Explores universal questions about humanity's capacity for living and thriving in the coming age of sentient machines and AI, examining debates from opposing perspectives while discussing emerging intellectual diversity and its potential role in enabling a positive life.
“A must-read for anyone looking to understand how artificial intelligence is poised to transform human society and life.” —Paul Scharre, Author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence The future is now. Acclaimed technologist and inventor Amir Husain explains how we can live amidst the coming age of sentient machines and artificial intelligence—and not only survive, but thrive. Artificial “machine” intelligence is playing an ever-greater role in our society. We are already using cruise control in our cars, automatic checkout at the drugstore, and are unable to live without our smartphones. The discussion around AI is polarized; people think either machines will solve all problems for everyone, or they will lead us down a dark, dystopian path into total human irrelevance. Regardless of what you believe, the idea that we might bring forth intelligent creation can be intrinsically frightening. But what if our greatest role as humans so far is that of creators? Amir Husain, a brilliant inventor and computer scientist, argues that we are on the cusp of writing our next, and greatest, creation myth. It is the dawn of a new form of intellectual diversity, one that we need to embrace in order to advance the state of the art in many critical fields, including security, resource management, finance, and energy. “In The Sentient Machine, Husain prepares us for a brighter future; not with hyperbole about right and wrong, but with serious arguments about risk and potential” (Dr. Greg Hyslop, Chief Technology Officer, The Boeing Company). He addresses broad existential questions surrounding the coming of AI: Why are we valuable? What can we create in this world? How are we intelligent? What constitutes progress for us? And how might we fail to progress? Husain boils down complex computer science and AI concepts into clear, plainspoken language and draws from a wide variety of cultural and historical references to illustrate his points. Ultimately, Husain challenges many of our societal norms and upends assumptions we hold about “the good life.”
This unique title, The Diwans of Abid ibn al-Abras, of Asad, and Amir ibn at-Tufail, of Amir ibn Sasaah consists of two collections of poetry, belonging to the poets al-Abras and at-Tufail, which were discovered by the British Museum in Beirut in 1907. The collections were completely new at the time, although certain poems in each Diwan had been found in other collections. Included for each poet is an introduction (with biographies) and the translations of their respective Diwans. In addition, there is an Arabic portion of the text, containing the original Diwans, Indexes, and Supplemental poetry attributed to the authors but not found in the Diwans. This work will be of interest to scholars of Arabic literature, poetry, and ancient Arabic texts. ABID IBN AL-ABRAS was a pre-Islamic Arabic poet, known for his association with the Mu'allaqat, or "The Hanging Poems." This was a collection of seven works of renowned poetry, compiled by the scholar Hammad Ar-Rawiya. While al-Abras is included in the group of seven great poets only some of the time, he is recognized as a contemporary of Imru' al-Qais (who lived during the 6th century), considered the greatest of all the poets in the Mu'allaqat. The quality of his work was recognized by celebrated Persian scholar Ibn Qutaybah, who named him among the "Seven" in the 9th Century, after it had been discovered that early versions of the Mu'allaqat had been misrepresented, and two of the seven poems were sometimes replaced with others. AMIR IBN AT-TUFAIL was an Arabic nobleman, scholar, and poet who became a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and was converted to Islam after hearing his testimony. He was considered a great scholar and intellect, and his poetry is well-loved for its beauty. He traveled with Muhammad until his death, preaching and practicing Islam.
