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Australian Book Retailer of the Year 2021
William Sims Bainbridge
Lucifer's Power: Beliefs and Practicesof the Process Cult offers a riveting exploration into oneof the most mysterious and influential cults of the 20th century. Founded inLondon in 1963 by Mary…
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Provides a review of technical developments related to the unification that is taking place among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC). This book assesses potential for revolutionary applications…
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As communication technologies profoundly alter our lives, many spend more time in virtual than physical reality. This book deploys social science theory to analyze ‘virtual futures’ as imagined by the…
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This book explores a wide variety of online information sources and achieves coherence by documenting and interpreting the history of a particular extended American family on the basis of 9…
This book explores the remarkable sociocultural convergence in multiplayer online games and other virtual worlds, through the unification of computer science, social science, and the humanities.
This book discusses secularization, arguing that it may be more complex and significant than is generally recognized. Using a number of online exploration methods, the author provides insights into how…
This challenge is no longer the province merely of uninhibited visionaries, but has become a solid field of research, drawing upon a wide range of information technologies in human-centered computing…
A fascinating examination of a religious counterculture group showing how it differs from mainstream society, yet is similar in other ways.
A demonstration of how religion and religious belief can emerge using computer simulations
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Draws upon the social-scientific evidence to understand profound religious changes occurring in advanced societies. This book finds that the positive functions of religion have been exaggerated, are declining, and are…
This book presents the most serious and comprehensive study, by far, of American public perceptions about the meaning of space exploration, analyzing vast troves of questionnaire data collected by many…
At the intersection of astronautics, computer science, and social science, this book introduces the challenges and insights associated with computer simulation of human society in outer space, and of the…
Explaining religious schism, innovation and conversion to show how religion and society transform each other, this book explores such movements as Holiness, Adventism, religious communes, Satanism, New Age and democratization.
William Sims Bainbridge Virtual worlds are persistent online computer-generated environments where people can interact, whether for work or play, in a manner comparable to the real world.
Students, software designers, and everyday users will explore and understand guilds in virtual worlds, cyber collectives in real-world settings, social movements in online media, wikis, digital government, and citizen social…
Offers an overview of the universe of online virtual worlds then demonstrates the principles of virtual manufacturing, modes of work-related communication, socio-economic structures and dynamics, and the function of artificial…
In our time of great and uncertain change, business, government, and education must partner in many forms of technical and cultural convergence - for the benefit of both human welfare…
A ground-breaking look at the paradox of technology to both liberate and enslave our current culture by noted scholar William Sims Bainbridge
Goals in Space draws upon a detailed sample of 4,000 Americans to discover what values this society attaches to the space program. Systematic survey procedures identify 125 specific goals of…
Table of Contents: Introduction / Historical-Cultural Origins / Technical Constraints / Rolecoding and Social Control / Personality and Motivation / Avatars and Characters / Virtual Professions and Economies / Social…
Co-Director William Sims Bainbridge
Rodney Stark,William Sims Bainbridge
This work on the sociology of religion begins with basic statements about human nature, and then, employing principles of logic and philosophy, builds towards complex pronouncements on societies and their…
In this book the authors analyze data from many times and places to explore the subtle interplay between the religiousness of individuals and that of their social context.
In this book, the authors analyze data from many times and places to explore the subtle interplay between the religiousness of individuals and that of their social context.
Sets out to explain the survival of religion. This book charts the contemporary religion from the traditional denominations to the most fervent cults. It presents information derived from numerous surveys…
The culmination has been called Convergence of Knowledge and Technology for the benefit of Society (CKTS), defined as the escalating and transformative interactions among seemingly different disciplines, technologies, communities and…
Bainbridge In the early decades of the 21st century, concentrated efforts can unify science based on the unity of nature, thereby advancing the combination of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and…
Continued economic growth, human welfare, and national security depend upon constant technological progress; and the chief area for innovation in the coming years will be converging technologies, the synergistic combination…
William Sims Bainbridge (co-Director, co-Director, Human-Centered Computing at the National Science Foundation)
William Bainbridge contends that the worlds of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games provide a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of…
This book brings together eminent and rising scholars from religious studies, science, sociology of religion, sociology of science, philosophy, and theology in order to engage the new atheism and place…
This text provides a structured exchange on the controversy over pluralistic or market theories of religion, written by the main contributors to this literature. There has been increasing interest in…
