PDF-[READ]-Behavioral Insights (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

The definitive introduction to the behavioral insights approach which applies evidence about human behavior to practical problemsOur behavior is strongly influenced by factors that lie outside our conscious awareness although we tend to underestimate the power of this automatic side of our behavior As a result governments make ineffective policies businesses create bad products and individuals make unrealistic plans In contrast the behavioral insights approach applies evidence about actual human behaviorrather than assumptions about itto practical problems This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series written by two leading experts in the field offers an accessible introduction to behavioral insights describing core features origins and practical examplesSince 2010 these insights have opened up new ways of addressing some of the biggest challenges faced by societies changing the way that governments businesses and nonprofits work in the process This book shows how the approach is grounded in a concern with practical problems the use of evidence about human behavior to address those problems and experimentation to evaluate the impact of the solutions It gives an overview of the approachs origins in psychology and behavioral economics its early adoption by the UKs pioneering nudge unit and its recent expansion into new areas The book also provides examples from across different policy areas and guidance on how to run a behavioral insights project Finally the book outlines the limitations and ethical implications of the approach and what the future holds for this fastmoving area. Fifty years ago, neuroscientists thought that a mature brain was fixed like a fly in amber, unable to change. Today, we know that our brains and nervous systems change throughout our lifetimes. This concept of neuroplasticity has captured the imagination of a public eager for self-improvement--and has inspired countless Internet entrepreneurs who peddle dubious brain training games and apps. In this book, Moheb Costandi offers a concise and engaging overview of neuroplasticity for the general reader, describing how our brains change continuously in response to our actions and experiences.Costandi discusses key experimental findings, and describes how our thinking about the brain has evolved over time. He explains how the brain changes during development, and the synaptic pruning that takes place before brain maturity. He shows that adult brains can grow new cells (citing, among many other studies, research showing that sexually mature male canaries learn a new song every year). He describes the kind of brain training that can bring about improvement in brain function. It\'s not gadgets and games that promise to rewire your brain but such sustained cognitive tasks as learning a musical instrument or a new language. (Costandi also notes that London cabbies increase their gray matter after rigorous training in their city\'s complicated streets.) He tells how brains compensate after stroke or injury describes addiction and pain as maladaptive forms of neuroplasticity and considers brain changes that accompany childhood, adolescence, parenthood, and aging. Each of our brains is custom-built. Neuroplasticity is at the heart of what makes us human. A concise history of spaceflight, from military rocketry through Sputnik, Apollo, robots in space, space culture, and human spaceflight today.Spaceflight is one of the greatest human achievements of the twentieth century. The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957 less than twelve years later, the American Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. In this volume of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Michael Neufeld offers a concise history of spaceflight, mapping the full spectrum of activities that humans have developed in space.Neufeld explains that the space program should not be equated only with human spaceflight. Since the 1960s, unmanned military and commercial spacecraft have been orbiting near the Earth, and robotic deep-space explorers have sent back stunning images of faraway planets. Neufeld begins with the origins of space ideas and the discovery that rocketry could be used for spaceflight. He then discusses the Soviet-U.S. Cold War space race and reminds us that NASA resisted adding female astronauts even after the Soviets sent the first female cosmonaut into orbit. He analyzes the two rationales for the Apollo program: prestige and scientific discovery (this last something of an afterthought). He describes the internationalization and privatization of human spaceflight after the Cold War, the cultural influence of space science fiction, including Star Trek and Star Wars, space tourism for the ultra-rich, and the popular desire to go into space. Whether we become a multiplanet species, as some predict, or continue to call Earth home, this book offers a useful primer. A concise illustrated introduction to the history and physics of supernovae, the brilliant explosions of stars with striking color illustrations. Supernovae are the explosions of stars. They are some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, rivaling the combined light of billions of stars. Supernovae have been studied for centuries, and they have also made appearances in popular culture: a glimpse of a supernova in a painting provides Sherlock Holmes with a crucial clue, for example. