Stock markets are not what we think they are: the key roles of cross-ownership and corporate treasury stock

We describe and document three mechanisms by which corporations can influence or even control stock prices. (i) Parent and holding companies wield control over other publicly traded companies. (ii) Through clever management of treasury stock based on buyback programs and stock issuance, stock price fluctuations can be amplified or curbed. (iii) Finally, history shows a close interdependance between the level of stock prices on the one hand and merger and acquisition activity on the other hand. This perspective in which Boards of Directors of major companies shepherd the market offers a natural interpretation of the so-called "herd behavior" observed in stock markets. The traditional view holds that by driving profit expectations, corporations have an indirect role in shaping the market. In this paper, we suggest that over the last decades they became more and more the direct moving force of stock markets.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Language Agents with Reinforcement Learning for Strategic Play in the Werewolf Game

Agents built with large language models (LLMs) have shown great potential across a wide range of domains. However, in complex decision-making tasks, pure LLM-based agents tend to exhibit intrinsic bias in their choice of actions, which is inherited from the model's training data and results in suboptimal performance. To develop strategic language agents, i.e., agents that generate flexible language actions and possess strong decision-making abilities, we propose a novel framework that powers LLM-based agents with reinforcement learning (RL). We consider Werewolf, a popular social deduction game, as a challenging testbed that emphasizes versatile communication and strategic gameplay. To mitigate the intrinsic bias in language actions, our agents use an LLM to perform deductive reasoning and generate a diverse set of action candidates. Then an RL policy trained to optimize the decision-making ability chooses an action from the candidates to play in the game. Extensive experiments show that our agents overcome the intrinsic bias and outperform existing LLM-based agents in the Werewolf game. We also conduct human-agent experiments and find that our agents achieve human-level performance and demonstrate strong strategic play

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

Discourses on social software

Can computer scientists contribute to the solution of societal problems? Can logic help to model social interactions? Are there recipes for making groups with diverging preferences arrive at reasonable decisions? Why is common knowledge important for social interaction? Does the rational pursuit of individual interests put the public interest in danger, and if so, why? Discourses on Social Software sheds light on these and similar questions. This book offers the reader an ideal introduction to the exciting new field of social software. It shows in detail the many ways in which the seemingly abstract sciences of logic and computer science can be put to use to analyse and solve contemporary social problems. The unusual format of a series of discussions among a logician, a computer scientist, a philosopher and some researchers from other disciplines encourages the reader to develop his own point of view. The only requirements for reading this book are a nodding familiarity with logic, a curious mind, and a taste for spicy debate.Kunnen de computerwetenschappers bijdragen aan een oplossing van sociale problemen? Kan logica gebruikt worden om sociale interactie te modelleren? Zijn er regels op te stellen om groepen met afwijkende voorkeuren tot redelijke besluiten te laten komen? Discourses on Social Software biedt de lezer een ideale inleiding op (nog nieuwe) gebied van sociale software. Het toont in detail de vele manieren waarin de schijnbaar abstracte wetenschappen van logica en computerwetenschap aan het werk kunnen worden gezet om eigentijdse sociale problemen te analyseren en op te lossen. Door de ongebruikelijke aanpak in dit boek, namelijk door discussies tussen een logicus, een computerwetenschapper, een filosoof en onderzoekers uit andere disciplines, wordt de lezer aangemoedigd zijn eigen standpunt te ontwikkelen. De enige vereisten om dit boek te lezen zijn enige vertrouwdheid met de logica, een nieuwsgierige geest, en liefde voor een pittig debat

Governance and Assessment of Future Spaces: A Discussion of Some Issues Raised by the Possibilities of Human-Machine Mergers

‘In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, For they in thee a thousand errors note; But ‘tis my heart that loves what they despise …’ 1 This sonnet and the ancient Japanese notion of wabi-sabi view aesthetics or beauty as imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. Rather than celebrating the human diversity created by our ‘imperfections’, today's society increasingly focuses on them as ‘areas for improvement’, often via a doctor’s scalpel or the latest gadget. Developments in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) promise a tomorrow where ‘errors’ or ‘deficiencies’ in an organism’s genetic and/or phenotypic makeup can be modulated, enhanced, corrected, redefined or eradicated by, for instance, networks of biological nanomachines. Upgraded organisms will be convolutions of organic parts, electronic components, microchips, and biomechanotronic devices. Humans 1.0, Humans 2.0 and transhumans will live in new fully immersive worlds (virtual reality), inhabit a modified real world (augmented reality), and exist with an altered body schema (mixed-reality). This future world could be a place of total technological convergence, where it may not be possible to ensure privacy of an individual’s thoughts. It could also be a place where people can be subjected to Social Engineering and manipulation, including the potential for viruses and malware infecting the brain or body, as well as new forms of external control of individuals by third parties. In this discussion paper, we will explore the potential privacy, security, and ethical issues raised by humanmachine mergers. The focus is on research, development and products at the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, Big Data, and smart computing. We suggest that there is a need for a more holistic approach to the assessment of technology and its governance. Additionally, we suggest that in order to determine how the law will need to respond to this particular future space, it is necessary to understand the full impacts of human-machine mergers on societies and our planet – to go beyond these three issues. Since STEMM-related activities are promising a cornucopia of future spaces, we will propose that the problems of governance and assessment require a new conception of ‘responsible research and innovation’, one that is fulfilled by our recently proposed FLE5 SH framework.2 To some extent the FLE5 SH framework can be seen as allowing the formation of a social contract, whereby all stakeholders are required to engage in a review of this wider spectrum of the possible impacts of technologies. We suggest that a Precautionary Principle approach may be of assistance in considering the impacts of technologies, remembering that especially in the context of software based systems, it is always useful to think first and bugfix later

It's a Performance, Not an Orchestra! Rethinking Soft Coordination in Global Climate Governance

Global climate governance is in transition. As the focus shifts from negotiations to implementation, the quest for ways to effectively coordinate ambitious climate action has become a key concern. While existing studies frame this problem mostly in terms of institutional design (to "facilitate" state ambition) and strategic delegation of authority (to "orchestrate" nonstate action), this article builds on dramaturgical policy analysis to examine soft coordination in practice. Using ethnographic methods, we analyze public performances at the twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties (COP25) in Madrid. We find that these were shaped by preestablished governance scripts and social roles available to participants, but also by creative improvisations and interventions. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and COP Presidency intervened to configure the physical setting of the conference, mold its narrative arch, and shape available roles. We conclude that performances and dramaturgical interventions are important tools of soft coordination in global climate governance. Their analysis constitutes a productive entry point for grasping contemporary transformations in global politics

Dagstuhl News January - December 2008

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic