"From Tyrannosaurus rex to Heteropoda davidbowie: scientific naming as a joyful and creative act. Tyrannosaurus rex. Homo sapiens. Heteropoda davidbowie. Behind each act of scientific naming is a story. In this entertaining and illuminating book, Michael Ohl considers scientific naming as a joyful and creative act. There are about 1.8 million discovered and named plant and animal species, and m…
The vast differences between the brain's neural circuitry and a computer's silicon circuitry might suggest that they have nothing in common. In fact, as Dana Ballard argues in this book, computational tools are essential for understanding brain function. Ballard shows that the hierarchical organisation of the brain has many parallels with the hierarchical organisation of computing; as in silico…
This title begins the inquiry into the evolution of the collective sensitivities of life. Scientist-scholars from a range of fields - including biochemistry, cell biology, history of science, family therapy, genetics, microbial ecology, and primatology - trace the emergence and evolution of consciousness.
Contributors examine how regulatory & institutional environments affect the functioning of markets & propose reforms, arguing that quantitative methods should be used to guide policy & to reform rules & regulations. These essays offer methodologies for the assessment of policy alternatives.OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
"Today, in the age of CCTV, drones, medical body scans, and satellite images, photography is increasingly decoupled from human agency and human vision. In Nonhuman Photography, Joanna Zylinska offers a new philosophy of photography, going beyond the human-centric view to consider imaging practices from which the human is absent. Zylinska argues further that even those images produced by humans,…
In 1995, John Maynard Smith and E?ors Szathm?ary published their influential book 'The Major Transitions in Evolution'. In this volume, scholars reconsider and extend the earlier book's themes in light of recent developments in evolutionary biology.OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
A Bradford book.""This collection of essays serves both as an introduction to Ruth Millikan's much-discussed volume Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories and as an extension and application of Millikan's central themes, especially in the philosophy of psychology.The title essay discusses meaning rationalism and argues that rationality is not in the head, indeed, that there is no le…
This book deals with the very real possibility of earthly immortality and the human and societal implications of such immortality, including whether it is desirable. It looks at what makes immortality appear so attractive and at the possibility that we would be better served with longer lives and the freedom to terminate our lives at the time when life has given us all the joy, inspiration a…
"Guided by the Four Laws of Biotics, the book details how technological humanity should interact with the biosphere and each other in accordance with Darwinian principles, which illuminate a middle ground between unacceptable apocalypse or unattainable utopia, with two hopeful options: alter our behavior now at great expense based on Darwinian principles and extend current civilization, or fail…
Originally published: Imperfezione: Una storia naturale. Milano : Raffaello Cortina editore, 2019."A history of and a hymn to the diversities of living beings, to understand that imperfection is promise of change and fuel of creativity"--OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.