The Digital Mind: How Science Is Redefining Humanity
Abstract
What do computers, cells, and brains have in common? Computers are electronic devices designed by humans; cells are biological entities crafted by evolution; brains are the containers and creators of our minds. But all are, in one way or another, information-processing devices. The power of the human brain is, so far, unequaled by any existing machine or known living being. Over eons of evolution, the brain has enabled us to develop tools and technology to make our lives easier. Our brains have even allowed us to develop computers that are almost as powerful as the human brain itself. In this book, Arlindo Oliveira describes how advances in science and technology could enable us to create digital minds. Exponential growth is a pattern built deep into the scheme of life, but technological change now promises to outstrip even evolutionary change. Oliveira describes technological and scientific advances that range from the discovery of laws that control the behavior of the electromagnetic fields to the development of computers. He calls natural selection the ultimate algorithm, discusses genetics and the evolution of the central nervous system, and describes the role that computer imaging has played in understanding and modeling the brain. Having considered the behavior of the unique system that creates a mind, he turns to an unavoidable question: Is the human brain the only system that can host a mind? If digital minds come into existence -- and, Oliveira says, it is difficult to argue that they will not -- what are the social, legal, and ethical implications? Will digital minds be our partners, or our rivals? © 2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
... Digital computers dominate virtually all aspects of our lives today. As Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Arlindo Oliveira observes, "Computing technologies, which are only a few decades old, have changed so many things in our daily lives that civilization as we know it would not be possible without computers" [30] (p. 8). ...
... Elaborating further, Oliveira writes, "Computers are useful only because they execute programs, which are nothing more than the implementation of algorithms. . . . Without algorithms, computers would be useless" [30] (p. 6). M Beatrice Fazi explains the logic governing algorithmic execution in Contingent Computation: ...
... Computers represent the latest way to process information, in digital form. Before then, information processing was done by living organisms" [30] (p. 1). Because of this dissimilarity, it is crucial that we explore how repeated use of digital computers and microprocessors habituate or condition the human mind. ...
Technologies of communication condition human sense-making. They do so by creating the social environment we inhabit and extending their structural biases and logics through human use. As such, this essay inquires into the prevailing habits of mind in the digital era. Employing a media ecology of communication, I argue that digital computers and microprocessors are defined by three structural properties and, hence, underlying logics: digitization (binary code), algorithmic execution (input/output), and efficiency (machine logic). Repeated exposure to these logics cultivates a digital mind, a model of thinking, communicating, and sense-making characterized by intransigence, impertinence, and impulsivity. I conclude the essay by exploring the broader implications of a digital mind, paying particular attention to the challenges it poses to democratic politics.
... Notwithstanding, there are some applications (e.g., image recognition) that the ANNs are not even close to human performance (in terms of processing speed and accuracy) since only a small fraction of the functioning of our neural circuit is known [220] and it is not possible yet to implement that behaviour on an ANN. (In fact, the Drosophila and Nematode's brain are the only two brains that are known in detail, and it took over 100 years of research [221,222].) ...
... Like the biological neurons, the neuron units in an ANN are only fired when the amount of excitation is high; otherwise, they must remain silent [221]. ...
... Nevertheless, the works developed by McCulloch, Pitts, Rosenblatt, Ivakhnenko and Lapa were the most relevant approaches that leveraged the development of the ANN of the current days [221]. ...
Optimisation is a branch of mathematics that was developed to find the optimal solutions, among all the possible ones, for a given problem. Applications of optimisation techniques are currently employed in engineering, computing, and industrial problems. Therefore, optimisation is a very active research area, leading to the publication of a large number of methods to solve specific problems to its optimality. This dissertation focuses on the adaptation of two nature inspired algorithms that, based on optimisation techniques, are able to compute approximations for zeros of polynomials and roots of non-linear equations and systems of non-linear equations. Although many iterative methods for finding all the roots of a given function already exist, they usually require: (a) repeated deflations, that can lead to very inaccurate results due to the problem of accumulating rounding errors, (b) good initial approximations to the roots for the algorithm converge, or (c) the computation of first or second order derivatives, which besides being computationally intensive, it is not always possible. The drawbacks previously mentioned served as motivation for the use of Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for root-finding, since they are known, respectively, for their ability to explore high-dimensional spaces (not requiring good initial approximations) and for their capability to model complex problems. Besides that, both methods do not need repeated deflations, nor derivative information. The algorithms were described throughout this document and tested using a test suite of hard numerical problems in science and engineering. Results, in turn, were compared with several results available on the literature and with the well-known Durand–Kerner method, depicting that both algorithms are effective to solve the numerical problems considered.
