A New Constructivist AI: From Manual Methods to Self-Constructive Systems

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems has to date been largely one of manual labor. This constructionist approach to AI has resulted in systems with limited-domain application and severe performance brittleness. No AI architecture to date incorporates, in a single system, the many features that make natural intelligence general-purpose, including system-wide attention, analogy-making, system-wide learning, and various other complex transversal functions. Going beyond current AI systems will require significantly more complex system architecture than attempted to date. The heavy reliance on direct human specification and intervention in constructionist AI brings severe theoretical and practical limitations to any system built that way. One way to address the challenge of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is replacing a top-down architectural design approach with methods that allow the system to manage its own growth. This calls for a fundamental shift from hand-crafting to self-organizing architectures and self-generated code – what we call a constructivist AI approach, in reference to the self-constructive principles on which it must be based. Methodologies employed for constructivist AI will be very different from today’s software development methods; instead of relying on direct design of mental functions and their implementation in a cog- nitive architecture, they must address the principles – the “seeds” – from which a cognitive architecture can automatically grow. In this paper I describe the argument in detail and examine some of the implications of this impending paradigm shift

Traversing the Boundaries and Borders of Discharge from Hospital Following First Stage Surgery for Complex Congenital Heart Disease: the Parents’ Experience

Aim: To explore parents’ experiences of the transition from hospital to home with their infant following first stage cardiac surgery for a univentricular heart or systemic shunt dependent cardiac lesion. Background: The process of monitoring a fragile infant at home in between stage 1 and 2 of cardiac surgery, takes the philosophical perspective of holistic care beyond the borders and boundaries normally expected of parents going home for the first time with their new baby. This neo-transition of becoming a medical parent is superimposed upon the multiple transitions already experienced whilst in hospital. Methods: A mixed methods feasibility study. Parents were recruited between August 2013 and February 2015. Parents of 80 infants were eligible; mothers (n=13) & fathers (n=4) of 13 infants consented to participate. Data was collected at four time points (before discharge; 2 weeks after; 8 weeks after; after stage 2 surgery) using self-report tools, semi-structured interviews and daily diaries. Qualitative findings regarding the borders & boundaries of going home are presented here. Results: Numerous physical, emotional & social boundaries & borders were evident during the transition from hospital to home. Traversing the physical boundary of leaving the hospital for the first time with their infant, was loaded with emotionally traumatic experiences that could not be separated from the specific physical transition of going home. For a while parents were in an uncertain place (betwixt and between) where they could not visualise what was ahead & how it would feel; this created anxiety & fear, at the same time as excitement to be going home. Conclusion Liminality as a concept emerged during transition from hospital to home; a crossing point from a comfort zone, safety and security (the ward) into the unknown uncertain place (home). Adjusting to the situation; developing confidence; becoming comfortable with new skills was a threshold concept to mastery of a new normal

Contextualising risk: the unfolding information work and practices of people during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate people's information practices as the SARS-CoV-2 virus took hold in the UK. Of particular interest is how people transition into newly created pandemic information environments and the ways information literacy practices come into view. / Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative research design comprised one-to-one in-depth interviews conducted virtually towards the end of the UK's first lockdown phase in May–July 2020. Data were coded and analysed by the researchers using constant comparative and situated analysis techniques. / Findings: Transition into new pandemic information environments was shaped by an unfolding phase, an intensification phase and a stable phase. Information literacy emerged as a form of safeguarding as participants engaged in information activities designed to mitigate health, legal, financial and well-being risks produced by the pandemic. / Research limitations/implications: Time constraints meant that the sample from the first phase of this study skewed female. / Practical implications: Findings establish foundational knowledge for public health and information professionals tasked with shaping public communication during times of crisis. / Social implications: This paper contributes to understandings of the role that information and information literacy play within global and long-term crises. / Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to explore information practices during the COVID-19 pandemic

A Model of Emotion as Patterned Metacontrol

Adaptive agents use feedback as a key strategy to cope with un- certainty and change in their environments. The information fed back from the sensorimotor loop into the control subsystem can be used to change four different elements of the controller: parameters associated to the control model, the control model itself, the functional organization of the agent and the functional realization of the agent. There are many change alternatives and hence the complexity of the agent’s space of potential configurations is daunting. The only viable alternative for space- and time-constrained agents —in practical, economical, evolutionary terms— is to achieve a reduction of the dimensionality of this configuration space. Emotions play a critical role in this reduction. The reduction is achieved by func- tionalization, interface minimization and by patterning, i.e. by selection among a predefined set of organizational configurations. This analysis lets us state how autonomy emerges from the integration of cognitive, emotional and autonomic systems in strict functional terms: autonomy is achieved by the closure of functional dependency. Emotion-based morphofunctional systems are able to exhibit complex adaptation patterns at a reduced cognitive cost. In this article we show a general model of how emotion supports functional adaptation and how the emotional biological systems operate following this theoretical model. We will also show how this model is also of applicability to the construction of a wide spectrum of artificial systems1

Professional relationships: Bifurcations, threshold concepts, and MSW student voices.

