{"title":"Technology","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"quarterly-essay-72-paperback","title":"Net Loss; QE72 by Sebastian Smee","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe live in an age of constant distraction. Is there a price to pay for this?\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this superb essay, renowned critic Sebastian Smee explores the fate of the inner life in the age of the internet. Throughout history, artists and thinkers have cultivated the deep self, and seen value in solitude and reflection. But today, with social media, wall-to-wall marketing and the agitation of modern life, everything feels illuminated, transparent. We feel bereft without our phones and their cameras and the feeling of instant connectivity. It gets hard to pick up a book, harder still to stay with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eWithout nostalgia or pessimism, Sebastian Smee guides us from the apparent fullness of the app-filled world to a more complex sense of self. Considering everything from Facebook to Chekhov, he evokes what is valuable and under threat. If we lose the inner life, Smee asks, what do we lose of ourselves? \u003cbr\u003e\r\n \u003cbr\u003e\r\n“Every day I spend hours and hours on my phone . . . We are all doing it, aren’t we? It has come to feel completely normal. Even when I put my device aside and attach it to a charger, it pulses away in my mind, like the throat of a toad, full of blind, amphibian appetite.” Sebastian Smee, \u003cem\u003eNet Loss\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCorrespondence discussing Quarterly Essay 72, \u003cem\u003eNet Loss\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cul\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.quarterlyessay.com.au\/correspondence\/corresondence-bri-lee\"\u003eBri Lee\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.quarterlyessay.com.au\/correspondence\/correspondence-briohny-doyle\"\u003eBriohny Doyle\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.quarterlyessay.com.au\/correspondence\/correspondence-raimond-gaita\"\u003eRaimond Gaita\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n","brand":"QE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39460767891591,"sku":"9781760640712","price":29.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/qe72_cover_online_b0b023ae-663a-4d64-a09c-08fef344beb3.jpg?v=1625796780"},{"product_id":"factory-19trade-paperback","title":"Factory 19 by Dennis Glover","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe're told that the future will be brighter. But what if human happiness really lies in the past?\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eHobart, 2022: a city with declining population, in the grip of a dark recession. A rusty ship sails into the harbour and begins to unload its cargo on the site of the once famous but now abandoned Gallery of Future Art, known to the world as GoFA.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne day the city’s residents are awoken by a high-pitched sound no one has heard for two generations – a factory whistle. GoFA’s owner, world-famous tycoon Dundas Faussett, is creating his most ambitious installation yet. He’s going to defeat the internet’s dominance over our lives by establishing a new Year Zero: 1948. Those whose jobs and lives have been destroyed by Amazon and Uber and Airbnb are invited to fight back in the only way that can possibly succeed: by living as if the internet and the smartphone had never been invented.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe hold over our lives by Gates, Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg and their ilk starts to loosen as the revolutionary example of Factory 19 spreads. Can nostalgia really defeat the future? Can the little people win back the world? We are about to find out.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619588325511,"sku":"9781760641764","price":36.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/Factory_2019_20_28online_29_20_281_29.jpg?v=1636455499"},{"product_id":"its-alive-artificial-intelligence-from-the-logic-piano-to-killer-robotstrade-paperback","title":"It's Alive! by Toby Walsh","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe development of Artificial Intelligence is an adventure as bold and ambitious as any that humans have attempted. And the truth is that thinking machines are already an indispensable part of our lives. Without them, Google couldn’t answer your questions in a fraction of a second. Autonomous cars would exist only in science fiction. And your smartphone would be . . . just a phone. In countless ways, with every passing day, AI is shaping and reshaping our world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut where will AI technologies take us in the future? Will thinking machines destroy our jobs? Could their intelligence surpass our own? Could the rise of AI threaten the very existence of humanity?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLeading researcher Toby Walsh takes us on a surprising and inspiring journey through the story of Artificial Intelligence – revealing how it is already transforming our societies, our economies and even ourselves – and makes ten fascinating predictions about what it will have achieved by the year 2050.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘A whirlwind tour through the history and the future of AI - and why it matters to all of us. A must-read.’ – Sebastian Thrun, Stanford\/Google\/Udacity\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘Toby Walsh’s story of how artificial intelligence evolved from the dreams of Alan Turing to a powerful technological force today is exciting, insightful and incisive. Will his predictions about how AI will change life as we know it in the coming decades prove equally dead-on? I, for one, would not bet against him!’ – Henry Kautz, past President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and Founding Director of Institute for Data Science and Professor at University of Rochester\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619590520967,"sku":"9781863959438","price":34.