Books published by MIT Press Ltd

Researchers rethink tactics for inventing and disseminating research, examining the use of such unconventional forms as poetry, performance, catalogs, interactive machines, costume, and digital platforms.Transmission is the research moment when invention meets dissemination—the tactical combination of making (how theory, methods, and data shape research) and communicating (how research is shown and shared). In this book, researchers from a range of disciplines examine tactics for the transmission of research, exploring such unconventional forms as poetry, performance, catalogs, interactive machines, costume, and digital platforms. Focusing on transmissions draws attention to a critical part of the research process commonly overlooked and undervalued. Too often, the results of radically experimental research methodologies are pressed into conventional formats. The contributors to Transmissions rethink tactics for making and communicating research as integral to the kind of projects they do, pushing against disciplinary edges with unexpected and creative combinations and collaborations.Each chapter focuses on a different tactic of transmission. One contributor merges literary styles of the empirical and poetic; another uses an angle grinder to construct machines of enquiry. One project invites readers to participate in an exchange about value; another provides a series of catalog cards to materialize ordering systems of knowledge. All the contributors share a commitment to uniting the what with the how, firmly situating their transmissions in their research and in each unique chapter of this book.ContributorsNerea Calvillo, Rebecca Coleman, Larissa Hjorth, Janis Jefferies, Kat Jungnickel, Sarah Kember, Max Liboiron, Kristina Lindström, Alexandra Lippman, Bonnie Mak, Julien McHardy, Julia Pollack, Ingrid Richardson, Åsa Ståhl, Laura Watts

Interdisciplinary perspectives on the capacity to perceive, appreciate, and make music.Research shows that all humans have a predisposition for music, just as they do for language. All of us can perceive and enjoy music, even if we can't carry a tune and consider ourselves "unmusical.” This volume offers interdisciplinary perspectives on the capacity to perceive, appreciate, and make music. Scholars from biology, musicology, neurology, genetics, computer science, anthropology, psychology, and other fields consider what music is for and why every human culture has it; whether musicality is a uniquely human capacity; and what biological and cognitive mechanisms underlie it.Contributors outline a research program in musicality, and discuss issues in studying the evolution of music; consider principles, constraints, and theories of origins; review musicality from cross-cultural, cross-species, and cross-domain perspectives; discuss the computational modeling of animal song and creativity; and offer a historical context for the study of musicality. The volume aims to identify the basic neurocognitive mechanisms that constitute musicality (and effective ways to study these in human and nonhuman animals) and to develop a method for analyzing musical phenotypes that point to the biological basis of musicality.ContributorsJorge L. Armony, Judith Becker, Simon E. Fisher, W. Tecumseh Fitch, Bruno Gingras, Jessica Grahn, Yuko Hattori, Marisa Hoeschele, Henkjan Honing, David Huron, Dieuwke Hupkes, Yukiko Kikuchi, Julia Kursell, Marie-Élaine Lagrois, Hugo Merchant, Björn Merker, Iain Morley, Aniruddh D. Patel, Isabelle Peretz, Martin Rohrmeier, Constance Scharff, Carel ten Cate, Laurel J. Trainor, Sandra E. Trehub, Peter Tyack, Dominique Vuvan, Geraint Wiggins, Willem Zuidema

An introduction to dimensional analysis, a method of scientific analysis used to investigate and simplify complex physical phenomena, demonstrated through a series of engaging examples.This book offers an introduction to dimensional analysis, a powerful method of scientific analysis used to investigate and simplify complex physical phenomena. The method enables bold approximations and the generation of testable hypotheses. The book explains these analyses through a series of entertaining applications; students will learn to analyze, for example, the limits of world-record weight lifters, the distance an electric submarine can travel, how an upside-down pendulum is similar to a running velociraptor, and the number of Olympic rowers required to double boat speed.The book introduces the approach through easy-to-follow, step-by-step methods that show how to identify the essential variables describing a complex problem; explore the dimensions of the problem and recast it to reduce complexity; leverage physical insights and experimental observations to further reduce complexity; form testable scientific hypotheses; combine experiments and analysis to solve a problem; and collapse and present experimental measurements in a compact form. Each chapter ends with a summary and problems for students to solve. Taken together, the analyses and examples demonstrate the value of dimensional analysis and provide guidance on how to combine and enhance dimensional analysis with physical insights. The book can be used by undergraduate students in physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, sports science, and astronomy.

Experts offer strategies for managing people in technocentric times.

An accessible introduction to the artificial intelligence technology that enables computer vision, speech recognition, machine translation, and driverless cars.Deep learning is an artificial intelligence technology that enables computer vision, speech recognition in mobile phones, machine translation, AI games, driverless cars, and other applications. When we use consumer products from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, or Baidu, we are often interacting with a deep learning system. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, computer scientist John Kelleher offers an accessible and concise but comprehensive introduction to the fundamental technology at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution.Kelleher explains that deep learning enables data-driven decisions by identifying and extracting patterns from large datasets; its ability to learn from complex data makes deep learning ideally suited to take advantage of the rapid growth in big data and computational power. Kelleher also explains some of the basic concepts in deep learning, presents a history of advances in the field, and discusses the current state of the art. He describes the most important deep learning architectures, including autoencoders, recurrent neural networks, and long short-term networks, as well as such recent developments as Generative Adversarial Networks and capsule networks. He also provides a comprehensive (and comprehensible) introduction to the two fundamental algorithms in deep learning: gradient descent and backpropagation. Finally, Kelleher considers the future of deep learning—major trends, possible developments, and significant challenges.

