{"title":"William Sims Bainbridge","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"sociology-of-religious-movements-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780415912020","title":"The Sociology of Religious Movements","description":"Explaining how religion and society transform each other, this book explores such movements as Holiness, Adventism, religious communes, Satanism, New Age and democratization. The Sociology of Religious Movements is the culmination of work begun in The Future of Religion (the 1986 award winner of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion) and A Theory of Religion (1993 award winner of the Pacific Sociological Association). Explaining religious schism, innovation, and conversion to show how religion and society transform each other, this book explores such movements as: Holiness, Adventism, religious communes, Children of God, Satanism, New York City Mission Society, New Age, Asian imports, and democratization.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49529331384593,"sku":"GOR006557980","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50452268941585,"sku":"CIN0415912024G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51686879920401,"sku":"CIN0415912024VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52144682008849,"sku":"NLS9780415912020","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0415912024.jpg?v=1751071641"},{"product_id":"satan-s-power-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780520035461","title":"Satan's Power","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50465121272081,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50465122484497,"sku":"CIN0520035461G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520035461.jpg?v=1750782475"},{"product_id":"computer-simulations-of-space-societies-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783319905594","title":"Computer Simulations of Space Societies","description":"At the intersection of astronautics, computer science, and social science, this book introduces the challenges and insights associated with computer simulation of human society in outer space, and of the dynamics of terrestrial enthusiasm for space exploration. Never before have so many dynamic representations of space-related social systems existed, some deeply analyzing the logical implications of social-scientific theories, and others open for experience by the general public as computer-generated virtual worlds. Fascinating software ranges from multi-agent artificial intelligence models of civilization, to space-oriented massively multiplayer online games, to educational programs suitable for schools or even for the world's space exploration agencies. At the present time, when actual forays by humans into space are scarce, computer simulations of space societies are an excellent way to prepare for a renaissance of exploration beyond the bounds of Earth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50656298795281,"sku":"NGR9783319905594","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52479681888529,"sku":"NLS9783319905594","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/3319905597.jpg?v=1751127022"},{"product_id":"social-structure-of-online-communities-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781108499132","title":"The Social Structure of Online Communities","description":"With great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51020357992721,"sku":"NIN9781108499132","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1108499139.jpg?v=1750854560"},{"product_id":"cultural-science-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781951527587","title":"Cultural Science","description":"In our time of great and uncertain change, business, government, and education must partner in many forms of technical and cultural convergence–for the benefit of both human welfare and economic recovery.  This innovative book explores the new relationships connecting computer science, social science, and the humanities. One popular form of artificial social intelligence, recommender systems, can become a far more valuable tool for research on the arts, beginning with movies and computer games, then extending to all the other art forms.  While artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool for description of physical reality, it must become both social and cultural if it is to be a valued tool of human expression. Many new developments offer opportunities and challenges for both industry and government policy. This book shows how artificial intelligence and related information technologies can converge successfully with the social sciences and humanities, so together they can achieve maximum benefits for people.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51061394931985,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51061398012177,"sku":"NIN9781951527587","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52685040124177,"sku":"NLS9781951527587","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1951527585.jpg?v=1763474421"},{"product_id":"sacred-force-of-star-wars-jedi-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781009512169","title":"The Sacred Force of Star Wars Jedi","description":"As secularization threatens the stability of traditional religions, Star Wars provides a case study of how key functions of religion may transfer to innovative organizations and subcultures that challenge conventional definitions of faith, sacredness, and revival. This Element therefore examines the vast community of fans, especially gamers, who have turned Star Wars into a parareligion, providing them with a sense of the meaning of life and offering psychological compensators for human problems. The research methods include ethnography, participant observation, census of roles played by gaming participants, and recommender system statistics. The Element also shows the genetic connections between Star Wars and its predecessors in science fiction. Investigating the Star Wars fandom phenomenon – which involves hundreds of thousands of people – illustrates how audience cults and client cults evolve. Ultimately, Star Wars remains culturally and economically significant as we approach completion of its first half-century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51386631651601,"sku":"NGR9781009512169","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51386632831249,"sku":"NIN9781009512169","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52595990790417,"sku":"NLS9781009512169","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1009512161.jpg?v=1750948852"},{"product_id":"lucifer-s-power-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781627311656","title":"Lucifer's