has an almost Dickensian genius for vividly realizing the tragedy and comedy of future machines.” —The New York Times Book Review These are the stories of Trurl and Klapaucius, master inventors and engineers known as “constructors,” who have created marvels for kingdoms. Friends and rivals, they are constantly outdoing and challenging each other to reveal the next great evolution in cybernetics, and the exploits of these brilliant men are nothing short of incredible. From tales of love, in which a robotic prince must woo a robotic princess enchanted by pleasures of true flesh, to epics of battle, in which the heroic constructors must use their considerable wit to outsmart a monarch obsessed with hunting, to examinations of humanity, wherein Trurl and Klapaucius must confront the limits of their skills and the meaning of true perfection, these stories are rich with profound questions, unimaginable marvels, and remarkable feats. Hailed as “the most completely successful of [Lem’s] books,” The Cyberiad is an outrageously funny and incomparably wise collection of short stories, taking an insightful look at mechanics, technology, invention, and human ambition (The Boston Globe).
The Cyberiad
Author: Stanislaw Lem
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156027595
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers. The most completely successful of his books ... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe (Boston Globe). Translated by Michael Kandel.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156027595
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers. The most completely successful of his books ... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe (Boston Globe). Translated by Michael Kandel.
Chaos Bound
Author: N. Katherine Hayles
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501722964
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Hayles’s point is that the almost simultaneous appearance of interest in complex systems across many disciplines―physics, mathematics, biology, information theory, literature, literary theory―signals a profound paradigm and epistemological shift. She calls the new paradigm ‘orderly disorder.’ This is a timely, informative, and enormously thought-provoking book. — Nancy Craig Simmons ― American Literature N. Katherine Hayles here investigates parallels between contemporary literature and critical theory and the science of chaos. She finds in both scientific and literary discourse new interpretations of chaos, which is seen no longer as disorder but as a locus of maximum information and complexity. She examines structures and themes of disorder in The Education of Henry Adams, Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook, and works by Stanislaw Lem. Hayles shows how the writings of poststructuralist theorists including Barthes, Lyotard, Derrida, Serres, and de Man incorporate central features of chaos theory.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501722964
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Hayles’s point is that the almost simultaneous appearance of interest in complex systems across many disciplines―physics, mathematics, biology, information theory, literature, literary theory―signals a profound paradigm and epistemological shift. She calls the new paradigm ‘orderly disorder.’ This is a timely, informative, and enormously thought-provoking book. — Nancy Craig Simmons ― American Literature N. Katherine Hayles here investigates parallels between contemporary literature and critical theory and the science of chaos. She finds in both scientific and literary discourse new interpretations of chaos, which is seen no longer as disorder but as a locus of maximum information and complexity. She examines structures and themes of disorder in The Education of Henry Adams, Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook, and works by Stanislaw Lem. Hayles shows how the writings of poststructuralist theorists including Barthes, Lyotard, Derrida, Serres, and de Man incorporate central features of chaos theory.
The Turing Test
Author: James H. Moor
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401001057
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
This book gives the most comprehensive, in depth and contemporary assessment of this classic topic in artificial intelligence. It is the first to elaborate in such detail the numerous conflicting points of view on many aspects of this multifaceted, controversial subject. It offers new insights into Turing's own interpretation and is essential reading for research on the Turing test and for teaching undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy, computer science, and cognitive science.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401001057
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
This book gives the most comprehensive, in depth and contemporary assessment of this classic topic in artificial intelligence. It is the first to elaborate in such detail the numerous conflicting points of view on many aspects of this multifaceted, controversial subject. It offers new insights into Turing's own interpretation and is essential reading for research on the Turing test and for teaching undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy, computer science, and cognitive science.
Embodied Communication in Humans and Machines
Author: Ipke Wachsmuth
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191552429
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 496
Book Description
When people communicate face to face they don't just exchange verbal information. Rather, communication encompasses the whole body. Communication partners synchronize their body sway, and mimic or imitate each other's body postures and actions. They produce a multitude of manual and facial gestures that help to illustrate what is being said, show how communication partners feel, or or reveal verbal deception. Moreover, face-to-face communication takes place in shared contexts where partners jointly attend and refer to the same objects, often while working on joint tasks such as carrying a table or repairing a car together. Traditionally, communication research has neglected these parts of communication using the engineering model of signal transmission as the main theoretical metaphor. This book takes a new look at recent empirical findings in the cognitive and neurosciences, showing that the traditional approach is insufficient, and presenting a new interdisciplinary perspective, the Embodied Communication perspective. The core claim of the Embodied Communication perspective is that human communication involves parallel and highly interactive couplings between communication partners. These couplings range from low-level systems for performing and understanding instrumental actions, like the mirror system, to higher-systems that interpret symbols in a cultural context. The book can also serve as a guide for engineers who construct artificial agents and robots that should be able to interact with humans.
