187,657 research outputs found
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
Early Warning Analysis for Social Diffusion Events
There is considerable interest in developing predictive capabilities for
social diffusion processes, for instance to permit early identification of
emerging contentious situations, rapid detection of disease outbreaks, or
accurate forecasting of the ultimate reach of potentially viral ideas or
behaviors. This paper proposes a new approach to this predictive analytics
problem, in which analysis of meso-scale network dynamics is leveraged to
generate useful predictions for complex social phenomena. We begin by deriving
a stochastic hybrid dynamical systems (S-HDS) model for diffusion processes
taking place over social networks with realistic topologies; this modeling
approach is inspired by recent work in biology demonstrating that S-HDS offer a
useful mathematical formalism with which to represent complex, multi-scale
biological network dynamics. We then perform formal stochastic reachability
analysis with this S-HDS model and conclude that the outcomes of social
diffusion processes may depend crucially upon the way the early dynamics of the
process interacts with the underlying network's community structure and
core-periphery structure. This theoretical finding provides the foundations for
developing a machine learning algorithm that enables accurate early warning
analysis for social diffusion events. The utility of the warning algorithm, and
the power of network-based predictive metrics, are demonstrated through an
empirical investigation of the propagation of political memes over social media
networks. Additionally, we illustrate the potential of the approach for
security informatics applications through case studies involving early warning
analysis of large-scale protests events and politically-motivated cyber
attacks
The Management and Use of Social Network Sites in a Government Department
In this paper we report findings from a study of social network site use in a
UK Government department. We have investigated this from a managerial,
organisational perspective. We found at the study site that there are already
several social network technologies in use, and that these: misalign with and
problematize organisational boundaries; blur boundaries between working and
social lives; present differing opportunities for control; have different
visibilities; have overlapping functionality with each other and with other
information technologies; that they evolve and change over time; and that their
uptake is conditioned by existing infrastructure and availability. We find the
organisational complexity that social technologies are often hoped to cut
across is, in reality, something that shapes their uptake and use. We argue the
idea of a single, central social network site for supporting cooperative work
within an organisation will hit the same problems as any effort of
centralisation in organisations. We argue that while there is still plenty of
scope for design and innovation in this area, an important challenge now is in
supporting organisations in managing what can best be referred to as a social
network site 'ecosystem'.Comment: Accepted for publication in JCSCW (The Journal of Computer Supported
Cooperative Work
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