Human Reality--Who We Are and Why We Exist

Human Reality--Who We Are and Why We Exist PDF

Author: Anonymous

Publisher: Worldwide United Publishing

Published: 2009-11

Total Pages: 587

ISBN-13: 9780978526481

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Human beings have questioned their existence for as long as they have been able to ponder and reason. This text transcends fantasy and science fiction in its simple presentation of reality and leaves the reader with the most profound perspective of human existence available.

A New Reality

A New Reality PDF

Author: Jonas Salk

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-06-26

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 194795105X

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A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future provides a startling, fresh new message of understanding, perspective and hope for today’s tense, rapid-fire, kaleidoscopically changing world. A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future provides a startling, fresh new message of understanding, perspective and hope for today’s tense, rapid-fire, kaleidoscopically changing world. Drawn from the writings of visionary scientist Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, extended and developed by his son Jonathan, the message of the book explodes from the past and sheds light on tensions that besiege us and the currents of discord that are raging as these words are written. More importantly, it indicates a way forward out of our current situation. Written by a world-famous doctor and folk hero, based on population data, rich in visual imagery, elegantly designed, and clearly written, A New Reality is unique in the marketplace. Readable in one or two sittings, it is accessible to the general reader while at the same time being of essential value to policy makers and academics. Its brevity and simplicity of design belie the importance and sophistication of its message. “We are at a point in the course of human social evolution when the demands of survival converge with the higher ideals of humankind and the well-being and flourishing of human society. It is up to us to see that we navigate this transition, adapting to and emerging in a new reality.” —A New Reality Our country is divided and polarized. Terrorism is a major threat throughout much of the world. Mass migrations are causing national and international tension. Population growth continues to increase, especially in the developing regions of the world. Controversy rages as to the use of fossil fuels versus the development of alternative forms of energy. Disagreement continues about climate change. Opposing currents of opinion collide as to how much we should help other areas in the world and how much to help ourselves. Basic values are in conflict. More than 40 years ago, Jonas Salk understood that we are at a unique moment in the history of the human species. After centuries of increase, population growth has begun to slow and is trending toward equilibrium. This change is accompanied by an equally significant change in human values—a shift from those based on unlimited availability of resources, unremitting growth, excess, independence, competition and short-term thinking to those based on limits, equilibrium, balance, interdependence, cooperation and long-term thinking. This momentous transition is the source of far-reaching tension and conflict. The way through this difficult era is to understand its basis and to focus on new values that will be of the greatest benefit to humankind. There is an urgency, however, and failure to adapt will result in disaster both for humanity and for the planet as a whole. A New Reality delivers a message of both caution and hope. Readers across the social and political spectrum will find it a reasoned and balanced counterpoint to current social and political trends. Its elegant design and long-range perspective will appeal to general readers, policy makers, millennials, baby boomers, teachers, and students, filling a need in the marketplace for a work of positivity and wisdom in otherwise bleak times.

Making Human Rights a Reality

Making Human Rights a Reality PDF

Author: Emilie M. Hafner-Burton

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-03-21

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1400846285

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In the last six decades, one of the most striking developments in international law is the emergence of a massive body of legal norms and procedures aimed at protecting human rights. In many countries, though, there is little relationship between international law and the actual protection of human rights on the ground. Making Human Rights a Reality takes a fresh look at why it's been so hard for international law to have much impact in parts of the world where human rights are most at risk. Emilie Hafner-Burton argues that more progress is possible if human rights promoters work strategically with the group of states that have dedicated resources to human rights protection. These human rights "stewards" can focus their resources on places where the tangible benefits to human rights are greatest. Success will require setting priorities as well as engaging local stakeholders such as nongovernmental organizations and national human rights institutions. To date, promoters of international human rights law have relied too heavily on setting universal goals and procedures and not enough on assessing what actually works and setting priorities. Hafner-Burton illustrates how, with a different strategy, human rights stewards can make international law more effective and also safeguard human rights for more of the world population.