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/9781925435689_FC.jpg?v=1636455300"},{"product_id":"screen-schooled-two-veteran-teachers-expose-how-technology-overuse-is-making-our-kids-dumbertrade-paperback","title":"Screen Schooled by Joe Clement and Matt Miles","description":"\u003cp\u003eVeteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They lift the veil on what’s really going on? in schools: teachers who are often powerless to curb distractions from electronic devices; zoned-out kids who act helpless and are unfocused, unprepared, and unsocial; administrators who are influenced by questionable science sponsored by corporate technology purveyors. Clement and Miles suggest steps parents can take to demand change? and they make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619594944647,"sku":"9781863959995","price":36.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/cover_40_2b66129e-6e20-4b54-9ac5-e8ab13ee7e02.jpg?v=1636531661"},{"product_id":"the-cypherpunk-revolutionary-on-julian-assange-short-black-9paperback","title":"The Cypherpunk Revolutionary by Robert Manne","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere are few original ideas in politics. In the creation of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange was responsible for one.'\u003cbr\u003e\n This essay reveals the making of Julian Assange – both his ideas and his world-changing actions. 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The fakery of AI, he argues, threatens to blur the distinction between what is real and what is simulated. It might even throw into question the very essence of what it means to be human. The stakes, therefore, are as high as they could be.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40466700402823,"sku":"9781760644826","price":34.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/files\/FakingIt_online.jpg?v=1682657161"},{"product_id":"preorder-the-economy-of-algorithms","title":"The Economy of Algorithms by Marek Kowalkiewicz","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"form-group col-lg-12 col-md-12 paddeql nomargin\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"book-detail-text-formating\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAn insider's guide to the invisible new economy that is reshaping our lives\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"form-group col-lg-12 col-md-12 paddeql nomargin\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"book-detail-text-formating\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"form-group col-lg-12 col-md-12 paddeql nomargin\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"book-detail-text-formating\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWelcome to the economy of algorithms. It's here and it's growing. \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eIn the past few years, we have been flooded with examples of impressive technology. Algorithms have been around for hundreds of years, but they have only recently begun to 'escape' our understanding. When algorithms perform certain tasks, they're not just as good as us, they're becoming infinitely better, and, at the same time, massively more surprising. We are so impressed by what they can do that we give them a lot of agency. But because they are so hard to comprehend, this leads to all kinds of unintended consequences.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eIn the twentieth century, things were simple: we had the economy of corporations. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, we saw the emergence of the economy of people, otherwise known as the digital economy, enabled by the internet. Now we're seeing a new economy take shape: the economy of algorithms. \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eHow do you advertise to a fridge? Can an algorithm take your job? Do algorithms dream of electric sheep? These questions and more are answered by this exciting and ground-breaking book, which includes nine rules for flourishing in the new economy of algorithms.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40558996226183,"sku":"9781760644734","price":36.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/files\/TheEconomyofAlgorithms_online.jpg?v=1692344179"},{"product_id":"god-ai-by-toby-walsh-preorder","title":"God AI by Toby Walsh (PREORDER)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOur fears about artificial general intelligence go deep. They touch on our very identity as thinking, feeling creatures, and on our place in the universe. Are we creating our own successor? And might this creation be a god?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this vital contribution, leading researcher and author Professor Toby Walsh explores the existential risks posed by our accelerating efforts to realise an AI-powered future. While AI models are leading to the development of wondrous technologies such as potentially life-saving drugs, they are also disrupting the lives of millions across the globe by rapidly reshaping our relationships with work and with one another. But there are also clear risks that powerful AI threatens our very existence as a species.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an increasingly fractured world, what happens when AI hits the singularity and gains the ability to recursively self-improve? Could we so fully outsource our own thinking to AI that we make ourselves obsolete? 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He explores the site's shifting role in establishing fact in a time of deep uncertainty about truth and authority; the often hilariously fierce debates between 'Inclusionists' and 'Deletionists' about what is worth knowing and preserving, and who gets to decide; and the great peril Wikipedia faces today from bots, political division and artificial intelligence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Last Best Place on the Internet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a fascinating journey into the hidden world of one of the most vital – and most endangered – cultural achievements of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'Wikipedia is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003esui generis\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, one of the strangest and most outlandish successes of its time, quite unlike what came before it, or anything set to succeed it. 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