Monday, January 25, 2021

T-Minus AI: Humanity’s Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power

Michael Kanaan
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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"Mike Kanaan is an influential new voice in the field of AI, and his thoughts paint an insightful perspective. A thought-provoking read." Eric Schmidt, former CEO and executive chairman of Google

Late in 2017, the conversation about the global impact of artificial intelligence (AI) changed forever. China delivered a bold message when it released a national plan to dominate all aspects of AI across the planet. Within weeks, Russia's Vladimir Putin raised the stakes by declaring AI the future for all humankind, and proclaiming that, "Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."

The race was on. Consistent with their unique national agendas, countries throughout the world began plotting their paths and hurrying their pace. Now, not long after, the race has become a sprint.

Despite everything at risk, for most of us AI remains shrouded by a cloud of mystery and misunderstanding. Hidden behind complex technical terms and confused even further by extravagant depictions in science fiction, the realities of AI and its profound implications are hard to decipher, but no less crucial to understand.

In T-Minus AI: Humanity's Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power, author Michael Kanaan explains the realities of AI from a human-oriented perspective that's easy to comprehend. A recognized national expert and the U.S. Air Force's first Chairperson for Artificial Intelligence, Kanaan weaves a compelling new view on our history of innovation and technology to masterfully explain what each of us should know about modern computing, AI, and machine learning.

Kanaan also illuminates the global implications of AI by highlighting the cultural and national vulnerabilities already exposed and the pressing issues now squarely on the table. AI has already become China's all-purpose tool to impose authoritarian influence around the world. Russia, playing catch up, is weaponizing AI through its military systems and now infamous, aggressive efforts to disrupt democracy by whatever disinformation means possible.

America and like-minded nations are awakening to these new realities, and the paths they're electing to follow echo loudly, in most cases, the political foundations and moral imperatives upon which they were formed.

As we march toward a future far different than ever imagined, T-Minus AI is fascinating and critically well-timed. It leaves the fiction behind, paints the alarming implications of AI for what they actually are, and calls for unified action to protect fundamental human rights and dignities for all.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

斜槓青年:全球職涯新趨勢, 迎接更有價值的多職人生

Susan Kuang
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除了本業,你還擁有什麼?
除了職稱,你還有沒有比名片更亮眼的故事?
席捲全球新風潮!
不是迫於生存,而是不甘平庸!


斜/槓/青/年──Slash是一種生活態度!
共享經濟時代,越來越多人不再滿足於單一職業和身分的束縛,
開始選擇一種能夠利用自身專業和才藝,經營多重身分的多職人生。
這些人都擁有一個共同的名字:斜槓青年/Slash。

對於一個斜槓青年最重要的是:
不是身兼很多種賺錢的方式,而是擁有許多真正熱愛的事物。
透過不同管道,讓你的才華和機會超/展/開!

斜槓青年並不浪漫,但可能精采。
他們投資的不是財富,而是自己人生的故事────
一邊做設計同時開書店、從事攝影也是健身教練、寫程式邊做Youtuber……
如今全球斜槓青年的故事已越堆越厚,如果你還未上路,那你該緊張了。

未必要辭職去旅行,
拋棄麵包追逐詩與遠方。
但是你該捫心自問,
除了一份安穩的工作,你還會什麼?
如果世界是精采的,
當你delete人生的其他選擇,自然就沒得選擇。
你要做一隻在猴群裡爬樹的魚?還是也同時痛快地游水!
讓現在的業餘愛好,成為你未來謀生的手段!

從今以後,按自己的方式生活!

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, January 18, 2021

Designing Experiences

J. Robert Rossman, Mathew D. Duerden
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central
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In an increasingly experience-driven economy, companies that deliver great experiences thrive, and those that do not die. Yet many organizations face difficulties implementing a vision of delivering experiences beyond the provision of goods and services. Because experience design concepts and approaches are spread across multiple, often disconnected disciplines, there is no book that succinctly explains to students and aspiring professionals how to design them...

Named a best customer experience book of 2019. ― My Customer

Designing Experiences provides a much-needed evolution in the delivery and execution of programs, services, products, and experiences. Rossman and Duerden present a contemporary approach to experience design, journey mapping, and design thinking that helps us understand the complexity of designing experiences. Moreover, the book offers a refreshing resource, targeting multiple academic disciplines that will benefit greatly from Rossman and Duerden’s framework and conceptualization of experience design. ― William W. Hendricks, Professor and Department Head, Experience Industry Management Department, California Polytechnic State University

Designing Experiences will change the way you think about just about everything you do, or experience, in life. This engaging book outlines the essential elements of any experience, explains the features that influence how we experience different events, describes how to use a set of specific tools to design experiences that achieve a planner’s desired objectives, and leads the reader through the process of conceptualizing how to create great experiences. The book is full is of useful insights relevant to businesses, politicians, teachers, and parents, anyone trying to create experiences that will meaningfully engage others. ― Brigitte C. Madrian, Dean and Marriott Distinguished Professor, Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business

The core content and big payoff in the book is the how-to guide. It begins with an ascending framework of five types of experiences: prosaic, mindful, memorable, meaningful, and transformational. ― Strategy + Business

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港築印

馮俊鍵; 攝影、插圖, 陳耀慈
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歲月悠長的建築
仍蘊含著流動的生命

走在香港的大街上,
總會與不同的建築物擦身而過,
新舊區交替之間,
不少建築屹立於城市多年,
成為歷史的見證,
承載着幾代人的回憶。

本書以細膩的筆觸與繪畫,
勾勒出香港富有歷史意義的建築物,
還以相片展現它們今天的面貎,
在多角度的重塑下,
一磚一瓦流露着人情味與質感,
讓讀者追憶香港舊日生活之外,
也能憑藉建築物的變遷,
見證時代的更迭。

(摘錄自cp1897.com.hk)


Monday, January 11, 2021

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

David Attenborough
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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*Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Best Science & Technology Book of the Year*

In this scientifically informed account of the changes occurring in the world over the last century, award-winning broadcaster and natural historian shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future.

