"Makes dazzling links between chaos theory and Rodney King, snow boarding and William Gibson, race culture and Star Wars--the literary equivalent of U2's Zoo TV--Rushkoff is courageous enough to stand up against fashionable gloom by putting his faith in today's 'screenagers.

"Readers will learn about the history, present, and dream about the possible futures of different communication devices such as the television, radio, telephone, telegraph, mail, billboards, and visiting people"--Provided by publisher.

This book looks at the impact of play on child development.

What is transhumanism? What is AI? Are these good developments or bad ones? How might immortality be possible? And should we even want to live forever? Get the facts and make up your own mind on these and more questions related to enhanced human potential with Future Humans, part of the new What's the Issue? series. What does it really mean to be human? In the future, might we be forced to rethink the answer? In this fascinating book, explore these questions through topics like: Prosthetics and implants Plastic surgery Performance drugs External memory Genetic modifications Nanotechnology Smart drugs (cognitive enhancers) Cyborgs Bioprinting The What's the Issue? series tackles engaging, thought-provoking subjects chosen from the headlines and public debates. What's the Issue? asks “what’s all the fuss about?,” presents the key facts, reviews what’s at stake in each case, and weighs the pros and cons. The goal of the series is to help young people understand difficult concepts, provide them with the tools to inform their own opinions, and help them to see and influence changes within our society.

"Control the Future" is a time travel adventure stage play script. There are 26 speaking parts (plus optional extras) but the play can be performed with as few as 6 actors if they play multiple parts. Any of these parts can be played by either gender. This can be an all male cast or all female or a mix.

Exploring the often-overlooked history and technological innovations of the world's first true multimedia computer. Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in The Future Was Here, the world's first true multimedia personal computer. Maher argues that the Amiga's capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform—from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware—in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga's technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing.

WINNER OF THE 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS WINNER OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S HELEN BERNSTEIN BOOK AWARD NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, BOSTON GLOBE, SEATTLE TIMES, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NEWSWEEK, PASTE, and POP SUGAR The essential journalist and bestselling biographer of Vladimir Putin reveals how, in the space of a generation, Russia surrendered to a more virulent and invincible new strain of autocracy. Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own--as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings. Gessen charts their paths against the machinations of the regime that would crush them all, and against the war it waged on understanding itself, which ensured the unobstructed reemergence of the old Soviet order in the form of today's terrifying and seemingly unstoppable mafia state. Powerful and urgent, The Future Is History is a cautionary tale for our time and for all time.