{"title":"John Markoff","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"machines-of-loving-grace-book-john-markoff-9780062266682","title":"Machines of Loving Grace","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs robots are increasingly integrated into modern society--on the battlefield and the road, in business, education, and health--Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times science writer John Markoff searches for an answer to one of the most important questions of our age: will these machines help us, or will they replace us?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the past decade alone, Google introduced us to driverless cars, Apple debuted a personal assistant that we keep in our pockets, and an Internet of Things connected the smaller tasks of everyday life to the farthest reaches of the internet. There is little doubt that robots are now an integral part of society, and cheap sensors and powerful computers will ensure that, in the coming years, these robots will soon act on their own. 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Stay Foolish. Steve Jobs's endorsement of these words as his code to live by is fitting; Brand has played many roles, but one of the most important is as a model for how to live. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe contradictions are striking: A blond-haired WASP with a modest family inheritance, he went to Exeter and Stanford and was an army veteran, but in California in the 1960s he was an artist and a photographer in the thick of the LSD revolution. While tripping on acid on the roof of his building, he envisioned how valuable it would be for humans to see a photograph of the planet they shared from space, an image that in the end landed on the cover of his Whole Earth Catalog, the defining publication of the counterculture. He married a Native American woman and was committed to protecting indigenous culture, which connected to a broader environmentalist mission that has been a through line of his life. At the same time, he has outraged purists because of his pragmatic embrace of useful technologies, including nuclear power, in the fight against climate change. The famous tagline promise of his catalog was Access to Tools; with rare exceptions he rejected politics for a focus on direct power. It was no wonder, then, that he was early to the promise of the computer revolution and helped define it for the wider world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnlike most people, who make a mark in one field, Brand has a life that can be hard to fit onto one screen. John Markoff, also a great chronicler of tech culture, has done something extraordinary in unfolding the rich, twisting story of Brand's life against its proper landscape. As Markoff makes marvelously clear, the streams of individualism, respect for science, environmentalism, and embrace of Eastern and indigenous thought that flow through Brand's entire life form a powerful gestalt, a California state of mind that has a hegemonic power to this day. At its best, it is the wellspring for a true planetary consciousness that may be the best hope we humans collectively have.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49760449429777,"sku":"CIN0735223947VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50357696299281,"sku":"CIN0735223947G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50781294526737,"sku":"CIN0735223947A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51273320202513,"sku":"GOR014213700","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0735223947.jpg?v=1751042402"},{"product_id":"what-the-dormouse-said-book-john-markoff-9780143036760","title":"What the Dormouse Said","description":"“This makes entertaining reading. 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He chronicles the fascinating and often antagonistic evolution of these fields since 1956, when both terms were coined.\" -\u003ci\u003eNature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs robots are increasingly integrated into modern society--on the battlefield and the road, in business, education, and health--Pulitzer-Prize-winning \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e science writer John Markoff searches for an answer to one of the most important questions of our age: will these machines help us, or will they replace us?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the past decade alone, Google introduced us to driverless cars, Apple debuted a personal assistant that we keep in our pockets, and an Internet of Things connected the smaller tasks of everyday life to the farthest reaches of the internet. 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As Markoff chronicles the history of automation, from the birth of the artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation communities in the 1950s, to the modern day brain trusts at Google and Apple in Silicon Valley, and on to the expanding tech corridor between Boston and New York, he traces the different ways developers have addressed this fundamental problem and urges them to carefully consider the consequences of their work.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe are on the verge of a technological revolution, Markoff argues, and robots will profoundly transform the way our lives are organized. Developers must now draw a bright line between what is human and what is machine, or risk upsetting the delicate balance between them.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMachines of Loving Grace\u003c\/i\u003e, readers will discover:\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eOrigins of AI\u003c\/b\u003e: Traces the origins of artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation from the 1950s and '60s through today's tech giants at Google, Apple, and beyond\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe Ethical Stakes\u003c\/b\u003e: Examines the central ethical question of our time: if humans delegate decisions to machines, who bears responsibility for the consequences\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eStraight from the Source\u003c\/b\u003e: Draws on interviews with scientists, entrepreneurs, ethicists, and hackers who who shaped the fields of robotics and AI\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Call to Action\u003c\/b\u003e: Urges readers to remember that we still have the opportunity to design ourselves into the future -- before it's too late\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50312780185873,"sku":"CIN0062266691G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999042048273,"sku":"NIN9780062266699","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332173693201,"sku":"CIN0062266691VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51499228332305,"sku":"GOR011041174","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53020597813521,"sku":"GOR014699933","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062266691.jpg?v=1751163284"},{"product_id":"anarchist-turn-in-twenty-first-century-leftwing-activism-book-john-markoff-9781009495226","title":"The Anarchist Turn in Twenty-First Century Leftwing Activism","description":"Leftwing activism of recent decades exhibits an anarchist turn evident in quantitative indicators like mentions of anarchists in news reports and by activists adopting anarchist modes of organization, tactics, and social goals-whether or not they claim that label. 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