{"product_id":"playing-with-reality-isbn-9780593538180","title":"Playing with Reality","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eTHE ECONOMIST \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003eTHE GUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Absorbing. . . . A revealing look at the hidden role that games have played in human development for centuries.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“By turns philosophical and polemical, this is a provocative and fascinating book.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA wide-ranging intellectual history that reveals how important games have been to human progress, and what’s at stake when we forget what games we’re really playing.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe play games to learn about the world, to understand our minds and the minds of others, and to make predictions about the future. Games are an essential aspect of humanity and a powerful tool for modeling reality. They’re also a lot of fun. But games can be dangerous, especially when we mistake the model worlds of games for reality itself and let gamification co-opt human decision making.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlaying with Reality\u003c\/i\u003e explores the riveting history of games since the Enlightenment, weaving an unexpected path through military theory, political science, evolutionary biology, the development of computers and AI, cutting-edge neuroscience, and cognitive psychology. Neuroscientist and physicist Kelly Clancy shows how intertwined games have been with the arc of history. War games shaped the outcomes of real wars in nineteenth and twentieth century Europe. Game theory warped our understanding of human behavior and brought us to the brink of annihilation—yet still underlies basic assumptions in economics, politics, and technology design. We used games to teach computers how to learn for themselves, and now we are designing games that will determine the shape of society and future of democracy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this revelatory work, Clancy makes the bold argument that the human fascination with games is the key to understanding our nature and our actions.\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003ePlaying with Reality\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“By turns philosophical and polemical, this is a provocative and fascinating book.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Absorbing. . . . A revealing look at the hidden role that games have played in human development for centuries.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003ePlaying With Reality\u003c\/i\u003e is a foreboding prehistory of AI. Clancy conveys how we became so in thrall to gaming that we forgot where the field of play stops and the real world begins—who gets to be a player and who is merely being played.\"\u003cb\u003e —\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Comprehensive. . . . Clancy warns of the societal risks of allowing mathematical models to govern political decisions.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A sweeping investigation. . . . The history fascinates, and Clancy’s sophisticated analysis highlights the dangers of overgeneralizing from games to reality. . . . Readers won’t want to put this down.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Clancy weaves a clear-eyed account of games from ancient history—they predate written language, she tells us—to the modern world of computers and the Internet. . . . Clancy carefully puts these historical moments and developments in context. This approach is particularly pleasurable when it takes the form of deep dives into specific games.\" \u003cb\u003e—Carmen Maria Machado, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eScientific American\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A rewarding read that raises important questions about who defines the rules of the game-inspired systems that dominate modern life—and whether we should automatically accept those rules.”\u003ci\u003e \u003cb\u003e—New Scientist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Playing With Reality\u003c\/i\u003e is as surprising, and as delightful, as the many games it analyzes. From ancient games of chance to the latest advances in AI, Kelly Clancy has written the definitive account of how we—as individuals and as a society—learn through play.” —\u003cb\u003eSteven Johnson, author of \u003ci\u003eEverything Bad Is Good for You\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWonderland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“With the blazing mind of a scientist and the keen eye of a poet, Clancy emerges as one of the most important new writers of her generation.” —\u003cb\u003eDavid Eagleman, Stanford neuroscientist and author of \u003ci\u003eIncognito\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLivewired\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A gripping narrative that reveals why games matter and just how powerful they can be. It should be required reading for anyone who develops games and everyone who plays them.” —\u003cb\u003eNolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, Inc. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A book to get the neurons firing. As a passionate game player I loved reading a neuroscientist’s perspective on the role games have played in humanity’s attempts to navigate the game of life. A dopamine hit on every page.” —\u003cb\u003eMarcus du Sautoy, author of \u003ci\u003eAround the World in 80 Games\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Playing with Reality\u003c\/i\u003e is the critical history of games I've been waiting for. Fast-paced and enjoyable, you'll never look at a pair of dice—or your smartphone—the same again.” —\u003cb\u003eMalcolm Harris, author of \u003ci\u003ePalo Alto\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Life is full of games but if we don't know we're playing, there's every chance games are playing us. Whether they are the games hidden in politics, war, business—or in everyday work and play—Clancy will have you asking who set the rules—and who stands to benefit. P\u003ci\u003elaying with Reality\u003c\/i\u003e is as addictive and engrossing as the games Clancy lucidly describes.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e —\u003c\/i\u003eAnanyo Bhattacharya, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Man from the Future\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eKelly Clancy\u003c\/b\u003e is a neuroscientist and physicist who has held research positions at MIT, Berkeley, University College London and the AI company DeepMind. Her research focuses on uncovering the principles of intelligence, and she has invented novel brain-computer interfaces to investigate the biological underpinnings of agency. Her essays on neuroscience and AI have appeared in \u003ci\u003eWired\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarper's\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. She spent her childhood stuck on the first level of the video game \u003ci\u003eMyst\u003c\/i\u003e, and being repeatedly murdered by her younger sister in \u003ci\u003eGoldenEye 007\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302545084645,"sku":"NP9780593538180","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593538180.jpg?v=1767734874","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/playing-with-reality-isbn-9780593538180","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}