Power","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51507391103249,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51507391136017,"sku":"NIN9781627311656","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51758182727953,"sku":"NGR9781627311656","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1627311653.jpg?v=1750927532"},{"product_id":"egods-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780199935833","title":"eGods","description":"William Bainbridge takes an in-depth look at the fantasy religions that exist in 34 different massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. He categorizes the religions, noting similarities across the games. He points, for instance, to the prevalence of polytheism: a system which, Bainbridge argues, can function as an effective map of reality in which each deity personifies a concept. Religions are as much about conceptualizing the self as conceptualizing the sacred. Most games allow the players to have multiple avatars, an idea Bainbridge likens to contemporary scientific ideas about personality. He also focuses on sacred spaces; the prevalence of magic and its relationship to the computer program and programmer; the fostering of a tribal morality by both religion and rules programmed into the game; the rise of cults and belief systems within the game worlds (and how this relates to social science theories of cult formation in the real world); and, of course, how the gameworld religions depict death. As avatars are immortal, death is merely a minor setback in most games. At the same time, much of the action in some gameworlds centers on the issue of mortality and the problematic nature of resurrection.   Bainbridge contends that gameworlds are giving us a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of real life. The quests in gameworlds also provide meaning for human action, in terms of narratives about achieving goals by overcoming obstacles. Perhaps meaning does not naturally exist in our universe, but must be created by us, both in our fantasies and in day-to-day life. Like the games analyzed in this book, he says, traditional religions are fantasies that should be respected as works of art in a future civilization of disbelief.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51568678797585,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51568678994193,"sku":"CIN0199935831VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52402333810961,"sku":"NLS9780199935833","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B01L9E4E52.jpg?v=1751258820"},{"product_id":"endtime-family-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780791452646","title":"The Endtime Family","description":"This groundbreaking analysis of the controversial religious group, The Family, or The Children of God, uses interviews, observational techniques, and a comprehensive questionnaire completed by more than a thousand Family members. William Sims Bainbridge explores how Family members infuse spirituality with sexuality, channel messages that they believe emanate from beyond life, and await the final Endtime. He also examines attempts by anti-cultists and the state to deprogram members of the group, including children, by forcibly seizing them. The book's blending of theoretical analysis with vivid accounts of this remarkable counterculture poses a fascinating question for social scientists and society--how is it that The Children of God both differ from the general public and, in other ways, are so surprisingly similar to it?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51837145448721,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51837145645329,"sku":"GOR003868276","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53213384769809,"sku":"NLS9780791452646","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780791452646.jpg?v=1753140255"},{"product_id":"god-from-the-machine-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780759107434","title":"God from the Machine","description":"'God from the machine' (deus ex machina) refers to an ancient dramatic device where a god was mechanically brought onto the stage to save the hero from a difficult situation. But here, William Sims Bainbridge uses the term in a strikingly different way. Instead of looking to a machine to deliver an already known god, he asks what a computing machine and its simulations might teach us about how religion and religious beliefs come to being. Bainbridge posits the virtual town of Cyburg, population 44,100. Then, using rules for individual and social behavior taken from the social sciences, he models a complex community where residents form groups, learn to trust or distrust each other, and develop religious faith. Bainbridge's straightforward arguments point to many more applications of computer simulation in the study of religion. God from the Machine will serve as an important text in any class with a social scientific approach to religion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52148643660049,"sku":"NLS9780759107434","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780759107434.jpg?v=1757604194"},{"product_id":"virtual-future-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781447126898","title":"The Virtual Future","description":"The newest communication technologies are profoundly changing the world's politics, economies, and cultures, but the specific implications of online game worlds remain mysterious.  The Virtual Future employs theories and methods from social science to explore nine very different virtual futures:  The Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, Entropia Universe, Star Trek Online, EVE Online, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, and The Chronicles of Riddick.    Each presents a different picture of how technology and society could evolve in coming centuries, but one theme runs through all of them, the attempt to escape the Earth and seek new destinies among the stars.  Four decades after the last trip to the moon, a new conception of spaceflight is emerging.  Rather than rockets shooting humans across vast physical distances to sterile rocks that lack the resources to sustain life, perhaps robot space probes and orbiting telescopes will glean information about the universe, that humans can then experience inside computer-generated environments much closer to home.    All nine of these fantastically rich multiplayer masterpieces have shown myriads of people that really radical alternatives to contemporary society could exist, and has served as a laboratory for examining the consequences.  Each is a prototype of new social forms, a utopian subculture, and a simulation of technologies that have yet to be invented.  They draw upon several different traditions of science fiction and academic philosophy, and they were created in several nations.  