The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences

The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences PDF

Author: Ian Shapiro

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-02-09

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 140082690X

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In this captivating yet troubling book, Ian Shapiro offers a searing indictment of many influential practices in the social sciences and humanities today. Perhaps best known for his critique of rational choice theory, Shapiro expands his purview here. In discipline after discipline, he argues, scholars have fallen prey to inward-looking myopia that results from--and perpetuates--a flight from reality. In the method-driven academic culture we inhabit, argues Shapiro, researchers too often make display and refinement of their techniques the principal scholarly activity. The result is that they lose sight of the objects of their study. Pet theories and methodological blinders lead unwelcome facts to be ignored, sometimes not even perceived. The targets of Shapiro's critique include the law and economics movement, overzealous formal and statistical modeling, various reductive theories of human behavior, misguided conceptual analysis in political theory, and the Cambridge school of intellectual history. As an alternative to all of these, Shapiro makes a compelling case for problem-driven social research, rooted in a realist philosophy of science and an antireductionist view of social explanation. In the lucid--if biting--prose for which Shapiro is renowned, he explains why this requires greater critical attention to how problems are specified than is usually undertaken. He illustrates what is at stake for the study of power, democracy, law, and ideology, as well as in normative debates over rights, justice, freedom, virtue, and community. Shapiro answers many critics of his views along the way, securing his position as one of the distinctive social and political theorists of our time.

Augmented Human

Augmented Human PDF

Author: Helen Papagiannis

Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

Published: 2017-08-17

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1491928395

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Augmented Reality (AR) blurs the boundary between the physical and digital worlds. In AR’s current exploration phase, innovators are beginning to create compelling and contextually rich applications that enhance a user’s everyday experiences. In this book, Dr. Helen Papagiannis—a world-leading expert in the field—introduces you to AR: how it’s evolving, where the opportunities are, and where it’s headed. If you’re a designer, developer, entrepreneur, student, educator, business leader, artist, or simply curious about AR’s possibilities, this insightful guide explains how you can become involved with an exciting, fast-moving technology. You’ll explore how: Computer vision, machine learning, cameras, sensors, and wearables change the way you see the world Haptic technology syncs what you see with how something feels Augmented sound and hearables alter the way you listen to your environment Digital smell and taste augment the way you share and receive information New approaches to storytelling immerse and engage users more deeply Users can augment their bodies with electronic textiles, embedded technology, and brain-controlled interfaces Human avatars can learn our behaviors and act on our behalf

The VR Book

The VR Book PDF

Author: Jason Jerald

Publisher: Morgan & Claypool

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 1970001135

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Virtual reality (VR) potentially provides our minds with direct access to digital media in a way that at first seems to have no limits.However, creating compelling VR experiences is an incredibly complex challenge.When VR is done well, the results are brilliant and pleasurable experiences that go beyond what we can do in the real world.When VR is done badly, not only is the system frustrating to use, but sickness can result.Reasons for bad VR are numerous; some failures come from the limitations of technology, but many come from a lack of understanding perception, interaction, design principles, and real users. This book discusses such issues, focusing upon the human element of VR rather than technical implementation, for if we do not get the human element correct, then no amount of technology will make VR anything more than an interesting tool confined to research laboratories. Even when VR principles are fully understood, first implementations are rarely novel and never ideal due to the complex nature of VR and the countless possibilities. However, the VR principles discussed within enable us to intelligently experiment with the rules and iteratively design towards innovative experiences.

