Kinky clients, kinky counselling? The challenges and potentials of BDSM

About the book: Feeling Queer or Queer Feelings? presents highly innovative and contemporary ideas for counsellors, counselling and clinical psychologists and psychotherapists to consider in their work with non-heterosexual clients. Ground-breaking ideas are presented by new thinkers in the area for issues such as: coming out transgender desire theoretical modalities in working with HIV the role of therapy in bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadomasochism the use of queer theory in therapeutic research

A Measure of All Minds: A Classification of the Artificial Intelligence Strengths and Virtues & the Creation of the THETIS Dimensions of Cybernetic Wellbeing

Artificial intelligence has generated more ambivalence than any technology in human history. As Silicon Valley enters the third decade of its self-proclaimed era of artificial intelligence, there is still surprisingly little agreement about the nature of the 21st century’s defining invention, and even less about how our relationship with this seminal technology should be managed in the future. Positive psychology offers software engineers methods to cultivate a greater understanding of the unique strengths of the artificial intelligence programs they develop, as well as the effects to wellbeing triggered by the applications they deploy. In this paper, I will propose three tools inspired by my chosen field of study for use by artificial intelligence innovators: (a) a classification of the artificial intelligence strengths and virtues; (b) the THETIS dimensions of cybernetic wellbeing, and; (c) the definition of a positive existential posthuman philosophy of artificial intelligence design. The philosophy of positive psychology is perhaps most succinctly summarized with a single phrase: “other people matter.” If Silicon Valley is to deliver a clearer and more compelling vision of the future of artificial intelligence—one in which human and machine agents work and thrive in collaborative harmony—then it must update its innovation practices to embrace a similarly transformative point of view: “other consciousnesses matter,” too

Álvaro Vieira Pinto on the concept of technology: an introductory discussion

This paper aims to discuss the concept of technology as provided by the Brazilian philosopher Álvaro Vieira Pinto. First, the philosopher’s life and work are presented, his book “O conceito de tecnologia” [The concept of technology] and his methodological foundations are briefly examined and, finally, we discuss his conceptualization of technology. From the four meanings of the term unravelled by the author, we highlight technology as the “logos of technique”, as the philosopher proposes it as a unitary field of study on this matter. We conclude pointing the richness of his reflections to the liberation of underdeveloped countries.Álvaro Vieira Pinto sobre o conceito de tecnologia: uma discussão introdutória Esse artigo tem o objetivo de discutir o conceito de tecnologia provido pelo filósofo brasileiro Álvaro Vieira Pinto. Primeiramente, vida e obra do filósofo são apresentadas, seu livro “O conceito de tecnologia” e seus fundamentos metodológicos são brevemente examinados e, finalmente, discute-se sua conceituação de tecnologia. Dos quatros significados do termo desvelados pelo autor, destaca-se tecnologia como sendo o “logos da técnica”, já que é ela proposta como um campo unitário de estudo do tema em questão. Na conclusão, aponta-se a riqueza de suas reflexões para a libertação dos países subdesenvolvidos. --- Artigo em inglês. &nbsp

The Integral Jan Smuts.

Integral Theory as developed by Ken Wilber and other contemporary Integral scholars acknowledge many antecedent foundational influences, and proto-Integral thinkers. Curiously, the philosopher-statesman Jan Smuts’ theory of Holism is seldom acknowledged, although it has significantly contributed, albeit often implicitly, to the development of Integral Theory. This paper and presentation has two central aims: To point out that Smuts can be counted amongst one of the great Integral thinkers of the 20th Century; that Smuts’ notion of Holism had a significant influence on the development of Integral Theory. This paper and presentation will provide a brief outline of Smuts’ theory of Holism as developed in his book Holism and Evolution and other philosophical essays

Ecological footprint and governing the anthropocene through balancing individualism and collectivism