By comparing these nine role-playing fantasies, we can better consider what kind of world we want to inhabit in the real future.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52342489809169,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52342490398993,"sku":"NLS9781447126898","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781447126898.jpg?v=1758172732"},{"product_id":"progress-in-convergence-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781573316651","title":"Progress in Convergence","description":"Continued economic growth, human welfare, and national security depend upon constant technological progress; and the chief area for innovation in the coming years will be converging technologies, the synergistic combination of the NBIC fields: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and new technologies based in cognitive science.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52354585919761,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52354589917457,"sku":"NLS9781573316651","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781573316651.jpg?v=1775122947"},{"product_id":"personality-capture-and-emulation-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781447156031","title":"Personality Capture and Emulation","description":"Personality Capture and Emulation is the gateway to an amazing future that actually may be achieved, enabling the preservation and simulation of human personalities at progressively higher levels of fidelity. This challenge is no longer the province merely of uninhibited visionaries, but has become a solid field of research, drawing upon a wide range of information technologies in human-centered computing and cyber-human systems. Even at modest levels of accomplishment, research in this emerging area requires convergence of cognitive, social, and cultural sciences, in cooperation with information engineering and artificial intelligence, thus stimulating new multidisciplinary perspectives. Therefore this book will inspire many specific research and development projects that will produce their own valuable outcomes, even as the totality of the work moves us closer to a major revolution in human life. Will it ever really be possible to transfer a human personality at death to a technology that permits continued life? Or will people come to see themselves as elements in a larger socio-cultural system, for which a societal information system can provide collective immortality even after the demise of individuals? A large number and variety of pilot studies and programming projects are offered as prototypes for research that innovators in many fields may exploit for the achievement of their own goals. Together, they provide an empirical basis to strengthen the intellectual quality of several current debates at the frontiers of the human and information sciences.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52400660545809,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52400661266705,"sku":"NLS9781447156031","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781447156031.jpg?v=1758752330"},{"product_id":"meaning-and-value-of-spaceflight-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783319078779","title":"The Meaning and Value of Spaceflight","description":"This book presents the most serious and comprehensive study, by far, of American public perceptions about the meaning of space exploration, analyzing vast troves of questionnaire data collected by many researchers and polling firms over a span of six decades and anchored in influential social science theories. It doesn't simply report the percentages who held various opinions, but employs sophisticated statistical techniques to answer profound questions and achieve fresh discoveries.  Both the Bush and the Obama administrations have cut back severely on fundamental research in space science and engineering. Understanding better what space exploration means for citizens can contribute to charting a feasible but progressive course. Since the end of the Space Race between the US and the USSR, social scientists have almost completely ignored space exploration as a topic for serious analysis and this book seeks to revive that kind of contribution.  The author communicates the insights in a lucid style, not only intelligible but interesting to readers from a variety of backgrounds.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52407911186705,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52407911874833,"sku":"NLS9783319078779","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783319078779.jpg?v=1758773456"},{"product_id":"across-the-secular-abyss-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780739116784","title":"Across the Secular Abyss","description":"Across the Secular Abyss explains the cultural chasm we currently face, with a traditional religion-based society behind us, and an as-yet unknown secular society ahead. For over a century, scholars, social scientists, and policy makers have debated the apparent erosion of religious faith and wondered whether Western Civilization was turning its back on religion. Today, the issue has reached a crisis point. In the U.S., a new battle between faith and science has erupted within educational institutions, as political polarization progressively divides the country along religious lines.  After a century-long truce in which religion and science implicitly agreed to leave each other alone, science is again invading the territory of religion, most obviously in cognitive science that is debunking religious notions of the human soul, and in the broad convergence of many branches of science into one that leaves few gaps where supernatural beliefs could survive. Religion, for its part, is resisting a range of emerging technologies that could transform human nature, namely human reproductive cloning and the kinds of transformative technologies advocated by the Transhumanist movement. Although pure Atheism has little to offer people, and Atheists tend to be people lacking in social obligations, entirely new possibilities are offered by emerging technologies such as computer emulation of human personalities.