A vast machine : computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming / / Paul N. Edwards

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910260623303321
• Autore: Edwards Paul N.
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge, Massachusetts : , : MIT Press, , c2010; [Piscataqay, New Jersey] : , : IEEE Xplore, , [2010]
• ISBN: 1-282-89931-7; 9786612899317; 0-262-29410-9
• Descrizione fisica: xxvii, 518 p. : ill., maps
• Disciplina: 551.63
• Soggetti: Weather forecasting; Climatology - History; Meteorology - History; Climatology - Technological innovations; Global temperature changes; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [441]-507) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Thinking globally -- Global space, universal time : seeing the planetary atmosphere -- Standards and networks : international meteorology and the Réseau Mondial -- Climatology and climate change before World War II -- Friction -- Numerical weather prediction -- The infinite forecast -- Making global data -- The first WWW -- Making data global -- Data wars -- Reanalysis : the do-over -- Parametrics and the limits of knowledge -- Simulation models and atmospheric politics, 1960-1992 -- Signal and noise : consensus, controversy, and climate change.
• Sommario/riassunto: Global warming skeptics often fall back on the argument that the scientific case for global warming is all model predictions, nothing but simulation; they warn us that we need to wait for real data, "sound science." In A Vast Machine Paul Edwards has news for these doubters: without models, there are no data. Today, no collection of signals or observations--even from satellites, which can "see" the whole planet ; with a single instrument--becomes global in time and space without passing through a series of data models. Everything we know about the world's climate we know through models. Edwards offers an engaging and innovative history of how scientists learned to understand the atmosphere--to measure it, trace its past, and model its future. Edwards argues that all our knowledge about climate change comes from three kinds of computer models: simulation models of weather and climate; reanalysis models, which recreate climate history from historical weather data; and data models, used to combine and adjust measurements from many different sources. Meteorology creates knowledge through an infrastructure (weather stations and other data platforms) that covers the whole world, making global data. This infrastructure generates information so vast in quantity and so diverse in quality and form that it can be understood only by computer analysis--making data global. Edwards describes the science behind the scientific consensus on climate change, arguing that over the years data and models have converged to create a stable, reliable, and trustworthy basis for the reality of global warming.

Alive : advancements in adaptive architecture / / Manuel Kretzer, Ludger Hovestadt, editors

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910788950103321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Basel, Switzerland : , : Birkhäuser, , 2014; ©2014
• ISBN: 3-99043-668-6
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (220 p.)
• Collana: Applied Virtuality Book Series ; ; 8
• Disciplina: 720.47
• Soggetti: Organic architecture
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- CONTENTS -- Foreword / Collet, Carole -- Preface / Hovestadt, Ludger -- Introduction / Kretzer, Manuel -- Bioinspiration -- Quasiperiodic Near-Living Systems: Paradigms for Form-Language / ; Beesley, Philip -- Ecology beyond Nature / Pasquero, Claudia / Poletto, Marco -- Meteorosensitive Architectures / Menges, Achim / Reichert, Steffen / Krieg, Oliver David -- In[form]ations: Digital Matter on Buildings and Cities / Markopoulou, Areti -- Building Nature: On Sex and Ducks, Chicken and Shit, Architecture and Apples / Haw, Alex -- Conversation -- Materiability -- Domesticating a World of Printed Physics / Hovestadt, Ludger -- Beyond Performance / Kretzer, Manuel -- Adapting Matter / Decker, Martina -- Bioluminescence: Toward Design with Living Light / Burggraf, Nicola -- Smart Materials: Designing a Timescape of Interconnectivity for more Resilient Practices of Inhabitation / Mossé, Aurélie -- The Unconventional Electronics Approach to the Internet of Things / Sarik, John -- Conversation -- Intelligence -- Caught in the Act / Oosterhuis, Kas -- Spatial Computing in Interactive Architecture / Dulman, Stefan -- Polyomino: The Missing Topology Mechanic / Sanchez, Jose -- Architecture and Audience / Bruges, Jason -- Approaching Distributed Architectural Ecosystems / Jaskiewicz, Tomasz -- Conversation -- Outlook -- Adaptive Architecture: Low-Tech, High-Tech, or Both? / Kolarevic, Branko -- Postscript -- The Quickness of Matter, doped in its Polyalphabetic Textuality: or, The Articulation of Articles, beyond Prescript and Postscript / Bühlmann, Vera -- Images. Biographies. Credits -- Index. Imprint + Acknowledgments
• Sommario/riassunto: In Zeiten, in denen der Begriff "Natur" im Kern seiner biologischen Materialitat in Frage gestellt wird, müssen wir die Zusammenhange zwischen Architektur und Natur neu überdenken. Dies betrifft nicht nur Strategien für einen verantwortlichen Umgang mit der Umwelt, sondern ebenso menschliches Verhalten und kulturelle oder demografische Varietat. Um diesen Herausforderungen zu begegnen, sollte man sich dem Unbekannten stellen und die Disziplin Architektur zu einer integrierten und interdisziplinaren Praxis hin entwickeln. Das Buch präsentiert zukunftsweisende Design-Beschreibungen, erarbeitet von führenden Praktikern und Forschern, die nach neuen Verbindungen zwischen Architektur, Natur und Mensch für eine zukünftige, lebende Architektur suchen. Rund um die drei eng miteinander vernetzten Kernthemen "Bioinspiration", "Materiability" und "Intelligence" befasst sich das Buch mit dem Beginn eines neu entstehenden Design-Gebiets, in dem die Symbiose von Physik, Biologie, Informatik und Design die Neudefinition dessen verspricht, was wir heute als Architektur bezeichnen.; In times where the very concept of 'nature' is questioned not only in its philosophical dimension, but in the core of its biological materiality, we need to reconsider the interrelations between architecture and nature. This not only applies to strategies on environmental responsibility but equally on anticipatory human behavior and cultural or demographic variety. To address these challenges this book proposes to embrace the unknown and cultivate the architectural discipline towards an integrated and cross-disciplinary practice. It unravels compelling innovative and forward-thinking design narratives by leading international practitioners and researchers who investigate novel associations between architecture, nature and humanity for a future, alive architecture. Structured around the three closely cross-linked core themes "bioinspiration", "materiability", and "intelligence" the book engages with the starting point of an emerging new design field, where the symbiosis of physics, biology, computing and design promises the redefinition of what we call architecture today.