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Mechanizing Proof
Most aspects of our private and social lives—our safety, the integrity of the financial system, the functioning of utilities and other services, and national security—now depend on computing. But how can we know that this computing is trustworthy? In Mechanizing Proof, Donald MacKenzie addresses this key issue by investigating the interrelations of computing, risk, and mathematical proof over the last half century from the perspectives of history and sociology. His discussion draws on the technical literature of computer science and artificial intelligence and on extensive interviews with participants. MacKenzie argues that our culture now contains two ideals of proof: proof as tradition...
Material Markets
Financial markets, processes, and instruments are often difficult to fathom; and recent turbulence suggests they may be out of control in some respects. Donald Mackenzie is one of the most perceptive analysts of the workings of the financial world. In this book, MacKenzie argues that economic agents and markets need to be analyzed in their full materiality: their physicality, their corporeality, their technicality. Markets are populated not by disembodied, abstract agents, but by embodied human beings and technical systems. Concepts and systematic ways of thinking that simplify market processes and make them mentally tractable are essential to how markets function. In putting forward this ma...
Inventing Accuracy
"Mackenzie has achieved a masterful synthesis of engrossing narrative, imaginative concepts, historical perspective, and social concern." Donald MacKenzie follows one line of technology—strategic ballistic missile guidance through a succession of weapons systems to reveal the workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable. He uncovers the parameters, the pressures, and the politics that make up the complex social construction of an equally complex technology.
Making Meaning
The problem of how to relate the history of book production to the considerations of literary studies occupied scholarly bibliographer McKenzie for his entire career. Ten of his previously published essays are presented here and reflect that concern and his advocacy for a theoretical viewpoint rooted in "the sociology of texts." Among the topics presented are how the investigation of work habits of 17th century printers calls into question previous bibliographic assumptions, the relation of the London book trade to book production, and theoretical considerations of the practice of bibliography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
An Engine, Not a Camera
In An Engine, Not a Camera, Donald MacKenzie argues that the emergence of modern economic theories of finance affected financial markets in fundamental ways. These new, Nobel Prize-winning theories, based on elegant mathematical models of markets, were not simply external analyses but intrinsic parts of economic processes. Paraphrasing Milton Friedman, MacKenzie says that economic models are an engine of inquiry rather than a camera to reproduce empirical facts. More than that, the emergence of an authoritative theory of financial markets altered those markets fundamentally. For example, in 1970, there was almost no trading in financial derivatives such as "futures." By June of 2004, derivat...
Trading at the Speed of Light
"Trading at the Speed of Light tells the story of how many of our most important financial markets have transformed from physical trading floors on which human beings trade face-to-face, into electronic systems within which computer algorithms trade with each other. Tracing the emergence of ultrafast, automated, high-frequency trading (HFT) since the early 2000s, Donald MacKenzie draws particular attention to the importance of what he deems the 'material political economy' of twenty-first century finance. Fast transmission of price data used to involve fibre-optic cables, but the strands in such cables are made of materials (usually a specialised form of glass) which slow light down to aroun...
Do Economists Make Markets?
Publisher description
The Landscape Ecology of Fire
Global warming is expected to change fire regimes, likely increasing the severity and extent of wildfires in many ecosystems around the world. What will be the landscape-scale effects of these altered fire regimes? Within what theoretical contexts can we accurately assess these effects? We explore the possible effects of altered fire regimes on landscape patch dynamics, dominant species (tree, shrub, or herbaceous) and succession, sensitive and invasive plant and animal species and communities, and ecosystem function. Ultimately, we must consider the human dimension: what are the policy and management implications of increased fire disturbance, and what are the implications for human communities?
Egyptian Myth and Legend
Egyptian Myth and Legend delves into the religion, history, and culture of Egypt, provides a comprehensive overview of a civilization that spans millennia.
Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend
Sixteen lively tales tell of giants rumbling down mountainsides, of a magic wand that turns stone pillars into warriors, of gods and goddesses, evil hags, powerful forces, and more.