... The theoretical purpose of this new horizon was to cover the fields of science studied by living beings, such as humans, animals, and plants, drawing on techniques and concepts from the formal sciences, especially those from mathematics and physics (Oliveira, 2017;Cipolla-Ficarra et al., 2018a). Originally, it was intended to find innovative solutions within life science, with the methodological analysis of engineering, in the following triangular relationship: humans, flora and Therefore, we will try in this work to analyze the main elements that across time and currently generate chaos, trying to present them in order to eradicate them for the future. ...
... The consequences of these failures can be seen in the lack of use within the software industry, towards those models of partial, inconsistent and non-universal design. Furthermore, the costs for the local educational and scientific community are immeasurable, over time, given the loss of competitiveness in software and hardware, for the autonomous generation of qualitative goods and services, within globalization (Oliveira, 2017;O'Neil, 2016, Pendyala, Shim & Bussler, 2015. ...
In this chapter, the main avant-garde components that favor quality on the web are disclosed, especially from the perspectives of software and design. At the same time, the deviations of these components that slow down these processes from the technical-human point of view are presented. In this dualistic perspective , the role of education is included in each of the generations of users, programmers, and publishers of digital content on the web, as well as the context in which they are immersed. A triadic vision of past, present and future is presented in each of the aspects and components, directly and indirectly related, with the development of operations, models, and methods, which converge in obtaining a high quality of the web. Finally, parallels are drawn between the formal science professions and infinite semiosis in web engineering.
... Es por ello que Internet figura como el gran protagonista de los últimos veinticinco años, ya que ha pasado de tener 16 millones de usuarios globales en 1995 a 4.1 miles de millones en 2019 (International Telecomunication Union), cifra que se corresponde con el 55 por ciento de la población mundial. El crecimiento en número de usuarios/as, así como de contribuidores a la creación de contenido, es lo que ha aumentado en gran parte su utilidad, y es lo que impulsó, a mediados de la década pasada, el salto de la Web 1.0, una web rígida y de 'unos pocos', a lo que hoy se conoce como la Web 2.0, una web más 'social' y 'abierta', que ha dado pie al desarrollo de millones de aplicaciones y a la generación de datos en cantidades ingentes (Oliveira, 2017). SOCIOLOGÍA Y TECNOCIENCIA, 11.2 (2021): 310-325 ISSN: 1989 A grandes rasgos, la Web 2.0 es la responsable de los cambios producidos en el modo de generar, así como de acceder a la información, además de cómo nos comunicamos, compramos, consumimos ocio, manifestamos, accedemos a servicios, etc. (Oliveira, 2017). ...
... El crecimiento en número de usuarios/as, así como de contribuidores a la creación de contenido, es lo que ha aumentado en gran parte su utilidad, y es lo que impulsó, a mediados de la década pasada, el salto de la Web 1.0, una web rígida y de 'unos pocos', a lo que hoy se conoce como la Web 2.0, una web más 'social' y 'abierta', que ha dado pie al desarrollo de millones de aplicaciones y a la generación de datos en cantidades ingentes (Oliveira, 2017). SOCIOLOGÍA Y TECNOCIENCIA, 11.2 (2021): 310-325 ISSN: 1989 A grandes rasgos, la Web 2.0 es la responsable de los cambios producidos en el modo de generar, así como de acceder a la información, además de cómo nos comunicamos, compramos, consumimos ocio, manifestamos, accedemos a servicios, etc. (Oliveira, 2017). Citando al último informe de los usos de las TIC realizado por el INE en 2019, el 91,4% 1 de los hogares españoles disponen de conexión a internet en alguna de sus modalidades de acceso. ...
