Science Myths

Futurists insist that AI will soon eclipse the capacities of the most gifted human mind. What hope do we have against superintelligent machines? But we aren't really on the path to developing intelligent machines. In fact, we don't even know where that path might be. Erik Larson takes us on a tour of the landscape of AI to show how far we are from superintelligence and what it would take to get there.

Peace reigns in Caer Dallben, where Taran works as Assistant Pig-Keeper, but evil threatens the rest of Prydain. The diabolical Arawn's army grows every day, and his terrible warriors, born in the Black Cauldron, never die. If evil is to be defeated, the cauldron must be destroyed. Taran volunteers to travel to Arawn's stronghold and assist in the destruction of the dreaded cauldron. With his faithful friends reassembled, Taran faces great danger with a courageous heart.

After their strange mission in the desert, Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi are back at Shade Academy, doing some “extracurricular” work to track down The Crown, a mysterious force that’s snatching up people with powerful semblances. The job should be easier with Team SSSN by their side, but The Crown continues to evade them. Out of options and worried that a bigger plot is in motion, CFVY and SSSN notify Theodore, the Headmaster of Shade Academy, but Theodore has problems of his own.

¿Qué pasaría si un día descubrieras que, en realidad, eres hijo de un dios griego que debe cumplir una misión secreta? Pues eso es lo que le sucede a Percy Jackson, que a partir de ese momento se dispone a vivir los acontecimientos más emocionantes de su vida. Expulsado de seis colegios, Percy padece dislexia y dificultades para concentrarse, o al menos ésa es la versión oficial. Objeto de burlas por inventarse historias fantásticas, ni siquiera él mismo acaba de creérselas hasta el día que los dioses del Olimpo le revelan la verdad.

Hercules, Zeus, Thor, Gilgamesh - these are the figures that leap to mind when we think of myth. But to David Leeming, myths are more than stories of deities and fantastic beings from non-Christian cultures. Myth is at once the most particular and the most universal feature of civilization, representing common concerns that each society voices in its own idiom.

Cole Randolph never meant to come to The Outskirts, but when his friends were kidnapped on Halloween he had to try and save them. Now he’s trapped in a world that lies between wakefulness and dreaming, reality and imagination, life and death. Cole’s search for his friends has led him to Elloweer, another of the five kingdoms that make up The Outskirts.

Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest. Her lips were as red as blood, her skin as pale as snow, and her hair as dark as night. When she stopped to rest, her huntsman companion took his knife, plunged it into Sophie’s chest...and removed her heart. Yet Sophie doesn’t die. She’s rescued by seven mysterious engineers who manage to fashion her a temporary heart.

Taran, the assistant pig-keeper who wants to be a hero, goes questing for knowledge of his parentage, hoping that his journey will ennoble him in the eyes of Eilonwy, the princess with the red-gold hair. Accompanied by several loyal friends, Taran begins his search when three wily enchantresses of the Marshes of Morva send him to consult the Mirror of Llunet for the answers he is seeking, cryptically promising that "the finding takes no more than the looking".

This "who's who" audio guide to the gods, goddesses, and other important figures of Norse mythology was commissioned by Helgi, who, after more than a millennium as manager of Hotel Valhalla, became fed up with answering the same questions from newly deceased heroes at check-in. The profiles provide essential stats, interviews, and personal reflections so you can identify the gods and avoid those awkward introductions. Handy facts about other beings round out this go-to audiobook.

In The Myth of the Nice Girl, Fran Hauser deconstructs the negative perception of "niceness" that many women struggle with in the business world. If women are nice, they are seen as weak and ineffective, but if they are tough, they are labeled a bitch. Hauser proves that women don't have to sacrifice their values or hide their authentic personalities to be successful.

Lan spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the Elantian colonizers. Her days are consumed by the search for knowledge about the strange mark—an untranslatable Hin character—burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died. Zen is a practitioner—one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. He’s never seen anything like Lan’s mark, but he knows that if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime.

Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander’s overlooked influence on modern science

Nikki is a horror novelist. Her choice of career is dictated by an obsessive compulsive disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction. She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable. Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender.

Shalandra has fallen. Monsters of legend have risen from their graves to claim the City of the Dead. Kodyn and Evren have only one hope of stopping the evil Iron Warlord: break into the holiest, most secure stronghold in the city and steal ancient relics imbued with world-shattering magics. Issa joins the ranks of Shalandra's elite warriors in a desperate clash against the nightmare hordes flooding the streets and slaughtering every man, woman, and child.

In this follow-up to New York Times best sellers The Isle of the Lost and Return to the Isle of the Lost, Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay face their biggest challenge yet as a rotten villain from their past returns. They'll have to do everything in their power - good and evil - to keep Auradon safe.

After Beacon Academy fell, Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi made a vow: No one else is getting left behind. It's been more than a year since Team CFVY saw their school destroyed by the creatures of Grimm, their friends felled in battle or scattered across the world of Remnant. Since then, they've been settling into life at Shade Academy in Vacuo, fighting hard to finish their training so they can find their friends and save their world.

When Lady Saren defies her father’s command to marry the vicious Lord Khasar, she is sealed in a tower with only her serving maid, Dashti, for company. In their cramped, dark space Dashti pours her thoughts into a daily journal while pitiless solitude engulfs them. At first the girl is optimistic: they have food aplenty, candles for light, and even a visit from Lady Saren’s true love, Khan Tegus - though he can only call to them from outside their walls. But their circumstances soon grow desperate.

Advancement has come quickly to Ling Qi. With help from strong allies and connections, her foe has been defeated. The enemies of the alliance she has helped to build have surrendered. Her talent no longer goes unnoticed in the Celestial Empire, casting new eyes on her path. Those like her are accounted for; a title of nobility is within her reach...a prize with implications that will stretch over her now long life.

Noble Prince Jen is the one person that his father, King Ta'i, trusts enough to send on a mission to the legendary kingdom of Tien-Kuo. The prince eagerly begins his quest bearing only enormous pride and humble gifts. From the onset, however, the young ruler marches headlong into misfortune. Separated from his faithful servant, the prince finds himself fending off murderers, falling prey to trickery, and searching for a village girl who plays a magic flute. But it isn’t until he faces his most challenging personal trial that the he fully realizes the power hidden in each humble gift.

Ash's dad has returned from war, close to a breakdown and lost in a world of imaginary threats. Meanwhile, Ash's best friend, Mark, is grieving and has drifted away into his own nightmares. Ash's only escape is his lonely mountain running, training to be the stag boy in the annual Stag Chase. But dark things are stirring. Could Mark and Dad be haunted by more than just their pasts?