Four preconditions for solving MC4 machine consciousness

A machine is MC4 conscious if it has phenomenal experiences that are comparable to human conscious experiences. From an ethical point of view it is important to know whether we have created MC4 consciousness in a machine. MC4 consciousness research can also contribute to the development of general theories of human consciousness. This paper discusses four problems that have to be solved before we will be able to address MC4 machine consciousness in a systematic way: We need more clarity about the measurement of consciousness, we need better ways of describing the physical world and consciousness, and we need to reach agreement about the final form that a theory of consciousness should take. When these problems have been addressed we will be able to develop scientific theories of consciousness that can make accurate believable predictions about MC4 consciousness in machines

Helping people help themselves - toward a theory of autonomy-compatible help

If development is seen basically as autonomous self-development, then there is a subtle paradox in the whole notion of development assistance: How can an outside party ("helper") assist those undertaking autonomous activities (the"doers") without overriding, or undercutting their autonomy? This conundrum is the challenge facing a theory of autonomy-compatible development assistance - that is, helping theory. Starting from a simple model of non-distortionary aid, the author explores several themes of a broader helping theory, and shows how these themes arise in the work of"gurus"in different fields - John Dewey in pedagogy and social philosophy, Douglas McGregor in management theory, Carl Rogers in psychotherapy, Soren Kierkegaard in spiritual counseling, Saul Alinsky in community organizing, Paulo Freire in community education, and Albert Hirschman, and E.F. Schumacher in economic development. That such diverse thinkers in such different fields, arrive at very similar conclusions, increases confidence in the common principles. The points of commonality are summarized as follows: 1) Help must start from the present situation of the doers. 2) Helpers must see the situation through the eyes of the doers. 3) Help cannot be imposed on the doers, as that directly violates their autonomy. 4) Nor can doers receive help as a benevolent gift, as that increases dependency. 5) Doers must be in the driver seat. One major application of helping theory is to the problems of knowledge-based development assistance. The standard approach is that the helper, a knowledge-based development agency, has the"answers", and disseminates them to the doers. This corresponds to the standard teacher-centered pedagogy. The alternative under helping theory is the learner-centered approach. The teacher plays the role of midwife, catalyst, and facilitator, building learning capacity in the learner-doers, so that they can learn from any source, including their own experience. Development assistance is further complicated by the local, or tacit nature of much relevant knowledge. A knowledge-based development agency might function better, not simply as a source of knowledge, but as a broker connecting those who face problems with those in similar situations, who have learned to address the problems. Changing to the approach of helping theory, entails changing the helping agency itself, transforming it into an organization that fosters learning internally, as well as externally - as in a university, where professors engage in learning, and foster learning in students, but the organization does not adopt official views on the complex questions of the day. This means fostering competition in the marketplace of ideas within the organization, and taking a more Socratic stance with clients, who will then have to take responsibility for, and have ownership of their decisions.Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Health Economics&Finance,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Labor Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness

The indirect approach

Aid and conditionalities are the"carrots and sticks"of the conventional, direct approach to fostering economic development. The economic theory of agency is the most sophisticated treatment of the direct carrots-and-sticks approach to influencing human behavior. Considering the outcomes of the conventional approach, it might be worthwhile to explore alternative indirect approaches that focus on enabling clients to act more autonomously, rather than try for fuller control of clients'actions (or"agents"behaviors) with improved carrots and sticks. Are there inherent limitations in the direct approach that will not be addressed with better crafted"agency contracts"or closer monitoring of the agents? The author traces the intellectual history of indirect approaches from Socrates to modern thinkers, such as Wittgenstein, Gandhi, and McGregor. One theme of his survey is that constructivist and active-learning pedagogies constitute an indirect approach in which the teacher does not directly transmit knowledge to the learner, through training, and instruction. These pedagogies - translated into social and economic development as learning writ large - from the basis for an alternative indirect approach to fostering development. Actions have motives, just as beliefs have grounds, concludes the author. In the wide spectrum of human endeavor, there is only a fairly small"bandwidth"in which motives can be supplied by the carrots, and sticks of the direct approach (including agency theory, and market-driven activities as special cases of the direct approach to affecting behavior). Outside that spectrum, trying to use direct methods in a controlling manner, contradicts the motives for actions (and the grounds for beliefs) - like trying to"buy love."For higher activities, motives must come from within. Helpers can at best use an indirect approach to bring doers to the threshold; the doers have to do the rest, which makes the results their own.Public Health Promotion,Teaching and Learning,Curriculum&Instruction,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences,Educational Sciences,Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,General Technology,Curriculum&Instruction

