Arguments that Count

Arguments that Count
Author: Rebecca Slayton
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2023-10-31
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262549573

How differing assessments of risk by physicists and computer scientists have influenced public debate over nuclear defense. In a rapidly changing world, we rely upon experts to assess the promise and risks of new technology. But how do these experts make sense of a highly uncertain future? In Arguments that Count, Rebecca Slayton offers an important new perspective. Drawing on new historical documents and interviews as well as perspectives in science and technology studies, she provides an original account of how scientists came to terms with the unprecedented threat of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). She compares how two different professional communities—physicists and computer scientists—constructed arguments about the risks of missile defense, and how these arguments changed over time. Slayton shows that our understanding of technological risks is shaped by disciplinary repertoires—the codified knowledge and mathematical rules that experts use to frame new challenges. And, significantly, a new repertoire can bring long-neglected risks into clear view. In the 1950s, scientists recognized that high-speed computers would be needed to cope with the unprecedented speed of ICBMs. But the nation's elite science advisors had no way to analyze the risks of computers so used physics to assess what they could: radar and missile performance. Only decades later, after establishing computing as a science, were advisors able to analyze authoritatively the risks associated with complex software—most notably, the risk of a catastrophic failure. As we continue to confront new threats, including that of cyber attack, Slayton offers valuable insight into how different kinds of expertise can limit or expand our capacity to address novel technological risks.

Arguments that Count

Arguments that Count
Author: Rebecca Slayton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2013
Genre: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
ISBN: 9781461939016

In a rapidly changing world, we rely upon experts to assess the promise and risks of new technology. But how do these experts make sense of a highly uncertain future? In Arguments that Count, Rebecca Slayton offers an important new perspective. Drawing on new historical documents and interviews as well as perspectives in science and technology studies, she provides an original account of how scientists came to terms with the unprecedented threat of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). She compares how two different professional communities -- physicists and computer scientists -- constructed arguments about the risks of missile defense, and how these arguments changed over time. Slayton shows that our understanding of technological risks is shaped by disciplinary repertoires -- the codified knowledge and mathematical rules that experts use to frame new challenges. And, significantly, a new repertoire can bring long-neglected risks into clear view.In the 1950s, scientists recognized that high-speed computers would be needed to cope with the unprecedented speed of ICBMs. But the nation's elite science advisors had no way to analyze the risks of computers so used physics to assess what they could: radar and missile performance. Only decades later, after establishing computing as a science, were advisors able to analyze authoritatively the risks associated with complex software -- most notably, the risk of a catastrophic failure. As we continue to confront new threats, including that of cyber attack, Slayton offers valuable insight into how different kinds of expertise can limit or expand our capacity to address novel technological risks.

Proofs that Really Count

Proofs that Really Count
Author: Arthur T. Benjamin
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2022-09-21
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1470472597

Mathematics is the science of patterns, and mathematicians attempt to understand these patterns and discover new ones using a variety of tools. In Proofs That Really Count, award-winning math professors Arthur Benjamin and Jennifer Quinn demonstrate that many number patterns, even very complex ones, can be understood by simple counting arguments. The book emphasizes numbers that are often not thought of as numbers that count: Fibonacci Numbers, Lucas Numbers, Continued Fractions, and Harmonic Numbers, to name a few. Numerous hints and references are given for all chapter exercises and many chapters end with a list of identities in need of combinatorial proof. The extensive appendix of identities will be a valuable resource. This book should appeal to readers of all levels, from high school math students to professional mathematicians.

300 Arguments

300 Arguments
Author: Sarah Manguso
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2017-02-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1555979599

A brilliant and exhilarating sequence of aphorisms from one of our greatest essayists There will come a time when people decide you’ve had enough of your grief, and they’ll try to take it away from you. Bad art is from no one to no one. Am I happy? Damned if I know, but give me a few minutes and I’ll tell you whether you are. Thank heaven I don’t have my friends’ problems. But sometimes I notice an expression on one of their faces that I recognize as secret gratitude. I read sad stories to inoculate myself against grief. I watch action movies to identify with the quick-witted heroes. Both the same fantasy: I’ll escape the worst of it. —from 300 Arguments A “Proustian minimalist on the order of Lydia Davis” (Kirkus Reviews), Sarah Manguso is one of the finest literary artists at work today. To read her work is to witness acrobatic acts of compression in the service of extraordinary psychological and spiritual insight. 300 Arguments, a foray into the frontier of contemporary nonfiction writing, is at first glance a group of unrelated aphorisms. But, as in the work of David Markson, the pieces reveal themselves as a masterful arrangement that steadily gathers power. Manguso’s arguments about desire, ambition, relationships, and failure are pithy, unsentimental, and defiant, and they add up to an unexpected and renegade wisdom literature.

Arguments and Reason-Giving

Arguments and Reason-Giving
Author: Matthew W McKeon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2024-05-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0197751636

Arguments figure in our everyday practices of giving reasons. For example, we use arguments to advance reasons to explain why we believe or did something, to justify our beliefs or actions, to persuade others to do or to believe something, and to advance reasons to worry or to fear that something is true. This book is about our uses of arguments to advance their premises as reasons for believing their conclusions, i.e., as reasons for believing that their conclusions are true. What, exactly, is involved when you successfully use an argument to advance the premises as reasons for believing the conclusion? Philosopher Matthew W. McKeon suggests there is more involved than one might think.

Semantics for Counting and Measuring

Semantics for Counting and Measuring
Author: Susan Rothstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-04-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107001277

The book is an investigation of the semantics of numericals, counting and measuring, and its connection to the mass/count distinction from a theoretical and crosslinguistic perspective. It reviews some recent major linguistic results in these topics, and presents the author's new research including in-depth case studies of a number of typologically unrelated languages.

Excel Data Analysis

Excel Data Analysis
Author: Paul McFedries
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2013-07-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1118780329

Professional-level coverage and techniques for Excel power users Aimed at Excel power users who appreciate logical, clean explanations of techniques, this visual guide features numerous screenshots and easy-to-follow numbered steps in order to show you how to perform professional-level modeling, charting, data sharing, data access, data slicing, and other functions. You'll find super techniques for getting the most out of Excel's statistical and financial functions, Excel PivotTables and PivotCharts, Excel Solver, and more. Demonstrates how to crunch and analyze Excel data the way the professionals do in an uncluttered, visual style Offers a clear look at power-using the new Excel 2013, the latest version of the world's leading spreadsheet application from Microsoft Expands your Excel knowledge and helps you use Excel data more efficiently Explains how to retrieve data from databases; cut, slice, and pivot data using PivotTables; model data and chart data; and use advanced formulas Explores all features and functions in two-color pages packed with screenshots, numbered steps, and other visual graphics that clearly show you how to accomplish tasks Includes practical examples, tips, and advice to help you get the most out of Excel's features and functions Learn the full power of Excel 2013 with this helpful guide!

KI 2019: Advances in Artificial Intelligence

KI 2019: Advances in Artificial Intelligence
Author: Christoph Benzmüller
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2019-09-09
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3030301796

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 42nd German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, KI 2019, held in Kassel, Germany, in September 2019. The 16 full and 10 short papers presented together with 3 extended abstracts in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 82 submissions. KI 2019 has a special focus theme on "AI methods for Argumentation" and especially invited contributions that use methods from all areas of AI to understand, formalize or generate argument structures in natural language.