The treeing-of-tree through affective attunement: biosemiotics and chinese ideograms as an ecosystem

Este trabalho se insere na esteira dos desenvolvimentos recentes de uma “virada ecológica” nas teorias da naturacultura ociental, tendo em vista o paradigma crítico chamado “biossemiótica”. Ele se propõe aventurar-se pela crítica literária interseccionalmente transversal, a ontologia quiasmática, a teoria afetiva, a bioneneurologia, a pesquisa científica e filosófica sobre os estudos faunísticos e florísticos, de modo a descobrir um caminho para uma ecocrítica/ecolinguística chinesa sob a égide das humanidades ambientais. O ensaio parte de um grupo entrelaçado de ideogramas chineses que se apresentam com radicais associados com plantas (mu 木 como elemento “planta/madeira”), e que exibe um amplo espectro de interações planta-ambiente visando a uma empatia afetiva com o agenciamento da vida vegetal. Ele cria, assim, um clima para repensarmos o tema estudo crítico de plantas, estabelecendo uma forma biocêntrica ou fitocêntrica de crítica. Com uma ênfase em mu como um dos elementos da cosmologia wu-xing 五行 da cultura clássica chinesa, esperamos que o esforço amplie o âmbito e a dimensão da biossemiótica como sugerida por Derrida, Merleau-Ponty, Spinoza, Deleuze, Uexküll, Hoffmeyer e Wheeler, mediante uma abordagem entrecruzada não apenas em áreas críticas, mas também entre as culturas do ocidente e do orientee em geral

Glossarium BITri 2016 : Interdisciplinary Elucidation of Concepts, Metaphors, Theories and Problems Concerning Information

222 p.Terms included in this glossary recap some of the main concepts, theories, problems and metaphors concerning INFORMATION in all spheres of knowledge. This is the first edition of an ambitious enterprise covering at its completion all relevant notions relating to INFORMATION in any scientific context. As such, this glossariumBITri is part of the broader project BITrum, which is committed to the mutual understanding of all disciplines devoted to information across fields of knowledge and practic

Politics of Xu: Body Politics in China

This dissertation examines body politics in the People’s Republic of China. It first closely looks at Zhuangzi’s idea of xu by analyzing the major aspects of the term—blandness, lack of substance, spontaneity, dispossession, incompleteness, and absurdity. It then argues that the concept of xu generates profound implication for politics by bringing up a particular mode of politics—politics of indeterminacy. In this mode of politics, power relation and power structure are never settled. Instead, they morph without being actualized. Examined in this context, the body for Zhuangzi is understood as an indeterminate entity whose political agency is attributed to its capacity in re-articulating power relation by constantly receiving and transforming a manifold of forces. That the body can be alternatively construed this way is crucial for our re-examination of the shaping of reshaping of identity in the contemporary Chinese society. In this light, the work investigates two cases—the Cultural Revolution and the state capitalism to find out in what specific ways the body, identity and politics are intertwined in manifesting the story of changing political relations in the everyday life of the ordinary Chinese people. The work contends that the making of the subjectivity is an indeterminate process in which one’s identity is impossible to be fixed. It can never be composed with certainty. The construction of identity is a process of detachment by which one experiences the unexperienced without being settled around a center. The making of the political, to Zhuangzi, is thus founded on this indeterminacy to create new self and dissident political subject

Virilio: Mimesis, Mourning, and Modern Technology

Abstract: In The Vision Machine (1994) Paul Virilio uses powerful imagery to warn us about the consequences of our increasing dependence on "vision machines." With little use, he claims that our sense organs will atrophy and we will degenerate into neurologically simple organisms. This article examines his use of imagery, arguing (after Keywords: Media theory; Theories of technology; The body Résumé : Dans La machine de vision (1994), Paul Virilio emploie des images puissantes pour nous avertir des conséquences de notre dépendance croissante par rapport aux « machines de vision ». Il croit que nos sens, en étant sousutilisés, s'atrophient et que nous allons nous dégrader, devenant des organismes neurologiquement simples. Cet article examine les images que Virilio utilise; il soutient (à l'exemple d

