Systems Science

One of the most unique aspects of anarchism as a political philosophy is that it seeks to abolish the state. But what exactly is “the state”? The State is like a vast operating system for ordering and controlling relations among human society, the economy, and the natural world, analogous to a digital operating system. Anyone concerned with entrenched power, income inequality, lack of digital privacy, climate change, the response to COVID-19, or military-style policing will find eye-opening insights into how states operate and build more power for themselves—at our expense.

In our daily lives, we're surrounded by wires, pipes, utility poles, cell phone towers, and myriad other infrastructure that facilitates almost everything we do. Even though these systems are essential, when was the last time you gave them much thought? In On the Grid, Scott Huler sets out to understand all of the systems that shape our society - from transportation, water, and garbage to the Internet coming through our cable lines.

In the final year of the Trump presidency, America’s borders were within reach of being completely secure as the daily arrests had dwindled to the lowest numbers in United States Border Patrol history. Nations south of our border, which once violated America’s sovereignty and blatantly disrespected it, now adhered to our strong president who forced those nations to heel and show America respect. On January 20, 2021, everything changed.

What will it take to restore balance to our world, repair past injustices, and support future generations' survival? Looking deeply into the web of life that created and supports us, and drawing inspiration from diverse cultural traditions and perspectives, spirited thinkers Michael Pawlyn and Sarah Ichioka propose a bold set of regenerative principles with potential to transform how we design, make, and manage our buildings; infrastructure; and communities.

A questline mentioned in the very early volumes has finally pulled Clyde's interest. Niyoto. However, it isn't some side quest or filler. In this city, things will get very interesting. The party is introduced to a suspicious group that claim to fight for the good of humanity. That's in addition to the city's crazy cultists. Oh and there is also a cute demon lord with a rather...different personality.

Ten years ago, the world changed. The System brought dungeons and monsters to earth. Billions were lost. While most try to rebuild, Claire chooses to take revenge on the people who took advantage of orphans in the chaos—100 names, 100 targets. In this often brutal story about a world in chaos, Claire will kill every target on her list. No matter what it takes.

I, Mars by Ray Bradbury is a haunting tale of isolation, technology, and mortality set against the desolate backdrop of the Red Planet. The story follows Barton, an aging man who has spent 50 years waiting alone on Mars for rescue. When a telephone rings in the dead of night, he discovers it is his own recorded voice—an invention he once created to stave off loneliness. What begins as a comfort turns into a relentless torment, as the recording manipulates him toward exhaustion and ultimately death.

Developed by experienced professors and professionally narrated for easy listening, this course is a great way to explore the anatomy and physiology of the human circulatory system. The audio is focused and high-yield, covering the most important topics you might expect to learn in a typical graduate-level anatomy and physiology course. The material is accurate, up-to-date, and broken down into bite-sized chapters. There are key takeaways following each chapter to drive home key points and quizzes to review commonly tested questions.

Musicians have often wanted to change the world, and many channel that desire through the political power of music. Music has a unique ability to unsettle the most fundamental political and social conventions - or, alternatively, to stabilize the status-quo. Sound System is the story of one musician’s journey to discover what exactly makes music so powerful. Years of touring, protesting, and performing have given Dave Randall an insider’s view of the music industry, enabling him to shed light on the most tightly held secrets of celebrity, commodification, and culture.

Knells plans have begun to come together. His crew grows larger and more powerful with every passing day, and rumors of Captain Sorfina's death have already started to spread but not all attention is beneficial. A group who have lurked in the shadows for centuries are moving once more, and their leaders motives are just as shrouded as their past. More pieces enter the board of looming war, and Knells crew finds itself at the center of everything, whether they want to be or not.

More potatoes for the Potato Lord! More workers for the potato plantations! I have mastered the Mage, resisted Temptation, and even learned to brew my own System Cider. But soon the curtain between System zones will fall. What waits behind it? People? People on boars?!

When your work is inextricable from your identity, your community, and your own liberation, you need a unique praxis of care to sustain it—and for mission-driven activists, organizers, and changemakers working under oppressive systems, making space to center vital needs like rest, self-care, and healthy boundaries isn’t as simple as clocking out. Practicing Liberation reorients collective justice work toward a model that transforms the effects of injustice, harm, and oppressive systems into resilience, joy, and community care.

READ BY THE AUTHOR A powerful methodology to help you switch on your body’s innate ability to sleep well and how to build extraordinary energy. Sleep problems aren’t created when you put your head on the pillow. Everything you do during the day – every thought, every behaviour, every...

Born over a century after "The Rise", Jeff scavenges with his tyrannical mother for survival. Banned from cultivating freely, Jeff wants none of this life; his one objective is to join the immortal rankers as they attempt to climb the Northern Tower. On the day of his escape, a powerful guild attacks Leah’s group, and Jeff is thrown through a unique dungeon portal—a portal that hasn’t been used in nearly a hundred years. In the pursuit of Jeff’s ultimate goal, he must choose whether to follow the Church, join a guild, or try it all on his own.

It's been more than a year since the System came to Earth, bringing blood and monsters in equal measure. Having left Whitehorse, John and his team travel down to British Columbia, running into new dangers from aliens and humans alike. Faced with new challenges and new enemies, John steps up once more to set things right and teach a few aliens why you never put humanity in chains.

How did the world’s greatest systems thinkers handled crises, invented revolutionary ideas, and solved complex problems? How did the field of systems thinking develop? Who were the pioneers in the field? Learn about the answers in Lessons from Systems Thinkers, from Norbert Wiener’s pioneering contribution on positive and negative feedback to Warren McCulloch’s research on feedback mechanisms in neurology, from Gregory Bateson’s double bind and how it affects family relationships to Margaret Mead’s systems approach to cultural anthropology.

A bounty hunting survivor. A Galactic dark elf. A woman who has given up her humanity to become something more. These stories and more are available in the first short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, covering year one on Earth. When the world ends, humanity steps up, finding new ways to survive in a world with Classes, magic and monsters. The anthology features exciting, new stories by five new writers and a new, never publicly released short story by Tao Wong.

Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.

The United States spends enormous sums on helping people—$3.8 trillion on healthcare, $182 billion on prisons, and $604 billion on higher education—and yet these systems routinely fail us. When we seek to improve how they function, our efforts focus on policy debates, technical solutions, funding, and data. But if these systems are to truly improve, we have to start with the human values behind them. Broken explores the deeply human dimensions we must consider if we want to rebuild the policies, technologies, processes, and most importantly, the heart we use to serve people.

If you've ever wondered about the constitutional basis for presidential pardons, this book explains it, offering examples from the recent and distant past. Follow constitutional law professor and popular newsroom commentator Kim Wehle through a fascinating rundown of how this executive power has been-and might be-used by American presidents.