Este documento pretende ser una aproximación a cómo la digitalización puede modificar la intervención social debido a los recientes desarrollos en la inteligencia artificial. El objeto de investigación se centra en el marco de los servicios sociales, y en concreto en la figura del Trabajo Social, sin embargo, los hallazgos encontrados son generalizables a cualquier disciplina que opere en la intervención social (Psicología Social, Educadores Sociales, Pedagogía, Animación Sociocultural, etc.).
Transitaremos por las perspectivas teóricas y cosmovisiones científicas que analizan la relación tecnología-sociedad, con el objetivo de enmarcar el presente estudio y disponer de marcos interpretativos sobre la percepción social de la tecnología. Y analizaremos cuál está siendo el impacto real de la digitalización en el ámbito del Trabajo Social, a partir de metodologías mixtas que combinen técnicas cuantitativas (encuestas a profesionales) con técnicas cualitativas (entrevistas a informantes clave del sector tecnológico y de las disciplinas de intervención social)
En definitiva, las preguntas de investigación que motivan el presente trabajo tienen un carácter exploratorio: valorar cuál está siendo la penetración real de las tecnologías de la información; qué acogida han tenido entre profesionales y ciudadanía; y qué percepción tienen los/as profesionales respecto al impacto en su acción profesional. Una fotografía del presente y una previsión de los posibles escenarios futuros que se dibujan en la intervención social.
... Artificial General Intelligence can be seen as an intermediate stage between what we have now, a kind of Artificial Specialized Intelligence that is very performant in restricted domains, and a conceivable future Super-intelligence that might endow artificial systems with the capability to exceed human performance in many, if not all, the relevant domains, possibly including leadership. Some authors (Oliveira, 2017) are now putting the following question: Is the human brain the only system that can host a mind? If digital minds come into existence, and the referred author states that it is difficult to argue that they will not, we have to face all the legal and ethical implications of such a possibility. ...
... Even if we admit, and I could, that it might be possible that some simple type of "consciousness" will emerge from very complex interactions of more primitive forms of intelligence included in AI-based Systems, we cannot assure that such a complexity will be reached with current "in silico" hardware systems. Moreover, the possibility either to download a mind or to make it evolve from a simpler digital mind, and, here, I agree with the ideas expressed in "The Digital Mind" (Oliveira, 2017), would need an non existing reverse engineering capability of the brain or, for the latter alternative a kind of real body, plenty of sophisticated sensors, which is not yet available today. However, to replicate "in silico" what exists "in vivo" in the biological brain seems to be, for now, out of our grasp as far as we can preview based on scientific grounds. ...
When planting our human print in a new technology-driven world we should ask, remembering Neil Armstrong in 1969, “after many small steps for AI researchers, will it result in a giant leap in the unknown for mankind?” An “Artificial Intelligence-first” world is being preached all over the media by many responsible players in economic and scientific communities.
This letter states our belief in AI potentialities, including its major and decisive role in computer science and engineering, while warning against the current hyping of its near future. Although quite excited by several recent interesting revelations about the future of AI, we here argue in favor of a more cautious interpretation of the current and future AI-based systems potential outreach.
We also include some personal perspectives on simple remedies to preventing recognized possible dangers. We advocate a set of practices and principles that may prevent the development of AI-based systems prone to be misused.
Accountable “Data curators”, appropriate Software Engineering specification methods, the inclusion, when needed, of the “human in the loop”, software agents with emotion-like states might be important factors leading to more secure AI-based systems.
Moreover, to inseminate ART in Artificial Intelligence, ART standing for Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency, becomes also mandatory for trustworthy AI-based systems.
This letter is an abbreviation of a more substantial article to be published in IJCA journal.
... Before we talk about ML, it is significant to contextualize AI, a branch of Computer Science, and, officially, had its term created in the summer of 1956, with the conference held at Dartmouth College (Coelho, 1996;Oliveira, 2017;Russell & Norvig, 2010). On the whole, we can say that AI is centered on mathematical logic, seeking solutions to problems that require some kind of intelligence to be performed (Coelho, 1996). ...
... TURNER, Fred (10.10.2012 Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2017. [consult. 2017. ...
