“Sherlock Holmes could glance at a bowler hat and tell that its owner's wife had ceased to love him. In this brilliant book about metaphor James Geary is no less astonishing, as he deciphers the subtle implications embedded in advertising slogans, familiar slang and government double-talk…. You'll scarf down every page of I Is an Other and then ask for more.” —Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of Book by Book and Classics for Pleasure For lovers of language and fans of Blink and Freakonomics, New York Times bestselling author James Geary offers this fascinating look at metaphors and their influence in every aspect of our lives, from art to medicine, psychology to the stock market.

I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World

Geary, James

Arts & Photography

Harper

Harper-perennial

The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, Second Edition

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

University of Chicago Press

Marie, a 63-year-old Belgian woman, has been totally blind since the age of 57. But now, thanks to electrodes implanted around her right optic nerve, she can see lights, shapes and colours again. A motorcycle accident in 1993 left Brian Holgersen, a 30-year-old Dane, paralysed from the neck down. But he can now hold a cup, lift a fork and grasp a pen thanks to advanced electronics embedded in his right arm and hand. Marie and Brian are two of a handful of people around the world who have had computer chips implanted in their bodies to extend, enhance or repair their senses. This remarkable convergence of biology and technology is being brought about by melding advanced computers with the human nervous system. This same technology might also one day provide us with bionic senses, such as the ability to see infrared radiation or feel objects at a distance. By linking neurons in the brain directly to silicon chips, scientists are also exploring the possibility of creating virtual eyes, ears and limbs on the Web and allowing people to control appliances by thought alone. Machines are getting silicon senses too. Researchers are endowing computers with the ability to see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Once a computer has its own sensorium, it might at some point learn to think. Drawing on fields as diverse as artificial intelligence and biology, The Body Electric provides an exciting synthesis of the people and technology making this convergence possible, while addressing the psychological, social and philosophical implications of these startling developments. Are you any less ‘you’ after a bionic implant? If all our senses are electronically enhanced, how will we tell the difference between virtual reality and the actual world? How can privacy be ensured when computers are watching and listening to everything we do and say?

The Body Electric

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

"A witty book about wit that steers an elegant path between waggishness and wisdom." ―Stephen Fry
Much more than a knack for snappy comebacks, wit is the quick, instinctive intelligence that allows us to think, say, or do the right thing at the right time in the right place. In this whimsical book, James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Geary reasons that wit is both visual and verbal, physical and intellectual: there’s the serendipitous wit of scientists, the crafty wit of inventors, the optical wit of artists, and the metaphysical wit of philosophers.
In Wit’s End, Geary embraces wit in every form by adopting a different style for each chapter; he writes the section on verbal repartee as a dramatic dialogue, the neuroscience of wit as a scientific paper, the spirituality of wit as a sermon, and other chapters in jive, rap, and the heroic couplets of Alexander Pope. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktales, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, drawing upon traditions of wit from around the world.
Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End demonstrates that wit and wisdom are really the same thing. 12 illustrations

Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

W.W.Norton&Company

Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End “convey[s] the power of wit to refresh the mind” (Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal).
In “this inventive and playful book” (Tom Beer, Newsday), James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Adopting a different style for each chapter―from dramatic dialogue to sermon, heroic couplets to a barroom monologue―Geary embodies wit in all its forms. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktale, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, demonstrating that wit and wisdom are really the same thing. 12 illustrations

We Are What We Think

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

MURRAY JOHN PUBLISHE

Marie, a 63-year-old Belgian woman, has been totally blind since the age of 57. But now, thanks to electrodes implanted around her right optic nerve, she can see lights, shapes and colours again. Marie is just one of a handful of people around the world who have had computer chips implanted in their bodies to extend, enhance or repair their senses. Drawing on fields as diverse as artificial intelligence and biology, THE BODY ELECTRIC provides an exciting synthesis of the people and technology making this convergence possible, while addressing the psychological, social and philosophical implications of these startling developments. Are you any less 'you' after a bionic implant? If all our senses are electronically enhanced, how will we tell the difference between virtual reality and the actual world? How can privacy be ensured when computers are watching and listening to everything we do and say?

Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Marie, a sixty-three-year old Belgian woman, has been totally blind since the age of fifty-seven. But now, thanks to electrodes implanted around her right optic nerve, she can see lights, shapes, and colors again. Marie is one of a handful of people around the world who have had computer chips implanted in their bodies to extend, enhance, or repair their senses. The idea of actually melding man and machine still seems futuristic, unlikely and a little scary. But in The Body Electric, James Geary examines the startling possibilities opened up by the merger of the biological and the technological. This remarkable convergence holds the promise of restoring sight to the blind and mobility to the paralyzed. It might also provide us with bionic senses, such as the ability to see infrared radiation or feel objects at a distance. By linking neurons in the brain directly to silicon chips, scientists are also exploring the possibility of creating virtual eyes, ears, and limbs on the Internet and allowing people to control appliances by thought alone. Machines, too, are getting silicon senses. Researchers are endowing computers with the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, touch—and conceivably think. The Body Electric offers an accessible and astute survey of this exciting area of research with its potential commercial, medical and military applications. Drawing on fields as diverse as artificial intelligence and biology, The Body Electric asks: Are you any less “you” after a bionic implant? If all of our senses are electronically enhanced how will we tell the difference between virtual reality and the actual world? Will it matter? The merger of our technology and ourselves is already beginning to change the way we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think about the world, opening the doors of perception just another crack.

The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Rutgers University Press

We Need Men: The Union Draft in the Civil War (University of North Carolina Studies)

Americas

Northern Illinois University Press

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Books by Geary, James