A.I. Apocalypse

A.I. Apocalypse
Author: William Hertling
Publisher: William Hertling
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2014-04-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 098475573X

Leon Tsarev is a high school student set on getting into a great college program, until his uncle, a member of the Russian mob, coerces him into developing a new computer virus for the mob’s botnet - the slave army of computers they used to commit digital crimes. The evolutionary virus Leon creates, based on biological principles, is successful -- too successful. All the world’s computers are infected. Everything from cars to payment systems and, of course, computers and smart phones stop functioning, and with them go essential functions including emergency services, transportation, and the food supply. Billions may die. But evolution never stops. The virus continues to evolve, developing intelligence, communication, and finally an entire civilization. Some may be friendly to humans, but others are not. Leon and his companions must race against time and the military to find a way to either befriend or eliminate the virus race and restore the world’s computer infrastructure. Praise for the Singularity Series: “Highly entertaining, gripping, thought inspiring. Don’t start without the time to finish — it won’t let you go.” —Gifford Pinchot III, founder Bainbridge Graduate Institute, author THE INTELLIGENT ORGANIZATION “A tremendous book that every single person needs to read. In the vein of Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom(TM), William shows that science fiction is becoming science fact.” —Brad Feld, managing director Foundry Group, cofounder TechStars “A fascinating look at how simple and benign advancements in technology could lead to the surprise arrival of the first AI. And like all good techno-thrillers, the reality of AI is less than ideal.” —Jason Glaspey, SILICON FLORIST “An alarming and jaw-dropping tale about how something as innocuous as email can subvert an entire organization. I found myself reading with a sense of awe, and read it way too late into the night.” —Gene Kim, author of VISIBLE OPS

Singularity Sky

Singularity Sky
Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2004-06-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780441011797

In a technologically suppressed future, information demands to be free in the debut novel from Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Stross. In the twenty-first century, life as we know it changed. Faster-than-light travel was perfected, and the Eschaton, a superhuman artificial intelligence, was born. Four hundred years later, the far-flung colonies that arose as a result of these events—scattered over three thousand years of time and a thousand parsecs of space—are beginning to rediscover their origins. The New Republic is one such colony. It has existed for centuries in self-imposed isolation, rejecting all but the most basic technology. Now, under attack by a devastating information plague, the colony must reach out to Earth for help. A battle fleet is dispatched, streaking across the stars to the rescue. But things are not what they seem—secret agendas and ulterior motives abound, both aboard the ship and on the ground. And watching over it all is the Eschaton, which has its own very definite ideas about the outcome...

A Naked Singularity

A Naked Singularity
Author: Sergio de la Pava
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 690
Release: 2012-04-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0226141802

“Propulsive . . . The novel’s chaotic sprawl, black humor and madcap digressions make it a thrilling rejoinder to the tidy story arcs [of] most crime fiction.” —The Wall Street Journal Winner of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Best Debut Novel Named a Best Book of the Year in the Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, and Philadelphia City Paper A Naked Singularity tells the story of Casi, born to Colombian immigrants, who lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan as a public defender—one who, tellingly, has never lost a trial. Never. In the book, we watch what happens when his sense of justice and even his sense of self begin to crack—and how his world then slowly devolves. A huge, ambitious novel in the vein of DeLillo, Foster Wallace, Pynchon, and even Melville, it’s told in a distinct, frequently hilarious voice, with a striking human empathy at its center. Its panoramic reach takes readers through crime and courts, immigrant families and urban blight, media savagery and media satire, scatology and boxing, and even a breathless heist worthy of any crime novel. If Infinite Jest stuck a pin in the map of mid-90s culture and drew our trajectory from there, A Naked Singularity does the same for the feeling of surfeit, brokenness, and exhaustion that permeates our civic and cultural life today. In the opening sentence of William Gaddis’s A Frolic of His Own, a character sneers, “Justice? You get justice in the next world. In this world, you get the law.” A Naked Singularity reveals the extent of that gap, and lands firmly on the side of those who are forever getting the law. “A great American novel.” —Toronto Star