5 War and Peace in Shi'i Primary Narratives and Sources -- 6 Traditional Shi'i Ethics of War and Peace Untested: Jihad, Ideology, Revolution, and War -- 7 Postwar Revision and the Reconstruction of Modern Iranian-Shi'i Ethics of War and Peace -- 8 Terrorism and Shi'i Theologies of Martyrdom, Nonviolence, and Forgiveness -- 9 Diplomacy in between Nuclear Technology and Antibomb Theology -- Conclusion: Beyond a Minority Mentality: The Emerging Shi'i-Iranian Cosmopolitanism
Pembentukan institusi kekeluargaan Islam bukan hanya dilihat kepada kewujudan hubungan sosial antara suami, isteri dan anak-anak, bahkan ia haruslah berpandukan hukum-hakam Islam sebagai teras pembentukan keluarga agar mawaddah, rahmah dan sakinah sentiasa memenuhi segenap ruang rumah tangga yang dibina. Buku ini mengupas mengenai hukum-hakam pembentukan institusi kekeluargaan Islam bermula daripada panduan memilih pasangan sehingga kepada perceraian dan hak penjagaan anak-anak. Perbincangan buku ini digarap berdasarkan mazhab Syafi'i sebagai pandangan utama dan diperkemaskan dengan rujukan terhadap Enakmen Undang-Undang Keluarga Islam (Negeri Pulau Pinang) 2004.
The Imam, the Divine Guide, is the central point around which the Shi'ite religion turns. The power of Shi'ism comes from the actions of the Imam. This title is reserved exclusively for the sucessors of the prophets in their mission. The author shows that from the beginning of Shi'ite Islam until the tenth century, the Imam was primarily a master of knowledge with supernatural powers, not a jurist theologian. The Imam is the threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity, the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred. The author presents Shi'ism as a religion founded on double dimensions where the role of the leader remains constantly central: perpetual initiation into divine secrets and continued confrontation with anti-initiation forces. Without esotericism, exotericism loses its meaning. Early Imamism is an esoteric doctrine. Historically, then, at the beginning of esotericism in Islam, we find an initiatory, mystical, and occultist doctrine. This is the first book to systematically explore the immense literature attributed to the Imams themselves in order to recover the authentic original vision. It restores an essential source of esotericism in the world of Islam.
This paper examines the impact of government size on how output and government expenditure respond to oil price shocks in 28 oil-exporting countries between 1990 and 2016. Results suggest that if the size of government (measured by government expenditure-to-(non-oil) GDP ratio) is larger, non-oil output growth, in response to a positive oil price shock, tends to be greater and output volatility higher. Furthermore, I find that an unexpected increase in oil price leads to expansion in government expenditure and the expansion is larger, the larger is the government. This paper provides empirical evidence for direct correlation between government size and macroecnomic stability in oil-exporting countries. The findings imply that fiscal consolidation and economic diversification help to narrow down economic exposure to exogenous oil price shocks and reduce volatility in non-oil output.
This study of messianism and revolution examines an extremely rich though unexplored historical record on the rise of Islam and its sociopolitical revolutions from Muhammad’s constitutive revolution in Arabia to the Abbasid revolution in the East and the Fatimid and Almohad revolutions in North Africa and the Maghreb. Bringing the revolutions together in a comprehensive framework, Saïd Amir Arjomand uses sociological theory as well as the critical tools of modern historiography to argue that a volatile but recurring combination of apocalyptic motivation and revolutionary action was a driving force of historical change time and again. In addition to tracing these threads throughout 500 years of history, Arjomand also establishes how messianic beliefs were rooted in the earlier Judaic and Manichaean notions of apocalyptic transformation of the world. By bringing to light these linkages and factors not found in the dominant sources, this text offers a sweeping account of the long arc of Islamic history.
Remedying an important deficit in the historiography of medicine, public health, and the Middle East, A Modern Contagion increases our understanding of ongoing sociopolitical challenges in Iran and the rest of the Islamic world.
This paper discusses the challenges posed by low oil prices in the MENA and CCA regions, the adjustment policies adopted so far, and remaining adjustment needs and future risks.
