Wilt Chamberlain Redux: Thinking Clearly about Externalities and the Promises of Justice

Gordon Barnes accuses Robert Nozick and Eric Mack of neglecting, in two ways, the practical, empirical questions relevant to justice in the real world.1 He thinks these omissions show that the argument behind the Wilt Chamberlain example—which Nozick famously made in his seminal Anarchy, State, and Utopia—fails. As a result, he suggests that libertarians should concede that this argument fails. In this article, we show that Barnes’s key arguments hinge on misunderstandings of, or failures to notice, key aspects of the entitlement theory that undergirds Nozick’s and Mack’s work. Once the theory is properly understood, Barnes’s challenges fail to undermine the Chamberlain example, in particular, and the entitlement theory, in general

A graph rewriting programming language for graph drawing

This paper describes Grrr, a prototype visual graph drawing tool. Previously there were no visual languages for programming graph drawing algorithms despite the inherently visual nature of the process. The languages which gave a diagrammatic view of graphs were not computationally complete and so could not be used to implement complex graph drawing algorithms. Hence current graph drawing tools are all text based. Recent developments in graph rewriting systems have produced computationally complete languages which give a visual view of graphs both whilst programming and during execution. Grrr, based on the Spider system, is a general purpose graph rewriting programming language which has now been extended in order to demonstrate the feasibility of visual graph drawing

Macroscopic pair correlation of the Riemann zeroes for smooth test functions

On the assumption of the Riemann hypothesis, we show that over a class of sufficiently smooth test functions, a measure conjectured by Bogomolny and Keating coincides to a very small error with the actual pair correlation measure for zeroes of the Riemann zeta function. Our result extends the well known result of Montgomery that over the same class of test functions the pair correlation measure coincides (to a larger error term) with that of the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE). The restriction of test functions remains stringent, but we are nonetheless able to detect, at a microscopically blurred resolution, macroscopic troughs in the pair correlation measure.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure. Incorporates referee suggestion

Holographic entanglement entropy from probe M-theory branes

We compute the holographic entanglement entropy contribution from planar two-dimensional defects in six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ superconformal field theory, holographically dual to probe M2- and M5-branes in $AdS_7 \times S^4$. In particular, we test the viability of the universal contribution of the defect to entanglement entropy as a candidate $C$-function. We find that this coefficient is not monotonic under defect renormalization group flows triggered by the vacuum expectation value of a marginal operator. Another candidate $C$-function, the on-shell action inside the entanglement wedge, monotonically decreases under the flows we study.Comment: 28 pages, one appendix, 24 PDF files in 8 figure

Tail bounds for counts of zeros and eigenvalues, and an application to ratios

Let $t$ be random and uniformly distributed in the interval $[T,2T]$, and consider the quantity $N(t+1/\log T) - N(t)$, a count of zeros of the Riemann zeta function in a box of height $1/\log T$. Conditioned on the Riemann hypothesis, we show that the probability this count is greater than $x$ decays at least as quickly as $e^{-Cx\log x}$, uniformly in $T$. We also prove a similar results for the logarithmic derivative of the zeta function, and likewise analogous results for the eigenvalues of a random unitary matrix. We use results of this sort to show on the Riemann hypothesis that the averages $$\frac{1}{T} \int_T^{2T} \Bigg| \frac{\zeta\Big(\frac{1}{2} + \frac{\alpha}{\log T} + it\Big)}{\zeta\Big(\frac{1}{2}+ \frac{\beta}{\log T} + it\Big)}\Bigg|^m\,dt$$ remain bounded as $T\rightarrow\infty$, for $\alpha, \beta$ complex numbers with $\beta\neq 0$. Moreover we show rigorously that the local distribution of zeros asymptotically controls ratio averages like the above; that is, the GUE Conjecture implies a (first-order) ratio conjecture.Comment: 37 pages. Incorporates referee suggestion

A Theory of Genre Formation in the Twentieth Century

In his article "A Theory of Genre Formation in the Twentieth Century" Michael Rodgers explores the relationship between Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading and magical realism in order to theorize about genre formation in the twentieth century. Rodgers argues not only that specific twentieth-century narrative forms are bound intrinsically with literary realism and socio-political conditions, but also that these factors can produce formal commonalities

Making space for a new picture of the world: Boys in Zinc and Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich

Based on a study of Boys in Zinc and Chernobyl Prayer, two books by the Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich, this paper’s core argument is that Alexievich’s writing represents an approach designed to capture that which eludes more conventional journalism. The paper seeks first to situate the subjects of Alexievich’s work in the wider media historical context of the end of the USSR, and also to argue that her writing is part of a uniquely Russian concept of journalism as literature--a concept that has its historical roots in the autocratic Russia of the 19th century. The paper further proposes that conflicts between the preternatural and the material, and between elite and non-elite voices--key themes of the works studied – are vital to understanding the age of change which Alexievich, through her use of extensive interviews, was seeking to record. It emphasizes the significance of the Soviet experience in World War II as an influence on the USSR for the remainder of its existence. It posits that Alexievich’s work also casts valuable light on the nature of journalism in the last years of the Soviet era – and concludes, while acknowledging certain criticisms and questioning of her presentation of her material, by arguing that it represents a way to understand new and bewildering times

Foreign objects? Web content management systems, journalistic cultures and the ontology of software

Research on ‘digital’ journalism has focused largely on online news, with comparatively less interest in the longer-term implications of software and computational technologies. Drawing upon a six-year study of the Toronto Star, this paper provides an account of TOPS, an in-house web content management system (CMS) which served as the backbone of thestar.com for six years. For some, TOPS was a successful software innovation, while for others, a strategic digital ‘property’. But for most journalists, it was slow, deficient in functionality, aesthetically unappealing and cumbersome. Although several organizational factors can explain TOPS’ obstinacy, I argue for particular attention to the complex ontology of software. Based on an outline of this ontology, I suggest software be taken seriously as an object of journalism, which implies: acknowledging its partial autonomy from human use or authorization; accounting for its ability to mutate indefinitely; and analyzing its capacity to encourage forms of ‘computational thinking

A Modern Polytheism? Nietzsche and James

Polytheism is a strange view to hold in modernity. Connected as it is in the popular imagination with archaic, animistic, magical, prescientific systems of thought, we don’t hesitate much before casting it into the dustbin of history. Even if we are not monotheists, we are likely to think of monotheism as the obviously more plausible position. The traditional arguments for the existence of God, which have been enormously influential in Western philosophy of religion, do not necessarily rule out polytheism but they are clearly formulated with monotheism in mind. While there could be multiple first causes, intelligent designers, or beings than which nothing greater can be conceived, the simplest and most natural..