The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World

2016-08-09
The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World
Author: Laurence Scott
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2016-08-09
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0393353087
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You are a four-dimensional human. Each of us exists in three-dimensional, physical space. But, as a constellation of everyday digital phenomena rewires our lives, we are increasingly coaxed from the containment of our predigital selves into a wonderful and eerie fourth dimension, a world of ceaseless communication, instant information, and global connection. Our portals to this new world have been wedged open, and the silhouette of a figure is slowly taking shape. But what does it feel like to be four-dimensional? How do digital technologies influence the rhythms of our thoughts, the style and tilt of our consciousness? What new sensitivities and sensibilities are emerging with our exposure to the delights, sorrows, and anxieties of a networked world? And how do we live in public with these recoded private lives? Laurence Scott—hailed as a "New Generation Thinker" by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC—shows how this four-dimensional life is dramatically changing us by redefining our social lives and extending the limits of our presence in the world. Blending tech-philosophy with insights on everything from Seinfeld to the fall of Gaddafi, Scott stands with a rising generation of social critics hoping to understand our new reality. His virtuosic debut is a revelatory and original exploration of life in the digital age.

Raising Hell, Living Well

2023-10-10
Raising Hell, Living Well
Author: Jessica Elefante
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0593500555
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Part cultural criticism, part rueful confessional, a reformed brand strategist brings to light the impact of influence on us and our society and offers an escape in this ironically persuasive case for not being so easily influenced anymore. “A weirdly practical approach to some ancient questions that have become trickier lately.”—Jaron Lanier, bestselling author of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now We live in a world that is under the influence. Our lives are being choreographed by forces that want something from us. Everything from ingrained family values to mind-altering algorithms create our foundations, warp how we see the world, manipulate our decisions, and dictate our beliefs. Yet rarely do we question these everyday influences of our modern times even as we go further down the path of unwell, unhappy, and unhinged. A high-spirited exploration through the troublesome influences of our world, Raising Hell, Living Well, Jessica Elefante’s eye-opening debut, follows one bullshit artist’s journey, from small-time salesperson to award-winning corporate strategist to founder of the digital wellbeing movement Folk Rebellion, in coming to terms with how she was wielding influence—and the forces she was under herself. With whip-smart writing and wry humor, Elefante’s collection of essays is a head-trip through her misadventures. From explaining productivity as a symptom of the influence of capitalism to how the wellness industry makes us feel more unwell or our unquestioning participation in oversharing, optimization, and instant gratification, she invites us to reexamine our world, our pasts, and ourselves through the lens of influence. Now a reformed brand strategist, Elefante lays bare her own culpability, sharing what she learned—and what she got wrong. She offers a new take on intentional living and provides a simple practice to deconstruct how the powers-that-be are attempting to modify our behaviors. Before you know it, you’ll be questioning everything from how you take your coffee to how our social institutions are structured. And you’ll learn how to live free from the influences around us—including Elefante herself. The much-needed subversive voice to demystify these times, Elefante will make you angry, make you laugh, and make you think about how you’re really living. Unpretentious, sharply observed, and devil-hearted, Raising Hell, Living Well holds out a hand to help you climb out from under the influence.

Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the future of democracy

2020-09-15
Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the future of democracy
Author: Sjur Bergan
Publisher: Council of Europe
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9287187142
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Academic freedom and institutional autonomy are essential for universities to produce the research and teaching necessary to improve society and the human condition. Academic freedom and institutional autonomy are increasingly important components of the development of democracy. At the same time, these fundamental democratic values are subject to pressure in many countries. The relationship between academic freedom, institutional autonomy and democracy is fundamental: it is barely conceivable that they could exist in a society not based on democratic principles, and democracy is enriched when higher education institutions operate on this basis. Higher education institutions need to be imbued with democratic culture and that, in turn, helps to promote democratic values in the wider society. None of these issues are simple and the lines between legitimacy and illegitimacy are sometimes hard to discern, as is illustrated by perspectives from Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Mediterranean region.

Existential Media

2022-06-14
Existential Media
Author: Amanda Lagerkvist
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2022-06-14
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0190925566
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Tied to the profundity of life and death, media are and have always been existential. Yet, as they are deeply embedded in the lifeworld on both individual and global scales, they currently capitalize on human existence seemingly without limit, while being mythologized as boundless harbingers of the future and as solutions to the predicaments of a world now poised on the edge. In this situation it is imperative to move beyond either the habitual or the sublime, to recognize that media are in fact of limits--situated both in the middle of our lives and at the limit they constitute the building blocks and brinks of being. In order to remedy the existential deficit in the field, in Existential Media Amanda Lagerkvist revisits existential philosophy through a reappreciation of Karl Jaspers' philosophy, and of his concept of the limit situation: those ultimate moments in life--of loss, crisis and guilt--which we are called upon to seize. Introducing the field of existential media studies in conversation with disability studies, the new materialism and the environmental humanities, the book offers a media theory of the limit situation which brings limits, in all their shapes and forms, onto the radar when we interrogate media. Lagerkvist argues that the present age of deep techno-cultural saturation, and of escalating calamitous and interrelated crises, is a digital limit situation, in which there are profound stakes which heighten existential uncertainty, vulnerability as well as potential fecundity. Placing the mourner--the coexister--at the center of media studies, by entering into the slow fields of mourning, commemorating and speaking to the dead in the online environment, she brings out that existential media ambivalently offer metric parameters, caring lifelines and transcendent experiences which ultimately display post-interactive modes of being digital in slowness, silence and waiting. The book ultimately calls forth a different ethos which powerfully challenges ideals of limitlessness, quantification and speed, and seeks out alternate intellectual and ethical coordinates for reclaiming, imagining and anticipating a responsible future with existential media.