Brain training is all the rage. Commercial and clinical initiatives capitalize on trailblazing interdisciplinary research that spans domains such as education, psychological and brain science, cognitive remediation, and mental health. Promotional materials boast that we can learn to think and respond faster, focus better, and control our emotions; companies and authors market techniques to boost memory, increase confidence, and overcome cognitive impairments. 'How (not) to Train the Brain' examines the field of cognitive fitness and scrutinizes the scientific evidence in support of brain training techniques. With the potential to affect millions this topic is important for scientists, practitioners, educators, and the general public. While many a consumer often marvels at this highly commercialized field, discerning fact from fad becomes a challenge given the abundance of products, publications, and contexts. Moreover, available products prey on the naivety of individuals unfamiliar with the nuanced field of neuroscience, advertising programs that lack scientific validation or presenting unfounded arguments. In this book, the authors review data from hundreds of articles and provide an overarching account of the field, separating scientific evidence from publicity myth and guiding readers through how they should - and should not - train the brain. They describe existing techniques, including those rooted in scientific research, and survey methods that purport to yield measurable improvements. Intended for a wide audience, this book taps a timely topic by highlighting the most salient approaches to boosting brain function while identifying those that don't seem to work.
This book provides a historical and comparative study of logic in Arabic in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the first texts, 16th century, to the end of the 19th century, using authentic, completely unknown and unpublished manuscripts
At a mere four hours’ notice, at 8.00 p.m., on March 24th 2020, the Indian Prime Minister Modi announced a lockdown to contain the spread of virus in order to jumpstart an already-crumbling healthcare system for one of the most devastating pandemics soon to envelop India. People stormed out to panic-buy ration stocks; India’s migrant working classes started walking back to the villages, left hungry and desolate without homes, work and wages - a scene not very short of an apocalypse. Over two summers, India woke up to similar headlines: a shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines; a languishing economy; cases rising and falling; governments greenlighting Hindu religious, superspreader that compounded the second wave; misled unlocking schools, business and the social sphere, and reversed lockdowns when cases went up; underreporting of cases and deaths; lakhs dead to the virus and crores of people infected, and still counting. While the pandemic continues to rage on, notwithstanding its ebbs and flows, its real impact on society may start to be visible only much later. Over a year of tracking how the pandemic ravaged India’s society, economy, politics and culture, nine of finest India’s writers try and make sense of this difficult reality. The Dark Hour is a publisher’s anthology of specially commissioned long-form essays that unpack two dreadful summers of the pandemic that wreaked havoc on the many Indias within India.
The second largest branch of Islam, with between 130 and 190 million adherents across the globe, Shi'i Islam is becoming an increasingly significant force in contemporary politics, especially in the Middle East. This makes an informed understanding of its fundamental spiritual beliefs and practices both necessary and timely. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi is one of the most distinguished scholars of Shi'i history and theology, and in this volume he offers a wide-ranging and engaging survey of the core texts of Shi'i Islam. Examining in turn the origins and later developments of Shi'i spirituality, the author reveals the profoundly esoteric nature of the beliefs which accrued to the figures of the early Imams, and which became associated with their interaction between the material and spiritual worlds. Many of these beliefs have remained much misunderstood even within the wider Muslim world. Furthermore, Western scholarship has tended to follow the lead of the earlier orientalists and critics, viewing Shi'i teachings as marginal. In this study the author shows, by contrast, how central and creative the very nature of spirituality was to the development of Shi'i Islam, as well as to classical Muslim civilisation as a whole. In this comprehensive treatment, the esoteric nature of Shi'i spirituality emerges as an essential phenomenon for understanding Shi'i Islam.
