Have we let technology go too far? In The Great Reversal, David Edward Tabachnick contends that this question may not be unique to contemporary society. Through an assessment of the great works of philosophy and politics, Tabachnick explores the largely unrecognized history of technology as an idea.The Great Reversal takes the reader back to Aristotle's ancient warning that humanity should never allow technical thinking to cloud our judgment about what makes for a good life. It then charts the path of how we began to relinquish our deeply rooted intellectual and practical capacities that used to allow us to understand and regulate the role of technologies in our lives. As the rise of technology threatens our very humanity, Tabachnick emphasizes that we still may have time to recover and develop these capacities - but we must first decide how far we want to allow technology to determine our existence and our future.

Product Description: This book is an attempt to provide a systematic interpretation of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics in light of one of the most important, interesting and debated questions of the present age: the question concerning the role played by science and technology in shaping our civilization...read more

Product Description: The American Technological Challenge - Stagnation and Decline in the 21st Century refutes the myth that we live in the most innovative of times. Inventions themselves are only one of the factors that determine the technological fate of a society...read more

Describes the economic, sociological, and cultural factors that shaped the Industrial Revolution and discusses the link between modern technology and aesthetics.

Product Description: “This glorious book overflows with the great ideas of the Muslim middle ages. . . . I wish I had had this book fifty years ago."—Adam Hart-Davis, photographer, writer, and TV science presenter of the BBC series What the Ancients Did for UsWhat do coffee beans, torpedoes, surgical scalpels, arches, and observatories all have in common?Were Leonardo da Vinci’s flight ideas originals?Who devised the casing for pill capsules, and where did Fibonacci learn to flex his mathematical fingers?The answers to these questions and more can be found in this book...read more

Operating Systems: A Modern Perspective brings a balanced approach to the study of operating systems combining a careful examination of theoretical issues with real-world, hands-on problems and examples. Throughout the text, discussions of theory are enhanced with detailed code and algorithm examples to allow students to see the theory as it has been implemented in modern operating systems.In addition to covering operating system fundamentals the author, Gary Nutt, considers issues of performance and discusses how various parts of the system are related to real-world demand and hardware constraints. The text also includes coverage of modern topics such as concurrency, distributed systems, and networking. Examples from UNIX and Linux give students an opportunity to examine and learn from the source code of actual commercial operating systems.Features: * Reinforces and reviews the important concepts students need to know from computer organization and architecture courses. * Highlights performance issues as a fundamental factor affecting how operating systems are designed. * Includes implementation examples drawn from the source code of commercial operating systems like Linux and a case study on Windows NT. * Utilizes Linux source code to provide hands-on exercises modifying and constructing components of actual systems. * Provides an author-maintained World Wide Web page with links to current OS technical material and references. * Offers additional instructional resources to qualified instructors through Addison-Wesley. 0805312951B04062001 (view table of contents)

Product Description: The scientific approach to understanding of human affairs and to the solving of social problems is equally threatened by the enthusiastic advocates of the "technological fix" and the cheerful apostles of the counter-culture. Themes along these lines are developed in six chapters that explore their implications for conventional politics and education...read more

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