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191552429
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 496
Book Description
When people communicate face to face they don't just exchange verbal information. Rather, communication encompasses the whole body. Communication partners synchronize their body sway, and mimic or imitate each other's body postures and actions. They produce a multitude of manual and facial gestures that help to illustrate what is being said, show how communication partners feel, or or reveal verbal deception. Moreover, face-to-face communication takes place in shared contexts where partners jointly attend and refer to the same objects, often while working on joint tasks such as carrying a table or repairing a car together. Traditionally, communication research has neglected these parts of communication using the engineering model of signal transmission as the main theoretical metaphor. This book takes a new look at recent empirical findings in the cognitive and neurosciences, showing that the traditional approach is insufficient, and presenting a new interdisciplinary perspective, the Embodied Communication perspective. The core claim of the Embodied Communication perspective is that human communication involves parallel and highly interactive couplings between communication partners. These couplings range from low-level systems for performing and understanding instrumental actions, like the mirror system, to higher-systems that interpret symbols in a cultural context. The book can also serve as a guide for engineers who construct artificial agents and robots that should be able to interact with humans.
Doctor Who: Twelve Angels Weeping
Author: Dave Rudden
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 1405938641
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Twelve extraordinary Doctor Who stories, each featuring a monstrous villain from the Doctor Who world. On every planet that has existed or will exist, there is a winter . . . Many of the peoples of Old Earth celebrated a winter festival. A time to huddle together against the cold; a time to celebrate being half-way out of the dark. But shadows are everywhere, and there are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, lurking in the cold between the stars. Here are twelve stories - one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas - to remind you that to come out of the darkness we need to go into it in the first place. We are not alone. We are not safe. And, whatever you do: don't blink. Written by popular children's author, and lifelong Doctor Who fan, Dave Rudden.
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 1405938641
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Twelve extraordinary Doctor Who stories, each featuring a monstrous villain from the Doctor Who world. On every planet that has existed or will exist, there is a winter . . . Many of the peoples of Old Earth celebrated a winter festival. A time to huddle together against the cold; a time to celebrate being half-way out of the dark. But shadows are everywhere, and there are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, lurking in the cold between the stars. Here are twelve stories - one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas - to remind you that to come out of the darkness we need to go into it in the first place. We are not alone. We are not safe. And, whatever you do: don't blink. Written by popular children's author, and lifelong Doctor Who fan, Dave Rudden.
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die
Author: James Mustich
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 1523504455
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 961
Book Description
“The ultimate literary bucket list.” —THE WASHINGTON POST Celebrate the pleasure of reading and the thrill of discovering new titles in an extraordinary book that’s as compulsively readable, entertaining, surprising, and enlightening as the 1,000-plus titles it recommends. Covering fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children’s books, history, and more, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die ranges across cultures and through time to offer an eclectic collection of works that each deserve to come with the recommendation, You have to read this. But it’s not a proscriptive list of the “great works”—rather, it’s a celebration of the glorious mosaic that is our literary heritage. Flip it open to any page and be transfixed by a fresh take on a very favorite book. Or come across a title you always meant to read and never got around to. Or, like browsing in the best kind of bookshop, stumble on a completely unknown author and work, and feel that tingle of discovery. There are classics, of course, and unexpected treasures, too. Lists to help pick and choose, like Offbeat Escapes, or A Long Climb, but What a View. And its alphabetical arrangement by author assures that surprises await on almost every turn of the page, with Cormac McCarthy and The Road next to Robert McCloskey and Make Way for Ducklings, Alice Walker next to Izaac Walton. There are nuts and bolts, too—best editions to read, other books by the author, “if you like this, you’ll like that” recommendations , and an interesting endnote of adaptations where appropriate. Add it all up, and in fact there are more than six thousand titles by nearly four thousand authors mentioned—a life-changing list for a lifetime of reading. “948 pages later, you still want more!” —THE WASHINGTON POST
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 1523504455
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 961
