Social Reality

In Step into the Metaverse, Dr. Mark van Rijmenam delivers a startlingly insightful discussion about how the world as we know it will fundamentally change as the physical and the digital worlds merge into the metaverse, impacting the everyday experiences of people, companies, and societies. The author maps out the extraordinary opportunities and challenges facing business leaders, consumers, regulators, policymakers, and other metaverse stakeholders trying to navigate the future of the Internet.

In Appearance in Reality, John Heil addresses a question at the heart of metaphysics: How are the appearances related to reality, how does what we find in the sciences comport with what we encounter in everyday experience and in the laboratory? Objects, for instance, appear to be colorful, noisy, self-contained, and massively interactive.

Reality TV's influence is seismic: twenty-five years ago, the concept didn't exist. Yet today, it is one of the most powerful cultural forces on earth; a multi-billion-dollar machine. Despite that, it is often derided as "trash"; a cultural McDonalds not worthy of examination. The truth is that reality TV offers a profound insight into who we are as human beings, questioning the very nature of what we deem to be entertaining. Writer, broadcaster and reality TV-obsessive Jacques Peretti goes behind the scenes of a world that has entranced and consumed him for two decades.

Second Lives takes us on a revelatory journey through the electronic looking glass as Tim Guest investigates one of the most bizarre phenomena of the 21st century: virtual lives.

This edited volume by the MSAC Philosophy Group includes a variety of essays by different authors on virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and those computational pioneers and thinkers who have advanced our understanding of a digital future.

In this uproarious memoir/tongue-in-cheek guide to leaving the cool city in which you "found" yourself and moving somewhere far more ordinary, author Erin Clune regales listeners with priceless stories of her own experiences leaving New York for her hometown in Wisconsin and provides a jocular but useful guide - for anyone leaving, or thinking about leaving, their own personal mecca - to finding contentment while staying true to yourself in a place far, far away from The City.

Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience imaginable. With well-crafted simulations, these experiences, which are so immersive that the brain believes they're real, are already widely available with a VR headset and will only become more accessible and commonplace. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism? In Experience on Demand, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR and other mass media to help listeners understand this powerful new tool.

Achieving the American Dream has become increasingly difficult for many Latinos, despite the huge opportunities, because there is a lack of mentorship and inspiration from Latino role models ... but it doesn't have to be that way. This audiobook will tell you how 50 of the most successful Latinos and Latinas in America turned their dreams into reality. These inspirational people share their stories, providing us insight into the mindset, actions, and habits that allowed them to overcome barriers and conquer fears, and to achieve what they once thought was impossible.

Called a “chronicler of a world on the move” by The New York Review of Books, Anna Badkhen seeks what separates and binds us at a time when one in seven people has left their birthplace, while a pandemic dictates the direst season of rupture in humankind’s remembering. Her new essay collection, Bright Unbearable Reality, comprises 11 essays set on four continents—roving everywhere from Oklahoma to Azerbaijan—and united by a common thread of communion and longing.

American Dream Political Reality details important events that occurred in the United States, Europe, and Russia from 1988 to 2023. We participated in the opening of the Berlin Wall in Germany that had separated Communist East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years. It only takes a moment to change your life, and my son Elliot and I witnessed that in the aftermath of 9/11, when the Twin Towers in New York City collapsed from a terrorist attack.

La mejor manera de alinearte con la realidad de tus sueños es a través de la visualización, la cual representa la herramienta más eficaz para ayudarte a deshacerte de las dudas, la autocrítica y todos los elementos limitantes de la mentalidad que pueden mantenerte atascado en donde estás.

Two authors with decades of experience promoting human rights argue that, as the world changes around us, rights hardly imaginable today will come into being.

Times are difficult; Joseph Grant's meditative delivery wraps his listeners in hope, tenderness, and gratitude. Wandering and Welcome is a beacon of poetic kindness rooted in honesty, Scripture, and truth. You'll want to call loved ones and replay pieces to them. Some sections will make you sigh in astonishment, some will cause you to pause in revelation, and others will bring tears of joy and appreciation. If a book could be both giant reality check and tender hug all wrapped in one, this would be it.

Smart Ball follows Major League Baseball's history as a sport, a domestic monopoly, a neocolonial power, and an international business. MLB's challenge has been to market its popular mythology as the national pastime with pastoral, populist roots while addressing the management challenges of competing with other sports and diversions in a burgeoning global economy. Baseball researcher Robert F. Lewis II argues that MLB for years abused its legal insulation and monopoly status.

Nothing has changed more in the last few decades than our concept and perception of reality. The effects have manifested in our news, entertainment, and Google searches; we're finding that a lot of things we thought were objective aren't automatically so. Reality is not a concept we want to flush down the toilet with yesterday's food, though. However, we must begin to understand how it works in a world where profit is the driving force.

In this murder novel, Sandy Bean is bullied by fellow classmates. A reunion is coming up and he plots revenge. Learning all kinds of viral marketing, Sandy, or as he later names himself, Conan, becomes "The Social Network Killer" as he has learned how to target specific people, and get all kids of information on them.

Author Johnathan Borschkey brings his biting wit and not-so-common sense to his latest title: Kill Your ISMs. Inside, he examines the result of what happens when you choose to surrender your brain to the people who claim to have a monopoly on the one true thought system for living out the rest of your days. Liberalism, communism, evangelicalism, pacifism, creationism, fascism, environmentalism, conservatism, objectivism - there are far more "one true thought system" out there than you can possibly imagine.

Sixteen-year-olds Charlie, Keiran, Brooke, and Hallie have just been signed up for their own reality television show. They can't even believe it. "You'll be The Hills meets The Secret Life of the American Teenager," the Armani-suited executive tells them, "and the hottest thing on our network." How could they say no? But soon enough, cameras following them everywhere and interfering producers surreptitiously scripting their lives start to affect the four best friends' relationship.

Donald R. Prothero explains the scientific process and why society has come to rely on science not only to provide a better life but also to reach verifiable truths no other method can obtain. He describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, anthropogenic global warming, vaccination, the HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been attacked with totally unscientific arguments and methods.

If you’ve not heard, Metaverse is the future! It’s planned to be the next big thing in Crypto, and in fact, many leaders claim it's going to be the next stage of the Internet and possibly even bigger than the internet itself. Bloomberg recently projected the market size of the Metaverse to reach $800 billion in 2024! So the big question is…how can you get ahead and monetize the Metaverse? This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on the Metaverse. Find out which companies will provide a money-printing bonanza!