ISSS proceedings are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.The current way of life is unsustainable (Papadimitriou, 2014) and in a bid to maintain the status quo – profit is extracted from people and the environment. The challenge of scaling up efforts to engage people in an alternative forms of democracy and governance is that currently the response to social, economic and environmental challenges is that internationally politics is being shaped by so-called realist politics (Beardsworth, 2011) based on a) competition for resources, b) the notion that profit and loss, win and lose is contained /carried by ‘the other’ and c) Huntington’s ‘clash of cultures’ thesis rather than an understanding of our interlinked, co-created and co-determined fate

The Triumph of Virtual Reality

Where will the philosophers of the future come from and can we have civilization without them?  In this paper I argue that there is a co-dependent relationship between philosophy and civilization, one that has emerged and developed in relation to the emergence of information technologies, particularly writing and print and conditions for deep and prolonged concentration.  The internet, however, today's powerful information technology which is increasingly mediating humanities relationships, is proving to be a technology which threatens this relationship.  The internet is a technology which draws us in, obliterating the distance required for critical thought.  Unless we can find ways to distance ourselves from this technology, this creator of high fidelity virtual realities, we will become trapped in our hi-tech representations.  This will be the triumph of virtual reality and perhaps the end of civilization and philosophy

Absences within and surrounding light-to-sound translations

Within the material-immaterial dichotomy structuring the creation of media artworks and its inherent informational aesthetic, one may observe fractures or continuities. Considering media artworks through the notion of translation of materialities, the aim of this paper is to analyse some of the multiple roles that absence play within and surround this sort of aesthetic experimentation. The discussion is unfolded through the articulation of Vilém Flusser’s media theory – namely considering the zero-dimensionality of electronic and digital media and the concept of Mediumsprünge. These concepts are exemplified through historical and contemporary media devices and artworks technically based on light-to-sound translations. The discussed examples were partially selected from references and methodological tools used in a cross-disciplinary practice-based PhD research on photosensitivity in relation to media history and media art history conducted between 2014 and 2018. The methodology combines a historical and analytical approach, through new materialism, media archaeology, cultural techniques and second-order cybernetics. The significance of the discussion is exposing both the artistic freedom (or emancipation) and the arbitrariness (and responsibility) implied in bridging the gaps involved in media artworks

The crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence as a global problem of post-modernityand the ways of managerial solutions

The relevance of the study of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence is due to the fact that humanity is in a crisis of global development of the world associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0, the technological development of the world, the demographic and environmental crisis, the epidemic of the coronavirus COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize the socio-philosophical reflection of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence, which is a global problem of our time, which threatens our civilization, is associated with economic and social development, with many problems, including the problem of COVID-19. The objectives of the research are to identify the problems of the metaphysical dimensions of human existence and find ways that promise to lead to great achievements - to raise living standards, create new economic opportunities, solve anthropological, existential and ontological problems of human being associated with the real de-objectification of human existence, loss of the integrity of self-determination.The scientific novelty of the research is that it presents a solution to new problems of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence and ways to solve them

The crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence as a global problem of post-modernityand the ways of managerial solutions

The relevance of the study of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence is due to the fact that humanity is in a crisis of global development of the world associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0, the technological development of the world, the demographic and environmental crisis, the epidemic of the coronavirus COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize the socio-philosophical reflection of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence, which is a global problem of our time, which threatens our civilization, is associated with economic and social development, with many problems, including the problem of COVID-19. The objectives of the research are to identify the problems of the metaphysical dimensions of human existence and find ways that promise to lead to great achievements - to raise living standards, create new economic opportunities, solve anthropological, existential and ontological problems of human being associated with the real de-objectification of human existence, loss of the integrity of self-determination.The scientific novelty of the research is that it presents a solution to new problems of the crisis of the metaphysical foundations of human existence and ways to solve them

Anti-computing

We live in a moment of high anxiety around digital transformation. Computers are blamed for generating toxic forms of culture and ways of life. Once part of future imaginaries that were optimistic or even utopian, today there is a sense that things have turned out very differently. Anti-computing is widespread. This book seeks to understand its cultural and material logics, its forms, and its operations. Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten histories of dissent – moments when the imposition of computational technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital humanities and associated fields at all levels