Epoch, Epistemology and the Virtual Organization

This paper engages with contemporary discussions of ?the virtual organization?. Starting with some influential accounts that were published in the 1990s, the paper highlights the continued significance of control ration alities in the increasingly dispersed and disaggregated organizations of the advanced industrial societies. The paper also takes issue with the ?epochalist? tendency to equate virtuality with the ?end of organization?, and it puts the case for a more historically situated view of technology in ?post bureaucratic? or ?virtualised? organizational settings

Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology

The goal of this article is to present a first list of ethical concerns that may arise from research and personal use of virtual reality (VR) and related technology, and to offer concrete recommendations for minimizing those risks. Many of the recommendations call for focused research initiatives. In the first part of the article, we discuss the relevant evidence from psychology that motivates our concerns. In Section “Plasticity in the Human Mind,” we cover some of the main results suggesting that one’s environment can influence one’s psychological states, as well as recent work on inducing illusions of embodiment. Then, in Section “Illusions of Embodiment and Their Lasting Effect,” we go on to discuss recent evidence indicating that immersion in VR can have psychological effects that last after leaving the virtual environment. In the second part of the article, we turn to the risks and recommendations. We begin, in Section “The Research Ethics of VR,” with the research ethics of VR, covering six main topics: the limits of experimental environments, informed consent, clinical risks, dual-use, online research, and a general point about the limitations of a code of conduct for research. Then, in Section “Risks for Individuals and Society,” we turn to the risks of VR for the general public, covering four main topics: long-term immersion, neglect of the social and physical environment, risky content, and privacy. We offer concrete recommendations for each of these 10 topics, summarized in Table 1

Updating democracy studies: outline of a research program

Technologies carry politics since they embed values. It is therefore surprising that mainstream political and legal theory have taken the issue so lightly. Compared to what has been going on over the past few decades in the other branches of practical thought, namely ethics, economics and the law, political theory lags behind. Yet the current emphasis on Internet politics that polarizes the apologists holding the web to overcome the one-to-many architecture of opinion-building in traditional representative democracy, and the critics that warn cyber-optimism entails authoritarian technocracy has acted as a wake up call. This paper sets the problem – “What is it about ICTs, as opposed to previous technical devices, that impact on politics and determine uncertainty about democratic matters?” – into the broad context of practical philosophy, by offering a conceptual map of clusters of micro-problems and concrete examples relating to “e-democracy”. The point is to highlight when and why the hyphen of e-democracy has a conjunctive or a disjunctive function, in respect to stocktaking from past experiences and settled democratic theories. My claim is that there is considerable scope to analyse how and why online politics fails or succeeds. The field needs both further empirical and theoretical work

Post modern identity : "in between" real and virtual

The article focus on the phenomena of the "radical change" (transformation) brought by new ICT technologies, associated with the information and communication revolution, both on the level of the collective: bringing disruptive changes within economic, social and cultural sphere, and on the level of the individual, evoking fundamental, yet subtle, changes within our psyche impacting our identity (ies). The multiple scientific discourses, when analyzing the impact of new technologies, usually focus on changes in the economic, social or cultural sphere, defining them within the context of its semantic field (resulting different explanatory models built around different theoretical concepts, together with the accompanying different methodology). The main hypothesis of the "radical change" (transformation) brought by new technologies, usually described in reference to new paradigm change, refers to constantly increasing impact (direct mediation) of ICT technologies in almost all spheres of our lives: social, economical and cultural, but hardly ever discuss the extremely subtle reconfiguration of our psychological space made under the influence of new technologies. As such the article focuses mainly the impact of new technologies upon the psyche and post-modern identity, trying to fully grasp and understand both the visible (direct) and the invisible (subtle) changes, from the perspective of psychological approach, with special reference to Jung’s analytical psychology. The core element (novelty) is the attempt to fully grasp (understand) the phenomena of moving (living) ‘in between’ real and virtual (identity/ environment), mainly from the point view (implications) of psychological as well as philosophical (ontological), not as in majority of cases (discourses) from the technological, economical, sociological perspective. Cultural anthropology evokes the concept of liminality to denominate the boundaries between two different states : functioning within the existing normative (institutional) governance and stepping outside or aside of it, meaning suspension of the existing norms and standards (and break in or pause within the existing culture). The post-modern individual is somehow forced to move ‘in between’ and experience two different environments simultaneously - the physical environment, embedded in real space and time continuum, where we live at the very moment and digital environment created by new technologies (virtual and/or digital space). As such this continuous transition from reality to virtuality evokes the characteristics (attributes) of the liminal experience. Critical analysis of the defined phenomena implies the need of interdisciplinary approach based on the comparative methodology, both from the point view of theoretical discourses as well as more empirical approach, based mainly on the interdisciplinary approach of Jungian Analytical Psychology, as the outlined theme moves ‘in between’ new technologies, culture (as well as economy or social science) and psychology

