Computable Rationality, NUTS, and the Nuclear Leviathan

This paper explores how the Leviathan that projects power through nuclear arms exercises a unique nuclearized sovereignty. In the case of nuclear superpowers, this sovereignty extends to wielding the power to destroy human civilization as we know it across the globe. Nuclearized sovereignty depends on a hybrid form of power encompassing human decision-makers in a hierarchical chain of command, and all of the technical and computerized functions necessary to maintain command and control at every moment of the sovereign's existence: this sovereign power cannot sleep. This article analyzes how the form of rationality that informs this hybrid exercise of power historically developed to be computable. By definition, computable rationality must be able to function without any intelligible grasp of the context or the comprehensive significance of decision-making outcomes. Thus, maintaining nuclearized sovereignty necessarily must be able to execute momentous life and death decisions without the type of sentience we usually associate with ethical individual and collective decisions

A Survey of Requirements Engineering Methods for Pervasive Services

Designing and deploying ubiquitous computing systems, such as those delivering large-scale mobile services, still requires large-scale investments in both development effort as well as infrastructure costs. Therefore, in order to develop the right system, the design process merits a thorough investigation of the wishes of the foreseen user base. Such investigations are studied in the area of requirements engineering (RE). In this report, we describe and compare three requirements engineering methods that belong to one specific form of RE, namely Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering. By mapping these methods to a common framework, we assess their applicability in the field of ubiquitous computing systems

Just ticking the box: A social informatics model of the consequences of consent

Given the societal diffusion, proliferation and ubiquity of computerised systems and platforms, it is generally perceived by consumers that systems and eBusiness platforms often pose a threat to the privacy of their supplied information (Srnicek, 2017; Andreotti et al., 2018). Furthermore, as we see the replacement of systems that were once manual and paper-based migrate to digital processes and information systems (Lunt et al., 2019), consent in the information era is reduced to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ option, often in the form of a tick box. Additionally, despite the arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018 as means to provide protection in relation to data processing, we argue that there is a lack of transparency in relation to the intention of this data processing and secondary data use for the purposes of research and marketing, for example. In light of this, we argue that there exists an increasingly difficult challenge to establish a mutual understanding of what consent actually is and what the wider permutations of it represents and comprehends. The lack of mutual understanding, in a digital world that is becoming increasingly reliant on the perceived benefits of acquiring and processing large sets of data (Kitchin, 2014; Breidbach et al., 2019) is deeply problematic. It is not only problematic for the consumer, but also to system developers, platform owners, and data processors alike. To this end, this paper presents a model, derived from action research, which positions the concept of consent within a socio-technical framing. This model approaches consent, in the context of digital platforms and eBusiness and how it comes to be represented in information systems, as a socio-technical construct of moral orders that imbues the feelings, convictions and aspirations of the consumer as they are engaged in the use of digital systems. We offer that consent is merely approached as an attribute in a data model, rather than relaying the communicative understanding of the consumer. This model introduces the areas of information processing systems and information communication systems as two differing interpretations within which digital platforms can be perceived. We offer these two distinctions as a mechanism to explain and, more importantly, explore the notion of the governance of consent and how this comes to be manifested in information systems

Understanding behaviour in problem structuring methods interventions with activity theory

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.This article argues that OR interventions, particularly problem structuring methods (PSM), are complex events that cannot be understood by conventional methods alone. In this paper an alternative approach is introduced, where the units of analysis are the activity systems constituted by and constitutive of PSM interventions. The paper outlines the main theoretical and methodological concerns that need to be appreciated in studying PSM interventions. The paper then explores activity theory as an approach to study them. A case study describing the use of this approach is provided

Critical thinking and systems thinking: towards a critical literacy for systems thinking in practice

About the book: In reflective problem solving and thoughtful decision making using critical thinking one considers evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the judgment well, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand. In this book, the authors present topical research in the study of critical thinking. Topics discussed include developing critical thinking through probability models; the promotion of critical thinking skills through argument mapping; an instructional model for teacher training in critical thinking; advanced academic literacy and critical thinking and critical thinking and higher education

Understanding behaviour in problem structuring methods interventions with activity theory

This article argues that OR interventions, particularly problem structuring methods (PSM), are complex events that cannot be understood by conventional methods alone. In this paper an alternative approach is introduced, where the units of analysis are the activity systems constituted by and constitutive of PSM interventions. The paper outlines the main theoretical and methodological concerns that need to be appreciated in studying PSM interventions. The paper then explores activity theory as an approach to study them. A case study describing the use of this approach is provided

Introduction to Sociocybernetics (Part 1): Third order cybernetics and a basic framework for society

The purpose of this paper is to initiate the efforts towards an idea of a third order in cybernetics. Second order cybernetics will be used as a biological basis for social processes. Third order studies mutually observing systems, which endows them features of observed and observing systems. Also, while first cybernetics deals with allopoietic machines, and second with autopoietic or living machines, the object of analysis of third cybernetics is language as a cognitive machine that creates a common domain of interaction between living systems in order to interact. These types of machines are abstract mechanisms that have a basis in the human brain and that store, retrieve, process and create information, and as such is both allopoietic and autopoietic; therefore, cognitive machines are omnipoietic. This paper will also account for the creation of social reality by means of a collective assignation of functions by means of speech acts and will use the philosophical scholarship of John Searle to achieve this purpose. Also, society will be analyzed under the lens of complex systems theory. Searle’s idea of social ontology explains Society on a micro level; the meso level is studied by social systems and complex systems theory enables the study of society from a macro perspective

The Non-linear Dynamics of Meaning-Processing in Social Systems

Social order cannot be considered as a stable phenomenon because it contains an order of reproduced expectations. When the expectations operate upon one another, they generate a non-linear dynamics that processes meaning. Specific meaning can be stabilized, for example, in social institutions, but all meaning arises from a horizon of possible meanings. Using Luhmann's (1984) social systems theory and Rosen's (1985) theory of anticipatory systems, I submit equations for modeling the processing of meaning in inter-human communication. First, a self-referential system can use a model of itself for the anticipation. Under the condition of functional differentiation, the social system can be expected to entertain a set of models; each model can also contain a model of the other models. Two anticipatory mechanisms are then possible: one transversal between the models, and a longitudinal one providing the modeled systems with meaning from the perspective of hindsight. A system containing two anticipatory mechanisms can become hyper-incursive. Without making decisions, however, a hyper-incursive system would be overloaded with uncertainty. Under this pressure, informed decisions tend to replace the "natural preferences" of agents and an order of cultural expectations can increasingly be shaped