検索キーワード： 歴史・文化

今回のテーマを取り上げようと思ったきっかけは、先日、米コンシューマリポートが報告した調査記事だった。同社は毎年、自動車メーカーのブランド力をいくつかの切り口からスコアリングして順位を付けている。ドイツのメーカーに比べ、日本メーカーは信頼感で勝るスコアを付けることが多く、とりわけレクサスやトヨタが強いランキングだ。今年もナンバーワンはレクサスだったが、2位には意外なメーカーが顔を覗かせていた。マツダである。3位以下はトヨタ、アウディ、スバル、ポルシェ、ビュイックと続く。マツダは昨年、トップ5にも入っていなかったというのに大躍進したのだ。こうした様々な自動車関連のランキングや評価が掲載されたコンシューマリポートの2015年の自動車特集号の表紙は、数ある新発表車種の中からMAZDA MX-5（日本名：ロードスター）が選ばれている。(本文より)本田雅一　続・モバイル通信リターンズはこちらから→http://yakan-hiko.com/honda.html

日本人がSFを語る上で絶対に外してはいけない作家、海野十三。数多くのSF作品を執筆し、他にもシャーロック・ホームズをもじった「帆村荘六」シリーズや、丘丘十郎の名で科学小説を執筆したり、蜆貝介、栗戸利休の名で科学解説記事を、京人生の名で漫画、海十斎の号で俳句や川柳を発表している。また、日本の漫画界にも多くの影響を与えている。「科学が臍を曲げた話」は、丘丘十郎の名で発表された短編科学エッセイ。錬金術、電気メス、避雷針…科学史において画期的な発明がなされる時の裏側、当たり前だと思っていた科学に人間がまんまと裏切られる瞬間。一筋縄ではいかない科学の本質を、分かりやすく面白く解説。海野十三ならではの洒落た文体が織り成す、不思議な科学の世界へようこそ。

Within a few years, humans will be able to voyage to Mars. SpaceX is at the forefront of companies already building fleets of spaceships to make interplanetary travel as affordable as Old-World passage to America – to the New World. We will settle the red planet, transforming its raw materials into resources and tackling the challenges that await us, creating a new frontier for humankind. Dr Robert Zubrin explains how populous Martian city-states will emerge, producing their own air, water, food, power and more. How they must be beautiful to attract settlers, and what that might look like.

For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: The union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.

Two defense experts explore the collision of war, politics, and social media, where the most important battles are now only a click away. Through the weaponization of social media, the Internet is changing war and politics, just as war and politics are changing the Internet. Terrorists livestream their attacks, “Twitter wars” produce real world casualties, and viral misinformation alters not just the result of battles, but the very fate of nations. The result is that war, tech, and politics have blurred into a new kind of battlespace that plays out on our smartphones.

In The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson predicted some of the far-reaching effects of digital technologies on our lives and businesses. Now they’ve written a guide to help listeners make the most of our collective future. Machine | Platform | Crowd outlines the opportunities and challenges inherent in the science fiction technologies that have come to life in recent years, like self-driving cars and 3D printers, online platforms for renting outfits and scheduling workouts, or crowd-sourced medical research and financial instruments.

If artificial intelligence takes over decision-making what, then, is unique and irreplaceable about human intelligence? The Atomic Human is a journey of discovery to the core of what it is to be human, in search of the qualities that cannot be replaced by the machine. Neil Lawrence brings a timely, fresh perspective to this new era, recounting his personal journey to understand the riddle of intelligence. By contrasting our own intelligence with the capabilities of machine intelligence through history, The Atomic Human reveals the technical origins, capabilities, and limitations of AI systems.

We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence.

In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable. In this groundbreaking audiobook, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.

Famously, over a four-year period, James Dyson made 5,127 prototypes of the cyclonic vacuum cleaner that would transform the way houses are cleaned around the world. In devoting all his resources to iteratively developing the technology, he risked it all, but out of many failures and setbacks came hard-fought success. His products - including vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and hair stylers, and fans and purifiers - are not only revolutionary technologies, but design classics.

