Video games are both physically and cognitively demanding—so what does that mean for those with a disability or mental illness? Though they may seem at odds, Ability Machines illuminates just how vital video games are to understanding our bodies and abilities. In Ability Machines, Sky LaRell Anderson shows us how video games can help us imagine what our abilities mean and how they engage us physically, behaviorally, and cognitively to envision our agency beyond limitations. On the surface, this can mean games provide power fantasies; more profoundly, games can fundamentally reshape cultural and personal understandings of mental health, illness, disability, and accessibility. Video games are indeed ability machines that produce a reimagined state of agency. Featuring a comparative analysis of key video game titles, including Metal Gear Solid V, Wolfenstein II, Celeste, Devil May Cry 5, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Hades, Nier: Automata, and more, Ability Machines tackles larger questions of ability and how our bodies relate to interactive media.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Bold futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near, offers a framework for envisioning the future of machine intelligence—“a book for anyone who wonders where human technology is going next” (The New York Times Book Review). “Kurzweil offers a thought-provoking analysis of human and artificial intelligence and a unique look at a future in which the capabilities of the computer and the species that invented it grow ever closer.”—BILL GATES Imagine a world where the difference between man and machine blurs, where the line between humanity and technology fades, and where the soul and the silicon chip unite. This is not science fiction. This is the twenty-first century according to Ray Kurzweil, the “restless genius” (The Wall Street Journal), “ultimate thinking machine” (Forbes), and inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era. In his inspired hands, life in the new millennium no longer seems daunting. Instead, it promises to be an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. More than just a list of predictions, Kurzweil’s prophetic blueprint for the future guides us through the inexorable advances that will result in: • Computers exceeding the memory capacity and computational ability of the human brain (with human-level capabilities not far behind) • Relationships with automated personalities who will be our teachers, companions, and lovers • Information fed straight into our brains along direct neural pathways Eventually, the distinction between humans and computers will have become sufficiently blurred that when the machines claim to be conscious, we will believe them.

An investigation of attitudes toward -- and unease with -- Information Technology, as reflected in recent German-language literature. Despite our embrace of the sheer utility and productivity it has made possible, the revolution in Information Technology has led to unease about its possible misuse, abuse, and even its eventual domination of humankind. That German culture is not immune to this sense of disquiet is reflected in a broad variety of German-language fiction since the 1940s. This first study of the literary reception of IT in German-speaking lands begins with an analysis of a seminal novel from the beginning of the computer age, Heinrich Hauser's Gigant Hirn (1948), then moves to its primary focus, the literature of the past two decades, ranging from Gerd Heidenreich's Die Nacht der Händler (1995) to Daniel Glattauer's novel Gut gegen Nordwind (2006). Along the way, it analyzes eleven works, including Barbara Frischmuth's novel Die Schrift des Freundes (1998), René Pollesch's drama world wide web-slums (2001), and Günter Grass's novella Im Krebsgang (2003). As wildly different in approach as these works are, each has much to offer this investigation of the imaginary border dividing the human from the technological, a lingering, centuries-old construct created to ease the anxiety that technology has given rise to throughout the ages. Paul A. Youngman is Associate Professor of German at the University of North Carolina-Charlotteand Director of the Center for Humanities, Technology, and Science.

This volume looks at the ways in which governance in the exercise of its strategies also acts as a process of production of subjects. It argues that governance is not a one-sided affair starting and ending with those who rule and govern, producing fiats, decrees, and diktats, but a productive process — one that produces subjects of governance who in turn respond to the process, and make the field of governance a contentious one. Against the backdrop of the first transition of democracy in India from its origin in a colonial polity to the first phase of its independent life after the promulgation of the Indian Constitution in 1950, this volume explores the second transition towards developmental democracy, examining the interrelations between globalisation, development and structures of governance. The volume suggests that while there is need to reflect on the governance of transition, it is important to question how democracy negotiates this transition.

Taking the period following the advent of liberalization, this book explains the transition of the Indian economy against the backdrop of development. If the objective is to explore the new economic map of India, then the distinct contributions in the book could be seen as twofold. The first is the analytical frame whereby the authors deploy a unique Marxist approach consisting of the initial concepts of class process and the developing countries to address India's economic transition. The second contribution is substantive whereby the authors describe India's economic transition as epochal, materializing out of the new emergent triad of neo-liberal globalization, global capitalism and inclusive development. This is how the book theorizes the structural transformation of the Indian economy in the twenty-first century. Through this framework, it interrogates and critiques the given debates, ideas and policies about the economic development of a developing nation.

Research 2.0 and the Future of Information Literacy examines possible congruencies between information literacy and Research 2.0, because the work of today's researcher mobilizes a number of literacies. From among the various types of relevant literacies, at least three types of literacies can be mentioned in this relation: information literacy, scientific literacy and academic literacy. This book addresses these literacies in the light of the changing research landscape. Broad contexts of the researcher's abilities, as adaptive and innovative thinking, problem solving skills, self-management and design mindset are also examined. Computational thinking and the computational paradigm in a number of fields of research are taken into consideration, as well. Researchers differ to non-researchers when populating social media, which means that these two different groups require different literacies. The relationship between information literacy and information is approached in a new way. Among the multitude of issues, we introduce a new interface between information literacy and Research 2.0. It encompasses the issues of research data management and data literacy, which represent also a challenge both for the academic library and for the communities of researchers. Similarly, the questions of new metrics of scientific output are addressed in the book. - Summarizes the most important and up-to date approaches towards Research 2.0, including researchers' skills and abilities, the data-intensive paradigm of scientific research, open science, not forgetting about factors that inhibit a wider uptake of Research 2.0 - Discusses the nature of information literacy in the light of its definitions, declarations and related frameworks and by outlining the new literacies context, reading and writing, the cultural context, and the turns of library and information science - Numerous literacies, other than information literacy, its relationship to information overload and personal information management are also subject of the book - Theoretical and practical perspectives are given to enable the understanding of the transformations of information literacy and its relationship to Research 2.0