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What is intelligence? What makes humans homo sapiens - the intelligent species? Inventing Intelligence is a bold deconstruction of the history of intelligence, bringing a cultural studies approach to this fascinating subject for the first time.
Most of us assume that people in every period and in every region of the world have understood and valued intelligence in the same way we do today. Our modern concept of intelligence, however, is actually quite recent, emerging from the dramatic social and scientific changes that rocked the United States during the 19th century. Inventing Intelligence: How America Came to Worship IQ discusses the historical context for understanding the development of the concept of intelligence and the tests used to measure it. The author delves into the intertwined issues of IQ, heredity, and merit to offer a provocative look at how Americans came to overvalue IQ and the personal and social problems that have resulted.
The use and misuse of IQ tests has long been a subject of contention in the scientific and social communities, particularly because these evaluations favor intelligence at the expense of other valuable human qualities. This is the first book of its kind to examine the historical development of our modern concept of intelligence and to explore America's fascination with the controversial exams that purport to measure it. Most of us assume that people in every period and in every region of the world have understood and valued intelligence in the same way we do today. Our modern concept of intelligence, however, is actually quite recent, emerging from the dramatic social and scientific changes that rocked the United States during the 19th century. Inventing Intelligence: How America Came to Worship IQ discusses the historical context for understanding the development of the concept of intelligence and the tests used to measure it. The author delves into the intertwined issues of IQ, heredity, and merit to offer a provocative look at how Americans came to overvalue IQ and the personal and social problems that have resulted.
The use and misuse of IQ tests has long been a subject of contention in the scientific and social communities, particularly because these evaluations favor intelligence at the expense of other valuable human qualities. This is the first book of its kind to examine the historical development of our modern concept of intelligence and to explore America's fascination with the controversial exams that purport to measure it. Most of us assume that people in every period and in every region of the world have understood and valued intelligence in the same way we do today. Our modern concept of intelligence, however, is actually quite recent, emerging from the dramatic social and scientific changes that rocked the United States during the 19th century. Inventing Intelligence: How America Came to Worship IQ discusses the historical context for understanding the development of the concept of intelligence and the tests used to measure it. The author delves into the intertwined issues of IQ, heredity, and merit to offer a provocative look at how Americans came to overvalue IQ and the personal and social problems that have resulted.
"This anthology of original historical essays examines how social relations are enacted in and through computing using the twin frameworks of abstraction and embodiment. The book highlights a wide range of understudied contexts and experiences, such as computing and disability, working mothers as technical innovators, race and community formation, and gaming behind the Iron Curtain"--
TheInternationalSymposiumCreatingBrain-LikeIntelligencewasheldinFeb- ary 2007 in Germany. The symposium brought together notable scientists from di?erent backgrounds and with di?erent expertise related to the emerging ?eld of brain-like intelligence. Our understanding of the principles behind brain-like intelligence is still limited. After all, we have had to acknowledge that after tremendous advances in areas like neural networks, computational and arti?cial intelligence (a ?eld that had just celebrated its 50 year anniversary) and fuzzy systems, we are still not able to mimic even the lower-level sensory capabilities of humans or animals. We asked what the biggest obstacles are and how we could gain ground toward a scienti?c understanding of the autonomy, ?exibility, and robustness of intelligent biological systems as they strive to survive. New principles are usually found at the interfaces between existing disciplines, and traditional boundaries between disciplines have to be broken down to see how complex systems become simple and how the puzzle can be assembled. During the symposium we could identify some recurring themes that p- vaded many of the talks and discussions. The triad of structure, dynamics and environment,theroleoftheenvironmentasanactivepartnerinshapingsystems, adaptivity on all scales (learning, development, evolution) and the amalga- tion of an internal and external world in brain-like intelligence rate high among them. Each of us is rooted in a certain community which we have to serve with the results of our research. Looking beyond our ?elds and working at the interfaces between established areas of research requires e?ort and an active process.
The Age of Information has spawned a critical focus on human communication in a multimedia world, particularly on theories and practices of writing. With the worldwide web impacting increasingly on academic and business communication, the need has never been greater for advanced study in writing, communication, and critical thinking across all genres, sectors, and cultures. In recent decades, the definitions of 'new rhetoric' have expanded to encompass a variety of theories and movements, raising the question of how rhetoric is understood and employed in the twenty-first century. The essays collected here represent variations on these themes, with each attempting to answer the title?s deliberately provocative question, addressing particularly: -How the classical art of rhetoric is still relevant today; -How it is directly related to modern technologies and the new modes of communication they have generated; -How rhetorical practice is informing research methodologies and teaching and learning practices in the contemporary academy.
'I wish it was science fiction, but I know it's not.' Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype 'If you read just one book that makes you confront scary high-tech realities that we'll soon have no choice but to address, make it this one.' Washington Post Corporations and government agencies around the world have for years been pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail - human-level intelligence. But once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine. First published ten years ago, Our Final Invention predicted much of the artificial 'intelligence explosion' that is now ripping through our culture, and was named by Elon Musk as one of five books everyone should read about the future. Now with an urgent new preface, James Barrat's landmark work explores the ethics, history and future perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?