Religion and Technology into the Future

2018-08-15
Religion and Technology into the Future
Author: Sam Gill
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2018-08-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498580912
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Religion and Technology into the Future: From Adam to Tomorrow’s Eve examines the broad significance of the current trends and accomplishments in technology (AI/robots) against the long history of the human imagination of making sentient beings. It seeks to enrich our understanding of the present as it is trending into the future against the richly relevant and surprisingly long past. Creatively considered in some depth are a wide range of specific examples drawn especially from contemporary film and television, as well as from cosmology, ancient mythology, biblical literature, classical literature, folklore, evolution, popular culture, technology, and futurist studies. This book is distinctive, in part, in drawing on a wide range of resources demonstrating the indispensable interrelationship among these disparate materials. Science, technology, economics, and philosophy are seamlessly interwoven with history, gender, culture, religion, literature, pop culture, art, and film. Written for general as well as academic readers, it offers fascinating and provocative insights into who we are and where we are going.

The Communication Playbook

2022-09-27
The Communication Playbook
Author: Teri Kwal Gamble
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 634
Release: 2022-09-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1071829823
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Ideal for hybrid communication courses, The Communication Playbook is designed to equip students with the tools they need to develop communicative resilience in their personal and public lives, whether face-to-face or virtually. Supported by practical learning activities and exercises, along with discussions of timely topics such as events of extremism, a global pandemic, and the technological and multicultural nature of society, bestselling authors Teri Kwal Gamble and Michael W. Gamble help students navigate the physical and digital realms of communication, enabling them to become clear, confident communicators. The Second Edition includes updated examples, new annotated speeches on up-to-date topics, and greater coverage of how technology and culture influences communication. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package. Contact your SAGE representative to request a demo. Digital Option / Courseware SAGE Vantage is an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality SAGE textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support. It’s a learning platform you, and your students, will actually love. Learn more. Assignable Video with Assessment Assignable video (available with SAGE Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. LMS Cartridge: Import this title’s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don’t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Learn more.

Navigating the New Retail Landscape

2016-09-20
Navigating the New Retail Landscape
Author: Alan Treadgold
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0192516086
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The retail industry globally is in the early stages of an era of profound, perhaps unprecedented, change. This book is intended to serve as a robust and practical guide to leaders of enterprises tasked with both understanding and delivering success in the new landscape of retailing. The book firstly describes the major directions and drivers of change that define the new global landscape of retailing (Part 1). Accelerating technology change, the rise to prominence globally of internet enabled shoppers and the rapid emergence of entirely new retail enterprises and business models are combining to re-shape the very fundamentals of the retail industry. No longer are shops needed to be in the business of retailing. No longer is choice for the shopper limited to the neighbourhood, town or even country in which they live. No longer is the act of retailing solely the preserve of traditional retail enterprises as internet-enabled businesses, technology, logistics, suppliers and financial services enterprises all seek direct relationships with the shopper. The new landscape of retailing is an unforgiving one. Success can be achieved more quickly than has ever been possible before but failure is equally rapid. The opportunities in the new landscape of retailing are profound, but so too are the challenges. Part 2 of this book discusses the structures, skills and capabilities retail enterprises will need if they are to be successful in this new landscape and the skills and perspectives that will be required of the leaders of retail enterprises. Case studies of innovative and successful enterprises are presented throughout the book to illustrate the themes discussed. Frameworks are presented to provide practical guidance for enterprise leaders to understand and contextualise the nature of change that is re-shaping retail landscapes globally. Clear guidance is given of the capabilities, skills and perspectives that will be needed at both an enterprise and a personal leadership level to deliver success in the new landscape of retailing.

Text Me

2019-10-24
Text Me
Author: Jeffrey Schein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2019-10-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0761871799
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Common sense tells us that technology can either be a blessing or curse in our lives. The assertion flows easily but deceptively from us. Beneath the flowing assertion, lay many cross currents and much complexity. These complexities are named and laid out for individual and group exploration throughout the book. They provide mirrors for the reader and groups of readers to discover their own affirmations and arguments with their own digital profiles based on Jewish/humanistic religious values. The iterative analysis points back to the double-entendre in the book’s title, "text me" can be a command to engage in the famously quick communication as in receiving a text on our smart phones and "text me" can also serve as an imperative to explore the wisdom contained in Jewish texts. The synergies, gaps, creative tensions, and paradoxes living within this double use of “text me” permeate the volume. Though rooted in Jewish sources the tools of analysis can be used by Christians, Muslims, and people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Indeed, the book is an invitation to all who live in the digital age which is to say all of us. Commentaries provided by scholars of all three of the western, monotheistic faiths highlight this universal dimension.

A Glossary of Literary and Cultural Theory

2016-12-08
A Glossary of Literary and Cultural Theory
Author: Peter Brooker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2016-12-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 131735477X
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The Glossary of Literary and Cultural Theory provides researchers and students with an up-to-date guide through the vibrant and changing debates in Literary and Cultural Studies. In a field where meanings are frequently complex and ambiguous, this text is remarkable for its clarity and usefulness. This third edition includes 17 entirely new entries and updates to more than a dozen others which address key concepts and contemporary positions in both literary and cultural theory. New entries include: • Actor Network Theory • Anthropocene • Ecocriticism • Digital Humanities • Postcapitalism • World Literature