The Coming Convergence

Author : Stanley Schmidt
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Social Science
ISBN : STANFORD:36105124026654

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The Coming Convergence by Stanley Schmidt Pdf

Imagine direct communication links between the human brain and machines, or tailored materials capable of adapting by themselves to changing environmental conditions, or computer chips and environmental sensors embedded into everyday clothing, or medical technologies that eliminate currently untreatable conditions such as blindness and paralysis. Now imagine all of these developments occurring at the same time. The stuff of science fiction? Not So. These are actually the reasonable predictions of scientists attempting to forecast a few decades into the future based on the rapid pace of innovation. Author Stanley Schmidt-a physicist, a writer, and the editor of Analog: Science Fiction and Fact -- explores these and many more amazing yet probable scenarios in this fascinating guide to the near future. He shows how past convergences have led to today's world, then considers tomorrow's main currents in biotechnology, cognitive science, information technology, and nanotechnology. Looking even further downstream he foresees both exciting and potentially dangerous developments: Longer, healthier lives; Cheap, generally available food, energy, and technology; Reduced pollution and environmental stress; Economic disruption during transitional periods; Excessive power in too few hands; Increased vulnerability from over-dependence on technology. Schmidt notes that even a routine technology such as the CAT scan is the result of three wholly separate innovations started many decades ago which recently converged: the X-ray, the computer, and advances in medicine. On a more ominous note, he also observes that the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was made possible by the malicious convergence of two separate trends in modern engineering and technology: the concentration of people in high rises within cities and the success of the passenger airline industry. The message is clear: the choices we make now will converge to create a near and distant future that will be almost unbelievably wonderful or unimaginably catastrophic, or both. This knowledgeable, fascinating glimpse into the future is a must read for everyone interested in technology, upcoming innovations in business, science fiction, and the future.

Author : Michael Spence
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2011-05-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781429968713

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The Next Convergence by Michael Spence Pdf

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011 With the British Industrial Revolution, part of the world's population started to experience extraordinary economic growth—leading to enormous gaps in wealth and living standards between the industrialized West and the rest of the world. This pattern of divergence reversed after World War II, and now we are midway through a century of high and accelerating growth in the developing world and a new convergence with the advanced countries—a trend that is set to reshape the world. Michael Spence, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, explains what happened to cause this dramatic shift in the prospects of the five billion people who live in developing countries. The growth rates are extraordinary, and continuing them presents unprecedented challenges in governance, international coordination, and ecological sustainability. The implications for those living in the advanced countries are great but little understood. Spence clearly and boldly describes what's at stake for all of us as he looks ahead to how the global economy will develop over the next fifty years. The Next Convergence is certain to spark a heated debate how best to move forward in the post-crisis period and reset the balance between national and international economic interests, and short-term fixes and long-term sustainability.

Author : Robley Edward Whitson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 1971
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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The Coming Convergence of World Religions by Robley Edward Whitson Pdf

Author : Chris Meyer,Stan Davis
Publisher : Currency
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2003-05-13
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781400050390

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It's Alive by Chris Meyer,Stan Davis Pdf

Why we are on the cusp of a new economic era that will make the changes and challenges of the Information Era seem like child’s play From the bestselling authors of Blur—a defining book of the Information Age—comes a startling glimpse into the near future and the emerging economy that awaits us. It’s Alive foretells the jolt the world is about to receive as the science of molecular evolution races out of the laboratories and into the business world. Think back to the early 1970s. Imagine the opportunities for your business, career choice, and investments had you received an advance report on the ways in which computer and information technology would revolutionize the world. It’s Alive provides that opportunity today: a realistic and persuasive look into the future—the molecular economy—and how it is starting to overtake and reshape the Information Age. Today’s gene mapping and molecular engineering are equivalent to the introduction of transistor radios at the advent of the information economy. Solid-state technology moved from the labs into the business arena, providing in turn the transistor, the microprocessor, and the modem—and the information business. During the next ten years, molecular technology will follow the same pattern, moving from the lab and into the basic operation of the corporation itself. Chris Meyer and Stan Davis are our guides in understanding this new future. They show that not only biological systems evolve. The rules of evolution help explain the process of change in biology, business, and the economy, thereby providing a management guide to the business world around the corner. It’s Alive is not science fiction or futurism. It bases its insights and predictions on the impact the molecular economy is already having in such diverse business environments as manufacturing, financial services, and energy. Through in-depth case studies of Capital One Financial, the U.S. Marine Corps, British Petroleum, and the biotech firm Maxygen, Meyer and Davis show how adaptive behavior works in the real world. As the rules of evolution combine with the connected economy, our business world will become unpredictable, volatile, and continually adaptive—in other words, alive. Also available as an eBook.

Author : John D. Dadosky
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2004-03-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0791460614

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The Structure of Religious Knowing by John D. Dadosky Pdf

Provides a critical exploration of Mircea Eliade's notion of the sacred by referencing the work of Bernard Lonergan.

