Archives de catégorie : Popular Science

WHY WE PLAY de Will Freeman

WHY WE PLAY investigates the transformative power of one of the most widespread artforms and businesses of our times. Perfect for readers of Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark.

WHY WE PLAY:
How Video Games Took Over the World
by Will Freeman
Neem Tree Press, September 2023
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Offering an accessible and balanced analysis, WHY WE PLAY explores how video games have permeated our daily lives. Their presence in our homes, culture, business, politics, sport, education, and healthcare has made them one of the most ubiquitous mediums of modern times. The role games play today – from influencing youth culture to informing the design of space craft –renders them remarkably powerful. But as games occupy an increasingly important place in our daily lives, it’s becoming harder to understand the opportunities they offer and the challenges they present.
For gamers and non-gamers alike, WHY WE PLAY provides the ultimate guide to questions you didn’t even know you had…

Will Freeman is a games journalist who has written for The Guardian and The Observer as well as gaming publications and game industry titles for over 17 years. Will also serves the game industry as a writer, editor, speaker, script editor, event curator, awards judge, consultant, and more. As an expert in the field, Will is fascinated by the wide-ranging impact of video games on our lives and our cultural landscape.

CODIFIED d’Andrew Smith

From award-winning journalist Andrew Smith, contributing writer for the Sunday Times and the Guardian, CODIFIED is an immersive, sharp-eyed tour of the world of computer programming, told through Smith’s own journey to learn how to code.

CODIFIED
by Andrew Smith
‎ Atlantic Monthly Press/Grove Atlantic, Winter 2024

Andrew Smith’s first book, Moondust, was a #1 UK and international bestseller, nominated for two British Book Awards (including Read of the Year), and cited by the Times as one of its “100 Best Books of the Decade.” His follow-up Totally Wired—centered on the late 1990s dot-com bubble and its tumultuous crash—was published to rave reviews, hailed as “effervescent and vivid . . . a book whose time has come” (Sunday Times). Smith’s latest, CODIFIED, is a mesmerizing, up-to-the-minute account of the world of coders, as experienced through his own endeavor to become one.
Throughout history, technological revolutions have been driven by the invention of machines. But today, the power of the tech transforming our world lies in an intangible and impenetrable cosmos of software: algorithmic code. So symbiotic has our relationship with this code become that we barely notice it anymore. We can’t see it, are not even sure how to think about it, and yet we do almost nothing that doesn’t depend on it. In a world increasingly governed by technologies that so few can comprehend, who controls the future?
CODIFIED follows Andrew Smith on his immersive trip into the world of coding, taking us behind the scenes into the lives—and minds—of the new gatekeepers of the 21st century: those who write code. Smith embarks on a quest to understand this sect in what he believes to be the only way possible: by learning to code himself. Along the way, he becomes involved with a wild array of characters and takes part in several lively rituals of initiation into the coding world: he visits a global coding conference in Ohio, where he meets the creator of the Python programming language; and he takes part in a 24-hour “hackathon” in Silicon Valley, a Darwinian race to see who can build the best app overnight. At the start of his odyssey he travels to Magdeburg, Germany to have his brain scanned by a team of scientists studying the effects of coding on the human brain and will share the results of the final comparison scan. Smith delivers a vivid, effervescent portrait of a culture working in an office or coworking space near you—all while wrestling with everything that’s at stake in this stage of technological evolution. How do we control a technology that most people can’t understand? And are we programming ourselves out of existence? By-turns illuminating, alarming, and amusing, CODIFIED is an essential book for our times.

“Smith is an ideal narrator: sharp-eyed yet increasingly affectionate about his subjects; expert enough to dissect Apollo minutiae clearly but not so obsessed as to leave a general reader trailing in the jetwash.”
—Financial Times on Moondust

“A brilliant exploration of madness and genius in the early days of the web. Fascinatingly weird . . . terrific.”
—Guardian on Totally Wired

“A rich mix of cultural history, reportage and personal reflection.” —Evening Standard on Moondust

“Highly entertaining . . . [Smith’s] superb book is a fitting tribute to a unique band of 20th-century heroes.”
—GQ on Moondust

Andrew Smith has worked as a critic and feature writer for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Observer, and The Face, and has penned documentaries for the BBC. He is the author of the internationally bestselling book Moondust, about the nine remaining men who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, and Totally Wired. He was raised in the UK and currently lives in California.

LONG COVID de Martin Korte

Covid’s serious neurological after-effects: causes, treatments, and your chance of recovery, by one of Germany’s best-known brain researchers, specializing in how inflammatory processes influence brain performance. Based on the latest research findings

LONG COVID
by Prof. Dr. Martin Korte
DVA, October 2022

Exhaustion, breathlessness, loss of taste, brain fog, problems concentrating: about ten percent of Covid patients report these and other similar symptoms, months after first catching the virus. It doesn’t matter if their original symptoms were mild, and even the young and usually fit and healthy are affected. Not only that, but the latest studies show that Covid can accelerate brain ageing, meaning that the number of people suffering from dementia could rise sharply in the next few years. This alarming discovery suggests that long Covid really is the new endemic disease, and doctors and scientists have issued warnings about the long-term consequences for both individual patients and society at large.
In his new book, Martin Korte, who is researching long Covid at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Braunschweig Technical University, reveals how viral infections can damage our brains and cause lifelong conditions affecting people of all ages. He also explains how we can minimise the risk of long Covid, what treatments are available, and what we can do to regain our physical and mental fitness.