From the beginning of the 21st century, a universal concern makes itself present across the board:
what will become of us, humans, undergoing the technicisation of the most intimate and inner realms
of body and mind? A recollection of inter-generational narratives has been taken to address this
question encompassing the anxieties of contemporary life. The memory and trajectory of members
from four upper-class families living in the city of Oporto since the last half of the 19th century have
been chosen to guide through the individual as well as social limitations, preoccupations, strategies
and anticipations of daily household life and personal intimacy. These have been analyzed under the
scope of technological interference on individuals – and of the objects correspondingly inducing that
very interference on the story of each narrator. Chronological accounts follow with the presentation of
costly novelties and low-cost technologies for the household and personal use.
This work is a contribution to the debate of the human in present and in future given that the
amplification of skills and competences endeavored by technology necessarily confers it a
mesmerizingly irrefusable character – for now.
... We can also approach this process differently by focusing on more indirect and subtler ways of technological determination. For example, many scientists and philosophers point out (Oliveira 2017, Perez 2018) that neural networks not only revolutionise information sciences and software industry, but also undermine our social, political, and existential categories. There is, of course, nothing exceptional in the fact that a technological devicetreated metaphorically serves as an epistemological tool to discover new 'truths' about ourselves (Draaisma 2000). ...
... One of the most pertinent questions for the 21st century will be how these increasingly intelligent and invasive technologies will affect our minds. Many think digital technologies are fundamentally shaping how we think, process information, and engage in social relationships [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. It is important to develop research methods that inform public debate on how to deal with the innovations that Silicon Valley provides for us. ...
As digital devices, such as smartphones, are becoming ever more absorbed in the daily lives of adolescents, a major assumption is that they start taking over basic functions of the human mind. A main focus of current debate and research is therefore on investigating adolescents’ use of digital technologies. However, the lack of an instrument measuring the degree to which adolescents offload cognitive and social functions to technology hinders debate and research. This paper tests the reliability and validity of the Extended Mind Questionnaire (XMQ) which measures the degree to which digital technology is used to offload cognitive and social functions. In a first study on young adults (n = 63), we constructed a 12-tem scale, which proved to be highly reliable. A large-scale study on teenagers (n = 947) demonstrated the high structural validity, reliability, and construct and criterion validity of the XMQ. In sum, these studies provide evidence that the XMQ is psychometrically sound and valid, and can be useful in future research on the consequences of digital technology in the daily lives of adolescents.
... In the classical theory of systems, emergence is defined as nonreducibility of the whole to its part. The definitions of complexity are very diverse (Oliveira 2017). Complexity, however, always relates to some degree of difficulty in converting the actual object into its formal description. ...
The term “Second Machine Age” was used by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee in their book of the same name as an indication of the impact of AI technology on people, society, and the economy. The term seeks to analyse the age we actually live in, its hidden patterns, which jobs and fields of study have a perspective, and which do not. It is about the second industrial revolution that is going on right now, and it changes the world no less radically than the first one, driven by the steam locomotive. Exponential growth of digital technologies, digitization of everything and recombinant innovation is a driving engine and fuel of the Second Machine Age. However, the ethical issues of this change remain unaddressed. Artificial intelligence is currently being dealt with by a great many scientists and philosophers who ask many questions. The most important questions are whether the machines can think, whether we will give them the copyright, which the animals do not have until now, and the question whether AI can has its own ethics. The study focuses on these issues, and uses concrete examples to show our unpreparedness for these topics.
The article presented addresses concepts related to design and drawing. It explores the distinctions and historical origins based on Renaissance humanist traditions and the Anglo-Saxon industrial revolution, outlining the transition from the natural to the artificial, the complexities of human development in relation to the natural environment and artificiality, and in this sense, points to the introduction of design as an organiser of production. He tries to express the possibility of a scientific model between design and drawing, even though the connotations between them are absolutely different.
The purpose of the research is to determine the opportunities and risks of digitalization of socio-economic policy. Theoretical analysis of foreign and Russian literature allowed us to assess the readiness and ability to implement modern digital (software) products in the public administration ecosystem. Based on the analysis of digital systems and platforms "Gosuslugi", "Gosoblako", "Gostech", EGISSO, GIS "Unified Centralized Digital Platform in the Social Sphere", GIS "Work in Russia", the directions of digital transformation of the social sphere were identified. The method of expert assessments was used to identify the causes and conditions of transformation processes. Subject of the research: digitalization processes of socio-economic policy in the Russian Federation. Objectives of the research. To systematize the barriers and opportunities for digitalization. To analyze the indicators of digital transformation of the public sector. Particular attention is paid to foreign and Russian experience in digitalization of the analyzed sectoral policy, generating positive changes and expanding multiplier and cross-sectoral effects. The introduction of modern digital (software) products into the ecosystem of socio-economic policy allows us to ensure its effectiveness, transparency and accessibility, improve the quality of life and the quality of social services provided. Triggers and drivers of digitalization in the long term contribute to increasing national security and sustainability of national development of Russia. At the same time, the positive narrative of digitalization often faces certain barriers in the process of implementing digital projects. As a result, the author proposes to classify the risks of digitalization: according to spheres - ethical, political, economic, social, reputational, institutional (integrity of institutions); according to the assessment of what is happening - objective and subjective; according to the level - international, federal, regional, local; according to the specific conditions of origin - endogenous and exogenous. Some recommendations are given for public authorities. It is indicated that the introduction of digital solutions in the sphere of socio-economic policy requires a balanced approach, taking into account both their transformative potential and risks. Active informing of citizens about digital (including platform) solutions is required. For doing this, it is necessary to involve opinion leaders, communication channels in accordance with return preferences (messengers, traditional media, social advertising, etc.), family MFCs, public authorities and other actors.
The purpose is to consider the experience of implementing the concept of smart specialization as a process of diversified strategic planning aimed at increasing the sustainable development of Russian regions, structuring the basic criteria and assessment tools. The research methodology is based on the comparison, assessment and analysis of theoretical concepts of sustainable development through the application of smart solutions both in Russian regions and abroad. Based on theoretical analysis, substantiate the need to supplement the regional management system with criteria that allow predicting the directions of regional development, taking into account the specialization and innovations of technological development. The current practice of smart specialization of the region is analyzed, allowing to identify the criteria for assessing the specification of the region and assessing the level of development of technologies and smart solutions for innovative development. The need to introduce the main criteria for the activities of actors into the strategic planning system, ensuring an increase in the level of digital involvement and an assessment of the manageability of the development of regional subsystems is substantiated. Based on the study of the French experience of regional diversification, the criteria are described that allow taking into account the specialization of regions in the assessment of: concentration of economic resources, needs of the business industry, development and unification of logistics platforms (as a result of the new technological revolution) and collaborative leadership. As a result, this study will allow formulating smart solutions in the system of long-term centralized planning of sustainable development of regions.
Conceptualizing the (post)Roman heritage mythological terms in the culture of the socalled Anglo-Saxon world (Pax Anglo-Saxonica) is of relevance due to the importance of the hidden meanings of the political vocabulary so as to carry out their adequate translation. It is significant for the translator to not miss references that reveal illocutive aspects of the communicative acts in the process of intercultural communication. The subject of the study are cultural meanings which anchor the mythological attribution of Roman (post)imperial heritage in the Anglo-Saxon political culture symbolism, and their association with respective Byzantine-Russian versions during the translation process. The research is based on the cultural constructs of the lexical-semantic group (LSG) under the umbrella concept of Pax Anglo-Saxonica, containing an expressed or latent component of the Roman heritage political mythology. In addition, in the multicultural multilingual space there is a need for specialized translation dictionaries of cultural terminology. The study aims to find ways of translating the meanings of the respective cultural terms from English into Russian for effective intercultural communication. The research objectives are: 1) clarification of the specifics of the political mythology of the Roman heritage in the modern English-speaking culture; 2) justification of the choice of the linguoculturology optics for studying the semantics of the LSG Pax Anglo-Saxonica cultural terms; 3) definition of the key stages and techniques for constructing a new imperial myth about the historical role of the Anglo-Saxon world; 4) identification of the studied LSG key subgroups, their description and exemplification; 5) identification and analysis of framework concepts of the geopolitical approach which sets conditions for formation and assimilation by mass consciousness of the political myth about the Roman heritage. The methodology of the study is based on a linguoculturological approach to the political vocabulary analysis, and the multimodal analysis translation strategy. Cultural terms were selected by target sampling. Their translations, verification and dictionary entries construction involved the comparative method. Semiotic analysis was used to translate into the Russian language the meaning of some literary-mythological images. The method of case study helped to identify the most successful translation options when transferring extralinguistic meanings of cultural terms from the source language to the target language. The research resulted in the selection and systematization of the politically charged LSG Pax Anglo-Saxonica cultural terms. The need for the heuristic approach in the technical expert translation of these concepts was confirmed on concrete examples; key LSG subgroups (cultural space, power, reflexivity, reverse translation) are highlighted; and the authors have proposed directions for further research on Roman Chimeras transformation in the political vocabulary and mass consciousness. The findings of the cultural studies of Pax Anglo-Saxonica LSG group are compiled by the authors into a dictionary. The paper considers the most significant examples of its entries providing a detailed analysis of cultural terms, such as: ROMAN LIMES, AETERNA URBS, RAX ROMANA, CARMARTHEN, CAPITOL (space subgroup); KING ARTHUR, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, PRIORITY MANAGEMENT (power subgroup); GEOPOLITICAL TYPE, MYTH, PROTO-GEOPOLITICAL CHARACTERISTIC (a subgroup of reflexes); BYZANTINE, TRANSLATIO IMPERII, CONSTANTINOPLE (a subgroup of reverse translations).