Author : Ruchir Sharma
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 359 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2012-04-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780393083835

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Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles by Ruchir Sharma Pdf

International Bestseller One of Foreign Policy's "21 Books to Read in 2012" A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Business Book “The best book on global economic trends I’ve read in a while.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN GPS To identify the economic stars of the future we should abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries together. We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon. After years of rapid growth, the most celebrated emerging markets—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—are about to slow down. Which countries will rise to challenge them? In his best-selling book, writer and investor Ruchir Sharma identifies which countries are most likely to leap ahead and why, drawing insights from time spent on the ground and detailed demographic, political, and economic analysis. With a new chapter on America’s future economic prospects, Breakout Nations offers a captivating picture of the shifting balance of global economic power among emerging nations and the West.

Author : Mark P. Mills
Publisher : Encounter Books
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781641772310

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The Cloud Revolution by Mark P. Mills Pdf

The conventional wisdom on how technology will change the future is wrong. Mark Mills lays out a radically different and optimistic vision for what’s really coming. The mainstream forecasts fall into three camps. One considers today as the “new normal,” where ordering a ride or food on a smartphone or trading in bitcoins is as good as it’s going to get. Another foresees a dystopian era of widespread, digitally driven job- and business-destruction. A third believes that the only technological revolution that matters will be found with renewable energy and electric cars. But according to Mills, a convergence of technologies will instead drive an economic boom over the coming decade, one that historians will characterize as the “Roaring 2020s.” It will come not from any single big invention, but from the confluence of radical advances in three primary technology domains: microprocessors, materials, and machines. Microprocessors are increasingly embedded in everything. Materials, from which everything is built, are emerging with novel, almost magical capabilities. And machines, which make and move all manner of stuff, are undergoing a complementary transformation. Accelerating and enabling all of this is the Cloud, history’s biggest infrastructure, which is itself based on the building blocks of next-generation microprocessors and artificial intelligence. We’ve seen this pattern before. The technological revolution that drove the great economic expansion of the twentieth century can be traced to a similar confluence, one that was first visible in the 1920s: a new information infrastructure (telephony), new machines (cars and power plants), and new materials (plastics and pharmaceuticals). Single inventions don’t drive great, long-cycle booms. It always takes convergent revolutions in technology’s three core spheres—information, materials, and machines. Over history, that’s only happened a few times. We have wrung much magic from the technologies that fueled the last long boom. But the great convergence now underway will ignite the 2020s. And this time, unlike any previous historical epoch, we have the Cloud amplifying everything. The next long boom starts now.

Author : Philip McShane,James Duffy,Robert Henman,Terrance Quinn
Publisher : Axial Publishing
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2022-09-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781988457109

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Seeding the Positive Anthropocene by Philip McShane,James Duffy,Robert Henman,Terrance Quinn Pdf

There is a growing interest in the character and the challenge of the Anthropocene. Although efforts to pin down beginning dates of this epoch have been debated, there is a broad consensus that humanity is facing an unprecedented challenge to surviving on Earth, a challenge which humans have created ourselves. Undeniably, we have had and continue to have impacts on the planet as a whole. These include ravaging bushfires and unprecedented flooding caused by climate change, spiking levels of carbon dioxide levels, and widespread loss of biodiversity. The challenge has been expressed in various ways: the larger challenges of climate change or ocean garbage toxicity, the subtler challenges that would support such large efforts by cultivating a new aesthetic. The present book asks of us to reach for the deeper grounding of all such efforts. Perhaps that asking is best hinted at by pluralizing the word character in a paradoxical non-question: “What is to be the 'character' of the characters transforming the Anthropocene from its present negativity to a positive period of human flourishing.” What is missing, what we are in the dark about, is the apparently simple turn that would have us asking, “What’s what?” The focus must be concrete: so we are to think of miners and farmers and reformers and economists and educators, but primarily of ourselves as whats. Might we begin the positive Anthropocene’s success by beginning to sow what comprehendingly?

Author : David H. Lane
Publisher : Mercer University Press
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : New Age movement
ISBN : 0865544980

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The Phenomenon of Teilhard by David H. Lane Pdf

New Age writer of the popular Aquarian Conspiracy Marilyn Ferguson observed that many of the leading lights of the New Age movement claim Teilhard as one of the most influential persons in their lives. Other influences acknowledged include C. G. Jung, Aldous Huxley, Swami Muktananda, Thomas Merton, Werner Erhard, and Maharishi Yogi. Indeed, of the 185 New Age leaders surveyed, Teilhard was the most frequently mentioned of any person who had most influenced their thinking. If this is the case, then if we are to understand the New Age movement properly it behooves us to take a careful and critical look at Teilhard de Chardin. David Lane has done precisely this in a clear, well documented, and penetrating way.... In this crucial book David Lane lays bare the philosophical, theological, and scientific failures of Teilhard's New Age enterprise. In a highly documented and insightful scrutiny of Teilhard's cosmic evolution, Lane unveils the apostate Christian roots of one of the most important forerunners of the New Age movement. This is one of the most significant and serious treatments of the modern roots of the New Age in print.

