Focusing on the design and implementation of computer-based automatic machine tools, David F. Noble challenges the idea that technology has a life of its own. Technology has been both a convenient scapegoat and a universal solution, serving to disarm critics, divert attention, depoliticize debate, and dismiss discussion of the fundamental antagonisms and inequalities that continue to beset America. This provocative study of the postwar automation of the American metal-working industry—the heart of a modern industrial economy—explains how dominant institutions like the great corporations, the universities, and the military, along with the ideology of modern engineering shape, the development of technology. Noble shows how the system of "numerical control," perfected at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and put into general industrial use, was chosen over competing systems for reasons other than the technical and economic superiority typically advanced by its promoters. Numerical control took shape at an MIT laboratory rather than in a manufacturing setting, and a market for the new technology was created, not by cost-minded producers, but instead by the U. S. Air Force. Competing methods, equally promising, were rejected because they left control of production in the hands of skilled workers, rather than in those of management or programmers. Noble demonstrates that engineering design is influenced by political, economic, managerial, and sociological considerations, while the deployment of equipment—illustrated by a detailed case history of a large General Electric plant in Massachusetts—can become entangled with such matters as labor classification, shop organization, managerial responsibility, and patterns of authority. In its examination of technology as a human, social process, Forces of Production is a path-breaking contribution to the understanding of this phenomenon in American society.

Selling "genetically gifted" human eggs on the free market for a hefty price. In vitro fertilization. Fetal rights. Prenatal diagnosis. Surrogacy. All are instances of biomedical and social "advancements" with which we have become familiar in recent years. Yet these issues are often regarded as distinct or only loosely related under the rubric of reproduction. Barbara Katz Rothman demonstrates how they form a complex whole that demands of us in response a woman-centered, class-sensitive way of understanding motherhood. We need a social policy for dealing with mothers and motherhood that is consistent with feminist politics and feminist theory. Her book show how we as a society must first recognize that the real needs of mother, father, and children have been swept aside in an attempt to reduce the complex process of human reproduction to a clinical event that can be controlled by medical technology. Rothman suggests ways to accomplish social and legal change that would allow technological advances to affirm motherhood and the mother-child relationship without cost to women's identity. This new edition of Recreating Motherhood contains exciting updates. Rothman shows how this material is key in understanding the family, not just motherhood. And a new chapter, "Reflections on a Decade," explores how new reproductive technologies combine with new marketing and new genetics to pose troubling social questions.

George is in charge of taking care of his friend's tadpoles, and he knows just what to do! He takes them out for some exercise in the pond, but what will he do when they don't return A perfect book for early readers on the concept of metamorphosis. Curious George's friend Bill has put him in charge of several tadpoles. George sends the tadpoles for a nice swim in the lagoon, but to his dismay, the tadpoles don't return! Each time he goes back to the lake he tries to find the tadpoles, but he finds only tadpole-like creatures without tails . . . and with legs. A trip to the museum teaches George about the development of tadpoles into frogs, and he and Bill are happy to make the acquaintance of their new froggy friends! The animated series Curious George is available to watch on Peacock, NBC Universal's streaming platform.

Ariel, Miranda's clone, is becoming a person in her own right. Ariel is living with Miranda and they arebecoming close, as sisters do. Everything seems perfect, until Miranda starts noticing things that don't seem to fit with the Ariel she knows. She sees her sister in places she shouldn't be, doing things Ariel would never be doing, and Miranda begins to wonder if she herself is going crazy. But then Ariel beginsacting stranger than ever and Miranda gets a horrible feeling... what if there's more than one clone? And if so, can she find out what's going on and give Ariel back the life she's built before it's too late?

Charlie Lewis goes on a roller coaster ride of risk, math, and gaming in this middle grade novel that parallels the New York Times bestselling Bringing Down the House , which inspired the movie 21 . Charlie Lewis is a nerd. All he’s ever been good at is math—and he’s really good at math. So good that he’s recruited by a group of kids determined to game the system at the biggest theme park in the world—and win the grand prize. Soon Charlie is caught up in the excitement and thrill of using his math skills for awesomeness…but what’s at stake may be more than he’s willing to risk. How far will Charlie go for a chance at the ultimate reward?