Metaverse: The Re-Confirmation of Human Subjectivity

The metaverse is a major product of the entry of human beings into digital civilization. Under the spirit of Report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the wave of information revolution and the new model of “metaverse+”, it is a major issue to promote Chinese path to modernization and create a new form of human civilization, and it is important to discuss the re-confirmation of human subjectivity in the metaverse, and it is important to answer a series of questions such as what is human and what is the role of human subjectivity in the metaverse. This paper takes the environment and characteristics of human beings as the starting point to answer the question of human subjectivity, and analyzes the confirmation of freedom and consciousness in choosing living space, the confirmation of autonomy in switching cognitive perspectives, the confirmation of dynamism in expanding social interactions, and the confirmation of creativity in empowering digital technology in the metaverse, and deeply examines the relationship between human beings and the metaverse

The iconographic brain: a critical philosophical inquiry into (the resistance of) the image

The brain image plays a central role in contemporary image culture and, in turn, (co)constructs contemporary forms of subjectivity. The central aim of this paper is to probe the unmistakably potent interpellative power of brain images by delving into the power of imaging and the power of the image itself. This is not without relevance for the neurosciences, inasmuch as these do not take place in a vacuum; hence the importance of inquiring into the status of the image within scientific culture and science itself. I will mount a critical philosophical investigation of the brain qua image, focusing on the issue of mapping the mental onto the brain and how, in turn, the brain image plays a pivotal role in processes of subjectivation. Hereto, I draw upon Science & Technology Studies, juxtaposed with culture and ideology critique and theories of image culture. The first section sets out from Althusser's concept of interpellation, linking ideology to subjectivity. Doing so allows to spell out the central question of the paper: what could serve as the basis for a critical approach, or, where can a locus of resistance be found? In the second section, drawing predominantly on Baudrillard, I delve into the dimension of virtuality as this is opened up by brain image culture. This leads to the question of whether the digital brain must be opposed to old analog psychology: is it the psyche which resists? This issue is taken up in the third section which, ultimately, concludes that the psychological is not the requisite locus of resistance. The fourth section proceeds to delineate how the brain image is constructed from what I call the data-gaze (the claim that brain data are always already visual). In the final section, I discuss how an engagement with theories of iconology affords a critical understanding of the interpellative force of the brain image, which culminates in the somewhat unexpected claim that the sought after resistance lies in the very status of the image itself

Experiencia del consumidor con la realidad aumentada en el contexto de la comida saludable

Las nuevas tecnologías están presentes en todas las actividades de nuestra vida cotidiana. En el campo del marketing, es importante conocer sus efectos para sacarles el máximo partido. Este TFG se centra en la realidad aumentada (RA), una de las tecnologías 4.0 que permite integrar elementos virtuales con el entorno físico a través de dispositivos electrónicos. En concreto, y teniendo en cuenta la emergente preocupación de la sociedad por adoptar hábitos más saludables, se pretende analizar los posibles efectos de la RA en la promoción y fomento de un consumo de alimentos más saludable. Para ello, se realiza una revisión bibliográfica en profundidad sobre la herramienta de la RA y sus aplicaciones en marketing y específicamente en el ámbito alimentario. Posteriormente, un estudio cuantitativo en forma de cuestionario pretende examinar la posible influencia de las aplicaciones de RA en el comportamiento del consumidor, concretamente en el contexto de la elección de un menú en un restaurante que variaba en términos de salubridad y con diferentes modos de presentación (RA vs imágenes). El análisis ofrece conclusiones que pueden ser útiles para comprender las capacidades y limitaciones de la RA en el consumo de alimentos, proporcionando información útil para desarrollar estrategias y enfoques más eficaces para promover hábitos alimentarios saludables.<br /

A New Direction in University. Teaching between Solidarity, Complexity and Media Education

At the time of an abundance of media o ers and the reduced prestige of the institutions, teaching became strategic to maintaining and rede ning the authority and professional recognition of teachers. It has therefore become advisable to activate a process of self-re ection on the part of universities on the dimensions of didactic innovation and new demands placed on university professors, starting from the reformulation of the mission of the University of the ird Millennium. Areas in need of consideration include: educating to educate (old and new trends in the mode of transmission of knowledge, considering the continuous access to the contents and the new media and cultural behaviours of the students); educating towards an interdisciplinary perspective; educating towards internationalization; educating for integration and solidarity; educating to divulge the results of scienti c research, national and global problems and evolutions in terms of technology and human value; educating with and about the digital media. All these dimensions are explored in the paper, with particular a ention given to the multiple dimensions of Media Literacy for university teachers with regard to overcoming physical, cultural and generational barriers between teachers and students and to up-to-date and democratize the quality university education

Architectural design on the treshold of the digital age:: Revolution or regression from a dialogical view point

One thing should be perfectly clear: I am not against the use of the computer in architectural design. On the contrary, I think that each technological advancement is a blessing for architects if, and only if, it is correctly used. Of course, in order to be correctly used, any technological advancement implies new theories and innovative points of view about human development. I think we have these new theories and these innovative points of view, but I also think that architects today are eager to use the computer without any theoretical training. A lot of them consider theories to be obstacles for a free use of the computer, more than a way of improving the design processes. They are wrong, and this is the aim of my brief contribution. Which are these "new theories”? I will present some of them very shortly. The dialogical theory by M. Bakhtin is not strictly new, because it was conceived at the beginning of the twentieth century, but English translations of Bakhtin's book are very recent, and the impact of the dialogical theories is still on its way today. (Muntañola, J. 2007a, 2006) (Camic, C. and Joas, H. eds. 2004) (Ponzio, A. 1998)