Romantic Complexity

Romantic Complexity PDF

Author: Jack Stillinger

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2008-12

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0252076370

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A critical look at three fundamental Romantic poets from a leading scholar of British romanticism

Ubiquitous Computing, Complexity and Culture

Ubiquitous Computing, Complexity and Culture PDF

Author: Ulrik Ekman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 1317704568

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The ubiquitous nature of mobile and pervasive computing has begun to reshape and complicate our notions of space, time, and identity. In this collection, over thirty internationally recognized contributors reflect on ubiquitous computing’s implications for the ways in which we interact with our environments, experience time, and develop identities individually and socially. Interviews with working media artists lend further perspectives on these cultural transformations. Drawing on cultural theory, new media art studies, human-computer interaction theory, and software studies, this cutting-edge book critically unpacks the complex ubiquity-effects confronting us every day. The companion website can be found here: http://ubiquity.dk

Complexity and Planning

Complexity and Planning PDF

Author: Gert de Roo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-05-23

Total Pages: 462

ISBN-13: 1317162765

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Complexity, complex systems and complexity theories are becoming increasingly important within a variety disciplines. While these issues are less well known within the discipline of spatial planning, there has been a recent growing awareness and interest. As planners grapple with how to consider the vagaries of the real world when putting together proposals for future development, they question how complexity, complex systems and complexity theories might prove useful with regard to spatial planning and the physical environment. This book provides a readable overview, presenting and relating a range of understandings and characteristics of complexity and complex systems as they are relevant to planning. It recognizes multiple, relational approaches of dynamic complexity which enhance understandings of, and facilitate working with, contingencies of place, time and the various participants' behaviours. In doing so, it should contribute to a better understanding of processes with regard to our physical and social worlds.

From Complexity to Creativity

From Complexity to Creativity PDF

Author: Ben Goertzel

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-08-28

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0585347131

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Cybernetic pioneer Warren McCullough asked: "What is a man, that he may know a number; and what is a number, that a man may know it?" Thinking along much the same lines, my question here is: "What is a creative mind, that it might emerge from a complex system; and what is a complex system, that it might give rise to a creative mind?" Complexity science is a fashionable topic these days. My perspective on complexity, however, is a somewhat unusual one: I am interested in complex systems science principally as it reflects on abstract mathematical, computational models of mind. In my three previous books, The Structure of Intelligence, Evolving Mind, and Chaotic Logic, I have outlined a comprehensive complex-systems-theoretic theory of mind that I now call the psynet model. This book is a continuation of the research program presented in my previous books (and those books will be frequently referred to here, by the nicknames EM and CL). One might summarize the trajectory of thought spanning these four books as follows. SI formulated a philosophy and mathem- ics of mind, based on theoretical computer science and the concept of "pattern. " EM analyzed the theory of evolution by natural selection in similar terms, and used this computational theory of evolution to establish the evolutionary nature of thought.

Cognition, Communication, and Romantic Relationships

Cognition, Communication, and Romantic Relationships PDF

Author: James M. Honeycutt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-08

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1135658579

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Cognition, Communication, and Romantic Relationships focuses on the role of memory, communication, and social cognition in the development of romantic relationships. The authors review developmental models of communication and examine criticisms of these models. They also explore the stages through which relationships escalate and deteriorate, and consider the processes for such activities as meeting new people, dating, sexual intercourse, and terminating relationships. Differences between men and women are discussed throughout the text, in light of current research supporting systematic gender differences in how people think about romance and relationships. As an extended analysis and research review of how thinking about romance influences and is influenced by communicative processes, this text offers a deeper understanding of the cognitive and communicative factors involved in relationship processes. It is designed for use in courses on interpersonal relationships and intimate relations in social psychology, communication, counseling psychology, clinical psychology, and sociology.

The Romance of Reality

The Romance of Reality PDF

Author: Bobby Azarian

Publisher: BenBella Books

Published: 2022-06-28

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1637740441

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Why do we exist? For centuries, this question was the sole province of religion and philosophy. But now science is ready to take a seat at the table. According to the prevailing scientific paradigm, the universe tends toward randomness; it functions according to laws without purpose, and the emergence of life is an accident devoid of meaning. But this bleak interpretation of nature is currently being challenged by cutting-edge findings at the intersection of physics, biology, neuroscience, and information theory—generally referred to as “complexity science.” Thanks to a new understanding of evolution, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the phenomenon known as emergence, a new cosmic narrative is taking shape: Nature’s simplest “parts” come together to form ever-greater “wholes” in a process that has no end in sight. In The Romance of Reality, cognitive neuroscientist Bobby Azarian explains the science behind this new view of reality and explores what it means for all of us. In engaging, accessible prose, Azarian outlines the fundamental misunderstanding of thermodynamics at the heart of the old assumptions about the universe’s evolution, and shows us the evidence that suggests that the universe is a “self-organizing” system, one that is moving toward increasing complexity and awareness. Cosmologist and science communicator Carl Sagan once said of humanity that “we are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” The Romance of Reality shows that this poetic statement in fact rests on a scientific foundation and gives us a new way to know the cosmos, along with a riveting vision of life that imbues existence with meaning—nothing supernatural required.

Game Love

Game Love PDF

Author: Jessica Enevold

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-01-09

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 147661878X

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What does love have to do with gaming? As games have grown in complexity, they have increasingly included narratives that seek to engage players with love in a variety of ways. While media attention often focuses on violent emotions and behavior in gaming, love has always been central to the experience. We love to play games, we have titles that we love, and sometimes we love too much or love terrible games for their shortcomings. Love in gaming is rather like love in life--often complicated and frustrating but also exciting and gratifying. This collection of fresh essays explores the meaning and role of love in gaming, describing a number of ways--from coding to cosplay--in which love can be expressed in, for and around games. Investigating how gaming involves love is also key to understanding the growing importance of games and gamers as cultural markers.

Animality in British Romanticism

Animality in British Romanticism PDF

Author: Peter Heymans

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1136293051

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The scientific, political, and industrial revolutions of the Romantic period transformed the status of humans and redefined the concept of species. This book examines literary representations of human and non-human animality in British Romanticism. The book’s novel approach focuses on the role of aesthetic taste in the Romantic understanding of the animal. Concentrating on the discourses of the sublime, the beautiful, and the ugly, Heymans argues that the Romantics’ aesthetic views of animality influenced—and were influenced by—their moral, scientific, political, and theological judgment. The study reveals how feelings of environmental alienation and disgust played a positive moral role in animal rights poetry, why ugliness presented such a major problem for Romantic-period scientists and theologians, and how, in political writings, the violent yet awe-inspiring power of exotic species came to symbolize the beauty and terror of the French Revolution. Linking the works of Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Byron, the Shelleys, Erasmus Darwin, and William Paley to the theories of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke, this book brings an original perspective to the fields of ecocriticism, animal studies, and literature and science studies.