Advances in Computing and Information Technology

Advances in Computing and Information Technology
Author: Natarajan Meghanathan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 901
Release: 2012-08-11
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3642315526

The international conference on Advances in Computing and Information technology (ACITY 2012) provides an excellent international forum for both academics and professionals for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Computer Science and Information Technology. The Second International Conference on Advances in Computing and Information technology (ACITY 2012), held in Chennai, India, during July 13-15, 2012, covered a number of topics in all major fields of Computer Science and Information Technology including: networking and communications, network security and applications, web and internet computing, ubiquitous computing, algorithms, bioinformatics, digital image processing and pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, soft computing and applications. Upon a strength review process, a number of high-quality, presenting not only innovative ideas but also a founded evaluation and a strong argumentation of the same, were selected and collected in the present proceedings, that is composed of three different volumes.

Why Europe? Problems of Culture and Identity

Why Europe? Problems of Culture and Identity
Author: J. Andrew
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2000-02-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230596649

This volume, Why Europe? Problems of Culture and Identity: Media, Film, Gender, Youth and Education , addresses a range of issues which underlie the notions of European identity. Among them are: what does it mean to be a European? What ideologies have shaped the political debate over the last two centuries? What place will minorities find in the Europe of the twenty-first century? What roles will women play in the future communities? Will Europe become more open to diversity, or become increasingly introspective, a 'fortress Europe'?

The Technological Singularity

The Technological Singularity
Author: Murray Shanahan
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2015-08-07
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262527804

The idea of technological singularity, and what it would mean if ordinary human intelligence were enhanced or overtaken by artificial intelligence. The idea that human history is approaching a “singularity”—that ordinary humans will someday be overtaken by artificially intelligent machines or cognitively enhanced biological intelligence, or both—has moved from the realm of science fiction to serious debate. Some singularity theorists predict that if the field of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop at its current dizzying rate, the singularity could come about in the middle of the present century. Murray Shanahan offers an introduction to the idea of the singularity and considers the ramifications of such a potentially seismic event. Shanahan's aim is not to make predictions but rather to investigate a range of scenarios. Whether we believe that singularity is near or far, likely or impossible, apocalypse or utopia, the very idea raises crucial philosophical and pragmatic questions, forcing us to think seriously about what we want as a species. Shanahan describes technological advances in AI, both biologically inspired and engineered from scratch. Once human-level AI—theoretically possible, but difficult to accomplish—has been achieved, he explains, the transition to superintelligent AI could be very rapid. Shanahan considers what the existence of superintelligent machines could mean for such matters as personhood, responsibility, rights, and identity. Some superhuman AI agents might be created to benefit humankind; some might go rogue. (Is Siri the template, or HAL?) The singularity presents both an existential threat to humanity and an existential opportunity for humanity to transcend its limitations. Shanahan makes it clear that we need to imagine both possibilities if we want to bring about the better outcome.

Issues and Singularity in the British Media Volume 2

Issues and Singularity in the British Media Volume 2
Author: Renée Dickason
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2024-08-31
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9783031606526

This book offers a historical, cultural, political and socio-economic analysis of the British media. It examines how facts and events are reported and interpreted, but also how ideas and opinions circulate and are recycled, with attention being paid to British traits and tropes in these domains. This in-depth study of “issues” and “singularity” aims at understanding how the British media have helped shape the country’s culture and representations, thereby providing its people with a sense of togetherness. Volume 2 focuses on radio and (mostly) television broadcasting, from the interwar period to the early 21st century. In order to apprehend what is deeply engrained in British culture and thus contributes to shaping national identity, it analyses the ideas disseminated and reflected not only in programmes but also within media institutions in the face of changing political contexts, as well as providing a historiographical overview.

The Singularity Is Nearer

The Singularity Is Nearer
Author: Ray Kurzweil
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2024-06-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0399562761

The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and its vision of an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public. In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity—assessing his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029 and examining the exponential growth of technology—that, in the near future, will expand human intelligence a millionfold and change human life forever. Among the topics he discusses are rebuilding the world, atom by atom with devices like nanobots; radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling innovation forward in all industries and improving all aspects of our well-being such as declining poverty and violence; and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA. The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.