A comprehensive overview of developments in augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality—and how they could affect every part of our lives.After years of hype, extended reality—augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR)—has entered the mainstream. Commercially available, relatively inexpensive VR headsets transport wearers to other realities—fantasy worlds, faraway countries, sporting events—in ways that even the most ultra-high-definition screen cannot. AR glasses receive data in visual and auditory forms that are more useful than any laptop or smartphone can deliver. Immersive MR environments blend physical and virtual reality to create a new reality. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, technology writer Samuel Greengard offers an accessible overview of developments in extended reality, explaining the technology, considering the social and psychological ramifications, and discussing possible future directions.Greengard describes the history and technological development of augmented and virtual realities, including the latest research in the field, and surveys the various shapes and forms of VR, AR, and MR, including head-mounted displays, mobile systems, and goggles. He examines the way these technologies are shaping and reshaping some professions and industries, and explores how extended reality affects psychology, morality, law, and social constructs. It's not a question of whether extended reality will become a standard part of our world, he argues, but how, when, and where these technologies will take hold. Will extended reality help create a better world? Will it benefit society as a whole? Or will it merely provide financial windfalls for a select few? Greengard's account equips us to ask the right questions about a transformative technology.

A philosopher considers entertainment, in all its totalizing variety-infotainment, edutainment, servotainment-and traces the notion through Kant, Zen Buddhism, Heidegger, Kafka, and Rauschenberg.

An examination of the meaning of meaninglessness: why it matters that nothing matters.When someone is labeled a nihilist, it's not usually meant as a compliment. Most of us associate nihilism with destructiveness and violence. Nihilism means, literally, "an ideology of nothing. " Is nihilism, then, believing in nothing? Or is it the belief that life is nothing? Or the belief that the beliefs we have amount to nothing? If we can learn to recognize the many varieties of nihilism, Nolen Gertz writes, then we can learn to distinguish what is meaningful from what is meaningless. In this addition to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Gertz traces the history of nihilism in Western philosophy from Socrates through Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre.Although the term "nihilism” was first used by Friedrich Jacobi to criticize the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Gertz shows that the concept can illuminate the thinking of Socrates, Descartes, and others. It is Nietzsche, however, who is most associated with nihilism, and Gertz focuses on Nietzsche's thought. Gertz goes on to consider what is not nihilism—pessimism, cynicism, and apathy—and why; he explores theories of nihilism, including those associated with Existentialism and Postmodernism; he considers nihilism as a way of understanding aspects of everyday life, calling on Adorno, Arendt, Marx, and prestige television, among other sources; and he reflects on the future of nihilism. We need to understand nihilism not only from an individual perspective, Gertz tells us, but also from a political one.

An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts.By turns alarming and awe-inspiring, Face offers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z—from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first.Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes. From vintage advertisements for a "nose adjuster” to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race, Face delivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity.

Experts review the latest research on the neocortex and consider potential directions for future research.

A milestone work that examines the democratic idea of photography and its expansion in common culture, particularly in the United States; generously illustrated.

A proposal for using cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the socioeconomic impact of public investment in large scientific projects.

How the history of art begins with the myth of the barbarian invasion—the romantic fragmentation of classical eternity.The history of art, argues Éric Michaud, begins with the romantic myth of the barbarian invasions. Viewed from the nineteenth century, the Germanic-led invasions of the Roman Empire in the fifth century became the gateway to modernity, seen not as a catastrophe but as a release from a period of stagnation, renewing Roman culture with fresh, northern blood—and with new art that was anti-Roman and anticlassical. Artifacts of art from then on would be considered as the natural product of "races” and "peoples” rather than the creation of individuals. The myth of the barbarian invasions achieved the fragmentation of classical eternity.This narrative, Michaud explains, inseparable from the formation of nation states and the rise of nationalism in Europe, was based on the dual premise of the homogeneity and continuity of peoples. Local and historical particularities became weapons aimed at classicism's universalism. The history of art linked its objects with racial groups—denouncing or praising certain qualities as "Latin” or "Germanic.” Thus the predominance of linear elements was thought to betray a southern origin, and the "painterly” a Germanic or northern source. Even today, Michaud points out, it is said that art best embodies the genius of peoples. In the globalized contemporary art market, the ethnic provenance of works—categorized, for example, as "African American,” "Latino,” or "Native American”—creates added value. The market displays the same competition among "races” that was present at the foundation of art history as a discipline.

Economists offer rigorous quantitative analyses of how the institutional design and purpose of the WTO (and its progenitor, the GATT) affect economic development.