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The metaverse : and how it will revolutionize everything / by Ball, Matthew,author.;
The term "Metaverse" is suddenly everywhere, from the front pages of national newspapers and the latest fashion trends to the plans of the most powerful companies in history. It is already shaping the policy platforms of the US government, the European Union, and the Chinese Communist Party. But what, exactly, is the Metaverse? As pioneering theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball explains, it is a persistent and interconnected network of 3D virtual worlds that will eventually serve as the gateway to most online experiences, and also underpin much of the physical world. For decades, these ideas have been limited to science fiction and video games, but they are now poised to revolutionize every industry and function, from finance and healthcare to education, consumer products, city planning, dating, and well beyond. Taking us on an expansive tour of the "next internet," Ball demonstrates that many proto-Metaverses are already here, such as Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox. Yet these offer only a glimpse of what is to come. Ball presents a comprehensive definition of the Metaverse before explaining the technologies that will power it and the breakthroughs that will be necessary to fully realize it. He addresses the governance challenges the Metaverse entails; investigates the role of Web3, blockchains, and NFTs; and predicts Metaverse winners and losers. Most importantly, he examines many of the Metaverse's almost unlimited applications. The internet will no longer be at arm's length; instead, it will surround us, with much of our lives, labor, and leisure taking place inside the Metaverse. Bringing clarity and authority to a frequently misunderstood concept, Ball foresees trillions of dollars in new value and the radical reshaping of society.
Subjects: Computers and civilization.; Human-computer interaction.; Mixed reality.; Science; Shared virtual environments.; Virtual reality.; Internet;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wired / by Garwood, Julie,author.;
"A beautiful computer hacker and a bad-boy FBI agent must collaborate -- in more ways than one -- in the sizzling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood. Allison Trent doesn't look like a hacker. In fact, when she's not in college working on her degree, she models on the side. But behind her gorgeous face is a brilliant mind for computers and her real love is writing -- and hacking -- code. Her dream is to write a new security program that could revolutionize the tech industry. Hotshot FBI agent Liam Scott has a problem: a leak deep within his own department. He needs the skills of a top-notch hacker to work on a highly sensitive project: to secretly break into the FBI servers and find out who the traitor is. But he can't use one of his own. He finds the perfect candidate in Allison. Only, there's one problem -- she wants nothing to do with his job and turns him down flat. What Liam doesn't know is that Allison is hiding secrets that she doesn't want the FBI to uncover. But Liam will do nearly anything to persuade her to join his team, even break a few rules if that's what it takes. A temptation that could put his job -- and both of their futures -- on the line"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Romance fiction.; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation; Computer crimes;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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New waves : a novel / by Nguyen, Kevin,author.;
"Lucas and Margo are fed up. Margo is a brilliant programmer tired of being talked over as the company's sole black employee, and while Lucas is one of many Asians at the firm, he's nearly invisible as a low-paid customer service rep. Together, they decide to steal their tech start-up's user database in an attempt at revenge. The heist takes a sudden turn when Margo dies in a car accident, and Lucas is left reeling, wondering what to do with their secret--and wondering whether her death really was an accident. When Lucas hacks into Margo's computer looking for answers, he is drawn into her secret online life and realizes just how little he knew about his best friend. With a fresh voice, biting humor, and piercing observations about human nature, Kevin Nguyen brings an insider's knowledge of the tech industry to this imaginative novel. A pitch-perfect exploration of race and start-up culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship, New Waves asks: How well do we really know each other? And how do we form true intimacy and connection in a tech-obsessed world?"--
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Social media; Secrecy; Theft;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Unmasking AI : my mission to protect what is human in a world of machines / by Buolamwini, Joy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the self-described "Poet of Code" who has had a lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art -- disciplines that, she felt, pushed the boundaries of reality. After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Tennessee, to developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini eventually found herself at MIT. As a graduate student at the "Future Factory," Buolamwini's groundbreaking research revealed that AI systems -- from leading tech companies -- were consistently failing on non-male, non-white bodies. In Unmasking AI, Buolamwini goes beyond the news headlines about racism, colorism, and sexism in Big Tech to tell the remarkable story of how she uncovered what she calls "the coded gaze" -- evidence of racial and gender bias in tech -- and galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both tech industry and research sector, Buolamwini shows how race, gender, and ability bias can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity vulnerable in our AI-dependent world. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Buolamwini, Joy.; Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence; Discrimination in science.; Sex discrimination in science.; Artificial intelligence;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Look both ways : a novel / by Barclay, Linwood,author.;