""Too Much Magic" is what Kunstler sees in the bright visions of a future world dreamed up by optimistic souls who believe technology will solve all our problems. In Too Much Magic, Kunstler articulates a number of issues relating to the unsustainability of our high-energy lifestyle, including: The pernicious cult of "Happy Motoring" and our desire to preserve an ailing and backwards automotive industry at all costs; The upcoming demise of suburbia and the mass migration and demographic shifts that will ensue; The inadequacy of both renewable energy sources and alternative fossil fuels such as biodiesel, tar sands, and shale oil and gas to make up the energy shortfall when our conventional sources of fuel dry; The effect of the continuing increase in global population even after resource shortfalls of oil and fossil fuels become acute; How the diminishing returns of technology collide with hypercomplexity to scuttle our wishes for an easy way out of our epochal predicaments. With vision and clarity of thought, and an antic, comic spirit, Kunstler argues that the time for magical thinking and hoping for miracles is over, and the time to begin preparing for the long emergency has begun."--Jacket.

The pace of engineering and science is speeding up, rapidly leading us toward a "Technological Singularity" - a point in time when superintelligent machines achieve and improve so much so fast, traditional humans can no longer operate at the forefront. However, if all goes well, human beings may still flourish greatly in their own ways in this unprecedented era. If humanity is going to not only survive but prosper as the Singularity unfolds, we will need to understand that the Technological Singularity is an Experiential Singularity as well, and rapidly evolve not only our technology but our level of compassion, ethics and consciousness. The aim of The Consciousness Explosion is to help curious and open-minded readers wrap their brains around these dramatic emerging changes-and empower readers with tools to cope and thrive as they unfold.

Which planet in our solar system has the most moons? Why would Goldilocks prefer to live on Earth instead of Mars? And just how gigantic is a Red Giant?Combining all the best bits about SPACE from Dr Karl's Big , Even Bigger and Biggest Book of Science Stuff and Nonsense , this little book answers all these questions and many more. Filled with facts, quizzes, puzzles and activities, Dr Karl's Little Book of Space provides light-years of astronomical fun!

Of all the portions of the universe we see in the sky, the most spectacular is the Sun. Our very own star, the Sun is ruler of the Solar System. When it is shining, it drowns out everything else. When clouds cover the Sun, the day is gloomy. At night, when the Sun is not overhead, the sky is dark. All the world depends on the Sun. Topics include sunspots, flares, prominences, the Sun's atmosphere, upcoming solar eclipses, and the Sun's vital importance to life on Earth.

The thrilling sequel to Cloning Miranda and The Second Clone . When Miranda is accused of vandalism on school property, she's confident she can clear her name - until she's shown the security tapes. Even she can't tell that the girl on the tapes isn't her, or her cloned "twin" sister Ariel. Miranda must fight to clear her name or face being expelled, and possibly charged by the police. But one way or another, she knows she can't tell the truth to the authorities, or share her suspicions about the real culprit. Meanwhile, Dr. Mullen, her creator, has called a press conference to announce that he is the first scientist ever to create a living human clone. Could the girl on the security tape be yet another Mullen-made Miranda clone? Or could it be Eve, the dying third clone that Mullen kidnapped? No matter what, it looks like Miranda and Ariel are about to face the biggest challenge of their lives.

Book by Franklin, Ursula M., Franklin

There is widespread perception that life is faster than it used to be. This book argues that popular and scholarly claims about acceleration gloss over the complex relationship of technology, speed and time. Rather than digital devices rushing us, our experience of always being rushed is the result of the priorities and parameters we ourselves set.

This touching story of a father and child's nighttime excursion to watch a meteor shower is told through the eyes of a child in awe of the night world. Rockliff's vivid descriptions make readers feel as though they too are watching the tiny bits of other, distant worlds blazing into our own.The "For Creative Minds" education section includes teaching trivia about meteors, meteor showers, comets, and asteroids as well as a "Meteor Math" game, a "Five Steps to a Fantastic Meteor Watching Party" checklist, and a recipe for comet cookies. This fictional story includes a 4-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 49-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Pieces of Another World is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers. The Spanish translation supports ELL and dual-language programs. The interactive ebook reads aloud in both English and Spanish with word highlighting and audio speed control to promote oral language skills, fluency, pronunciation, text engagement, and reading comprehension.

