Our species is entering a new era. Millions of years ago, we created tools to change our environment. Caves became huts, fires became ovens, and clubs became swords. Collectively these tools became technology, and the pace of innovation accelerated. Now we’re applying the latest advancements to our own biology, and technology is becoming part of the process. But is that a good thing? Not if media scare pieces about government spying, limitless automation, and electronic addictions are to be believed. But veteran journalist and best-selling author Peter Nowak looks at what it means to be human – from the relationships we form and the beliefs we hold to the jobs we do and the objects we create – and measures the impact that those innovations have had and will have in the future. He shows not only how advancements in robotics, nanotechnology, neurology, and genetics are propelling us into a new epoch, but how they’re improving us as a species. Nowak has compiled the data and travelled the world to speak to experts. Focusing on the effects of technology rather than just its comparatively minor side effects, he finds a world that is rapidly equalizing, globalizing, and co-operating.

Humans 3.0

Nowak, Peter

The Friday Project Limited

Sex Bombs and Burgers: How War Porn And Fast Food Created Technology As We Know It

History

World

VIKING

A fun and fascinating exploration of modern technology, Sex, Bombs, and Burgers reveals how these three billion-dollar industries have shaped our everyday lives. It’s also a chronicle of popular culture, chock-full of surprising revelations. Take a look around your home. Your microwave? A British military scientist invented its technology by accident while trying to devise a death ray to blow up enemy planes. Your handheld video recorder? Developed by the military in World War II but adopted and made affordable by post-war pornographers. That vacuum robot on late-night infomercials? Born of a mine sniffer patrolling the caves of Afghanistan. 
From the unexpected origins of aerosols, silly putty, and the Internet to Saran Wrap, Tupperware, and video games, here is an engaging look at modern life as we know it.

Sex, Bombs, and Burgers: How War, Pornography, And Fast Food Have Shaped Modern Technology

LYONS PRESS+

Our species is entering a new era. Millions of years ago, we created tools to change our environment. Caves became huts, fires became ovens, and clubs became swords. Collectively these tools became technology, and the pace of innovation accelerated. Now we’re applying the latest advancements to our own biology, and technology is becoming part of the process. But is that a good thing? Not if media scare pieces about government spying, limitless automation, and electronic addictions are to be believed. But veteran journalist and best-selling author Peter Nowak looks at what it means to be human – from the relationships we form and the beliefs we hold to the jobs we do and the objects we create – and measures the impact that those innovations have had and will have in the future. He shows not only how advancements in robotics, nanotechnology, neurology, and genetics are propelling us into a new epoch, but how they’re improving us as a species. Nowak has compiled the data and travelled the world to speak to experts. Focusing on the effects of technology rather than just its comparatively minor side effects, he finds a world that is rapidly equalizing, globalizing, and co-operating.

Humans 3.0: The Upgrading of the Species

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Life for early humans wasn't easy. They may have been able to walk on two feet and create tools 4 million years ago, but they couldn't remember or communicate. Fortunately, people got smarter, and things got better. They remembered on-the-spot solutions and shared the valuable information of their experiences. Clubs became swords, caves became huts, and fires became ovens. Collectively these new tools became technology. As the 21st century unfolds, the pace of innovation is accelerating exponentially. Breakthroughs from robotics to genetics appear almost on a daily basis. It's all happening so quickly that it's hard to keep track — but recently there's been a shift. With vaccinations, in-vitro fertilization, and individual genetic therapy, we're entering a new epoch, a next step, faster and more dramatic than the shift from Australopithicines to Homo Sapiens. The technology that set us apart from our earliest selves is becoming part of the evolutionary process. Advancements in computing, robotics, nanotechnology, neurology, and genetics mean that our wildest imaginings could soon become commonplace. Peter Nowak deftly presents the potential outcomes — both exciting and frightening — of key, rapidly advancing technologies and adroitly explores both the ramifications of adopting them and what doing so will reveal about the future of our species. We've come a long way in 4 million years. Welcome to Humans 3.0.

Goose Lane Editions

War, porn and fast food quite rightly deserve their bad reputation. War is responsible for untold human suffering and death; porn is blamed for everything from marital infidelity to the erosion of our morals; and fast food is causing rising obesity levels, and the increasing uniformity and blandness of western culture. So why celebrate them? According to Peter Nowak, if it wasn't for war, porn and fast food, we might all still be living in caves. Sex, Bombs and Burgers is a pacy history of the potentially dry world of technology. Based on research into the histories of all three industries, it includes extensive interviews with inventors, experts, academics, executives and commentators. It is also a chronicle of popular culture, chock-full of surprising 'fancy that?' moments. From cars to high-definition televisions, from website logins to microwave popcorn and slinkies, it reveals how our everyday lives have been shaped - for the most part indirectly - by war, porn and fast food.

Sex, Bombs and Burgers: How War, Porn and Fast Food Created Technology as We Know it

Allen& Unwin

Meanwhile, back in the darkened alleys of a city near you... trouble is brewing. A fight breaks out. A mugger shakes down an innocent tourist. Inequality is on the rise. Enter our heroes. Dark Guardian chases off an angry drug dealer in Manhattan. Mr. Xtreme charges in and breaks up a San Diego bar brawl. T.O. Ronin hugs a homeless man on the snowy streets of Toronto. These aren't the big-screen or comic-book heroes that have been increasingly dominating pop culture. They're real-life superheroes: individuals who take on masked personae to fight crime and help the helpless. They don't have superpowers, but they do try to make the world a better place. Lifelong comic-book fan and veteran journalist Peter Nowak goes to the source of this phenomenon, meeting with real-life superheroes in North America and around the world to get their stories and investigate what the movement means for the future of society. To some people, real-life superheroes may seem like quirky outliers or dangerous vigilantes but, as Nowak shows, they are also archetypes whose job is to remind us of the better part of human nature.

The Rise of Real-Life Superheroes

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Douglas&McIntyre

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nowak, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Nowak, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nowak, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Humans 3.0

Sex Bombs and Burgers: How War Porn And Fast Food Created Technology As We Know It

Sex, Bombs, and Burgers: How War, Pornography, And Fast Food Have Shaped Modern Technology

Humans 3.0: The Upgrading of the Species

Humans 3.0: The Upgrading of the Species

Sex, Bombs and Burgers: How War, Porn and Fast Food Created Technology as We Know it

The Rise of Real-Life Superheroes