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52414403608849,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52414404264209,"sku":"NLS9780739116784","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780739116784.jpg?v=1758841479"},{"product_id":"online-multiplayer-games-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783031011405","title":"Online Multiplayer Games","description":"This lecture introduces fundamental principles of online multiplayer games, primarily massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), suitable for students and faculty interested both in designing games and in doing research on them. The general focus is human-centered computing, which includes many human-computer interaction issues and emphasizes social computing, but also, looks at how the design of socio-economic interactions extends our traditional notions of computer programming to cover human beings as well as machines. In addition, it demonstrates a range of social science research methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, that could be used by students for term papers, or by their professors for publications. In addition to drawing upon a rich literature about these games, this lecture is based on thousands of hours of first-hand research experience inside many classic examples, including World of Warcraft, The Matrix Online, Anarchy Online, Tabula Rasa, Entropia Universe, Dark Age of Camelot, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online, Tale in the Desert, EVE Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and the non-game virtual world Second Life. Among the topics covered are historical-cultural origins of leading games, technical constraints that shape the experience, rolecoding and social control, player personality and motivation, relationships with avatars and characters, virtual professions and economies, social relations inside games, and the implications for the external society. Table of Contents: Introduction \/ Historical-Cultural Origins \/ Technical Constraints \/ Rolecoding and Social Control \/ Personality and Motivation \/ Avatars and Characters \/ Virtual Professions and Economies \/ Social Relations Inside Games \/ Implications for External Society","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52427880136977,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52427880661265,"sku":"NLS9783031011405","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783031011405.jpg?v=1759162377"},{"product_id":"sacred-markets-sacred-canopies-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780742511873","title":"Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopies","description":"Can individual decisions concerning whether or where to attend church, to contribute time or money to religious organizations, or to forgo certain activities be explained as a special case of economic theory? In Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopies, Ted G. Jelen brings together the leading scholars in the sociology of religion to debate market theories of religion. As the contributors examine whether or not religious choices can be understood as responding to the same laws of supply and demand as other forms of consumer behavior, they bring out many of the issues, controversies, and concerns surrounding this innovative theory. The result is a concise source for the arguments, evidence, and criticism of the market model of religious economies-a perfect starting point for students and scholars approaching this set of problems.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52450865611025,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52450866266385,"sku":"NLS9780742511873","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780742511873.jpg?v=1759359896"},{"product_id":"god-from-the-machine-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780759107441","title":"God from the Machine","description":"'God from the machine' (deus ex machina) refers to an ancient dramatic device where a god was mechanically brought onto the stage to save the hero from a difficult situation. But here, William Sims Bainbridge uses the term in a strikingly different way. Instead of looking to a machine to deliver an already known god, he asks what a computing machine and its simulations might teach us about how religion and religious beliefs come to being. Bainbridge posits the virtual town of Cyburg, population 44,100. Then, using rules for individual and social behavior taken from the social sciences, he models a complex community where residents form groups, learn to trust or distrust each other, and develop religious faith. Bainbridge's straightforward arguments point to many more applications of computer simulation in the study of religion. God from the Machine will serve as an important text in any class with a social scientific approach to religion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52451105407249,"sku":"NLS9780759107441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780759107441.jpg?v=1759360686"},{"product_id":"personality-capture-and-emulation-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781447170754","title":"Personality Capture and Emulation","description":"This challenge is no longer the province merely of uninhibited visionaries, but has become a solid field of research, drawing upon a wide range of information technologies in human-centered computing and cyber-human systems.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52451450880273,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52451451830545,"sku":"NLS9781447170754","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781447170754.jpg?v=1759361596"},{"product_id":"meaning-and-value-of-spaceflight-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783319381060","title":"The Meaning and Value of Spaceflight","description":"This book presents the most serious and comprehensive study, by far, of American public perceptions about the meaning of space exploration, analyzing vast troves of questionnaire data collected by many researchers and polling firms over a span of six decades and anchored in influential social science theories. It doesn't simply report the percentages who held various opinions, but employs sophisticated statistical techniques to answer profound questions and achieve fresh discoveries.  Both the Bush and the Obama administrations have cut back severely on fundamental research in space science and engineering. Understanding better what space exploration means for citizens can contribute to charting a feasible but progressive course. Since the end of the Space Race between the US and the USSR, social scientists have almost completely ignored space exploration as a topic for serious analysis and this book seeks to revive that kind of contribution.  The author communicates the insights in a lucid style, not only intelligible but interesting to readers from a variety of backgrounds.