The Human Reality

The Human Reality PDF

Author: Valentin Matcas

Publisher: Valentin Leonard Matcas

Published: 1901

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1310251630

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There is a difference between the material objective world and the actual human reality, since the human reality is very vast, formed of this physical objective world, and much more. Since there is a difference between the actual human reality and the current knowledge about the human reality, while by altering the knowledge itself about the human reality, it remains separated into the consensual human reality and the actual, normal, objective human reality. While if you lack awareness of all these, you end up exploited, as a human being, in a human world. Because you cannot study the human reality without comprehending those controlling the knowledge about the human reality and how they do so forcefully, consensually, or through stereotypes set in place since Aristotle and long before, since this is how they end up controlling you, and the entire world. Furthermore, you cannot form an accurate model of the universe if you do not understand yourself, if you do not understand exactly your needs driving you to perform this study, if you do not understand your mind constituting your means of understanding the universe, and if you do not understand Life altogether spanning the universe, actively involved in its structure, shape, behavior and development. At the same time, understanding the world around is the key to understanding yourself, your life, and your meaning in life and in the world, closing this circle of knowledge. Since this is why we consider the most relevant circumstances behind the famous studies of the world, we find true ideas and how they influence the understanding of the world throughout time, we seek to understand how and why people accept consensual, scientific, and ideological models of this world and how this influences their life, interconnectivity, and development, while we discover systematically this entire world. Furthermore, we use this study of the human reality to test all significant knowledge and ideas, including human reasoning, past civilizations, indoctrination, Einstein, astral planes of existence, ideologies, Renaissance, the Brotherhood, ideological control, ages of Earth, cosmogony, social and mind control, Giordano Bruno, consensual interconnectivity, Relativity, human origins and development, Copernicus, the Consensual Matrix, the Big Bang Theory, dreams, ancient wars, stereotypes, Galileo Galilei, conscious reasoning, Schrodinger, his cat, Creationism, alternate realities, and much more, the entire human reality. This book studies systematically the human reality, focusing on accurate truth while discarding beliefs and errors of reasoning, correlating with all relevant knowledge form physics, religion, spirituality, society, education, history, psychology, and more. If you want to learn more about everything surrounding you and everything that you really are, this book is for you.

Social Theory and Human Reality

Social Theory and Human Reality PDF

Author: Pertti Alasuutari

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2004-09-01

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 141293124X

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′This is a smart and compelling book. Difficult ideas are presented in an accessible manner, with plenty of supporting illustrations...Students will enjoy the research material and other supporting material. A definite winner!′- Professor Jay Gubrium, University of Missouri This book gets to the heart of what the social sciences really know about the elusive and contradictory object of research: human reality. Drawing on a wide range of international examples and scenarios, Social Theory and Human Reality examines key sociological concepts that we use to understand human behaviour such as: norms, rules and meanings; language and discourse; ritual; and personality and identity construction. Alasuutari clearly and convincingly demonstrates: - The constant interplay between routines and reflexivity that grounds social order - how the body and our bodily experiences mediate our social reality - that language plays a multi-faceted role as it describes, reflects and constructs human reality Building on the work started by Berger and Luckmann in The Social Construction of Reality, this book is a lucid and contemporary analysis of the premises shared across the social sciences, and of the kaleidoscope of ′human reality′. This important book will be welcomed by students and scholars alike in the fields of Cultural Studies, Sociology and Anthropology.

Human Reality

Human Reality PDF

Author: Peter Prew

Publisher: eBook Partnership

Published: 2015-04-20

Total Pages: 925

ISBN-13: 1783017260

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'[This book]...is one of great importance and will have a profound effect upon the civilized world.'Ian Player (Director of the International Wilderness Leadership Foundation)'I was impressed...beautifully written.'Arthur Koestler'The book is an immensely ambitious one. It...should be read by every serious and thoughtful person.'Robert Molteno (Editor, Zed Books)In stark contrast to the usual view of human evolution as a progressive Ascent of Man from a primitive state to one of sophisticated and comfortable civilization, the book 'The Human Reality - A Reinterpretation of Our Origins and Evolution' views the development of Homo sapiens after the Mesolithic period (some 10-12,000 years BP) as a dangerous degeneration and effectual re-evolution into what, in reality, constitutes almost a different species. The author calls it Homo degener, and believes the change occurred as a result of the adaptation of certain hunter-gatherer peoples to a primitive agriculture, which transformed them from nomadic free-ranging peoples, living harmoniously in nature, to sedentary farmers waging perpetual war against nature. Their construction of stratified societies, 'pyramids of power' comprising controlling head, fighting arms and cultivating hands and feet, resembled giant human beings which, unlike Homo sapiens, had no ecological niche.This book traces the historical development and progress of these re-evolutionary (or anti-evolutionary) composite animals, throughout the world, spreading tyranny and exploitation across a wild environment itself conducive to freedom and freedom from exploitation. The author concludes that humanity is now on the verge of a self-made catastrophe - a retribution of affronted Nature - which can be avoided only if we begin to return the land to those few remaining hunter-gatherer peoples who alone are the true friends of the Earth, and seek to learn from them instead of arrogantly ignoring or destroying them in favour of our exotic kind.

Emotions, the Social Bond, and Human Reality

Emotions, the Social Bond, and Human Reality PDF

Author: Thomas J. Scheff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-09-04

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780521585453

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This book, first published in 1997, offers an approach to researching human behavior relating details of interaction to social structure.