Martin Korte is one of Germany’s foremost neuroscientists. He is Professor of Neurobiology at Braunschweig Technical University and head of the Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration research group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig. He specialises in the cellular basis of learning and memory, and the interaction between the immune and nervous systems in the context of Alzheimer’s. He and his research group were among the first to show that viral respiratory diseases can cause the immune system to overreact, causing long-term damage to the brain. He is currently involved in research into long Covid. Korte is a much sought-after expert, and will be familiar to many from his frequent talks and TV appearances.

DELIBERATE CALM de Jacqueline Brassey, Aaron De Smet & Michiel Kruyt

A trio of McKinsey & Company veterans draws from a unique combination of psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness practices plus a combined 50-plus years of international board room experience to offer a unique approach to learning and leading with awareness and intentional choice, even amidst the most challenging circumstances.

DELIBERATE CALM:
How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World
by Jacqueline Brassey, Aaron De Smet & Michiel Kruyt
HarperBusiness, November 2022

As the speed of change in our increasingly complex world accelerates daily, leaders are tasked with performing outside of their familiar zones both in their personal and professional lives. This requires us to adapt. Yet, the same conditions that make adapting so important can also trigger fear, leading us to resist change and default to reactive behavior. The authors call this the “adaptability paradox”: when we most need to learn and change, we stick with what we know, often in ways that stifle learning and innovation. To avoid this trap, leaders must become proactive so they can lead ahead of the curve.
Enter DELIBERATE CALM, a tangible guide that combines cutting-edge neuroscience, psychology, and consciousness practices, along with the authors’ decades of experience working with leaders around the globe. By practicing Dual Awareness, which integrates our internal and external experiences, leaders can become fluid and respond to challenges with intentional choice instead of being limited by their old success models. With DELIBERATE CALM, anyone can lead and learn with awareness and choice to realize their full potential, even in times of uncertainty, complexity, and change.

Jacqueline (Jacqui) Brassey started at McKinsey & Company in 2013 as an expert consultant in the organization practice where she further specialized in transformational change, diversity & inclusion, human capital and leadership development. She has led the learning & development of McKinsey’s top 600 most senior leaders and serves on the firm’s global learning team. She has a PhD in Economics and Business from Groningen University, MS in affective neuroscience from the University of Maastricht and Florence, BA and MA cum laude in policy and organization sciences from Tilburg University and a bachelor’s degree in international business and languages from Avans University of Applied Sciences. She coauthored over twenty book chapters and articles in the area of organizational behavior and leadership development. Additionally, she serves as a board member of Save the Children. Jacqui and husband, Nicholas, live in the Netherlands with their 12-year-old twins.
Aaron De Smet joined McKinsey and Company in 2003; he has led the firm’s thinking on organizational health and leadership. His articles in McKinsey Quarterly are among its most-read and he is a member of the master faculty of the Change Leaders Forum and of the Organizational Agility Forum, which he helped establish. He leads McKinsey’s thinking on organizational health and was on the team that developed the Organizational Health Index (OHI) and OrgLab. Aaron has a PhD in social and organizational psychology from Columbia University, where he specialized in organizational dynamics, culture, leadership, and strategic change. He also has an MBA and BA in psychology. He lives in New Jersey with his family.
Michiel Kruyt is currently CEO of Imagine.one with a mission to create systemic transformation towards a more sustainable and equal planet. Before joining Imagine, Michiel was a partner and one of the leaders of the Organization Practice of McKinsey & Company, and co-founder and former managing partner of Aberkyn, a pioneer specializing in performance transformations, culture change and executive team and leadership development. The first 15 years of his career he worked for Unilever in marketing, sales and general management roles in The Netherlands, Italy and the USA. He is a member of the Board of the non-profit Urban Consciousness Center De Roos in Amsterdam. Michiel, his wife Christine, and their three children live just outside Amsterdam.

Ridley Scott produira le film adapté du livre THE INFINITE MACHINE de Camila Russo

Scott Free, la société de production de Ridley Scott et de son frère Tony, a annoncé qu’elle produirait l’adaptation audiovisuelle du livre THE INFINITE MACHINE de Camila Russo. Le réalisateur et producteur Shyam Madiraju écrira le scénario du film et sera également derrière la caméra. (Lire l’article de Deadline)

Dans le livre THE INFINITE MACHINE: How an Army of Crypto-Hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum, paru en 2020 chez Harper Business aux États-Unis, la journaliste Camila Russo présente son enquête fascinante sur la blockchain (ou base de données partagée) Ethereum et sa crypto-monnaie, l’ether, deuxième crypto-actif le plus important au monde après le Bitcoin. L’auteure revient sur l’avènement des crypto-monnaies et s’interroge sur l’avenir d’internet tel que nous le connaissons.

Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles.