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Plato and the nerd : the creative partnership of humans and technology / Edward Ashford Lee.

By: Lee, Edward A, 1957- [author.].
Contributor(s): IEEE Xplore (Online Service) [distributor.] | MIT Press [publisher.].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2017]Distributor: [Piscataqay, New Jersey] : IEEE Xplore, [2017]Description: 1 PDF (xvi, 266 pages) : illustrations.Content type: text Media type: electronic Carrier type: online resourceISBN: 9780262341202.Subject(s): Technology -- Philosophy | Computer science -- Popular works | Creative ability | Computer science | Creative ability | Technology -- PhilosophyGenre/Form: Popular works. | Electronic books.Additional physical formats: Print version:: Plato and the nerd.DDC classification: 601 Online resources: Abstract with links to resource Also available in print.
Contents:
Preface; I Yang; 1 Shadows on the Wall; 1.1 Nerds; 1.2 Artificial and Natural; 1.3 Design and Discovery; 1.4 Engineering and Science; 2 Inventing Laws of Nature; 2.1 The Unknown Knowns; 2.2 Models of Nature; 2.3 Models Are Wrong; 3 Models of Models of Models of Models of Things; 3.1 Technological Tapestries; 3.2 Complexity Simplified; 3.3 Transitivity of Models; 3.4 Reductionism; 4 Hardware Is Ephemeral; 4.1 Hard and Soft; 4.2 Semiconductors; 4.3 Digital Switches; 4.4 Logic Gates; 4.5 Logic Diagrams; 4.6 Digital Machines; 5 Software Endures; 5.1 Self-Scaffolding
5.2 Instruction Set Architectures5.3 Programming Languages; 5.4 Operating Systems; 5.5 Libraries, Languages, and Dialects; 5.6 The Cloud; 6 Evolution and Revolution; 6.1 Normal Engineering; 6.2 Crisis and Failure; 6.3 Crisis and Opportunity; 6.4 Models in Crisis; II Yin; 7 Information; 7.1 Pessimism Becomes Optimism; 7.2 Information-Processing Machines; 7.3 Measuring Information; 7.4 Continuous Information; 8 The Limits of Software; 8.1 Universal Machines?; 8.2 Undecidability; 8.3 Cardinality; 8.4 Digital Physics?; 9 Symbiosis; 9.1 The Notion of a Continuum
9.2 The Impossible Becomes Possible9.3 Digital Psyche?; 9.4 Symbiotic Partnership; 9.5 Incompleteness; 10 Determinism; 10.1 Laplace's Demon; 10.2 The Butterfly Effect; 10.3 Incompleteness of Determinism; 10.4 The Hard and the Soft of Determinism; 11 Probability and Possibility; 11.1 The Bayesians and the Frequentists; 11.2 Continuums, Again; 11.3 Impossibility and Improbability; 12 Final Thoughts; 12.1 Dualism; 12.2 Obstacles; 12.3 Autonomy and Intelligence; Bibliography; Index
Summary: In this book, Edward Ashford Lee makes a bold claim: that the creators of digital technology have an unsurpassed medium for creativity. Technology has advanced to the point where progress seems limited not by physical constraints but the human imagination. Writing for both literate technologists and numerate humanists, Lee makes a case for engineering -- creating technology -- as a deeply intellectual and fundamentally creative process. Explaining why digital technology has been so transformative and so liberating, Lee argues that the real power of technology stems from its partnership with humans.
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Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface; I Yang; 1 Shadows on the Wall; 1.1 Nerds; 1.2 Artificial and Natural; 1.3 Design and Discovery; 1.4 Engineering and Science; 2 Inventing Laws of Nature; 2.1 The Unknown Knowns; 2.2 Models of Nature; 2.3 Models Are Wrong; 3 Models of Models of Models of Models of Things; 3.1 Technological Tapestries; 3.2 Complexity Simplified; 3.3 Transitivity of Models; 3.4 Reductionism; 4 Hardware Is Ephemeral; 4.1 Hard and Soft; 4.2 Semiconductors; 4.3 Digital Switches; 4.4 Logic Gates; 4.5 Logic Diagrams; 4.6 Digital Machines; 5 Software Endures; 5.1 Self-Scaffolding

5.2 Instruction Set Architectures5.3 Programming Languages; 5.4 Operating Systems; 5.5 Libraries, Languages, and Dialects; 5.6 The Cloud; 6 Evolution and Revolution; 6.1 Normal Engineering; 6.2 Crisis and Failure; 6.3 Crisis and Opportunity; 6.4 Models in Crisis; II Yin; 7 Information; 7.1 Pessimism Becomes Optimism; 7.2 Information-Processing Machines; 7.3 Measuring Information; 7.4 Continuous Information; 8 The Limits of Software; 8.1 Universal Machines?; 8.2 Undecidability; 8.3 Cardinality; 8.4 Digital Physics?; 9 Symbiosis; 9.1 The Notion of a Continuum

9.2 The Impossible Becomes Possible9.3 Digital Psyche?; 9.4 Symbiotic Partnership; 9.5 Incompleteness; 10 Determinism; 10.1 Laplace's Demon; 10.2 The Butterfly Effect; 10.3 Incompleteness of Determinism; 10.4 The Hard and the Soft of Determinism; 11 Probability and Possibility; 11.1 The Bayesians and the Frequentists; 11.2 Continuums, Again; 11.3 Impossibility and Improbability; 12 Final Thoughts; 12.1 Dualism; 12.2 Obstacles; 12.3 Autonomy and Intelligence; Bibliography; Index

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In this book, Edward Ashford Lee makes a bold claim: that the creators of digital technology have an unsurpassed medium for creativity. Technology has advanced to the point where progress seems limited not by physical constraints but the human imagination. Writing for both literate technologists and numerate humanists, Lee makes a case for engineering -- creating technology -- as a deeply intellectual and fundamentally creative process. Explaining why digital technology has been so transformative and so liberating, Lee argues that the real power of technology stems from its partnership with humans.

Also available in print.

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