Science Reality

Two novellas set in Aliette de Bodard’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration. Contains The Citadel of Weeping Pearls and The Tea Master and the Detective.

I've spent my entire life running from my past and staying out of trouble. That's how I've kept alive ever since my parents were killed by the Black Dragon, who's ruled the world under her oppressive talons for as long as anyone can remember. But it's hard to keep a low profile when four handsome strangers turn up in your village claiming you're destined to save the world. According to them, they've been chosen by the gods to become elemental dragons--and I'm their mate.

In Generated, Robert Srinivas explores the unsettling possibility that perception does not reveal the universe as it truly is. Instead, it renders a simplified, usable version of reality, one shaped by evolution, constrained by biology, and optimized for survival rather than truth. Drawing on neuroscience, physics, evolutionary theory, and philosophy of mind, this book examines how consciousness arises, why the universe appears structured the way it does, and how meaning, identity, and free will persist even if reality is fundamentally generated.

In Science of Ascension, Valiant Thor describes the steps involved as one ascends upward through the energy spectrum, becoming more and more of a light-being and/or sphere-being. May this work bring comfort and guidance to Thor's millions of fans and devotees around the world and also bring positive attention to both the Sphere-Being Alliance and Sphere-Being Federation.

The universe is a vast, mysterious, and incredibly cool place. It’s filled with things so strange and wonderful they can make your head spin. From the tiniest particles buzzing around beneath the surface of reality to the largest structures stretching across billions of light-years, the cosmos is packed with surprises. And the more we learn, the more we realize just how much we don’t know. When you glance up at the night sky, you’re not just looking at stars. You’re peering into the deep past, through millions or even billions of years.

We can’t avoid the persistent questions about the meaning of life—and the nature of reality. But science is the only means of answering them. So declares philosopher Alex Rosenberg in this bracing, surprisingly sanguine take on a world without god. The science that makes us nonbelievers, he demonstrates, tells us the nature of reality, the purpose of everything, the difference between right and wrong, how the mind works, even the direction of human history.

You've probably heard that the metaverse—a word that seemingly went from nonexistent to everywhere—is the next big thing in technology. What is it? Written by a leading futurist, Metaverse For Dummies unravels the mysteries of the metaverse, for the curious and for anyone looking to get in on the ground floor. Discover how to carve out your niche in the metaverse with easy-to-understand breakdowns of the major technologies and platforms, a guide to doing business in the metaverse, and explorations of what meta means for sports, education, and just about every other area of life.

Skin of Your Teeth Survival is a reality show made famous for pairing part-time survivalists with a real-life survival situation. Always carefully planned out by world-famous Prepper and Survivalist Wolf Henderson, season 10 promises to be different. This time none of the contestants are survivalists. They’ve all been picked to fail. But when an EMP hits, the cast scatters and Wolf is left to care for a husband and wife team, a quietly scrappy chick and a bumbling scientist.

In 1972, philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn threw an ashtray at Errol Morris. This book is the result. At the time, Morris was a graduate student. Now we know him as one of the most celebrated and restlessly probing filmmakers of our time, the creator of such classics of documentary investigation as The Thin Blue Line. Kuhn was—and, posthumously, remains—a star in his field and author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a landmark book that introduced the concept of "paradigm shifts" to the larger culture. And Morris thought the idea was bunk.

What does it mean to be human in the 21st century? How do we be real people in a world of online personas and "authentic" simulated experiences? In this innovative examination of our present reality, award-winning writer Laurence Scott charts the ways our traditional mental models of the world have started to fray. Effortlessly applying philosophy to the quotidian, Scott "makes banal things shimmer with meaning" (Guardian).

In the tradition of Neil Postman's masterpiece Amusing Ourselves to Death, Audience of One shows how American media have shaped American society and politics, by interweaving two crucial stories. The first story follows the evolution of television from the three-network era of the 20th century, which joined millions of Americans in a shared monoculture, into today's zillion-channel, internet-atomized universe, which sliced and diced them into fractious, alienated subcultures. The second story is a cultural critique of Donald Trump.

Life doesn't pick winners and losers. That's for the corporations to decide. And they picked Liam Argyle for a carefree life of fame and fortune as host of the world's most popular reality show competition. After two seasons of parading about the world's biggest victims on The Grass Is Greener, he's been forced to put a happy face on one tragedy too many - and he won't turn a blind eye to the horrors of the corporate dystopian world of the 2070s any longer. Now, Liam is out to destroy the very people who made him a star.

Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience imaginable. With well-crafted simulations, these experiences, which are so immersive that the brain believes they're real, are already widely available with a VR headset and will only become more accessible and commonplace. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism? In Experience on Demand, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR and other mass media to help listeners understand this powerful new tool.

The Singularity - the merger of man and machine into a greater whole - is finally within humanity's grasp. When programmer Jeff Lawing gets the opportunity to join Singularity Online, the world's first realistic VRMMO and the testing ground that will lead to the Singularity, he leaps to accept. Singularity is much more realistic and darker than Jeff had imagined, though.

Realities is the first book of the Realities trilogy. Illyad is a time-traveling despot who is intent on conquering three eras of the planet Valleria. However, those who oppose him strive to find a way to put an end to his terror.

Simple, concise, and radical, Being Human outlines the Entheological Paradigm, a Grand Unified Theory of reality that accounts for not only all of the physical world, but personal consciousness, life, and God as well. This guide explains the nature of God as a fractal energy being and how this one being works to create all of physical reality and is also embodied in all living beings through the process of evolution. To be human is to be God in a body.

With this audiobook you will discover how thought, emotion, and attention interact with energy; how inner observation transforms perception; and how self-remembering—long taught by esoteric schools—finds confirmation in the laws of quantum science.

Nadia's school is choosing a new mascot, and her idea is totally going to win! She’s also going to kick butt writing for the school newspaper this term.... Maybe. A couple of weeks in, the newspaper is a big mess. The mascot contest is mayhem, too. (Who knew choosing a costumed character could cause such controversy?) Then Nadia and Titi discover that the hippo amulet holds a second secret, one that’s super powerful - and super scary. Too bad they have no idea how to stop it. But Nadia is on the case!

I’m done hiding. I’ve stopped running. And I’ve finally accepted my destiny - to take four dragon shifters as my mates so I can become the next Black Dragon, the wielder of all the elements. I’ve already bonded with Jasin, my smoldering soldier, and soon, I’ll be getting intimate with Auric, Slade, and Reven. Only then can we become powerful enough to stop the current Dragons, the overlords of our world. But as we continue our journey, secrets are uncovered about my mates that make me question everything, even as things heat up between us.

Becoming a global celebrity overnight would make most people happy. Not Lynn Raven. As a teenage gaming prodigy, she’s enjoyed years of anonymity behind the virtual mask of Larry Coughlin, war-hardened vet and virtual gaming mercenary. But now Lynn has stepped out of the shadows to compete in the cutting-edge augmented reality game TransDimensional Hunter that has taken the world by storm. And she’s winning. But with success has come swarms of paparazzi drones, jealous teammates, and a backstabbing rival team that will use any trick in the book to ruin her.