In practical terms, making AI your ally and guide depends on the art of the prompt, the questions a user poses to a chatbot. As Chopra shows in detail, by asking the right questions, you can bring AI into your inner world, which is where personal growth happens. Chopra provides a personal assessment for you to better understand yourself and exercises to help you expand your awareness in any part of your life.

Through immersive and intimate reporting, When the Heavens Went on Sale reveals the spectacular chaos of the new business of space, and what happens when the idealistic, ambitious minds of Silicon Valley turn their unbridled vision toward the limitless expanse of the stars. This is the tale of technology’s most pressing and controversial revolution, as told through fascinating characters chasing unimaginable stakes in the race to space.

From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the 12 technological imperatives that will shape the next 30 years and transform our lives. Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives - from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture.

In this book, you'll learn how: data science, driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is yielding unprecedented business insights; blockchain has the potential to restructure the economy; drones and driverless vehicles are becoming essential tools; 3-D printing is making new business models possible; augmented reality is transforming retail and manufacturing; smart speakers are redefining the rules of marketing; and humans and machines are working together to reach new levels of productivity.

「もの造り現場」から見た戦略論とは何か、なぜ今の日本に必要なのか。「設計情報」という概念にこだわり、「組織能力」と「アーキテクチャ」というキーワードを柱に現場発の戦略論を提唱する。MOT(マネジメントオブテクノロジー)の大家・藤本隆宏が書いた日本製造業の戦略を考えるのに適した1冊。第6章 中国との戦略的つきあい方

The term metaverse is suddenly everywhere, from debates over Fortnite to the pages of the New York Times to the speeches of Mark Zuckerberg, who proclaimed in June 2021 that “the overarching goal” of Facebook is to “bring the metaverse to life”. But what, exactly, is the metaverse? As pioneering theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball explains, it is the successor to the mobile internet that has defined the last two decades.

Audie Award, History/Biography, 2016. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with 23 of the 24 moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail.

In her new audiobook, Invisible Women, award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. She exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

先日、とある雑誌の企画で、いわゆる「お掃除ロボット」を使わせていただく機会がありました。正直、これまであまり必要性を感じたことはなかったのですが、使ってみると非常に面白かった。 ただ、僕の自宅で使い続けるにはひとつだけ、大問題がありました。それはお掃除ロボットが部屋を動き回るたびに、インコの「おもち」が、引きつけを起こしそうなぐらいに怖がってしまうということです。お掃除ロボットも捨て難いけれど、「おもち」はまぁ義理のある以前からの同居人（鳥）ですからね。残念ながら我が家で使い続けるのは不可能！　ということになり、大阪出張のついでに、母親に譲ることにしました。 私の母親も80歳を超えていて、僕としては「お掃除ロボットなんて、使い方わかるのかなぁ？」と半信半疑だったんですが、ふたを開ければすごく喜んでくれました。よく考えてみればうちの母親は掃除や洗濯といった家事が大の苦手。彼女にとっては、「勝手に掃除をしてくれるロボット」というのは、文字通り夢のような家電！　ということなのでしょう。(本文より） 名越康文の生きるための対話（dialogue）はこちらから→http://yakan-hiko.com/nakoshi.html

現在の日本経済を覆っているデフレは、たんなる景気循環による不景気ではない。かつての驚異的な高度成長のベースにあった産業資本主義が形を変え、ポスト産業資本主義に変質しつつある大転換に、日本の「会社」がうまく対応できないために起こっているのだ。日本が二十一世紀を生き抜くためには、産業資本主義時代のまま生き残っている個々の「会社」の仕組みを根本から洗い直し、新しい資本主義にふさわしい形にしていかなければならない。本書は、会社の仕組みを基礎の基礎からやさしく説き起こし、経営者、サラリーマン、そして、これから就職する学生諸氏が、新しい資本主義にふさわしい会社のあり方、新しい働き方を考えるヒントを提供する。第3章　会社の仕組み