The Spartan City State produced what is probably one of the most iconic and ruthless military forces in recorded history. They believed that military training and education began at birth. Post-World War II saw a shift to army tanks, fighter jets and missiles that would go on to fight the next huge battle in Northern Europe. Today, with the advent of unmanned systems, our hopes are attached to the idea that we can fight our battles with soldiers pressing buttons in distant command centres. However, soldiers must now be highly trained, super strong and have the intelligence and mental capacity to handle the highly complex and dynamic military operating environment. It is only now as we progress into the twenty-first century that we are getting closer to realising the Spartan ideal and creating a soldier that can endure more than ever before. This book provides the first comprehensive and unifying analysis of the moral, legal and social questions concerning military human enhancement, with a view toward developing guidance and policy that may influence real-world decision making.

In Fictions of Land and Flesh Mark Rifkin explores the impasses that arise in seeking to connect Black and Indigenous movements, turning to speculative fiction to understand those difficulties and envision productive ways of addressing them. Against efforts to subsume varied forms of resistance into a single framework in the name of solidarity, Rifkin argues that Black and Indigenous political struggles are oriented in distinct ways, following their own lines of development and contestation. Rifkin suggests how movement between the two can be approached as something of a speculative leap in which the terms and dynamics of one are disoriented in the encounter with the other. Futurist fiction provides a compelling site for exploring such disjunctions. Through analyses of works by Octavia Butler, Walter Mosley, Nalo Hopkinson, Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, and others, the book illustrates how ideas about fungibility, fugitivity, carcerality, marronage, sovereignty, placemaking, and governance shape the ways Black and Indigenous intellectuals narrate the past, present, and future. In turning to speculative fiction, Rifkin illustrates how speculation as a process provides conceptual and ethical resources for recognizing difference while engaging across it.

In the not too distant future, mankind faces the possibility of being overthrown by its own creations. In Robot Takeover, Ana Matronic presents 100 of the most legendary robots and what makes them iconic - their creators, purpose, design and why their existence has shaken, or in some cases, comforted us. Through 100 iconic robots - from Maria in Fritz Lang's Metropolis to the Sentinels of The Matrix and beyond, via the Gunslinger (Westworld), R2-D2 (Star Wars) etc. - this is a comprehensive look at the robot phenomenon. As well as these 100 entries on specific robots, there are features on the people who invent robots, the moral issues around robot sentience, and the prevalence of robots in music, art and fashion, and more. It's the only robot book you need. With fighters, seducers and psychos in their ranks, it's best you get ready for the robot revolution. Know your enemy...

My Amazon Fire Phone is a comprehensive one-stop guide to the all-new Fire phone, the integrated ecosystem between tablet and phone. Full-color, step-by-step tasks walk you through getting and keeping your Amazon Fire Phone working just the way you want. Learn how to • Navigate your Fire phone’s hardware and interface • Configure the phone application • Use text and multimedia messaging • Set up the Email application • Stay connected by managing contacts • Simplify your life using the Time, Weather, and Calendar apps • Get the most from the Prime Music and Instant Video apps • Manage music and videos, and sync media with your computer • Read, listen, and mange books • Connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Networks • Optimize your web browsing experience with the Silk Browser • Capture, store, view, and share photos • Navigate using Maps • Enhance your Fire phone with apps • Customize your Fire phone • Properly maintain and troubleshoot your Fire phone

Looking across the cultural landscape of the twenty-first century, its literature, film, television, comic books, and other media, we can see multiple examples of what Shelley S. Rees calls a "changeling western," what others have called "weird westerns," and what Michael K. Johnson refers to as "speculative westerns"--that is, hybrid western forms created by merging the western with one or more speculative genres or subgenres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and alternate history. Speculative Wests investigates both speculative westerns and other speculative texts that feature western settings. Just as "western" refers both to a genre and a region, Johnson's narrative involves a study of both genre and place, a study of the "speculative Wests" that have begun to emerge in contemporary texts such as the zombie-threatened California of Justina Ireland's Deathless Divide (2020), the reimagined future Navajo nation of Rebecca Roanhorse's Sixth World series (2018-19), and the complex temporal and geographic borderlands of Alfredo Véa's time travel novel The Mexican Flyboy (2016). Focusing on literature, film, and television from 2016 to 2020, Speculative Wests creates new visions of the American West.

Attorney and legal scholar Daxton Stewart examines the intersection of media law and science fiction, exploring the past, present, and future of communication technology and policy debates. Science fiction offers a vast array of possibilities anticipating future communication technologies and their implications on human affairs. In this book, Stewart looks at potential legal challenges presented by plausible communication technologies that may arise 20 or 50 or 100 years from today. Performing what he calls "speculative legal research," Stewart identifies the kinds of topics we should be talking about relating to speech, privacy, surveillance, and more, and considers the debates that would be likely to arise if such technologies become a reality. Featuring interviews with prominent science fiction authors and legal scholars, and a foreword by Malka Older, this book considers the speculative solutions of science fiction and their implications in law and policy scholarship. Chapters feature specific literary examples to examine how cultural awareness and policy creation are informed by fictional technology, future societies, and legal disputes. Looking forward, beyond traditional legal research and scholarship to the possible and even very likely future of communication technology, this fascinating work of speculative legal research will give students and scholars of media law, science fiction, and technology much to discuss and debate.

The stunningly creative, epic sequel to Wilson's blockbuster thriller and New York Times bestseller Robopocalypse "The machine is still out there. Still alive." Humankind had triumphed over the machines. At the end of Robopocalypse, the modern world was largely devastated, humankind was pressed to the point of annihilation, and the earth was left in tatters . . . but the master artificial intelligence presence known as Archos had been killed. In Robogenesis, we see that Archos has survived. Spread across the far reaches of the world, the machine code has fragmented into millions of pieces, hiding and regrouping. In a series of riveting narratives, Robogenesis explores the fates of characters new and old, robotic and human, as they fight to build a new world in the wake of a devastating war. Readers will bear witness as survivors find one another, form into groups, and react to a drastically different (and deadly) technological landscape. All the while, the remnants of Archos's shattered intelligence are seeping deeper into new breeds of machines, mounting a war that will not allow for humans to win again. Daniel H. Wilson makes a triumphant return to the apocalyptic world he created, for an action-filled, raucous, very smart thrill ride about humanity and technology pushed to the tipping point.

Contemporary research in the field of robotics attempts to harness the versatility and sustainability of living organisms with the hope of rendering a renewable, adaptable, and robust class of technology that can facilitate self-repairing, social, and moral--even conscious--machines. This landmark volume surveys this flourishing area of research.

The most influential words and phrases of 2013! Every day, hundreds of new words join our vocabulary, whether they're scientific creations, cultural terms, or politically and historically charged additions. With Words You Should Know 2013, you will not only be able to keep up with the changing language, but also discover how these important concepts will impact your life in 2013. This book reveals the origins, usage, and influence of 201 brand-new expressions, including: Gaia mission: a European Space Association project that will map out the galaxy Cash mob: a spinoff of a flash mob, this group of shoppers descends upon an establishment with the idea that they will all spend a collectively agreed-upon sum in order to stimulate the local economy Babymoon: a short vacation an expecting couple takes to savor the simplicity of life before children SkyVue: aiming to be the world's third-largest Ferris Wheel in the world, this 500-foot ride will be the newest addition to the Vegas skyline in 2013 From cyberespionage and gendercide to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and aerostats, Words You Should Know 2013 presents you with words and phrases that will define your way of life this year.