Conceptualizing the Transition to Servitization in the Capital Goods Industry

During the past two decades the manufacturing industry has consistently tried to transition from a position as traditional goods supplier to a provider of solutions by means of the integration of goods and services. This integration phenomenon is called servitization. Transition triggers are forces such as economic pressure, gaining competitive advantage and increasing customer demands. In spite of the evident gains identified in the literature, the major part of the industry either advanced hesitantly, or stalled after the first steps. Only a few “hidden champions” succeeded. The status of servitization as an academic field has reached maturity. During the past years, published servitization research papers grew exponentially compared with the early years of this century. The extant literature offers an extraordinarily broad range of researched themes such as servitization avenues, benefits and barriers, bundling, product design, contract models and sales process. What is missing, however, is a conceptualization that focuses on the practical implementation aspects of servitization to guide practitioners to apply servitization sustainably. The findings of my servitization research contribute to knowledge in several ways. They provide a novel understanding about the crucial first step in a traditional product manufacturer’s customer re-orientation. The unique principle of functional arrays facilitates the understanding of the terms “the customer” and “solution”. It permits the identification and collection of specific customer solution requirements by unusual functional disaggregation of entire companies. The creation of customer service demand categories enables a correlation with customers’ functional arrays that consequently leads into the formation of particular service competencies and specific service delivery platforms. For the first time, manufacturers, through these platforms, may proactively address individually and specifically customers’ service demands across the entire customer`s company structure. A final contribution constitutes the conceptualization based on the progression principle of service delivery platforms. The study tackled a business problem through a constructivist research philosophy, employing an inductive approach and adopting a case study strategy. In-depth interviews in real life settings revealed how a traditional product manufacturer should re-orientate its capabilities and progress on a servitization transition

‘How would a child see it?’ exploring the impact when a parent downloads IIOC

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of Philosophy.This thesis explored the impact on children when their father is arrested for downloading indecent images of children (IIOC). There is existing research which identifies the risk posed by people who download IIOC, however there is no research which explores the risk fathers present to their biological children. There is limited guidance for practitioners responsible for risk management in a family setting. As such, there is a danger that families will receive inconsistent responses from intervening agencies. This is the first piece of research which specifically explored how children who have a parent who downloads IIOC are affected. An inductive thematic analysis was undertaken. Data collection involved qualitative interviews with nine fathers who had been arrested for downloading IIOC, three mothers who had children with a man arrested for downloading IIOC, one step mother in a relationship with a man who had downloaded IIOC and one 17-year-old girl whose father had been convicted of downloading IIOC. The adults in this study are connected (as a parent or step parent) with a combined total of 27 children, 19 of whom were under the age of 18. The research was underpinned by the following theoretical frameworks: resilience, risk, the social construction of childhood and symbolic interactionism. The research provides a unique insight into the journey of the child, starting from when their father is arrested, followed by exploration of what they are told (if anything) about their father’s offending and how the entire experience impacts on them. The data revealed a wide variety of risks to the child in this context, for example: the risk the child has been exposed to the images, the risk that they will be told about the offence in a way that is emotionally harmful to them, the risk either parent would attempt or commit suicide, the risk that the child has been sexually abused or will be in the future, the risk that the offence will feature in the media and the child will become isolated and bullied, the risk of harm caused by separation from their parent and the risk that the non-offending parent will not be able to cope. The families shared valuable insights about their experience of intervening agencies. The thesis concludes with recommendations for practice, policy, and the development of materials for children, as well as raising further questions which may be addressed in future research. ix policy, and the development of materials for children, as well as raising further questions which may be addressed in future research

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp