Social Reality

Nobody meant for this to happen. Facebook didn't mean to facilitate a genocide. Twitter didn't want to be used to harass women. YouTube never planned to radicalise young men. But with billions of users, these platforms need only tweak their algorithms to generate more 'engagement'. In so doing, they bring unrest to previously settled communities and erode our relationships. Social warming has happened gradually - as a by-product of our preposterously convenient digital existence.

This book is not here to comfort you. It does not promise hope, progress, or some tender reassurance about the nobility of the human project. It will not tell you that everything happens for a reason, or that there is meaning to be found in our collective struggle. Instead, it stands firmly within the logic of Jean Baudrillard’s simulacra—a philosophy that does not seek to reveal a hidden truth, but to diagnose the condition of our reality. We no longer live in the world; we live within our own perception of it.

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.

L'inimmaginabile accade. Da Oriente a Occidente l'epidemia di Covid-19 dilaga come una peste destinata a cambiare la vita umana sul pianeta Terra. Le metropoli si spengono. I supermercati si svuotano. Le strutture del sistema collassano. Metà della popolazione mondiale è reclusa in regime di quarantena. Giuseppe Genna scivola tra le maglie del lockdown per riempire di parole l'orrore impronunciabile, restituito a malapena dalla numerologia dei morti, opaco agli sguardi che spiano il mondo desolato.

This limited-edition insight unveils the Wizard's theories on how thoughts are assembled in the mind from stored sensory associations. Properly used, this knowledge will allow you to deepen perception and heighten interest in all your attempts at visual and auditory messaging.

Rough Beast is Máiría Cahill's harrowing story of her life and of what she went through at the hands of what is now Ireland’s largest and richest party. That story is told here for the first time in full detail and with unsparing honesty. It is a story of unimaginable trauma and political corruption. It brings to life a world of paramilitary secrecy and parallel laws, but above all it is the story of one young woman’s defiance of the power wielded by ex-gunmen inspiring fear and silence, and their influence over elected politicians.

This booklet contains arguments regarding the original evil of mankind: the concept of division. Intended for use by realists who wish to see the world changed into something better, it has everything that a thinker may need in order to see the road ahead toward a better tomorrow.

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 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 this book, we point towards the ontologies of story and value. Story is real. And value is real. That is the reality consideration that we engage in this book. Along the way we engage Yuval Harari’s rejection of the ontology of both Story and Value. Harari is perhaps the most popular parrot of the postmodern zeitgeist at this moment in time. Harari’s key idea is that we need a new story around which open societies can cohere in order to respond to the meta crisis.

Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.

Nothing has changed more in the last few decades than our concept and perception of reality. The effects have manifested in our news, entertainment, and Google searches; we're finding that a lot of things we thought were objective aren't automatically so. Reality is not a concept we want to flush down the toilet with yesterday's food, though. However, we must begin to understand how it works in a world where profit is the driving force.

Human history is the story of symbols turning against their makers. Myths, laws, identities, each begins as a tool for survival, coherence, and meaning. But every symbol hardens. Every order closes. And when the lock tightens too far, collapse follows. The only thing that has ever broken the cycle is rupture. Visionaries, mystics, rebels, and neurodivergent minds have stepped outside the circle, cracked the mirror, and forced reality back in. Without them, every civilization would have suffocated in its own stories. Today, the lock-in is digital and global.

Reading Scotland's Jesus should be like being called into the living room by your child shouting that they see a little red dot on the head of a TV newscaster, then riding the white hot bullet through the propaganda circuitry of his or her exploding brain. It's a funny book about the news...

In Big Brother’s Algorithm: From Telescreens to Smartphones, James G. Edwards II confronts the haunting transformation of surveillance—from Orwell’s telescreens to the algorithms now embedded in every device we own. Through vivid storytelling and incisive analysis, Edwards reveals how governments and corporations quietly collect, analyze, and deploy our personal data.

This is the must-listen book for those who want to truly understand divided America. Learn the who, how, when, what, and why events and motivation that have and will continue to further divide and deepen the uncivil cultural war taking place in our country.

Sexual Reality marks Susie Bright's return to politics and passion, jealousy and risk - in an intimate look at the human sexual condition. Chapters include: "The Story of O Birthday Party", "Strip Tea: A Most Unusual Tea Party", "Undressing Camille Paglia", "Egg Sex: Pregnancy and a Mother's Sex Life", "Blindsexual: What Every Bisexual Needs to Know", and "When 'No' Means 'I Didn't Know It Would Be Like This'".

Ever wondered why a rich Athenian who died 2,400 years ago still dominates Western thought? Or why your professor keeps talking about invisible triangles and prisoners staring at shadows? "Plato's Cave: Philosophy's First Reality Show" is the hilarious guide to Plato you never knew you needed. In this irreverent takedown of philosophy's founding father, author Sophia Blackwell translates Plato's lofty ideas into actual human language while mercilessly mocking his metaphysical obsessions, aristocratic biases, and suspicious fondness for "perfect forms."

Ernesto Nieto has been the chief architect and driving force behind the National Hispanic Institute, the internationally recognized producer of next-generation Latino leaders. In this must-listen for those invested in Latino community leadership, Nieto outlines the personal transformation necessary in crafting and pursuing visions for the future.

A pandemic in the 21st century creates a technical elite class which shuns physical contact and depends on virtual reality for all social interactions. Duke Landon is among the top echelon of the Royal World Commonwealth and poised for success. His life is a privileged orchestra of politics, finance, and leisure pursuits which rarely intersect with the framework of boring reality. The elite rule the world and rarely bother with the primitive humans who eke out a minimal existence in the hot, violent climate that has reclaimed the earth.