Author : William Sims Bainbridge
Publisher : Pearson Education
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2007-06-27
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780132797283

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Nanoconvergence by William Sims Bainbridge Pdf

In Nanoconvergence , William Sims Bainbridge tours the future of science and technology in plain, nontechnical English. Bainbridge draws on an extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge, based on his unique role at the epicenter of the nanoconvergence revolution. He successfully integrates insights from far-reaching scientific fields into a compelling human story—offering powerful insights you can use to plan your career, seek new investment opportunities, or simply understand what's coming next. Discover new breakthroughs in measuring, manipulating, and organizing matter at the nanoscale and the implications of those advances See why science fiction's view of nanotechnology is wrong and why the truth is even more exciting Preview new technologies built on the principles of cognitive science and enabled by nanotechnology Learn how nanotechnology may save Moore's Law, allowing computers to double in power every year for the next two decades Discover why nanoconvergence may spark a renaissance in the social sciences Examine the potential impact of scientific and technological convergence on human society and diversity

Author : Kenneth H. Marks,Larry E. Robbins,Gonzalo Fernandez,John P. Funkhouser,D. L. Williams
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 676 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2009-09-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780470390153

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The Handbook of Financing Growth by Kenneth H. Marks,Larry E. Robbins,Gonzalo Fernandez,John P. Funkhouser,D. L. Williams Pdf

The Second Edition of The Handbook of Financing Growth has been designed to help leaders and advisors gain a solid understanding of the financing strategies, sources, and transactions that will allow them to excel in such an unpredictable environment. Written by an experienced group of practitioners who operate within this dynamic market—and fully updated to reflect new market realities—this reliable resource outlines the full spectrum of funding alternatives currently available to emerging growth and middle-market companies and presents the practical strategies and techniques you need to be aware of when considering the capitalization, growth, or sale of your, or your client's, company. New material found in this Second Edition includes detailed discussions of positioning a business for value creation before the transaction and how your financing strategy fits into the overall plan for growing and raising capital as well as creating an exit. Among various techniques, the authors address buyouts and recapitalizations as two alternatives to create shareholder liquidity and potentially finance future growth. A new chapter on M&A addresses the acquisition process and how to fund acquisitions and external growth initiatives, while additional case studies highlight bank financing alternatives and growth equity.

Author : Bernard Longergan
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2017-02-11
Category : Christianity
ISBN : 9781487521578

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A Third Collection by Bernard Longergan Pdf

The papers deal with scientific, mathematical, theological, and philosophical questions, including discussions of such topics as the proper foundation of metaphysics, the form of inference, the nature of love and marriage, and the role of the university in the modern world.

Author : Bernard Lonergan,Lonergan Research Institute
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2017-03-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781487513672

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A Third Collection by Bernard Lonergan,Lonergan Research Institute Pdf

A Third Collection, prepared for the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan by editors Robert M. Doran and John D. Dadosky, is a helpful companion to volumes four and thirteen in the series. The volume contains fifteen papers, written between 1974 and 1982, and includes some of his most important shorter writings such as "Prolegomena to the Study of the Emerging Religious Consciousness of Our Time" and "Natural Right and Historical Mindedness." The relevant archival entries are specified, so that readers can consult them. The papers in this volume rehearse in a new key the themes of a lifetime. Without in any way going back on the major emphases of Lonergan's early work–cognitional theory and then the exploration of a fourth, existential level of consciousness– they are focused more on love and on the movement from above downwards in consciousness. Community is emphasized as the context and the fruit of the emergence of authentic subjects.

Author : Gerardo R. Ungson,Yim-Yu Wong
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 596 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2014-12-18
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781317469735

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Global Strategic Management by Gerardo R. Ungson,Yim-Yu Wong Pdf

International business is undergoing continuous transformation as multinational firms and comparative management evolve in the changing global economy. To succeed in this challenging environment, firms need a well-developed capability for sound strategic decisions. This comprehensive work provides an applied and integrated strategic framework for developing capabilities that lead to global success. It is designed to help readers achieve three essential objectives. First, it provides intellectual and practical guidelines for readers to execute goals and strategies that lead to meaningful and productive results. The book is packed with frameworks, cases, anchoring exercises, techniques, and tools to help readers emerge with a completed business plan after the last chapter. Second, it focuses on strategy and how firms build competitive presence and advantages in a global context. A primary learning objective is to enable readers to understand and evaluate the major issues in strategy formulation and implementation in a global context. Third, it provides an accessible framework that will help guide readers in making strategic decisions that are sound and effective. It offers a unifying process that delineates the necessary steps in analyzing the readiness of a firm to do business abroad. In addition to core issues, each chapter presents frameworks, analytical tools, action-oriented items, and a real-world case - all designed to provide insights on the challenges imposed by globalization and technology on managers operating in a global context.

Author : Ben Goertzel,Stephan Vladimir Bugaj
Publisher : Academica Press,LLC
Page : 633 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9781930901957

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The Path to Posthumanity by Ben Goertzel,Stephan Vladimir Bugaj Pdf

Describing the near future technologies and scientific changes that will affect human life in the next 25 years, this book covers key topics in artificial intelligence, as well as looking at computing and biotechnology.