Machine Takeover: The Growing Threat to Human Freedom in a Computer-Controlled Society discusses the implications of technological advancement. The title identifies the changes in society that no one is aware of, along with what this changes entails. The text first covers the information science, particularly the aspect of an automated system for information processing. Next, the selection deals with social implications of information science, such as information pollution. The text also tackles the concerns in the utilization of technology in order to manipulate the lives of people without their knowledge. In Part III, the title covers the science of cybernetics and artificial intelligence. The last part tackles the consequences of modern science. The book will be of great interest to readers who are concerned with the direction of contemporary science.

Includes a section on the science of cybernetics.

Second Variety – A nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the West has reduced much of the world to a barren wasteland. The war continues, however, among the scattered remains of humanity. The Western forces have developed "claws", which are autonomous self-replicating robots to fight on their side... The Last of the Masters – An old and ageing robot is a benevolent dictator of the last remnants of humanity, but the Anarchists want him gone. Will the machines and humans never understand each other? The Defenders – The USA and Soviet Union are engaged in a long nuclear war, but can the robots defend the humanity or be the end of it? Sales Pitch – An unwanted sales-pitching robot is the sole company of his master on a long flight… James P. Crow – Robots have totally moved the society away from war and anarchism but the humans begrudge being inferior to them. It now remains up to James P. Crow to remove the robots from the earth and "de-integrate" the society…

The trend that began with ATMs and do-it-yourself checkouts is moving at lightning speed. Everything from driving to teaching to the care of the elderly and, indeed, code-writing can now be done by smart machines. Conventional wisdom says there will be new jobs to replace those we lose – but is it so simple? And are we ready? Technology writer and think-tank director Nigel Cameron argues it's naive to believe we face a smooth transition. Whether or not there are "new" jobs, we face massive disruption as the jobs millions of us are doing get outsourced to machines. A twenty-first-century "rust belt" will rapidly corrode the labor market and affect literally hundreds of different kinds of jobs simultaneously. Robots won't design our future – we will. Yet shockingly, political leaders and policy makers don't seem to have this in their line of sight. So how should we assess and prepare for the risks of this unknown future?

Gotlieb is a writer central to the Canadian science fiction canon. Though she has been called the queen of Canadian SF by Robert J. Sawyer, and though David Ketterer has suggested that she is Canadian SF, Gotlieb has been largely overlooked by SF studies. This book delves deeply into her body of work and traces her career in detail. Offering close readings of Gotlieb's novels, short stories (including ones not reprinted since their initial appearances), and SF-related poetry, this study explores Gotlieb's development as a writer and her characteristic themes. The book also references her manuscripts when the differences between them and the published stories provide insights into her working methods. The book enumerates and analyzes Gotlieb's innovative explorations of common SF tropes such as the superhuman, human-alien interaction, and the galactic empire, her prevalent thematic concerns (e.g., reproduction, colonization, the mind-body relationship, the essence of "humanity") as well as her stylistically dense and literary approach to the genre.

Many people have maintained a certain suspicion toward robots, especially as they've become more integrated into our lives. They work in factories and hospitals, aid in law enforcement, and even vacuum our homes. Some wonder: What would happen if robots take over? Keep calm. All the answers to surviving the robot revolution are in this electrifying volume, which describes the best strategies to battle the malevolent forces of artificial intelligence. Readers will love this page-turning experience, which includes accessible text and thrilling images that stir the imagination.

This book gathers the peer-reviewed papers presented at the 8th edition of the International Workshop “Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing – SOHOMA’18” held at the University of Bergamo, Italy on June 11–12, 2018. The objective of the SOHOMA annual workshops is to foster innovation in smart and sustainable manufacturing and logistics systems by promoting new concepts, methods and solutions that use service orientation of agent-based control technologies with distributed intelligence. Reflecting the theme of SOHOMA’18: “Digital transformation of manufacturing with agent-based control and service orientation of Internet-scale platforms”, the research included focuses on how the digital transformation, as advocated by the “Industry 4.0”, “Industrial Internet of Things”, “Cyber-Physical Production Systems” and “Cloud Manufacturing” frameworks, improves the efficiency, agility and sustainability of manufacturing processes, products, and services, and how it relates to the interaction between the physical and informational worlds, which is implemented in the virtualization of products, processes and resources managed as services.