This qualitative study explored MSW student perceptions of the concept of professional relationships. The research question was: “What does the concept of professional relationships mean to MSW students?” The study was epistemologically rooted in social constructionism and Foucauldian theories, which inform how meaning is created and the notion of “professionalism” is deconstructed, while two-person psychologies were utilized to conceptualize the worker/client relationship to which I refer. Utilizing a constructivist grounded theory modality, 15 participants were recruited from the student body at Wilfrid Laurier University in Kitchener, ON. Through the analysis of individual interview data, two overarching categories emerged: (a) the expression of an uncomfortable sense of “not knowing” what a beginning practitioner needs to know about professional relationships; and, (b) the inability to articulate an integrated conceptualization of the professional relationship in social work. The concept was, however, consistently bifurcated in a way that isolated being professional from the relational elements of the social work encounter. A third category focused on how relationships with professors, field supervisors and other social workers contributed (or failed to contribute) to the participants\u27 learning regarding the professional relationship. This study contributes information for viewing the concept of professional relationships through threshold and performative theories, which may facilitate a shift in educational practices of graduate level social workers

Professional relationships: Bifurcations, threshold concepts, and MSW student voices.

This qualitative study explored MSW student perceptions of the concept of professional relationships. The research question was: “What does the concept of professional relationships mean to MSW students?” The study was epistemologically rooted in social constructionism and Foucauldian theories, which inform how meaning is created and the notion of “professionalism” is deconstructed, while two-person psychologies were utilized to conceptualize the worker/client relationship to which I refer. Utilizing a constructivist grounded theory modality, 15 participants were recruited from the student body at Wilfrid Laurier University in Kitchener, ON. Through the analysis of individual interview data, two overarching categories emerged: (a) the expression of an uncomfortable sense of “not knowing” what a beginning practitioner needs to know about professional relationships; and, (b) the inability to articulate an integrated conceptualization of the professional relationship in social work. The concept was, however, consistently bifurcated in a way that isolated being professional from the relational elements of the social work encounter. A third category focused on how relationships with professors, field supervisors and other social workers contributed (or failed to contribute) to the participants\u27 learning regarding the professional relationship. This study contributes information for viewing the concept of professional relationships through threshold and performative theories, which may facilitate a shift in educational practices of graduate level social workers

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer experiences of homelessness and identity : insecurity and home(o)normativity

Homelessness among the young lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* (LGBT+) population is becoming an increasing societal concern, with alarmist reporting of high rates of homelessness compared to heterosexual people. This paper presents qualitative evidence from research with 20 LGBT + people who had experienced homelessness in Scotland. Significantly, it moves discussion of LGBT + homelessness out of a concern with public health and social work, to understand it in terms of homelessness research and housing theory. The analysis also brings in queer theory to our discussions of homelessness and housing. As a result, rather than understanding our participants as passive victims of a homophobic or transphobic society, we focus on their agency in developing a queer identity alongside their experiences of insecure accommodation. In their experiences of homelessness people were carrying out ‘edgework’ at the margins of heteronormative society. Routes out of homelessness were thus associated with people becoming more comfortable within their identities. We conclude by arguing that experiences of homelessness interacted in complex ways with sexual and gender identity, and that tailored mainstream housing provision is required for LGBT + homeless people

Development and Validation of a Measure of Perceived Life Significance

Theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of meaning in bereavement suggest a distinction between meaning as sense-making, or the integration of the loss into a coherent and positive set of beliefs about world and self, and meaning as life significance, or the perception that some aspect of one\u27s life experience “matters” in the wake of loss. Although several authors have pointed to the importance of life significance in grief recovery, currently no psychometrically valid measure exists. The present study examined the reliability and validity of a new measure: the Perceived Life Significance Scale (PLSS). The PLSS total score, as well as subscale scores, demonstrated acceptable inter-item reliability across samples. Exploratory factor analysis in a sample of community bereaved adults (N=353) suggested a three-factor structure, with subscales representing the active pursuit of valued goals (Active Life Significance), the experience of emptiness or insignificance (Negative Life Significance), and a passive receptivity to beauty or meaning in everyday life (Receptive Life Significance). This factor structure was confirmed in a sample of bereaved undergraduates (N=483). The PLSS demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity in both samples, with stronger associations with other meaning measures than with measures of negative affect, depression, and grief intensity. A confirmatory joint factor analysis found support for the discriminant validity of the PLSS with respect to the World Assumptions Scale, a measure of meaning as sense-making. These results suggest the utility of the PLSS as a measure specific to meaning but discrepant from meaning as sense-making

Traversing the Boundaries and Borders of Discharge From Hospital Following First Stage Surgery for Complex CHD: the Parents’ Experience

Aim: To explore parents’ experiences of transition from hospital to home with their infant following first stage cardiac surgery for a univentricular heart or systemic shunt dependent cardiac lesion. Background: The process of monitoring a fragile infant at home between stage 1 and 2 of cardiac surgery, takes the philosophical perspective of holistic care beyond the borders and boundaries normally expected of parents going home for the first time with their new baby. This neo-transition of becoming a medical parent is superimposed upon the multiple transitions experienced whilst in hospital. Methods: Parents were recruited between August 2013 and February 2015; mothers (n=13) & fathers (n=4) of 13 infants consented to participate. Data was collected at four time points (before discharge; 2 weeks after; 8 weeks after; after stage 2 surgery) using semi-structured interviews. Results: Qualitative findings regarding the borders & boundaries of going home are presented here. Numerous physical, emotional & social boundaries & borders were evident during transition from hospital to home. Traversing the physical boundary of leaving the hospital for the first time with their infant, was loaded with emotionally traumatic experiences that could not be separated from the specific physical transition of going home. For a while parents were in an uncertain place where they could not visualise what was ahead & how it would feel; this created anxiety & fear, at the same time as excitement to be going home. Conclusion Liminality as a concept emerged during transition from hospital to home; a crossing point from a comfort zone, safety and security (the ward) into the unknown uncertain place (home). Adjusting to the situation; developing confidence; becoming comfortable with new skills was a threshold concept to mastery of a new normal. A conceptual framework emerged ‘The rite of passage for parents transitioning from hospital to home’