The impact of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is incalculable; and its depth
unfathomable. It is an enduring allegory, which has been repeatedly
recounted since his time. As Prometheus Plato is able to foresee and to
predict the outcome of the rising power of the ignorant in a democratic
Athens in his time. He entreats his fellow citizens to be aware of being
manipulated by certain people using fake images and he sets out to rescue
them from the Cave, thus he compares our human nature to the chained
prisoners in the Cave. It has become a philosophical mission since he
witnessed his teacher Socrates, who after revealing the falsity of the sophists
to his ignorant fellow citizens, was rewarded by the death sentence.
Today we are facing an age of rapidly changing society, where our
thoughts and lives are bound up with computerisation. Without it we will
incur massive inconvenience, possibly danger, and the breakdown of all
our complex infrastructure and transport systems. Digitalisation thus not
just covers all aspects of our daily life, but also subverts our cultural aspects
in such areas as art, music and the church; consequently, digital religion
is shaped by religious practice in cyberspace, for example, the appearance
of Internet campuses and religious services via iPhone on social media
platforms such as Facebook, which replicate the tradition of face-to-face
church life and become one of the sacred spaces. The rise of virtual world
in nuce is an inevitable trend; and the role of digital church will be irre
placeable but will continue to be updated as technology advances. In such
circumstances our lot will be to more and more resemble the chained
prisoners of Plato’s Cave. However, we should not give up embracing
ever-advancing technology because of timidity but learn to use it in a good
way and to avoid doing evil, that is, “to be is to do”.
This article is divided into four sections to show how the Allegory of
Plato’s Cave puts us on the path to virtual “ekklesia”. The first and second
section discuss the Allegory of Plato’s Cave based upon his theory of the Divided Line; and the last two sections expound the virtual “ekklesia” via
the advance of digitalisation with an example social media platform LINE
CYCU-based reading group: the Fellowship of Faith, Hope and Agape, led
by unsalaried Christian volunteer Linda Lee.
Here, we introduce an electronic circuit that mimics the functionality of a biological spiking neuron following the Fitzhugh–Nagumo (FN) model. The circuit consists of a tunnel diode that exhibits negative differential resistance (NDR) and an active inductive element implemented by a single MOSFET. The FN neuron converts a DC voltage excitation into voltage spikes analogous to biological action potentials. We predict an energy cost of 2 aJ/cycle through detailed simulation and modeling for these FN neurons. Such an FN neuron is CMOS compatible and enables ultralow power oscillatory and spiking neural network hardware. We demonstrate that FN neurons can be used for oscillator-based computing in a coupled oscillator network to form an oscillator Ising machine (OIM) that can solve computationally hard NP-complete max-cut problems while showing robustness toward process variations.
