{"title":"Philosophy \u0026 Social Aspects","description":"\u003cp\u003eScience: Philosophy \u0026amp; Social Aspects. 43 titles; authors including Kimmerer, Robin Wall, Kwok, Roberta, Mark, Jason Dove; series including MIT Press Essential Knowledge and Capstone Classics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaperback and Hardcover from $13.99 to $37.99. Free shipping on orders over $50.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-light-eaters-how-the-unseen-world-of-plant-intelligence-offers-a-new-understanding-of-life-on-earth","title":"The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Books of 2024 \u003ci\u003e-\u003c\/i\u003e TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 \u003ci\u003e-\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine's 10 Best Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e- Washington Post's \u003c\/i\u003e50 Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2024 \u003ci\u003e-\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eSmithsonian\u003c\/i\u003e's 10 Best Science Books of the Year \u003ci\u003e-\u003c\/i\u003e A Best Book of the Year: \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe, Scientific American\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eNew York Public Library, \u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly -\u003c\/i\u003e An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Prize \u003ci\u003e- \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the Chautauqua Prize \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e- Finalist for the\u003ci\u003e Los Angeles Times \u003c\/i\u003eBook Prize\u003ci\u003e - \u003c\/i\u003eWinner of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A masterpiece of science writing.\" --Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of \u003ci\u003eBraiding Sweetgrass\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful.\" --Ed Yong, author of \u003ci\u003eAn Immense World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Rich, vital, and full of surprises. Read it!\"\u003c\/b\u003e --\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Kolbert, author of \u003ci\u003eUnder a White Sky \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Sixth Extinction \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward-winning \u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c\/i\u003e staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of natural history and popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom, \"destabilizing not just how we see the green things of the world but also our place in the hierarchy of beings, and maybe the notion of that hierarchy itself.\" (\u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit--a fascinating display of plant behavior and sensory abilities, to name just a few remarkable talents.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Light Eaters\u003c\/i\u003e is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In this captivating exploration of plant intelligence, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how insights into plant communication influence our understanding of what a plant is.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe need plants to survive. But what do they need us for--if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants--and our own place--in the natural world, tackling the enthralling question of plant consciousness along the way.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47942728810685,"sku":"BS-TC0-073869","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0771\/9767\/2637\/files\/9780063073869-HD.jpg?v=1785836349"},{"product_id":"the-agi-chronicles-the-inside-story-of-the-race-to-create-an-artificial-superintelligence","title":"The Agi Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Exciting and brilliantly reported . . . 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It's an exhilarating antidote to toxic positivity.\" --Adam Grant, #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eThink Again\u003c\/em\u003e and host of the TED podcast \u003cem\u003eWorkLife\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of \u003cem\u003eBehavioral\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eScientist\u003c\/em\u003e's\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Notable Books of 2021\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the author of \u003cem\u003eAgainst Empathy\u003c\/em\u003e, a different kind of happiness book, one that shows us how suffering is an essential source of both pleasure and meaning in our lives\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy do we so often seek out physical pain and emotional turmoil? We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. 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But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often--two hundred times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? Why is the vast majority of our genetic code pointless? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake? As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in \u003cem\u003eHuman Errors\u003c\/em\u003e, our evolutionary history is indeed nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body is one big pile of compromises. But that is also a testament to our greatness: as Lents shows, humans have so many design flaws precisely because we are very, very good at getting around them. 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In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eOther Minds\u003c\/i\u003e, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being--how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind's fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journeys. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually \"think for themselves\"? 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Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void? Do human purpose and meaning fit into a scientific worldview? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eand then how each connects to the other. Carroll's presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCarroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Big Picture \u003c\/i\u003eis an unprecedented scientific worldview, a tour de force that will sit on shelves alongside the works of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, and E. O. 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A thought-provoking journey into emotion science.\"--The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/p\u003e\"A singular book, remarkable for the freshness of its ideas and the boldness and clarity with which they are presented.\"--Scientific American \u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A brilliant and original book on the science of emotion, by the deepest thinker about this topic since Darwin.\"--Daniel Gilbert, best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness\u003c\/p\u003eThe science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose groundbreaking brain science research overturns the long-standing belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and hardwired in different brain regions. 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