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The eye test : a case for human creativity in the age of analytics / by Jones, Chris,1973-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."THE EYE TEST is a necessary course correction, a call for a more balanced, personal approach to problem solving. Award-winning journalist Chris Jones makes the case for the human element--for what smart, practiced, devoted people can bring to situations that have proved resistant to analytics. Jones shares what he's learned from an army of extraordinary talents, including some of the best doctors, executives, athletes, meteorologists, magicians, designers, astrophysicists, and detectives in the world. There are lessons in their mastery. Of course there is a place for numbers in decision making. No baseball player should be judged by his jawline. But the analytics revolution sparked by Michael Lewis's Moneyball now threatens to replace one kind of absurdity with another. We have developed a blind faith in the machine, the way a driver overly reliant on his GPS might be led off the edge of a cliff. Not all statistical analysis is sound. Algorithms aren't infallible, and spreadsheets aren't testaments. Trust in them too much, and they risk becoming instruments of destruction rather than understanding. Worse, data's supremacy in our daily lives has led to a dangerous strain of anti-expertise: the belief that every problem is a math problem, and anyone given access to the right information will find the right answer. That taste doesn't matter, experience doesn't matter, creativity doesn't matter. That we can't believe our eyes, no matter how much they've seen. There is also hope. THE EYE TEST serves as a reminder that if beauty is less of a virtue in the age of analytics, a good eye still is. This book is a celebration of our greatest beholders-and an absorbing, inspiring guide for how you might become one, too"--
Subjects: Creative thinking.; Data mining.; Decision making.; Problem solving.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Survival of the richest : escape fantasies of the tech billionaires / by Rushkoff, Douglas,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The tech elite have a plan to survive the apocalypse: they want to leave us all behind. Five mysterious billionaires summoned theorist Douglas Rushkoff to a desert resort for a private talk. The topic? How to survive the "Event": the societal catastrophe they know is coming. Rushkoff came to understand that these men were under the influence of The Mindset, a Silicon Valley-style certainty that they and their cohort can break the laws of physics, economics, and morality to escape a disaster of their own making-as long as they have enough money and the right technology. In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters-master programmers who want to remake the world from scratch as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced that incentivized capitalism is the solution to environmental disasters-Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so. And he shows how recent forms of anti-mainstream rebellion-QAnon, for example, or meme stocks-reinforce the same destructive order. This mind-blowing work of social analysis shows us how to transcend the landscape The Mindset created-a world alive with algorithms and intelligences actively rewarding our most selfish tendencies-and rediscover community, mutual aid, and human interdependency. In a thundering conclusion, Survival of the Richest argues that the only way to survive the coming catastrophe is to ensure it doesn't happen in the first place"--
Subjects: Billionaires; Survivalism; Technology and civilization;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Smartphone nation : why we're all addicted to our screens and what you and your family can do about it / by Regehr, Kaitlyn,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The compassionate, practical guide for raising -- and becoming -- healthy and informed digital citizens in the age of the smartphone, social media and AI. A must-read for parents of the smartphone generation. We know the dangers of consuming ultra-processed food. But what about the way algorithms are ultra-processing the information we consume online? How do today's parents, who grew up without digital devices and social media, parent a generation who are awash in it? Digital devices are everywhere in young people's lives -- in their schools and in their homes, with their friends and when they're alone. But parents know there is increasing evidence about both the risks and harms associated with online content. This presents an urgent dilemma: a digital-free life isn't realistic, but how can parents keep the risks to their children at bay? How do they help their kids to manage their online activity (not to mention their own)? Some have argued that the only way forward is to disconnect and opt your kids out. But the discourse around banning phones is backwards looking. It's us as geriatric millennials and Gen X-ers nostalgically reminiscing about our Nokias and their supposed innocence. Whether you like it or not, your kids will need to be on the internet, and their lives and careers will be shaped by AI. And it's the kids that understand the harms of technology and know how to navigate them effectively that will thrive. They will be at the front of the line. Smartphone Nation marshals the evidence and gives parents simple takeaways for implementing healthy digital nutrition for their families. This isn't a digital detox book recommending that we throw away our digital devices. This is a book that understands the realities and pressures that parents face. Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr argues that knowledge is power, and that by understanding your own relationship with the internet, social media and AI, you will develop the tools you need to make choices for you and your family"--
Subjects: Self-help publications.; Digital media; Digital media; Electronics; Internet and children.; Internet; Information society.; Parenting.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Code dependent : living in the shadow of AI / by Murgia, Madhumita,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."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"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Decision making; Human-computer interaction.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A house between Earth and the moon / by Scherm, Rebecca,author.;
"The gripping story of one scientist in outer space, another who watches over him, the family left behind, and the lengths people will go to protect the people and planet they love Scientist Alex Welch-Peters has believed for twenty years that his super-algae can reverse the effects of climate change. His obsession with his research has jeopardized his marriage, his relationships with his kids, and his own professional future. When Sensus, the colossal tech company, offers him a chance to complete his research, he seizes the opportunity. The catch? His lab will be in outer space on Parallaxis, the first-ever luxury residential space station built for billionaires. Alex and six other scientists leave their loved ones to become Pioneers, the beta tenants of Parallaxis. But Parallaxis is not the space palace they were sold. Day and night, the embittered crew builds the facility under pressure from Sensus, motivated by the promise that their families will join them. Meanwhile, back on Earth, with much of the country ablaze in wildfires, Alex's family tries to remain safe in Michigan. His teenage daughter, Mary Agnes, struggles through high school with the help of the ubiquitous Sensus phones implanted in everyone's ears, archiving each humiliation, and wishing she could go to Parallaxis with her father-but her mother will never allow it. The Pioneers are the beta testers of another program, too. As they toil away two hundred miles in the sky, Sensus is designing an algorithm that will predict human behavior. Tess, a young social psychologist Sensus has hired to watch the Pioneers through their phones, begins to develop an intimate, obsessive relationship with her subjects. When she takes it a step further-traveling to Parallaxis to observe them up close-the controlled experiment begins to unravel. Prescient and insightful, A House Between Earth and the Moon is at once a captivating epic about the machinations of big tech and a profoundly intimate meditation on the unmistakably human bonds that hold us together"--
Subjects: Science fiction.; Climatic changes; Human behavior; Implants, Artificial; Scientists; Space stations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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How to Break Up with Your Phone, Revised Edition The 30-Day Digital Detox Plan [electronic resource] : by Price, Catherine.aut; Price, Catherine.nrt; CloudLibrary;
Now fully revised and updated, this evidence-based, user-friendly guide presents a 30-day digital detox plan that will help you set boundaries with your phone and live a more joyful and fulfilling life. “If you are a human being and you own a smartphone, you need this book.”—Jonathan Haidt, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation Do you feel addicted to your phone? Do you frequently pick it up “just to check,” only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone? Does social media make you anxious? Have you tried to spend less time mindlessly scrolling—and failed? If so, this book is your solution. In How to Break Up with Your Phone, award-winning health and science journalist and TED speaker Catherine Price presents a hands-on 30-day digital detox guide to breaking up—and then making up—with your phone. The goal: better mental health, improved screen-life balance, and a long-term relationship with technology that feels good. Now fully revised to reflect advances in the technological landscape, this groundbreaking book features new expert advice and research on the science of addiction, with expanded chapters explaining how social media and algorithms are designed to addict us, impairing our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories; and an updated section on the unique dangers social media poses to children, with brand-new tips on how to protect them. Also newly expanded is How to Break Up with Your Phone’s life-changing, evidence-based 30-day plan that will guide you—and your friends and family—through the process of creating new, healthy relationships with your smartphone, tablet, or other digital devices. Whether you’re seeking refuge from an exhausting news cycle or you’re concerned about the negative effects of social media, How to Break Up with Your Phone offers practical solutions. It’s guaranteed to help you put down your phone—and come back to life.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Time Management; Success; Popular Culture;
© 2025., Penguin Random House,
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Futureproof : 9 rules for humans in the age of automation / by Roose, Kevin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The machines are here. After decades of sci-fi doomsaying and marketing hype, advanced A.I. and automation technologies have leapt out of research labs and Silicon Valley engineering departments and into the center of our lives. Robots once primarily threatened blue-collar manufacturing jobs, but today's machines are being trained to do the work of lawyers, doctors, investment bankers, and other white-collar jobs previously considered safe from automation's reach. The world's biggest corporations are racing to automate jobs, and some experts predict that A.I could put millions of people out of work. Meanwhile, runaway algorithms have already changed the news we see, the politicians we elect, and the ways we interact with each other. But all is not lost. With a little effort, we can become futureproof. In Futureproof: 9 Rules for Machine-Age Humans, New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose lays out an optimistic vision of how people can thrive in the machine age by rethinking their relationship with technology, and making themselves irreplaceably human. In nine pragmatic, accessible lessons, Roose draws on interviews with leading technologists, trips to the A.I. frontier, and centuries' worth of history to prepare readers to live, work, and thrive in the coming age of intelligent machines. He shares the secrets of people and organizations that have successfully survived technological change, including a 19th-century rope-maker and a Japanese auto worker, and explains how people, organizations, and communities can apply their lessons to safeguard their own futures. The lessons include : Do work that is surprising, social, and scarce (the types of work machines can't do), break your phone addiction with the help of a rubber band, work in an office, treat A.I. like the office gorilla, resist "hustle porn" and efficiency culture and do less, slower Roose's examination of the future rejects the conventional wisdom that in order to compete with machines, we have to become more like them--hyper-efficient, data-driven, code-writing workhorses. Instead, he says, we should let machines be machines, and focus on doing the kinds of creative, inspiring, and meaningful work only humans can do"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Computers and civilization.; Success in business.; Automation;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Gambler : secrets from a life at risk / by Walters, Billy,author.; Keteyian, Armen,author.;
Anybody can get lucky. Nobody controls the odds like Billy Walters. Widely regarded as "the Michael Jordan of sports betting," Walters is a living legend in Las Vegas and among sports bettors worldwide. With an unmatched winning streak of thirty-six consecutive years, Walters has become fabulously wealthy by placing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in gross wagers, including one Super Bowl bet of $3.5 million alone. Competitors desperate to crack his betting techniques have tried hacking his phones, cloning his beepers, rifling through his trash, and bribing his employees. Now, after decades of avoiding the spotlight and fiercely protecting the keys to his success, Walters has reached the age where he wants to pass along his wisdom to future generations of sports wagerers. Gambler is more than a traditional autobiography. In addition to sharing his against-all-odds American dream story, Walters reveals in granular detail the secrets of his proprietary betting system, which will serve as a master class for anyone who wants to improve their odds at betting on sports. Walters also breaks his silence about his long and complicated relationship with Hall of Fame professional golfer Phil Mickelson. On a typical weekend gameday packed with college and pro sports, Walters will bet $10 million-a small sum for someone as wealthy as he is today, but an unbelievable fortune for the child who was raised by his grandmother in extreme poverty in rural Kentucky. By the age of nine, Walters became a shark at hustling pool and pitching pennies. As a young adult, he set records as a used-car salesman, hustled golf, and dabbled in bookmaking. He eventually moved to Las Vegas, where he revolutionized sports betting strategy and became a member of the famed Computer Group, the first syndicate to apply sophisticated algorithms and data analysis to sports gambling. He became extraordinarily wealthy while overcoming addictions and outmaneuvering organized crime figures made infamous by Martin Scorsese's film Casino. In Gambler, Walters passes along everything he's learned about sports betting. First, he shows bettors how to mine the information we have at our fingertips to develop a sophisticated betting strategy and handicapping system of our own. He explains how even avid bettors often do not grasp all of the variables that go into making an informed wager -- factors such as home field advantage, individual player values, injuries or illness, weather forecasts, each team's previous schedule (bye weeks, multiple away games in a row, etc.), travel distance/difficulty, stadium quirks, turf types, and more. Not every bettor has access to Walters's team of expert analysts, but every bettor can follow his guidelines on how to measure the detailed information available online and look for unique situations that could affect a game's outcome more than usual. Variable by variable, Walters breaks down the formulas, point systems, and principles that he's developed over decades of improving his craft. A self-made man who's repeatedly won it all, lost it all, and earned it all back again, Walters has lived a singular and wildly appealing American life, of the outlaw variety. Gambler is at once a gripping autobiography, a blistering tell-all, and an indispensable playbook for coming out on top.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Walters, Billy.; Gamblers; Gambling.; Gambling; Sports betting.; Sports betting;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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