The performance "Assum Livre" integrates a sequence of artefacts fisrtly presented for the PhD Thesis "Backyard of Sounds: A path to sound immersion". It was recently recreated in a cyberspace event, thus its transcription to cyberperformance. It consists of an artistic proposal that seeks to reflect on freedom/imprisonment, evoking a metaphor that recreates the experience of the lockdown periods in 2020/2021. The performance is based on the streaming of a video recorded with the author/singer performing part of the song "Assum Preto" (Teixeira and Gonzaga, 1950), simultaneously with the live performance of the other stanzas of the song. These alternate with the presentation of the lyrics, and the materialization of the performer. As backdrop we have a natural scenery as a projection of "freedom", depicting the natural habitat threatened by human intervention, enhanced by the natural soundscapes and integrating the hybridization of image / sound / live performance. The main concepts, the description of the artefact, and the developments made are discussed.
We consider the terminology used to describe artificial entities and how this terminology may affect the moral consideration of artificial entities. Different combinations of terms variously emphasize the entity's role, material features, psychological features, and different research perspectives. The ideal term may vary across context, but we favor “artificial sentience” in general, in part because “artificial” is more common in relevant contexts than its near-synonyms, such as “synthetic” and “digital,” and to emphasize the sentient artificial entities who deserve moral consideration. The terms used to define and refer to these entities often take a human perspective by focusing on the benefits and drawbacks to humans. Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of the terminology to the moral consideration of artificial entities may help to clarify emerging research, improve its impact, and align the interests of sentient artificial entities with the study of artificial intelligence (AI), especially research on AI ethics.
Today, the automatic refusal of an online credit application emer- ges from autonomous data processing using Artificial Intelligence techniques. And despite the undoubted advantages associated, the solvency profiling of an alleged beneficiary may imply the exclusion of an end-user from the granting of credit. It similarly affects their sphere since it also impacts on the quality of life of data subjects. In the current state of the artis legis, the indetermination of the information that can be used by banking institutions will only be fulfilled in the presence of specific norms that regulate how the collected data can be used and, above all, that provide a sustained conclusion regarding the relevance of the inferred knowledge. Concerning prediction models and inferential Big Data analytics in particular, some limitations result from algorithmic opacity and, therefore, have got repercussions on the effectiveness of the transparency regime established by GDPR. In this essay, we begin a trail of research leading to a readjustment of European public policies concerning personal data protection and the promotion of a functioning Digital Single Market that should start by focusing more on enhancing end-to-end digital literacy.
Western Indigenous cultures have been colonized, dehumanized and silenced. As AI grows and learns from colonial pre-existing biases, it also reinforces the notion that Natives no longer are but were. And since machine learning requires the input of categorical data, from which AI develops knowledge and understanding, compartmentalization is a natural behavior AI undertakes. As AI classifies Indigenous communities into a marginalized and historicized digital data set, the asterisk, the code, we fall into a cultural trap of recolonization. This necessitates an interference. A non-violent break. A different kind of rupture. One which fractures colonization and codification and opens a space for colonial recovery and survival. If we have not yet
contemporized the colonized Western Indigenous experience, how can we utilize tools of artificial intelligence such as the interface and digitality to create a space that de-codes colonial corporeality resulting in a sense of boundlessness, contemporization and survival?
Museums promote cultural experiences through the exhibits and the stories behind them. Nevertheless, museums are not always designed to engage and interest young audiences, especially the “net generation”. According to the Falk model of visitor user experience, the visitor uses their visit experience to improve and change their sense of identity and thoughts of the museum along with, in a small but significant way, how society understands their sense of identity and other museums. According to the above model, we see our target group, teenagers, as experience seekers since this typical visitor’s type is usually motivated to collect an experience. In order to verify if this hypothesis is true, we created a series of focus groups with a total of 130 teenagers (15-17 years old) to gather their thoughts about museums and what they could add to a museum to make their visit more enjoyable. Through the notes gathered from the focus group above mentioned, we then validated our assumption that teenagers of 15-17 of age could be related as experience seekers regarding a first tour to an interactive museum.
This paper describes a user-driven innovation study conducted with teenagers of Madeira Island to probe their desires for technology aided experiences inside a natural history museum. After gathering the results of the sessions with 43 teens (15-17 years old), such results were shown to 17 students of museum curatorship course at the local university (average of 26 years of age). These students enrolled in the Master in Cultural Management were required to design an experience targeting the teenage audience desires and preferences. Subsequently, a comparison between the results found in both groups was made in order to assert if the curators of tomorrow are prepared to design meaningful experiences for the teens of today, who will be the future adult audience.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.