The Doomsday Calculation

Author : William Poundstone
Publisher : Little, Brown Spark
ISBN 13 : 031644071X
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Doomsday Calculation written by William Poundstone and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?, a fascinating look at how an equation that foretells the future is transforming everything we know about life, business, and the universe. In the 18th century, the British minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes devised a theorem that allowed him to assign probabilities to events that had never happened before. It languished in obscurity for centuries until computers came along and made it easy to crunch the numbers. Now, as the foundation of big data, Bayes' formula has become a linchpin of the digital economy. But here's where things get really interesting: Bayes' theorem can also be used to lay odds on the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence; on whether we live in a Matrix-like counterfeit of reality; on the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum theory being correct; and on the biggest question of all: how long will humanity survive? The Doomsday Calculation tells how Silicon Valley's profitable formula became a controversial pivot of contemporary thought. Drawing on interviews with thought leaders around the globe, it's the story of a group of intellectual mavericks who are challenging what we thought we knew about our place in the universe. The Doomsday Calculation is compelling reading for anyone interested in our culture and its future.

Author : Matt Richtel
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062201190
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Doomsday Equation written by Matt Richtel and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and author of A Deadly Wandering comes a pulse-pounding technological thriller—as ingenious as the works of Michael Crichton and as urgent and irresistible as an episode of 24—in which one man has three days to prevent annihilation: the outbreak of World War III. Computer genius Jeremy Stillwater has designed a machine that can predict global conflicts and ultimately head them off. But he’s a stubborn guy, very sure of his own genius, and has wound up making enemies, and even seen his brilliant invention discredited. There’s nowhere for him to turn when the most remarkable thing happens: his computer beeps with warning that the outbreak of World War III is imminent, three days and counting. Alone, armed with nothing but his own ingenuity, he embarks on quest to find the mysterious and powerful nemesis determined to destroy mankind. But enemies lurk in the shadows waiting to strike. Could they have figured out how to use Jeremy, and his invention, for their own evil ends? Before he can save billions of lives, Jeremy has to figure out how to save his own. . . .

Author : William McCants
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1250080908
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The ISIS Apocalypse written by William McCants and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive history of ISIS based on insider accounts and secret communications few outsiders have seen

Author : William Poundstone
Publisher : Little, Brown Spark
ISBN 13 : 031619297X
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? written by William Poundstone and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2012-01-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown in a blender. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? If you want to work at Google, or any of America's best companies, you need to have an answer to this and other puzzling questions. Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? guides readers through the surprising solutions to dozens of the most challenging interview questions. The book covers the importance of creative thinking, ways to get a leg up on the competition, what your Facebook page says about you, and much more. Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? is a must-read for anyone who wants to succeed in today's job market.

Author : William Poundstone
Publisher : Oneworld
ISBN 13 : 9781786077561
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How to Predict Everything written by William Poundstone and published by Oneworld. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you predict something that has never happened before? There's a useful calculation being employed by Wall Street, Silicon Valley and maths professors all over the world, and it predicts that the human species will become extinct in 760 years. Unfortunately, there is disagreement over how to apply the formula, and some argue that we might only have twenty years left. Originally devised by British clergyman Thomas Bayes, the theorem languished in obscurity for two hundred years before being resurrected as the lynchpin of the digital economy. With brief detours into archaeology, philology, and overdue library books, William Poundstone explains how we can use it to predict pretty much anything. What is the chance that there are multiple universes? How long will Hamilton run? Will the US stock market continue to perform as well this century as it has for the last hundred years? And are we really all doomed?

Author : William Poundstone
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 0316228087
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rock Breaks Scissors written by William Poundstone and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide to outguessing everything from multiple-choice tests to the office football pool to the stock market. People are predictable even when they try not to be. William Poundstone demonstrates how to turn this fact to personal advantage in scores of everyday situations, from playing the lottery to buying a home. ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS is mind-reading for real life. Will the next tennis serve go right or left? Will the market go up or down? Most people are poor at that kind of predicting. We are hard-wired to make bum bets on "trends" and "winning streaks" that are illusions. Yet ultimately we're all in the business of anticipating the actions of others. Poundstone reveals how to overcome the errors and improve the accuracy of your own outguessing. ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS is a hands-on guide to turning life's odds in your favor.

Author : William Poundstone
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 030776379X
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Labyrinths of Reason written by William Poundstone and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-07-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This sharply intelligent, consistently provocative book takes the reader on an astonishing, thought-provoking voyage into the realm of delightful uncertainty--a world of paradox in which logical argument leads to contradiction and common sense is seemingly rendered irrelevant.

Author : Philip Larrey
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0241981190
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Connected World written by Philip Larrey and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world as we know it is changing. Driverless cars, drone deliveries and autonomous weapon systems are no longer the stuff of science fiction. But what's next for technology and business, and how will it impact our society? In Connected World, Philip Larrey of the Pontifical Lateran University explores the consequences of the new digital age in conversation with leaders including Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, and Maurice Lévy, CEO of Publicis Groupe. Ranging from the death of privacy to the rise of artificial intelligence, Connected World asks the existential questions which will come to define our age.

Author : William Poundstone
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 9780374707088
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fortune's Formula written by William Poundstone and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1956, two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory—the basis of computers and the Internet—to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible. Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the "Kelly formula" to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorp used the Kelly system with his phenomenally successful hedge fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. Shannon became a successful investor, too, topping even Warren Buffett's rate of return. Fortune's Formula traces how the Kelly formula sparked controversy even as it made fortunes at racetracks, casinos, and trading desks. It reveals the dark side of this alluring scheme, which is founded on exploiting an insider's edge. Shannon believed it was possible for a smart investor to beat the market—and William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula will convince you that he was right.

Author : Thomas Thwaites
Publisher : Chronicle Books
ISBN 13 : 161689119X
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Toaster Project written by Thomas Thwaites and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hello, my name is Thomas Thwaites, and I have made a toaster." So begins The Toaster Project, the author's nine-month-long journey from his local appliance store to remote mines in the UK to his mother's backyard, where he creates a crude foundry. Along the way, he learns that an ordinary toaster is made up of 404 separate parts, that the best way to smelt metal at home is by using a method found in a fifteenth-century treatise, and that plastic is almost impossible to make from scratch. In the end, Thwaites's homemade toaster—a haunting and strangely beautiful object—cost 250 times more than the toaster he bought at the store and involved close to two thousand miles of travel to some of Britain's remotest locations. The Toaster Project may seem foolish, even insane. Yet, Thwaites's quixotic tale, told with self-deprecating wit, helps us reflect on the costs and perils of our cheap consumer culture, and in so doing reveals much about the organization of the modern world.