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52482155249937,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52482156331281,"sku":"NLS9783319381060","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783319381060.jpg?v=1759852783"},{"product_id":"dynamic-secularization-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783319859293","title":"Dynamic Secularization","description":"This book discusses secularization, arguing that it may be more complex and significant than is generally recognized. Using a number of online exploration methods, the author provides insights into how religion may be changing, and how information technology might be energized in this process. Working from the premise that the relationship between science and religion is complex, the author demonstrates that while science has contradicted some specific religious beliefs, science itself may have been facilitated by beliefs formed many centuries ago. Science assists engineers in the development of powerful new technologies, and asserts that the universe is based on a set of fundamental principles that can be understood by humans through the assistance of mathematics.  The challenging ideas discussed will benefit readers through sharing a variety of Internet-based research methods and cultural discoveries. The book provides a balance betweenquantitative methods, illustrated by 24 tables of statistics, and qualitative methods, illustrated by 30 screenshots of computer-generated virtual worlds. Analysis interweaves with description, creating a sense of involvement in the experience of exploring online realities at the same time as radical insights are shared.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52500648165649,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52500648952081,"sku":"NGR9783319859293","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783319859293.jpg?v=1760138587"},{"product_id":"virtual-sociocultural-convergence-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783319814247","title":"Virtual Sociocultural Convergence","description":"This book explores the remarkable sociocultural convergence in multiplayer online games and other virtual worlds, through the unification of computer science, social science, and the humanities.  The emergence of online media provides not only new methods for collecting social science data, but also contexts for developing theory and conducting education in the arts as well as technology.  Notably, role-playing games and virtual worlds naturally demonstrate many classical concepts about human behaviour, in ways that encourage innovative thinking.  The inspiration derives from the internationally shared values developed in a fifteen-year series of conferences on science and technology convergence.  The primary methodology is focused on sending avatars, representing classical social theorists or schools of thought, into online gameworlds that harmonize with, or challenge, their fundamental ideas, including technological determinism, urban sociology, group formation,freedom versus control, class stratification, linguistic variation, functional equivalence across cultures, behavioural psychology, civilization collapse, and ethnic pluralism.     Researchers and students in the social and behavioural sciences will benefit from the many diverse examples of how both qualitative and quantitative science of culture and society can be performed in online communities of many kinds, even as artists and gamers learn styles and skills they may apply in their own work and play.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52500697612561,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52500698202385,"sku":"NGR9783319814247","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"computer-simulations-of-space-societies-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9783030080426","title":"Computer Simulations of Space Societies","description":"At the intersection of astronautics, computer science, and social science, this book introduces the challenges and insights associated with computer simulation of human society in outer space, and of the dynamics of terrestrial enthusiasm for space exploration. Never before have so many dynamic representations of space-related social systems existed, some deeply analyzing the logical implications of social-scientific theories, and others open for experience by the general public as computer-generated virtual worlds. Fascinating software ranges from multi-agent artificial intelligence models of civilization, to space-oriented massively multiplayer online games, to educational programs suitable for schools or even for the world's space exploration agencies. At the present time, when actual forays by humans into space are scarce, computer simulations of space societies are an excellent way to prepare for a renaissance of exploration beyond the bounds of Earth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52586285662481,"sku":"NLS9783030080426","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783030080426.jpg?v=1761054366"},{"product_id":"sacred-force-of-star-wars-jedi-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781009512213","title":"The Sacred Force of Star Wars Jedi","description":"As secularization threatens the stability of traditional religions, Star Wars provides a case study of how key functions of religion may transfer to innovative organizations and subcultures that challenge conventional definitions of faith, sacredness, and revival. This Element therefore examines the vast community of fans, especially gamers, who have turned Star Wars into a parareligion, providing them with a sense of the meaning of life and offering psychological compensators for human problems. The research methods include ethnography, participant observation, census of roles played by gaming participants, and recommender system statistics. The Element also shows the genetic connections between Star Wars and its predecessors in science fiction. Investigating the Star Wars fandom phenomenon – which involves hundreds of thousands of people – illustrates how audience cults and client cults evolve. Ultimately, Star Wars remains culturally and economically significant as we approach completion of its first half-century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52595000148241,"sku":"NLS9781009512213","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52776200274193,"sku":"NIN9781009512213","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781009512213.jpg?v=1761140644"},{"product_id":"virtual-local-manufacturing-communities-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781948580748","title":"Virtual Local Manufacturing Communities","description":"Distributed manufacturing offers the promise of bringing jobs back to local communities, producing goods that are personalized or harmonize with distinctive cultures, and thereby reversing significant aspects of the globalization that has dominated in recent years. Large corporations may still have important roles to play, but in collaboration with local workshops, providing machinery, software, databases of designs, and communication media suitable for a diverse and dynamic workforce. For years, a set of computer simulation laboratories has flourished, in which millions of people have used virtual machines to produce a great variety of products: massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Their systems are highly diverse, complex, and provide information capable of serious social science analysis.  