See the world. Then make it better.

I am 93. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.

As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day -- the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity.

I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet is my witness statement, and my vision for the future. It is the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake -- and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right.

We have one final chance to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited.

All we need is the will to do so.

Review
"The eminent traveler and naturalist delivers a combination of memoir and manifesto, the first leisurely, the second earnest....Recognizing that we are at a tipping point, Attenborough is refreshingly optimistic, noting that one thing humans do well is solve problems. Anyone concerned with the planet's ecological future will want to spend time with this excellent book."―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港歷史考察之旅 (Hong Kong History Excursion)

鄭寶鴻
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親身走進城區現場 按圖索驥細味歷史

讀歷史書、欣賞老照片,不如親身走進歷史現場,從真實感受、點點痕跡,去搜尋各種歷史細節。

本地歷史掌故專家鄭寶鴻,自行開發出多條港島歷史考察路線,每一條路線作者都多次帶隊導覽,
行程豐富,包含大量有趣香港歷史資料,參加人士無不拍案叫絕。

書中刊載了二百多幅歷史圖片,讀者按圖索驥,走遍港島東區、中區、西區、金鐘區及灣仔區,九龍尖沙咀、油麻地、旺角、九龍塘、九龍城、深水埗、九龍灣、觀塘以至將軍澳等區域,沿途比對各區新顏舊貌,來一趟趣味盎然的香港歷史散步。


Still reading historical titles or seeing old photos? Why not visit the historical sites by yourself, and trace every bit of Hong Kong history in the real environment?

Hong Kong history expert, Mr. Cheng Po Hung, has himself designed a number of historical guided tours for the Hong Kong Island. He has led tours to walk through every route. With rich itinerary that contains numerous interesting historical details of Hong Kong, the guided tours were highly praised.

This book includes more than 200 historical pictures of Hong Kong. Readers can travel through the Eastern, Central, Western, Admiralty and Wan Chai districts in Hong Kong Island, Tsim Sha Tsui, Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon City, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon Bay, Kwun Tong, as far as Tseung Kwan O districts, comparing the old and the new appearances of these areas.

(摘錄自cp1897.com.hk)

Monday, January 4, 2021

The Midnight Library: A Novel

Matt Haig
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central
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A WASHINGTON POST “FEEL-GOOD BOOK GUARANTEED TO LIFT YOUR SPIRITS”

A New York Times bestseller | Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick!


"Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?"

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

自願被吃的豬 : 100個讓人想破頭的哲學問題 (The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten)

朱立安.巴吉尼 (Julian Baggini)
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吃下自願被你吃的豬,有錯嗎?
吃下自願被你吃的人,有罪嗎?

▍100個哲學問題就像100個哲學版「數獨」,保證讓你想破頭蓋骨,卻又捨不得轉頭!▍

英國哲普作家朱立安‧巴吉尼
暢銷長銷十餘年,最膾炙人口的經典作品

本書已售出14種語文版權,亞馬遜網路書店佳評如潮。
直接以眾人日常生活中都會遇到的問題,挑戰你的邏輯、判斷,道德底線。

★ 派駐國外,雇主付你低於當地勞工的薪資又怎樣?反正比你在本國的薪水高!
★ 即使人民自願被洗腦,且此舉可降低犯罪率,政府仍不該洗腦人民,因為這是對個人自由與尊嚴的侵犯──真的嗎?但教育不也是一種緩慢的洗腦?

在生命的旅途中,你可能會遇到類似的場景:

1.你去領錢。提款機吐出好多錢,比你要領的還多,但是你的帳戶一切正常。嘿嘿,銀行不知道出錯了,除了銀行,沒有人有所損失。這是天上掉下來的禮物嗎?──〈凱子提款機〉
2.你是官員。一部偉大的藝術作品誕生了,拍攝手法一流,內心刻畫深邃。可是,劇情驚世駭俗,甚至歌詠種族屠殺與強暴婦女。該不該禁止這部電影上映?──〈偉大藝術與道德恥辱〉
3.你是消費者。滿街都是「便宜的好咖啡」,真是好康。不過,為什麼會這麼便宜?是因為店員薪資過低、咖啡農被嚴重剝削嗎?你是不是助紂為虐?──〈便宜也有好咖啡〉
4.你是三級貧戶。看過《佐賀的超級阿嬤》之後,你發誓絕不浪費任何食物。有一天,你心愛的貓咪被車撞死了,但牠還是一塊完整的肉,該不該煮來吃?──〈吃吧,不要浪費〉
5.你是國家元首。聲名狼藉的商人想要改變形象,願意捐款拯救卡奴,減少燒炭自殺的現象。條件是:頒授國家最高榮譽勳章給他!這是賄賂,還是行善?──〈賄賂無罪,受餽有理〉

人生經常面臨許多抉擇,也經常遇到許多令人不解的現象,而且都找不到答案。沒錯,這些就是哲學問題。你可以選擇不面對哲學,卻無法逃脫哲學問題的糾纏。
在本書中,英國暢銷哲普作家巴吉尼設計了100種場景,引導出100個哲學問題。他會帶你思索這些問題,提出各種可能的解答;一旦面對這些似曾相似的場景,或許能讓你找到最恰當的解決方法。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)