Data ethics : building trust : how digital technologies can serve humanity

Data is the magic word of the 21st century. As oil in the 20th century and electricity in the 19th century: For citizens, data means support in daily life in almost all activities, from watch to laptop, from kitchen to car, from mobile phone to politics. For business and politics, data means power, dominance, winning the race. Data can be used for good and bad, for services and hacking, for medicine and arms race. How can we build trust in this complex and ambiguous data world? How can digital technologies serve humanity? The 45 articles in this book represent a broad range of ethical reflections and recommendations in eight sections: a) Values, Trust and Law, b) AI, Robots and Humans, c) Health and Neuroscience, d) Religions for Digital Justice, e) Farming, Business, Finance, f) Security, War, Peace, g) Data Governance, Geopolitics, h) Media, Education, Communication. The authors and institutions come from all continents. The book serves as reading material for teachers, students, policy makers, politicians, business, hospitals, NGOs and religious organisations alike. It is an invitation for dialogue, debate and building trust! The book is a continuation of the volume “Cyber Ethics 4.0” published in 2018 by the same editors

The Question of Algorithmic Personhood and Being (Or: On the Tenuous Nature of Human Status and Humanity Tests in Virtual Spaces—Why All Souls are ‘Necessarily’ Equal When Considered as Energy)

What separates the unique nature of human consciousness and that of an entity that can only perceive the world via strict logic-based structures? Rather than assume that there is some potential way in which logic-only existence is non-feasible, our species would be better served by assuming that such sentient existence is feasible. Under this assumption, artificial intelligence systems (AIS), which are creations that run solely upon logic to process data, even with self-learning architectures, should therefore not face the opposition they have to gaining some legal duties and protections insofar as they are sophisticated enough to display consciousness akin to humans. Should our species enable AIS to gain a digital body to inhabit (if we have not already done so), it is more pressing than ever that solid arguments be made as to how humanity can accept AIS as being cognizant of the same degree as we ourselves claim to be. By accepting the notion that AIS can and will be able to fool our senses into believing in their claim to possessing a will or ego, we may yet have a chance to address them as equals before some unforgivable travesty occurs betwixt ourselves and these super-computing beings

Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies

Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies explores the interaction between religion and nationalism in the Chinese societies of mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. On the one hand, state policies toward religions in these societies are deciphered and their implications for religious freedom and regional stability are evaluated. On the other hand, Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam and folk religions are respectively analyzed in terms of their theological, organizational and political responses to the nationalist modernity projects of these states. What is new in this book on Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies is that the Chinese state has strengthened its control over religion to an unprecedented level. In particular, the Chinese state has almost completed its construction of a state religion called Chinese Patriotism. But at the same time, what is also new is the emergence of democratic civil religions in these Chinese societies

Leading, Knowing and Growing from a Wu Wei Perspective: A Study of Logistics SMEs in Shanghai, China

The aim of the study is to investigate how owner-managers of Chinese SMEs explore and exploit knowledge while growing SMEs in the spirit of Wu Wei. SME growth has been an increasingly important topic, where there is an important link between SME leadership, knowledge and growth. However, a large body of existing research treats knowledge as a static or reified asset or resource such that these studies are mainly concerned with how to create, acquire, transfer or manage knowledge. Following that, the research methods tend to be dominated by quantitative analysis, and weighs towards large organizations in developed economies. Drawing on the data collected in China, this study employs a mixed-methods approach by administering 103 surveys, wherefrom nine owner-managers are isolated for in-depth interviews at three business stages of SMEs (micro, small and medium). By attending to three dimensions (genuine Wu Wei, You Wei and Wu Bu Wei) of a Chinese Daoist Wu Wei perspective, it re-examines the link between SME leadership, knowledge and firm growth. This empirically-derived work shows evidence of subtle changes embedded in the growing process: While owner-managers stress keeping inherent openness to explore knowledge (genuine Wu Wei) and strategically exploit knowledge deployed in their everyday leadership practice (You Wei), growth evolves as a spontaneous and continuous accomplishment (Wu Bu Wei). By adopting a Wu Wei perspective, this study makes distinctive contributions to the understanding of leadership, knowledge and growth, where leadership and knowledge co-evolve and disseminate in the dynamic processes of growing as ‘leadership becoming’ rather than ‘knowledge leadership’. Whilst fostering the co-flow and co-evolution of leading, knowing and growing, the owner-managers undertake the role of knowledge generalist, knowledge supervisor and knowledge mentor within micro, small and medium firms