William Sims Bainbridge: 13 books
eGods
Faith versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming
Language: English
Release Date: April 1, 2013
What is the relationship between religion and multi-player online roleplaying games? Are such games simply a secular distraction from traditional religious practices, or do they in fact offer a different route to the sacred? In eGods, a leading scholar in the study of virtual gameworlds takes an in-depth...
God from the Machine
Artificial Intelligence Models of Religious Cognition
Language: English
Release Date: April 17, 2006
'God from the machine' (deus ex machina) refers to an ancient dramatic device where a god was mechanically brought onto the stage to save the hero from a difficult situation. But here, William Sims Bainbridge uses the term in a strikingly different way. Instead of looking to a machine to deliver an...
Nanoconvergence
The Unity of Nanoscience, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science
Language: English
Release Date: June 27, 2007
In Nanoconvergence , William Sims Bainbridge tours the future of science and technology in plain, nontechnical English. Bainbridge draws on an extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge, based on his unique role at the epicenter of the nanoconvergence revolution. He successfully integrates insights...
Dynamic Secularization
Information Technology and the Tension Between Religion and Science
Language: English
Release Date: May 11, 2017
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 religion may be changing, and how information technology might be energized in this process.
Working...
The Meaning and Value of Spaceflight
Public Perceptions
Language: English
Release Date: August 12, 2014
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 researchers and polling firms over a span of six decades and anchored in influential social science...
by William Sims Bainbridge
Language: English
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Personality Capture and Emulation is the gateway to an amazing future that actually may be achieved, enabling the preservation and simulation of human personalities at progressively higher levels of fidelity. This challenge is no longer the province merely of uninhibited visionaries, but has become...
by William Sims Bainbridge
Language: English
Release Date: March 31, 2010
Language: English
Release Date: March 31, 2010
An exploration of the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft as a virtual prototype of the real human future.
by Rodney Stark, William Sims Bainbridge
Language: English
Release Date: January 11, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: January 11, 2013
Does religion have the power to regulate human behavior? If so, under what conditions can it prevent crime, delinquency, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, or joining cults? Despite the fact that ordinary citizens assume religion deters deviant behavior, there has been little systematic scientific research...
Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopies
Essays on Religious Markets and Religious Pluralism
Language: English
Release Date: April 1, 2003
Can individual decisions concerning whether or where to attend church, to contribute time or money to religious organizations, or to forgo certain activities be explained as a special case of economic theory? In Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopies, Ted G. Jelen brings together the leading scholars in...
by William Sims Bainbridge
Language: English
Release Date: June 9, 2018
Language: English
Release Date: June 9, 2018
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 dynamics of terrestrial enthusiasm for space exploration. Never before have so many dynamic representations...
by William Sims Bainbridge
Language: English
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Language: English
Release Date: September 6, 2011
The newest communication technologies are profoundly changing the world's politics, economies, and cultures, but the specific implications of online game worlds remain mysterious. The Virtual Future employs theories and methods from social science to explore nine very different virtual futures: ...
by William Sims Bainbridge
Language: English
Release Date: July 6, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: July 6, 2016
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. The emergence of online media provides not only new methods for collecting social science data, but also...
Revival
Resurrecting the Process Church of the Final Judgement
Language: English
Release Date: April 24, 2017
Who is seeking to destroy all esoteric religious movements, starting with The Process Church of the Final Judgement? The Process was the most fascinating innovative cult of the 1960s, then vanished for four decades before being virtually reborn by the use of information technology. Revival seems to...