Transhumanism Between Human Enhancement and Technological Innovation

Transhumanism introduces from its very beginning a paradigm shift about concepts like human nature, progress and human future. An overview of its ideology reveals a strong belief in the idea of human enhancement through technologically means. The theory of technological singularity, which is more or less a radicalisation of the transhumanist discourse, foresees a radical evolutionary change through artificial intelligence. The boundaries between intelligent machines and human beings will be blurred. The consequence is the upcoming of a post-biological and posthuman future when intelligent technology becomes autonomous and constantly self-improving. Considering these predictions, I will investigate here the way in which the idea of human enhancement modifies our understanding of technological innovation. I will argue that such change goes in at least two directions. On the one hand, innovation is seen as something that will inevitably lead towards intelligent machines and human enhancement. On the other hand, there is a direction such as “Singularity University,” where innovation is called to pragmatically solving human challenges. Yet there is a unifying spirit which holds together the two directions and I think it is the same transhumanist idea

Process improvement and automation in construction: Opposing or complementing approaches?

It is widely recognized that there must be wide-ranging changes in construction before automation can be implemented in practice. On the other hand, the innovation rate of construction is rather low, and thus it is unclear, how the steps necessary for automation could be realized. It is argued, that an insufficient attention to process improvement is a major barrier to automation and other technological progress of construction

Bio-techno-practice. Personal and social responsibility in the academic work

The new challenges posed by biomedicine and biotechnologies ask for a deeper consideration on the relationship among science, knowledge and social responsibility. On one hand, in fact, technologies seem to shape our idea of human progress and scientific understanding of the natural world and of life in particular. On the other hand, a thoughtful consideration on the philosophical foundations of science as human enterprise is required. This also opens important questions about the new emerging paradigms of ‘excellence’ in the academic, social and market fields and on the role that universities play in training the future leaders and professionals of our society. After a short review of the contemporary philosophical reflections on the unity of knowledge, which is the origin and the goal of academic work, we argue that adherence to our current challenges through the bio-techno-practice prism is a fecund driving force of the academic activities. Moving from the experience of an international project, we also discuss the impact that such interdisciplinary activities have on what we call hidden curriculum, i.e. the embodied style of (skills that allow) people in taking care of each other in their physical, social, professional and scientific needs

Should Robots Be Like Humans? A Pragmatic Approach to Social Robotics

This paper describes the instrumentalizing aspects of social robots, which generate the term pragmatic social robot. In contrast to humanoid robots, pragmatic social robots (PSRs) are defined by their instrumentalizing aspects, which consist of language, skill, and artificial intelligence. These technical aspects of social robots have led to the tendency to attribute a selfhood characteristic or anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism can raise problems of responsibility and the ontological problems of human-technology relations. As a result, there is an antinomy in the research and development of pragmatic social robotics, considering that they are expected to achieve similarity with humans in terms of completing works. How can we avoid anthropomorphism in the research and development of PSRs while ensuring their flexibility? In response to this issue, I suggest intuition should be instrumentalized to advance PSRs’ social skills. Intuition, as theorized by Henry Bergson and Efraim Fischbein, overcomes the capacity of logical analysis to solve problems. Robots should be like humans in the sense that their instrumentalizing aspects meet the criteria for the value of human social skills

A Cognitive Science Based Machine Learning Architecture

In an attempt to illustrate the application of cognitive science principles to hard AI problems in machine learning we propose the LIDA technology, a cognitive science based architecture capable of more human-like learning. A LIDA based software agent or cognitive robot will be capable of three fundamental, continuously active, humanlike learning mechanisms:\ud 1) perceptual learning, the learning of new objects, categories, relations, etc.,\ud 2) episodic learning of events, the what, where, and when,\ud 3) procedural learning, the learning of new actions and action sequences with which to accomplish new tasks. The paper argues for the use of modular components, each specializing in implementing individual facets of human and animal cognition, as a viable approach towards achieving general intelligence

Bringing forth mathematical concepts: signifying sensorimotor enactment in fields of promoted action

Inspired by Enactivist philosophy yet in dialog with it, we ask what theory of embodied cognition might best serve in articulating implications of Enactivism for mathematics education. We offer a blend of Dynamical Systems Theory and Sociocultural Theory as an analytic lens on micro-processes of action-to-concept evolution. We also illustrate the methodological utility of design-research as an approach to such theory development. Building on constructs from ecological psychology, cultural anthropology, studies of motor-skill acquisition, and somatic awareness practices, we develop the notion of an “instrumented field of promoted action”. Children operating in this field first develop environmentally coupled motor-action coordinations. Next, we introduce into the field new artifacts. The children adopt the artifacts as frames of action and reference, yet in so doing they shift into disciplinary semiotic systems. We exemplify our thesis with two selected excerpts from our videography of Grade 4–6 volunteers participating in task-based clinical interviews centered on the Mathematical Imagery Trainer for Proportion. In particular, we present and analyze cases of either smooth or abrupt transformation in learners’ operatory schemes. We situate our design framework vis-à-vis seminal contributions to mathematics education research

Professional Judgment in an Era of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Though artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare and education now accomplishes diverse tasks, there are two features that tend to unite the information processing behind efforts to substitute it for professionals in these fields: reductionism and functionalism. True believers in substitutive automation tend to model work in human services by reducing the professional role to a set of behaviors initiated by some stimulus, which are intended to accomplish some predetermined goal, or maximize some measure of well-being. However, true professional judgment hinges on a way of knowing the world that is at odds with the epistemology of substitutive automation. Instead of reductionism, an encompassing holism is a hallmark of professional practice—an ability to integrate facts and values, the demands of the particular case and prerogatives of society, and the delicate balance between mission and margin. Any presently plausible vision of substituting AI for education and health-care professionals would necessitate a corrosive reductionism. The only way these sectors can progress is to maintain, at their core, autonomous professionals capable of carefully intermediating between technology and the patients it would help treat, or the students it would help learn

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research