Insights into the intelligence throughout the natural and technical environment, in the fabric of our devices and dwellings, in our clothes, and under our skin. Is there a way to understand the materials that surround us not as passive objects, but as other intelligences interacting with our own? In Parallel Minds, expert in materials science and nanotechnology Laura Tripaldi delivers not only detailed insights into the properties and emergent behaviors of matter as revealed by state-of-the-art chemistry, synthetic biology, and nanotech, but also a rich philosophical reflection that crosses the frontier between nature and culture, where the most cutting-edge scientific syntheses resonate with ancient myth. The result is a technomaterial bestiary full of unexpected encounters with “strange minds”—from cobwebs to kevlar and carbon fibre, from centaurs to amoebas to arachnids, from polycephalic slime to resonating plasmons, from viruses to golems. Parallel Minds reveals the intelligence at large throughout the natural and technical environment, in the fabric of our devices and dwellings, in our clothes, and even under our skin. Full of lateral ideas and unexpected images, Tripaldi’s book imbues the study and synthesis of materials with a new urgency. For not only do the materials that surround us participate actively in the construction of the world in which we live, but harnessing their ability to interact intelligently with their environment could be the key to the future of our species.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the First WICI International Workshop on Web Intelligence meets Brain Informatics, WImBI 2006, which was held in Beijing, China, in December 2006. The workshop explores a new perspective of Web Intelligence (WI) research from the viewpoint of Brain Informatics (BI). The 26 revised full-length papers presented together with three introductory lectures have been carefully reviewed and selected.

'Imagine that tomorrow neurotic response is so accelerated on this earth that an I.Q. of 500 is commonplace, a moron has the thinking capacity of yesterday's intellectual. Poul Anderson's detailedly plausible exploration of his theme makes for an unusually satisfying and stimulating book.'

This book is written with the one big purpose of being helpful to everyone who reads it. Whether this reading is only for a few moments to merely glance at its pages or to read it consecutively chapter after chapter; it has in it, in every line of it, a statement of fact learned from every day life. It will teach the avid reader the principles of healing through the three-fold method of: suggestion through the hand; suggestion through the spoken and written word; suggestion through telepathy, as explained in the home method of healing.

In Decoding the Mind of God author O. M Kelly delves into the unconscious mind and discovers the secrets of the collective consciousness, showing how we can realize the potential of the human mind through belief in ourselves. The Laws of the universe are identical to the collective consciousness, they reveal an answer to every question we are capable of asking. We constantly receive these answers through the vibrations of the energy fields through our being, all without us knowing how to realign our intelligence with our unconscious mind. The truth remains hidden to us. Surprising as it may seem, the key to understanding ourselves lies in a mathematical language, which is the make-up of the unconscious mind. Kelly explores this language through the texts and myths of myriad cultures and belief systems, notwithstanding the truth of the science behind the Egyptian Hieroglyphs and the stories collected in the Bible. As we read this volume we realize that all of these stories are connected to our own story within. Kellys perceptions of the order of higher consciousness are framed by stories from her experiences of personal discovery and over twenty years of researching, lecturing and teaching all around the world. Once these codes are unveiled, we earn our freedom where we can release the fear in which humanity habitually traps itself, creating our accidents, diseases, why we die, right up to explaining extra terrestrial intelligence. This book exposes the secret codes of the universal language that will help us achieve the divine unity with the universe and ourselves.

The International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning discusses what constitutes professionalism, examines the concepts and practices of professional and practice-based learning, including associated research traditions and educational provisions. It also explores professional learning in institutions of higher and vocational education as well the practice settings where professionals work and learn, focusing on both initial and ongoing development and how that learning is assessed. The Handbook features research from expert contributors in education, studies of the professions, and accounts of research methodologies from a range of informing disciplines. It is organized in two parts. The first part sets out conceptions of professionalism at work, how professions, work and learning can be understood, and examines the kinds of institutional practices organized for developing occupational capacities. The second part focuses on procedural issues associated with learning for and through professional practice, and how assessment of professional capacities might progress. The key premise of this Handbook is that during both initial and ongoing professional development, individual learning processes are influenced and shaped through their professional environment and practices. Moreover, in turn, the practice and processes of learning through practice are shaped by their development, all of which are required to be understood through a range of research orientations, methods and findings. This Handbook will appeal to academics working in fields of professional practice, including those who are concerned about developing these capacities in their students. In addition, students and research students will also find this Handbook a key reference resource to the field.

This book explores a neglected feature of intellectual history and literature in the early modern period: the ways in which the body was theorized and represented as an intelligent cognitive agent, with desires, appetites, and understandings independent of the mind. It considers the works of early modern physicians, thinkers, and literary writers who explored the phenomenon of the independent and intelligent body. Charalampous rethinks the origin of dualism that is commonly associated with Descartes, uncovering hitherto unknown lines of reception regarding a form of dualism that understands the body as capable of performing complicated forms of cognition independently of the mind. The study examines the consequences of this way of thinking about the body for contemporary philosophy, theology, and medicine, opening up new vistas of thought against which to reassess perceptions of what literature can be thought and felt to do. Sifting and assessing this evidence sheds new light on a range of historical and literary issues relating to the treatment, perception, and representation of the human body. This book examines the notion of the thinking body across a wide range of genres, topics, and authors, including Montaigne’s Essays, Spenser’s allegorical poetry, Donne’s metaphysical poetry, tragic dramaturgy, Shakespeare, and Milton’s epic poetry and shorter poems. It will be essential for those studying early modern literature, cognition, and the body.

There are currently several debates taking place simultaneously in various fields of psychology which address the same fundamental issue: to what extent are the processes and resources that underlie higher cognition domain-general versus domain-specific? Extreme Domain Specificity argues that people are effective thinkers only in contexts which they have directly experienced, or in which evolution has equipped them with effective solutions. The role of general cognitive abilities is ignored, or denied altogether. This book evaluates the evidence and arguments put forward in support of domain specific cognition, at the expense of domain generality. The contributions reflect a range of expertise, and present research into logical reasoning, problem solving, judgement and decision making, cognitive development, and intelligence. The contributors suggest that domain general processes are essential, and that domain specific processes cannot function without them. Rather than continuing to divide the mind’s function into ever more specific units, this book argues that psychologists should look for greater integration and for people’s general cognitive skills to be viewed as an integral part of their lives. Integrating the Mind will be valuable reading for students and researchers in psychology interested in the fields of cognition, cognitive development, intelligence and skilled behaviour.