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, astrophysicist Or Graur offers a concise and accessible introduction to these awe-inspiring astronomical phenomena.Graur explains that a deep observational understanding of supernovae--why and how they shine and how their brightness changes over time--allows us to use them as tools for experiments in astrophysics and physics. A certain type of supernova, for example, brightens and fades in such a predictable manner that we can measure the distances to their host galaxies. We owe our existence to supernovae--they give us iron for our blood and calcium for our bones. But supernovae may also have caused a mass extinction event on Earth 2.6 million years ago.Graur shows how observations of supernovae played a role in the transformation of astronomy from astrology to astrophysics surveys the tools used to study supernovae today and describes the lives and deaths of stars and the supernova remnants, neutron stars, and black holes they leave behind. Illustrations in both color and black and white, many from Graur\'s own Hubble Space Telescope data, make this account of supernovae particularly vivid. A concise overview of machine learning--computer programs that learn from data--the basis of such applications as voice recognition and driverless cars.Today, machine learning underlies a range of applications we use every day, from product recommendations to voice recognition--as well as some we don\'t yet use everyday, including driverless cars. It is the basis for a new approach to artificial intelligence that aims to program computers to use example data or past experience to solve a given problem. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Ethem Alpaydin offers a concise and accessible overview of the new AI. This expanded edition offers new material on such challenges facing machine learning as privacy, security, accountability, and bias.Alpaydin, author of a popular textbook on machine learning, explains that as Big Data has gotten bigger, the theory of machine learning--the foundation of efforts to process that data into knowledge--has also advanced. He describes the evolution of the field, explains important learning algorithms, and presents example applications. He discusses the use of machine learning algorithms for pattern recognition artificial neural networks inspired by the human brain algorithms that learn associations between instances and reinforcement learning, when an autonomous agent learns to take actions to maximize reward. In a new chapter, he considers transparency, explainability, and fairness, and the ethical and legal implications of making decisions based on data. Today, machine learning underlies a range of applications we use every day, from product recommendations to voice recognition--as well as some we don\'t yet use everyday, including driverless cars. It is the basis of the new approach in computing where we do not write programs but collect data the idea is to learn the algorithms for the tasks automatically from data. As computing devices grow more ubiquitous, a larger part of our lives and work is recorded digitally, and as Big Data has gotten bigger, the theory of machine learning--the foundation of efforts to process that data into knowledge--has also advanced. In this book, machine learning expert Ethem Alpaydin offers a concise overview of the subject for the general reader, describing its evolution, explaining important learning algorithms, and presenting example applications. Alpaydin offers an account of how digital technology advanced from number-crunching mainframes to mobile devices, putting today\'s machine learning boom in context. He describes the basics of machine learning and some applications the use of machine learning algorithms for pattern recognition artificial neural networks inspired by the human brain algorithms that learn associations between instances, with such applications as customer segmentation and learning recommendations and reinforcement learning, when an autonomous agent learns act so as to maximize reward and minimize penalty. Alpaydin then considers some future directions for machine learning and the new field of data science, and discusses the ethical and legal implications for data privacy and security. The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of smart hand-held devices, with subplots involving IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. In this concise and accessible account of the invention and development of digital technology, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broader and more useful perspective. He identifies four major threads that run throughout all of computing\'s technological development: digitization--the coding of information, computation, and control in binary form, ones and zeros the convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices, and machines, yielding more than the sum of their parts the steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by Moore\'s Law and the human-machine interface. Ceruzzi guides us through computing history, telling how a Bell Labs mathematician coined the word digital in 1942 (to describe a high-speed method of calculating used in anti-aircraft devices), and recounting the development of the punch card (for use in the 1890 U.S. Census). He describes the ENIAC, built for scientific and military applications the UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer and ARPANET, the Internet\'s precursor. Ceruzzi\'s account traces the world-changing evolution of the computer from a room-size ensemble of machinery to a minicomputer to a desktop computer to a pocket-sized smart phone. He describes the development of the silicon chip, which could store ever-increasing amounts of data and enabled ever-decreasing device size. He visits that hotbed of innovation, Silicon Valley, and brings the story up to the present with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and social networking. A concise history of GPS, from its military origins to its commercial applications and ubiquity in everyday life.GPS is ubiquitous in everyday life. GPS mapping is standard equipment in many new cars and geolocation services are embedded in smart phones. GPS makes Uber and Lyft possible driverless cars won\'t be able to drive without it. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Paul Ceruzzi offers a concise history of GPS, explaining how a once-obscure space technology became an invisible piece of our infrastructure, as essential to modern life as electric power or clean water.GPS relays precise time and positioning information from orbiting satellites to receivers on the ground, at sea, and in the air. It operates worldwide, and its basic signals are free, although private companies can commodify the data provided. Ceruzzi recounts the origins of GPS and its predecessor technologies, including early aircraft navigation systems and satellites. He describes the invention of GPS as a space technology in the post-Apollo, pre-Space Shuttle years and its first military and commercial uses. Ceruzzi explains how the convergence of three major technological developments—the microprocessor, the Internet, and cellular telephony—enabled the development and application of GPS technology. Recognizing the importance of satellite positioning systems in a shifting geopolitical landscape—and perhaps doubting U.S. assurances of perpetual GPS availability—other countries are now building or have already developed their own systems, and Ceruzzi reports on these efforts in the European Union, Russia, India, China, and Japan. A concise history of spaceflight, from military rocketry through Sputnik, Apollo, robots in space, space culture, and human spaceflight today.Spaceflight is one of the greatest human achievements of the twentieth century. The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957 less than twelve years later, the American Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. In this volume of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Michael Neufeld offers a concise history of spaceflight, mapping the full spectrum of activities that humans have developed in space.Neufeld explains that the space program should not be equated only with human spaceflight. Since the 1960s, unmanned military and commercial spacecraft have been orbiting near the Earth, and robotic deep-space explorers have sent back stunning images of faraway planets. Neufeld begins with the origins of space ideas and the discovery that rocketry could be used for spaceflight. He then discusses the Soviet-U.S. Cold War space race and reminds us that NASA resisted adding female astronauts even after the Soviets sent the first female cosmonaut into orbit. He analyzes the two rationales for the Apollo program: prestige and scientific discovery (this last something of an afterthought). He describes the internationalization and privatization of human spaceflight after the Cold War, the cultural influence of space science fiction, including Star Trek and Star Wars, space tourism for the ultra-rich, and the popular desire to go into space. Whether we become a multiplanet species, as some predict, or continue to call Earth home, this book offers a useful primer. A concise overview of machine learning--computer programs that learn from data--the basis of such applications as voice recognition and driverless cars.Today, machine learning underlies a range of applications we use every day, from product recommendations to voice recognition--as well as some we don\'t yet use everyday, including driverless cars. It is the basis for a new approach to artificial intelligence that aims to program computers to use example data or past experience to solve a given problem. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Ethem Alpaydin offers a concise and accessible overview of the new AI. This expanded edition offers new material on such challenges facing machine learning as privacy, security, accountability, and bias.Alpaydin, author of a popular textbook on machine learning, explains that as Big Data has gotten bigger, the theory of machine learning--the foundation of efforts to process that data into knowledge--has also advanced. He describes the evolution of the field, explains important learning algorithms, and presents example applications. He discusses the use of machine learning algorithms for pattern recognition artificial neural networks inspired by the human brain algorithms that learn associations between instances and reinforcement learning, when an autonomous agent learns to take actions to maximize reward. In a new chapter, he considers transparency, explainability, and fairness, and the ethical and legal implications of making decisions based on data. Today, machine learning underlies a range of applications we use every day, from product recommendations to voice recognition--as well as some we don\'t yet use everyday, including driverless cars. It is the basis of the new approach in computing where we do not write programs but collect data the idea is to learn the algorithms for the tasks automatically from data. As computing devices grow more ubiquitous, a larger part of our lives and work is recorded digitally, and as Big Data has gotten bigger, the theory of machine learning--the foundation of efforts to process that data into knowledge--has also advanced. In this book, machine learning expert Ethem Alpaydin offers a concise overview of the subject for the general reader, describing its evolution, explaining important learning algorithms, and presenting example applications. Alpaydin offers an account of how digital technology advanced from number-crunching mainframes to mobile devices, putting today\'s machine learning boom in context. He describes the basics of machine learning and some applications the use of machine learning algorithms for pattern recognition artificial neural networks inspired by the human brain algorithms that learn associations between instances, with such applications as customer segmentation and learning recommendations and reinforcement learning, when an autonomous agent learns act so as to maximize reward and minimize penalty. Alpaydin then considers some future directions for machine learning and the new field of data science, and discusses the ethical and legal implications for data privacy and security. The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of smart hand-held devices, with subplots involving IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. In this concise and accessible account of the invention and development of digital technology, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broader and more useful perspective. He identifies four major threads that run throughout all of computing\'s technological development: digitization--the coding of information, computation, and control in binary form, ones and zeros the convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices, and machines, yielding more than the sum of their parts the steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by Moore\'s Law and the human-machine interface. Ceruzzi guides us through computing history, telling how a Bell Labs mathematician coined the word digital in 1942 (to describe a high-speed method of calculating used in anti-aircraft devices), and recounting the development of the punch card (for use in the 1890 U.S. Census). He describes the ENIAC, built for scientific and military applications the UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer and ARPANET, the Internet\'s precursor. Ceruzzi\'s account traces the world-changing evolution of the computer from a room-size ensemble of machinery to a minicomputer to a desktop computer to a pocket-sized smart phone. He describes the development of the silicon chip, which could store ever-increasing amounts of data and enabled ever-decreasing device size. He visits that hotbed of innovation, Silicon Valley, and brings the story up to the present with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and social networking. A concise history of GPS, from its military origins to its commercial applications and ubiquity in everyday life.GPS is ubiquitous in everyday life. GPS mapping is standard equipment in many new cars and geolocation services are embedded in smart phones. GPS makes Uber and Lyft possible driverless cars won\'t be able to drive without it. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Paul Ceruzzi offers a concise history of GPS, explaining how a once-obscure space technology became an invisible piece of our infrastructure, as essential to modern life as electric power or clean water.GPS relays precise time and positioning information from orbiting satellites to receivers on the ground, at sea, and in the air. It operates worldwide, and its basic signals are free, although private companies can commodify the data provided. Ceruzzi recounts the origins of GPS and its predecessor technologies, including early aircraft navigation systems and satellites. He describes the invention of GPS as a space technology in the post-Apollo, pre-Space Shuttle years and its first military and commercial uses. Ceruzzi explains how the convergence of three major technological developments—the microprocessor, the Internet, and cellular telephony—enabled the development and application of GPS technology. Recognizing the importance of satellite positioning systems in a shifting geopolitical landscape—and perhaps doubting U.S. assurances of perpetual GPS availability—other countries are now building or have already developed their own systems, and Ceruzzi reports on these efforts in the European Union, Russia, India, China, and Japan. It’s no secret that this world we live in can be pretty stressful sometimes. If you find yourself feeling out-of-sorts, pick up a book.According to a recent study, reading can significantly reduce stress levels. In as little as six minutes, you can reduce your stress levels by 68%. The Benefits of Reading Books,Most people read to read and the benefits of reading are surplus. But what are the benefits of reading. Keep reading to find out how reading will help you and may even add years to your life!.The Benefits of Reading Books,What are the benefits of reading you ask? Down below we have listed some of the most common benefits and ones that you will definitely enjoy along with the new adventures provided by the novel you choose to read.,Exercise the Brain by Reading .When you read, your brain gets a workout. You have to remember the various characters, settings, plots and retain that information throughout the book. Your brain is doing a lot of work and you don’t even realize it. Which makes it the perfect exercise!