This book uses the ontology of Iranian Philosopher Mulla Sadra to interpret the physical world and its connection with God and Angels. In this way, this book logically answers the following basic questions about this universe and life: • Is this World a reality or just an illusion? • What is the true reality of Space and Time? • Is Space really limitless and what are the reasons for its limitlessness? • Does Time really exist or does it only appear to pass in our minds? • Is this World created by itself or by a supernatural being called God? • What is the Proof of God’s existence? • Do Angels also exist? And how? • How did God and Angels create this World? • Do God and Angels affect the daily events of this world? and how? • Where are God and Angels located? • Why man cannot see God and Angels? • What is the Purpose of the World’s Creation? • Does Man have a free will? And is God the source of evils in this World? • Will this World continue to exist for ever? • What will happen after the end of this World? The uniqueness of the book lies in the fact that it is the one single book which gives the answers of all such interesting questions in a manner which is strictly logical as well as simple to understand even for general inquisitive readers. In addition to general readers, this book is also of much interest to the specialists in the fields of cosmology, philosophy, religion, ontology, cosmogony etc. In this way, the circle of its target readers is very wide. This book is also useful to understand the philosophy of Mulla Sadra an Iranian philosopher of seventeenth century whose most of the books and writings are not yet translated into European languages and are thus not yet fully known to the western readers.
‘Alī, son of Abī Ṭālib, Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin, is the only Companion of the Prophet who has remained to this day the object of fervent devotion of hundreds of millions of followers in the lands of Islam, especially in the East. Based on a detailed analysis of several categories of sources, this book demonstrates that Shi‘ism is the religion of the Imam, of the Master of Wisdom, just like Christianity is that of Christ, and that ‘Alī is the first Master and Imam par excellence. Shi‘ism can therefore be defined, in its most specific religious aspects, as the absolute faith in ‘Alī: the divine Man, the most perfect manifestation of God’s attributes, simultaneously spiritual refuge, model and horizon. With contributions by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov & Mathieu Terrier Translated from French by Francisco José Luis & Anthony Gledhill
The German lacuna in Edward Said’s 'Orientalism' has produced varied studies of German cultural and academic Orientalisms. So far the domains of German politics and scholarship have not been conflated to probe the central power/knowledge nexus of Said’s argument. Seeking to fill this gap, the diplomatic career and scholarly-literary productions of the centrally placed Friedrich Rosen serve as a focal point to investigate how politics influenced knowledge generated about the “Orient” and charts the roles knowledge played in political decision-making regarding extra-European regions. This is pursued through analyses of Germans in British imperialist contexts, cultures of lowly diplomatic encounters in Middle Eastern cities, Persian poetry in translation, prestigious Orientalist congresses in northern climes, leveraging knowledge in high-stakes diplomatic encounters, and the making of Germany’s Islam policy up to the Great War. Politics drew on bodies of knowledge and could promote or hinder scholarship. Yet, scholars never systemically followed empire in its tracks but sought their own paths to cognition. On their own terms or influenced by “Oriental” savants they aligned with politics or challenged claims to conquest and rule.
Sociology of Shiʿite Islam is a comprehensive study of the development of Shiʿism. Its bearers first emerged as a sectarian elite, then a hierocracy and finally a theocracy. Imamate, Occultation and the theodicy of martyrdom are identified as the main components of the Shiʻism as a world religion. In these collected essays Arjomand has persistenly developed a Weberian theoretical framework for the analysis of Shiʿism, from its sectarian formation in the eighth century through the establishment of the Safavid empire in the sixteenth century, to the Islamic revolution in Iran in the twentieth century. These studies highlight revolutionary impulses embedded in the belief in the advent of the hidden Imam, and the impact of Shiʻite political ethics on the authority structure of pre-modern Iran and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This issue of Sleep Medicine Clinics, Guest Edited by Max Hirshkowitz, PhD, D ABSM, will focus on Fatigue, with article topics including: Fatigue, Sleepiness, and Safety; Assessment, and Methodology; Fatigue and Neurological Disorders; Cardiopulmonary Disorders and Fatigue; Cancer and Fatigue; Psychiatric Disorders and Fatigue; Organ Transplantation and Fatigue; Fatigue in Other Medical Disorders; Sleep Disorders and Fatigue; The Pharmacology of Fatigue and Sleepiness; and Fatigue Management Strategies.
This will help us customize your experience to showcase the most relevant content to your age group
Please select from below
Login
Not registered?
Sign up
Already registered?
Success – Your message will goes here
We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.