Book Description
“The ultimate literary bucket list.” —THE WASHINGTON POST Celebrate the pleasure of reading and the thrill of discovering new titles in an extraordinary book that’s as compulsively readable, entertaining, surprising, and enlightening as the 1,000-plus titles it recommends. Covering fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children’s books, history, and more, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die ranges across cultures and through time to offer an eclectic collection of works that each deserve to come with the recommendation, You have to read this. But it’s not a proscriptive list of the “great works”—rather, it’s a celebration of the glorious mosaic that is our literary heritage. Flip it open to any page and be transfixed by a fresh take on a very favorite book. Or come across a title you always meant to read and never got around to. Or, like browsing in the best kind of bookshop, stumble on a completely unknown author and work, and feel that tingle of discovery. There are classics, of course, and unexpected treasures, too. Lists to help pick and choose, like Offbeat Escapes, or A Long Climb, but What a View. And its alphabetical arrangement by author assures that surprises await on almost every turn of the page, with Cormac McCarthy and The Road next to Robert McCloskey and Make Way for Ducklings, Alice Walker next to Izaac Walton. There are nuts and bolts, too—best editions to read, other books by the author, “if you like this, you’ll like that” recommendations , and an interesting endnote of adaptations where appropriate. Add it all up, and in fact there are more than six thousand titles by nearly four thousand authors mentioned—a life-changing list for a lifetime of reading. “948 pages later, you still want more!” —THE WASHINGTON POST
The Paul Di Filippo MEGAPACK ®
Author: Paul Di Filippo
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 147940439X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 531
Book Description
22 Tales of of the fantastic -- science fiction, fantasy, fantastika, slipstream -- by one of the most acclaimed modern masters of the genre! Includes a bonus interview with the author. Included are: LIFE IN THE CARBYNE AGE GALAXY OF MIRRORS SPECTER-BOMBING THE BEER GOGGLES LIFE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE LITTLE WORKER FRACTAL PAISLEYS THE MILL THE GRANGE PHYLOGENESIS GRAVITONS REDSKINS OF THE BADLANDS FarmEarth ANGELMAKERS THE JONES CONTINUUM ADVENTURES IN COGNITIVE HOMOGAMY: A LOVE STORY KAREN COXSWAIN A NIGHT IN THE THIRTEENTH AVENUE MISSION I KANT CUZ I’M TOO JUNG THE NEW CYBERIAD YES WE HAVE NO BANANAS FEMAVILLE 29 SHUTEYE FOR THE TIMEBROKER If you enjoy this book, search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the 160+ entries in the MEGAPACKTM series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics, adventure stories, and much, much more!
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 147940439X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 531
Book Description
22 Tales of of the fantastic -- science fiction, fantasy, fantastika, slipstream -- by one of the most acclaimed modern masters of the genre! Includes a bonus interview with the author. Included are: LIFE IN THE CARBYNE AGE GALAXY OF MIRRORS SPECTER-BOMBING THE BEER GOGGLES LIFE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE LITTLE WORKER FRACTAL PAISLEYS THE MILL THE GRANGE PHYLOGENESIS GRAVITONS REDSKINS OF THE BADLANDS FarmEarth ANGELMAKERS THE JONES CONTINUUM ADVENTURES IN COGNITIVE HOMOGAMY: A LOVE STORY KAREN COXSWAIN A NIGHT IN THE THIRTEENTH AVENUE MISSION I KANT CUZ I’M TOO JUNG THE NEW CYBERIAD YES WE HAVE NO BANANAS FEMAVILLE 29 SHUTEYE FOR THE TIMEBROKER If you enjoy this book, search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the 160+ entries in the MEGAPACKTM series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics, adventure stories, and much, much more!
Short Story Index
WIKIWORLD and Other Stories
Author: Paul Di Filippo
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
“Di Filippo is a joyful writer…insightful…skillful.” —Washington Post This collection presents PAUL DI FILIPPO at his best and most creative—an astonishing, multiverse-spanning selection of 19 of his very best tales, from humorous to serious, from otherworldly to in-your-backyard (and in-your-face)! Here are: Providence Argus Blinked Life in the Anthropocene Bombs Away! Cockroach Love Waves and Smart Magma To See Infinity Bare The End of the Great Continuity Fjaerland The HPL Commonplace Book Professor Fluvius’s Palace of Many Waters Yes We Have No Bananas A Partial and Conjectural History of Dr. Mueller’s Panoptical Cartoon Engine The New Cyberiad iCity Return to the 20th Century Murder in Geektopia The Omniplus Ultra! Wikiworld Introduction by Rudy Rucker
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
“Di Filippo is a joyful writer…insightful…skillful.” —Washington Post This collection presents PAUL DI FILIPPO at his best and most creative—an astonishing, multiverse-spanning selection of 19 of his very best tales, from humorous to serious, from otherworldly to in-your-backyard (and in-your-face)! Here are: Providence Argus Blinked Life in the Anthropocene Bombs Away! Cockroach Love Waves and Smart Magma To See Infinity Bare The End of the Great Continuity Fjaerland The HPL Commonplace Book Professor Fluvius’s Palace of Many Waters Yes We Have No Bananas A Partial and Conjectural History of Dr. Mueller’s Panoptical Cartoon Engine The New Cyberiad iCity Return to the 20th Century Murder in Geektopia The Omniplus Ultra! Wikiworld Introduction by Rudy Rucker