What happens when the old world order collapses and the Brave New World is unprepared to replace it as an ad medium, as a news source, as a political soapbox, a channel for new episodes of Lost? Welcome to The Chaos Scenario. It's here, and Bob Garfield saw it coming. In his roles as Advertising Age editor-at-large and as co-host of NPR's On the Media, Bob Garfield long ago connected dots that many in media and marketing refused even to acknowledge. In this fascinating, terrifying, instructive and often hilarious book, Garfield is not content to chronicle the ruinous disintegration of traditional media and marketing. Instead he travels to five continents for solutions. His journeys begin in a Denmark cow pasture and take him from Estonia to Australia, Israel to England, Montenegro to Brazil, Los Gatos, California, to Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. What he discovers is the answer for all institutions who wish to survive and thrive in a digitally connected, Post-Media Age. He calls this the art and science of Listenomics. You should listen, too.

Technological change is often seen as something that follows its own logic – something about which we may protest, but which we are unable to alter fundamentally. This reader challenges that assumption. In it, a collection of distinguished authors demonstrate that technology is affected at a fundamental level by the social context in which it develops. The first section introduces the reader to general arguments about the relation of technology to society. In subsequent sections the editors examine three types of technology in particular: the technology of production, domestic technology and military (especially nuclear) technology. In each case a variety of examples is used to demonstrate how technologies reflect such features of the social and economic environment as the social relations of the workplace, gender divisions in society, or the dictates of the state. The editors argue that social scientists have devoted disproportionate attention to the effects of technology on society, and have tended to ignore the more fundamental question of what shapes technology in the first place. Drawing both on established work in the history of technology and on newer feminist and Marxist perspectives they show how important and fruitful it is to try to answer the deeper question.

Feminism Confronts Technology provides a lively and engaging exploration of the impact of technology on women′s lives from word processors to food processors, and genetic engineering to the design of cities. Comprehensive and critical, this book surveys the sociological and feminist literature on technology, highlighting the male bias in the way technology is defined as well as developed. Wajcman sets the scene with an overview of feminist theories of science and technology: encompassing the technologies of production and reproduction as well as domestic technology. The author challenges the common assumption that technology is gender neutral, looking at whether technology can liberate women or whether the new technologies are reinforcing sexual divisions in society.

Religion and technology have always been at the heart of any civilization, says Newman, and the changing relations between them have and will continue to have a powerful influence on social and personal development. Newman begins with a look at religious criticism of technology, most specifically the view that technology undermines religious world views, religious practices, and spirituality in general. But what the religious antitechnologist might be misunderstanding, he argues, are the essence of technology, its relation to progress, and its significance as a religious endeavor. Indeed, religion may be a form of technology, or both may be the same as culture itself.

Oxford University Press paperback. Includes bibliographical references and index. pt. 1: Technology as social production. The wedding of science to the useful arts--1: The rise of science-based industry. The wedding of science to the useful arts--2: The development of technical education. The wedding of science to the useful arts--3: The emergence of the professional engineer. Preservation through change: Corporate engineers and social reform -- pt. 2: Corporate reform as conscious social production. Laying the foundation: Scientific and industrial standardization. The corporation as inventor: Patent-law reform and patent monoply. Science for industry: The organization of industrial and university research. Technology as people: The industrial process of higher education --1. Technology as people: The industrial process of higher education--2. A technology of social production: Modern management and the expansion of engineering. * dss 20081210.

Future Imperfect describes and discusses a variety of technological revolutions that might happen over the next few decades, their implications, and how to deal with them. Topics range from encryption and surveillance through biotechnology and nanotechnology to life extension, mind drugs, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. One theme of the book is that the future is radically uncertain. Technological changes already begun could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality or the elimination of our species, and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play. We do not know which future will arrive, but it is unlikely to be much like the past. It is worth starting to think about it now.