Showing titles in Innovations

For decades we've delighted in dreaming about a sci-fi utopia, from flying cars and bionic humans to hoverboards; with driverless cars first proposed at the 1939 World's Fair. And why not? Building a better world, be it a free-flying commute or an automated urban lifestyle is a worthy dream. Given the pace of technological change, nothing seems impossible anymore. But why are these innovations always out of reach? Delving into the history of technology, this book also looks at what lies ahead, showing how the origins of our technology may provide insight into how it realistically evolves.

En Una breve historia de la humanidad en 50 objetos, el economista superventas Tim Harford nos sorprende con una nueva recopilación de innovaciones e ideas extraordinarias -memorables, curiosas y, a menudo, inesperadas- que nos enseñan profundas lecciones sobre la compleja economía global en la que vivimos. Desde el ladrillo, el blockchain y la bicicleta, hasta el fuego, la fábrica y la recaudación de impuestos, pasando por la energía solar, el lápiz o el sello postal, esta brillante y reveladora selección fascina, inspira y estimula la mente.

Art and science are famous opposites. Contemporary innovation mostly keeps them far apart. But in this book, David Edwards, world-renowned inventor; Harvard professor of the practice of idea translation; creator of breathable insulin, edible food packaging, and digital scents, reveals that the secret to creating very new things of lasting benefit, including innovations we will need to sustain human life on the planet, lies in perceiving art and science as one.

In this eagerly awaited new book from the author of the best-selling Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech, Peter Leigh takes a fun, informative and irreverent romp through the history of more than 40 pieces of personal tech, charting the successes, failures and oddities from over five decades of our obsession with gadgetry. 

The titans of Silicon Valley are racing to build a single world-changing piece of software. They know that whoever gets there first will revolutionise our relationship with technology - and make billions of dollars in the process. They call it voice computing. Computers that can speak and think just as clearly as humans may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but they are mere years away from becoming a reality. In Talk to Me, veteran tech journalist James Vlahos meets the researchers at Google, Amazon and Apple who are leading the way to a voice computing revolution. 

The Internet was never intended for you, opines Brian McCullough in this lively narrative of an era that utterly transformed everything we thought we knew about technology. In How the Internet Happened, he chronicles the whole fascinating story for the first time, beginning in a dusty Illinois basement in 1993, when a group of college kids set off a once-in-an-epoch revolution with what would become the first "dotcom".

A fascinating study of the global Maker Movement that explores how ‘making’ impacts our personal and social development—perfect for enthusiastic DIY-ers Dale Dougherty, creator of MAKE: magazine and the Maker Faire, provides a guided tour of the international phenomenon known as the Maker...

How smart machines are transforming us all - and what we should do about it. The smart machines revolution is reshaping our lives and our societies. Here, Nigel Shadbolt (one of Britain’s leading authorities on artificial intelligence) and Roger Hampson dispel terror, confusion and misconception. We are not about to be elbowed aside by a rebel army of superintelligent robots of our own creation. We were using tools before we became Homo sapiens and will continue to control them. How we exercise that control - in our private lives, in employment, in politics - and make the best of the wonderful opportunities will determine our collective future well-being.

'The book is a house of wonders' The New York Times 'Steven Johnson is the Darwin of technology' Walter Issacson, author of Steve Jobs What connects Paleolithic bone flutes to the invention of computer software? Or the Murex sea snail to the death of the great American city? How does the bag of...

The long-awaited audio version of the seminal book by legendary space pioneer, Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill, credited with inspiring the likes of Jeff Bezos, Peter Diamandis, and Dylan Taylor.

Through narratives and case studies spanning the brilliant history of engineering, Madhavan shows how the concepts of prototyping, efficiency, reliability, standards, optimization, and feedback are put to use in fields as diverse as transportation, retail, health care, and entertainment. Equal parts personal, practical, and profound, Applied Minds charts a path to a future where we apply strategies borrowed from engineering to create useful and inspired solutions to our most pressing challenges.

New York Times Best Seller How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology—and there’s nobody better qualified or situated to explore that...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * How has a small nation of 9 million people, forced to fight for its existence and security since its founding and riven by ethnic, religious, and economic divides, proven resistant to so many of the societal ills plaguing other wealthy democracies? Why do Israelis...

The crucial importance of education in China, a prized virtue instilled in the population among all classes by beloved teacher and philosopher Confucius in the 6th century BCE, generated an unprecedented and long-lived golden age of literature and art. It also gave rise to a cornucopia of transformative innovations and groundbreaking technology, particularly following the dawn of the Common Era.

We are entering a new technological age in which artificial intelligence and immersive media will transform society at all levels. If managed well, this could unleash a new age of abundance. If managed poorly, this technological revolution could easily go astray, deeply compromising our privacy, autonomy, agency, and even our humanity. In Our Next Reality, two industry veterans provide a data-driven debate on whether the new world we're creating will be a technological utopia or an AI-powered dystopia and gives guidance on how to aim for the best future we can.

Are there innovation truisms that hold from one initiative to the next? Are there strategies that appear again and again in the success stories of businesses as varied as gaming and cloud infrastructure? Are there behaviors common to creative leadership in every role, from research to sales? And if these patterns exist, could they be distilled into teachable practices? These are the questions Dean Carignan and JoAnn Garbin, two senior innovation leaders at Microsoft, set out to answer.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. 'A remarkable achievement' - Stephen Fry In 2015 #thedress captured the world's imagination. Was the dress in the picture white and gold or blue and black? It inspired the author to ask: if people in the same time and place can see the same thing...

Philosophe passionné par les grandes questions de notre temps, Luc Ferry décrypte les nouveaux enjeux de l’intelligence artificielle en convoquant les plus grands esprits, de Spinoza à Hegel en passant par Kant et Heidegger. Une révolution est en marche, et peu de gens s’en aperçoivent : l’IA est en train de profondément changer le monde. Avec clarté et profondeur, Luc Ferry explore les promesses et les limites de cette technologie fascinante, qui imite la pensée à la perfection.

A fascinating exploration of the history, development, and future of virtual reality, a technology with world-changing potential, written by award-winning journalist and author David Ewalt, stemming from his 2015 Forbes cover story about the Oculus Rift and its creator Palmer Luckey. You’ve...

Break out the TV dinners! From the author who gave us Cod, Salt, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture...