Society – Page 8 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Research Universities and the Public Good: Discovery for an Uncertain Future

By Scott J. Pearson | April 22, 2020April 23, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Recent years have witnessed funding cuts for universities, both at the state and federal levels. Due to economic factors beyond its control (like the Great Recession), research dollars from governmental sources have shrunk, and research budgets from industry have not risen. Industry’s and government’s interests differ in more immediate monetary applications versus long-term social gains. Someone must pay for university work, and oftentimes, that someone is the individual student and her/his family. Owen-Smith, a professor…

The Internet of Things: What Everyone Needs to Know

By Scott J. Pearson | March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

As a society, we have quickly moved into and out of the computer age and into the age of the world wide web. We are soon moving into the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). These comprise a myriad of devices which “talk” together via computer networks. They collect mountains of data on us and are poised to revolutionize virtually every sphere of human life. Although driven by technological advance, these changes are ultimately…

History Society Software-Technology

Technology: Critical History of a Concept

By Scott J. Pearson | February 22, 2020February 23, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

As commonly told, science rose in the public’s consciousness during the Renaissance. However, the word “technology” in the English language was not used then. Instead, “technology” was used more and more frequently after the 1950s. What does this word exactly mean and what does it tell about our society that we use it so much today? Schatzberg, a professor in one of the premier schools of technology in the world, asks these questions with us…

Society Software-Technology

The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World

By Scott J. Pearson | February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Technology – especially social media – has made our communication more accessible over the last ten years. But has it enhanced the quality of our conversation? In this book, Phillips contends that empathy has lost out in the transition to digital technology. She cites events like the 2016 US election as proof of how we are unable to have a civilized conversation in the digital world. Thus far (in the first couple chapters in the…

Religion-Philosophy Society

Christianity and Culture by TS Eliot

By Scott J. Pearson | January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

I first read these essays while a senior at college. Now, about twenty years later, I reread them in a study on the English poet TS Eliot. Eliot uses language very carefully, as any poet should, but he is a poet approaching the world of an anthropologist. Further, he writes in an era (pre- and post-World-War-II) in which European culture was pulled apart at the seams and remade again. Eliot himself is an American transplant…

Fiction-Stories Society

An American Marriage

By Scott J. Pearson | October 20, 2019October 20, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

This is a story of the effects of improper incarceration of America’s black men. It is also a love story. The reconciliation of these two themes births a plot with several twists and turns, right down to the Epilogue. Jones provides us with a fresh tale with interesting food for thought. My only additional wish is for more. I wish that there were some other theme that played itself out in these pages and interacted…

Society

Review: Outliers: The Story of Success

By Scott J. Pearson | July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Being an outlier means being a non-conformist. One hears this kind of advice all the time. So many people buy into conventions that they forget the reasons behind the conventions. Gladwell seeks to critique the standard story of an outlier’s success. As normally told, outliers start doing there own thing; they work really hard and persevere; then in the end, they end up successful while all the world is envious of them; their story is…