Critiquing: Effective Decision Support in Time-Critical Domains (Dissertation Proposal)

The effective communication of information is an important concern in the design of an expert consultation system. Several researchers have chosen to adopt a critiquing mode, in which the system evaluates and reacts to a solution proposed by the user rather than presenting its own solution. In this proposal, I present an architecture for a critiquing system that functions in real-time, during the process of developing and executing a management plan in time-critical situations. The architecture is able to take account of and reason about multiple, interacting goals and to identify critical errors in the proposed management plan. This architecture is being implemented as part of the TraumAID system for the management of patients with severe injuries

War before Angkor: the evidential and theoretical context of warfare in prehistoric Thailand

The role of warfare in prehistoric Thai lifeways has been a topic of debate, although no studies have specifically sought to investigate and explain prehistoric warfare in Thailand. Recent advocacy of the heterarchic paradigm has sought to de-emphasise the role of warfare in sociopolitical change. This thesis seeks to develop a regional understanding of structured violence in Thai prehistory by developing a specific preliminary model for military behaviour in a heterarchic milieu. An overview of definitions and anthropological theory on war is offered, as these issues are crucial to the debate over warfare in prehistoric Thailand. A methodology of military archaeology is developed and utilised to assess the evidence for warfare in the Thai Bronze and Iron Ages. Direct evidence for warfare in the Bronze Age is lacking, while the transition to the Iron Age is concomitant with a variety of changes in military technology and behaviour. There is evidence that warfare was a factor in the social environment of prehistoric Thailand. Though comparative data show that it was not as intense or specialised as that practised by the Dian and Dong Son cultures of northern Southeast Asia. A nonlinear model is proposed to account for the role of warfare in regionally specific historical hypotheses. The model is designed specifically to allow the construction of testable hypotheses in a heterarchic paradigm

The Subject Reimagined: Language, Event, and the Event of Language

In event phenomenology, the problem of subjectivity and its relation – or non-relation – to event remains a legitimate problem. A legitimate problem because, on the one hand, events are the definitional neuter, or nihil, that erupt into the something of being and subsequently reconfigure this being; while on the other, our experience of ourselves, what constitutes the bedrock of subjectivity, appears as cogent, unified. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a new sort of phenomenological language, carried through in a thoroughly ontological anthropology, that provides a way to connect discontinuity with continuity, the unfamiliar and alien with the familiar, inside subjectivity. Doing so requires abandoning the transcendental residue in Heidegger’s work, relying instead, and primarily, on Francoise Dastur’s ontogenetic analysis of language (and its event) to forge a path forward to an eventful subjectivity

Cities Made of Boundaries: Mapping Social Life in Urban Form

Cities Made of Boundaries presents the theoretical foundation and concepts for a new social scientific urban morphological mapping method, Boundary Line Type (BLT) Mapping. Its vantage is a plea to establish a frame of reference for radically comparative urban studies positioned between geography and archaeology. Based in multidisciplinary social and spatial theory, a critical realist understanding of the boundaries that compose built space is operationalised by a mapping practice utilising Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Benjamin N. Vis gives a precise account of how BLT Mapping can be applied to detailed historical, reconstructed, contemporary, and archaeological urban plans, exemplified by sixteenth to twenty-first century Winchester (UK) and Classic Maya Chunchucmil (Mexico). This account demonstrates how the functional and experiential difference between compact western and tropical dispersed cities can be explored. The methodological development of Cities Made of Boundaries will appeal to readers interested in the comparative social analysis of built environments, and those seeking to expand the evidence-base of design options to structure urban life and development

Cities Made of Boundaries

Cities Made of Boundaries presents the theoretical foundation and concepts for a new social scientific urban morphological mapping method, Boundary Line Type (BLT) Mapping. Its vantage is a plea to establish a frame of reference for radically comparative urban studies positioned between geography and archaeology. Based in multidisciplinary social and spatial theory, a critical realist understanding of the boundaries that compose built space is operationalised by a mapping practice utilising Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Benjamin N. Vis gives a precise account of how BLT Mapping can be applied to detailed historical, reconstructed, contemporary, and archaeological urban plans, exemplified by sixteenth- to twenty-first century Winchester (UK) and Classic Maya Chunchucmil (Mexico). This account demonstrates how the functional and experiential difference between compact western and tropical dispersed cities can be explored. The methodological development of Cities Made of Boundaries will appeal to readers interested in the comparative social analysis of built environments, and those seeking to expand the evidence-base of design options to structure urban life and development

A new metaphysics for Christian demonology: psychodynamic immaterialism

Many philosophers throughout Christianity’s history have asserted the existence of intermediary beings or, in more familiar terms, angels and demons. According to Christianity, God, angels, demons, and human souls are all thought to share a common nature, namely ‘spirit.’ This ‘spirit’ is thought to signify immateriality. Yet each is said to interact with the physical world. God, who is conceived of as omnipotent, can interact with the world simply at will. Human souls are paired with bodies which provides them the equipment to interact with the world. Angels receive special assistance from God by which they interact with the world. But demons, unlike angels, are not likely to benefit from any special assistance from God (unlike angels), nor are they themselves omnipotent (unlike God), nor are they paired with bodies (unlike humans). However, demons are believed to interact occasionally with this physical world. But how can an immaterial demon interact with a material world? Any appeals to the same explanations for how other immaterial beings (viz. humans, angels, or God) interact with the physical world will not do. I propose a solution that is consonant with their being purely immaterial creatures and yet does not rely on such an ad hoc manoeuvre. I argue that they actually never do interact with the physical world apart from their exploitation of human beings as proxies. I propose to explain their interaction in terms of their basic ability to cognitively interact with embodied souls. I call this sustaining affirmation of their immateriality along with this particular relationship they have with the world through human beings psychodynamic immaterialism