Perkowitz, professor of physics at Emory University, takes the reader on an absorbing journey through the history of human efforts to duplicate human functions. Robots and artificial body parts represent the current level of achievement; the ultimate achievement may be artificial beings. Although "no one has yet made a completely autonomous being, or one that seems consistently and convincingly alive, or a bionic implant that improves human strength or wit ... there is no doubt that existing technology will carry us further along these paths." And eventually we must face some profound questions. "What is our purpose in making artificial or hybrid beings? What are our ethical responsibilities toward them and theirs toward us? Do we have anything to fear from intelligent and powerful nonhuman beings?"
Written by two certified human factors/ergonomics professionals and a criminalist and firearms expert, all of whom have testified as expert witnesses, Human Factors in Handgun Safety and Forensics draws on their formidable collective knowledge and professional experience to present the first scientifically based volume in the field. This seminal work identifies numerous human factors in handgun design, training, and related human behavior in unintentional and inadvertent shooting incidents. The book provides an overview of handgun use in general but focuses on firearm handling in unintentional and inadvertent shootings. It describes the discipline of human factors and ergonomics and includes available statistics on shootings, examines their limitations, and reviews actual cases to determine human causes in unintentional and inadvertent shootings. It provides a history of firearms and details the components and mechanics of handguns and ammunition to reveal safety problems in current designs. It explains the fundamentals of shooting and how violation of those principles can result in unintentional or inadvertent shootings. The authors stress the importance of firearms safety training. They evaluate various safety training programs (including those from the National Rifle Association), investigate inconsistencies in basic safety rules, and make suggestions to improve safety training. The importance of instructor training is also emphasized. The book concludes with a summary and application of the previous topics to forensic and investigative settings and gives advice for human factors/ergonomics professionals as expert witnesses. The book comes with an accompanying DVD with hundreds of color photos to support the topics covered in the text.
Is war grounded, perhaps inescapably, in human nature? In this truly global study, major military historian Azar Gat sets out to unravel the "riddle of war" throughout human history, from the early hunter-gatherers right through to the unconventional terrorism of the twenty-first century.
From the introduction : We all know something about language simply by virtue of being native speakers of one of the numerous languages available to us. Yet we know so little about language acquisition, one of the most fascinating human achievements and the focus of both theoretical and applied linguistics.
The human brain has been studied for millennia, but in the past decades huge advances have occurred in neurology that have allowed scientists to reassess what we really know about the least understood part of the human body. We can now observe the activity of the brain as it performs different functions.