This book deeply explores 30 of these production-capable social media, based on thousands of hours of observation and extensive collection of statistical data, extracting hypotheses that may generalize to the real-world distributed manufacturing of the near future. This book begins with an overview of this universe of online virtual worlds then demonstrates the principles of virtual manufacturing, modes of work-related communication, socio-economic structures and dynamics, and the function of artificial intelligence in these human-technology systems. It concludes with consideration of the large-scale technical and cultural variation illustrated both by individual examples and by the rather large industry in which they have long been successful.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52620299436305,"sku":"NLS9781948580748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52995521085713,"sku":"NIN9781948580748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781948580748.jpg?v=1761538451"},{"product_id":"virtual-future-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780857299031","title":"The Virtual Future","description":"As communication technologies profoundly alter our lives, many spend more time in virtual than physical reality. This book deploys social science theory to analyze 'virtual futures' as imagined by the inhabitants of online gameworlds such as Entropia Universe.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52660385022225,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52660386038033,"sku":"NLS9780857299031","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780857299031.jpg?v=1762265132"},{"product_id":"egods-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780199935819","title":"eGods","description":"William Bainbridge takes an in-depth look at the fantasy religions that exist in 34 different massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. He categorizes the religions, noting similarities across the games. He points, for instance, to the prevalence of polytheism: a system which, Bainbridge argues, can function as an effective map of reality in which each deity personifies a concept. Religions are as much about conceptualizing the self as conceptualizing the sacred. Most games allow the players to have multiple avatars, an idea Bainbridge likens to contemporary scientific ideas about personality. He also focuses on sacred spaces; the prevalence of magic and its relationship to the computer program and programmer; the fostering of a tribal morality by both religion and rules programmed into the game; the rise of cults and belief systems within the game worlds (and how this relates to social science theories of cult formation in the real world); and, of course, how the gameworld religions depict death. As avatars are immortal, death is merely a minor setback in most games. At the same time, much of the action in some gameworlds centers on the issue of mortality and the problematic nature of resurrection.   Bainbridge contends that gameworlds are giving us a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of real life. The quests in gameworlds also provide meaning for human action, in terms of narratives about achieving goals by overcoming obstacles. Perhaps meaning does not naturally exist in our universe, but must be created by us, both in our fantasies and in day-to-day life. Like the games analyzed in this book, he says, traditional religions are fantasies that should be respected as works of art in a future civilization of disbelief.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52669374562577,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52669375447313,"sku":"NLS9780199935819","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780199935819.jpg?v=1762287331"},{"product_id":"online-worlds-convergence-of-the-real-and-the-virtual-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9781848828247","title":"Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual","description":"William Sims Bainbridge Virtual worlds are persistent online computer-generated environments where people can interact, whether for work or play, in a manner comparable to the real world. The most prominent current example is World of Warcraft (Corneliussen and Rettberg 2008), a massively multiplayer online game with 11 million s- scribers. Some other virtual worlds, notably Second Life (Rymaszewski et al. 2007), are not games at all, but Internet-based collaboration contexts in which people can create virtual objects, simulated architecture, and working groups. Although interest in virtual worlds has been growing for at least a dozen years, only today it is possible to bring together an international team of highly acc- plished authors to examine them with both care and excitement, employing a range of theories and methodologies to discover the principles that are making virtual worlds increasingly popular and may in future establish them as a major sector of human-centered computing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52676296376593,"sku":"NLS9781848828247","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52932464181521,"sku":"NIN9781848828247","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781848828247.jpg?v=1762303933"},{"product_id":"endtime-family-book-william-sims-bainbridge-9780791452639","title":"The Endtime Family","description":"This groundbreaking analysis of the controversial religious group, The Family, or The Children of God, uses interviews, observational techniques, and a comprehensive questionnaire completed by more than a thousand Family members. William Sims Bainbridge explores how Family members infuse spirituality with sexuality, channel messages that they believe emanate from beyond life, and await the final Endtime. He also examines attempts by anti-cultists and the state to deprogram members of the group, including children, by forcibly seizing them. The book's blending of theoretical analysis with vivid accounts of this remarkable counterculture poses a fascinating question for social scientists and society--how is it that The Children of God both differ from the general public and, in other ways, are so surprisingly similar to it?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53213387424017,"sku":"NLS9780791452639","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780791452639.jpg?v=1772754658"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-william-sims-bainbridge.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}