The residents of Garrett Island are part of a visionary experiment. Their cars have been sent to the mainland and now, for one month, they've got self-driving vehicles called Arrivals. With a simple voice command, an Arrival will take you wherever you want to go, and because these cars are networked and aware of each other, road mishaps are a thing of the past. As the world's press arrives for a glimpse of this driverless future, islander and single mum Sandra Montrose preps for the huge media event. She's ready for this new world. Her husband died when he fell asleep at the wheel one night, and she's relieved her two teens, Archie and Katie, may never need drivers' licenses. God knows, Archie already finds enough ways to get into trouble. And Katie, unbeknownst to her mum, is flirting with danger as she investigates what strange secret the old man across the street is keeping in his garage. But as this special media day gets underway, there are signs all is not well. A member of the press has vanished, possibly murdered. There are rumours of industrial sabotage, an unleashing of a malevolent virus. Before long, the Arrivals aren't taking orders from their passengers anymore. They're starting to organise and hunt. And they've got the residents of Garrett Island in their sights.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Automated vehicles; Computer viruses; Islands; Sabotage; Single mothers;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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The immortal King Rao : a novel / by Vara, Vauhini,1982-author.;
"Will you, dear Shareholder, set Athena free? Athena Rao must reckon with the memory of her father, King Rao--literally. Through biotechnological innovation, he has given her his memories. His Dalit childhood on an Indian coconut plantation in the 1950s is as alive to her as her own existence in a prison cell, accused of her father's murder. Egocentric, brilliant, a little damaged, King Rao had a visionary idea: the personal computer known as the Coconut. His wife, Margie, was an artist with a marketing genius. Together they created a new world order, led by a corporate-run government. Athena's future is now in the hands of its Shareholders--unless she can rejoin the Exes, a resistance group sustaining tech-free lifestyles on low-lying islands. Lyrical, satirical, and profound, The Immortal King Rao obliterates genre to confront the digital age. This gripping, brilliant debut poses an urgent question: can anyone--peasant laborers, convention-destroying entrepreneurs, radical anarchists, social-media followers--ever get free?"--
Subjects: Dystopian fiction.; Satirical literature.; Novels.; Biotechnology; Climatic changes; Fathers and daughters; Government, Resistance to; High technology industries; Involuntary memory; Memory; Technology and civilization; Women prisoners;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Tracers in the dark : the global hunt for the crime lords of cryptocurrency / by Greenberg, Andy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, taking once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence and holding them up to the light. Black markets have always thrived in the shadows of society. Increasingly, these enterprises--drug dealing, money laundering, human trafficking, terrorist funding--have found their shadows online. Digital crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. At the heart of their massive conspiracies: cryptocurrency. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in Bitcoin--a currency with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers--black marketeers robbed law enforcement for years of their chief method of cracking down on criminal markets, namely, following the money. But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn't so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could crack open an entire world of crime. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak; a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur; and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, sex-abuse rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the internet. This is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship that's utterly of our time. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world's most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught?"--
Subjects: Commercial crimes.; Computer crimes.; Cryptocurrencies.; Transnational crime.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Power metal : the race for the resources that will shape the future / by Beiser, Vince,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."How the metals we need to power technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and murder -- and how we can do better. An Australian multimillionaire's plan to mine the ocean floor. Garbage pickers in Nigeria risking their lives to salvage e-waste amid nightmarish pollution. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing artificial intelligence to find metals in the Arctic. Train-robbing copper thieves in Chile. These are some of the people in the intensifying global competition to locate and extract the minerals essential for two critical technologies that will shape humanity's future: the internet and renewable energy. It's a race that will create new industries, generate enormous wealth, and destabilize the global balance of power. It could propel us to a more sustainable future -- or plunge us into an environmental nightmare. In Power Metal, journalist and author Vince Beiser explores the Achilles' heel of green power and digital technology: that the manufacturing of our computers, cell phones, electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines requires enormous amounts of increasingly rare materials -- lithium, cobalt, copper, and others -- the demand for which is skyrocketing. Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the planet. Beiser crisscrossed the world to witness this race, reporting on the damage it is already inflicting, the ways it could get worse, and the ways in which we can minimize that damage. The result is a book that is both a gripping read and a sobering account of the battle between what civilization demands and what the planet can withstand. Power Metal is a compelling and important glimpse into this new, disturbing, and exciting world"--
Subjects: Mineral industries; Mines and mineral resources; Rare earth metals; Strategic materials; Sustainable development;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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She Chef. by Wetzel, Gereon,film director.; Liebheit, Melanie,film director.; Magnet Film (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Magnet Film in 2022.The portrait of a young chef and recent culinary world cup winner Agnes on her journey to mastery through some of the most outstanding restaurants in the world. The self-confident twentysomething has finished her apprenticeship at Austria’s top-restaurant Steirereck and joined the Austrian national team of cooking as the first and only woman amongst all men to win the 2018 culinary world cup with her team. Follow Agnes' ambitious journey and track her way to becoming a top-chef from the very beginning. SHE CHEF allows the filmmakers to dig deep into very different cultures of cooking and give detailed insights into the ways of working in today’s most interesting restaurants far beyond the well- known celebrity hype.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Social sciences.; Food industry and trade.; Instructional films.; Agriculture.; Science.; Computer science.; Gender identity.; Documentary films.; Women's studies.;
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