Inductive learning spatial attention

This paper investigates the automatic induction of spatial attention from the visual observation of objects manipulated on a table top. In this work, space is represented in terms of a novel observer-object relative reference system, named Local Cardinal System, defined upon the local neighbourhood of objects on the table. We present results of applying the proposed methodology on five distinct scenarios involving the construction of spatial patterns of coloured blocks

Automated Composition of Picture-Synched Music Soundtracks for Movies

We describe the implementation of and early results from a system that automatically composes picture-synched musical soundtracks for videos and movies. We use the phrase "picture-synched" to mean that the structure of the automatically composed music is determined by visual events in the input movie, i.e. the final music is synchronised to visual events and features such as cut transitions or within-shot key-frame events. Our system combines automated video analysis and computer-generated music-composition techniques to create unique soundtracks in response to the video input, and can be thought of as an initial step in creating a computerised replacement for a human composer writing music to fit the picture-locked edit of a movie. Working only from the video information in the movie, key features are extracted from the input video, using video analysis techniques, which are then fed into a machine-learning-based music generation tool, to compose a piece of music from scratch. The resulting soundtrack is tied to video features, such as scene transition markers and scene-level energy values, and is unique to the input video. Although the system we describe here is only a preliminary proof-of-concept, user evaluations of the output of the system have been positive.Comment: To be presented at the 16th ACM SIGGRAPH European Conference on Visual Media Production. London, England: 17th-18th December 2019. 10 pages, 9 figure

A Structuralist Proposal for the Foundations of the Natural Numbers

This paper introduces a novel object that has less structure than, and is ontologically prior to the natural numbers. As such it is a candidate model of the foundation that lies beneath the natural numbers. The implications for the construction of mathematical objects built upon that foundation are discussed

Children, War and World Disorder in the 21st Century: A Review of the Theories and the Literature on Children's Contributions to Armed Violence

Young populations, and particularly young males, have been attributed a proclivity to aggression and unrest that puts societies at risk. Theories about the dangers of a demographic 'youth bulge' inform public and policy debates about the predictors of violent conflict, as evidenced most recently in the World Bank's World Development Report for 2007. This paper evaluates the validity and utility of claims linking youth bulges to civil conflicts by reviewing different literatures concerning naturalist ideas of young humans' innate aggression and cognitive incompetence as well as environmentalist ideas of environmental stimuli, processes of socialisation, and the dialectical relationship of structural conditions and human agency. This review finds that the moral panic propagated by youth bulge theorists is too often based on only one form of influence on human development and action, whether an aspect of environment, personal experience, or individual traits. A more cogent analysis must integrate the highly complex and dynamic processes involved in cognition and behaviour and aim to develop theories that take account of the social power, ideational and structural forms, and emotional and cognitive processes that young people experience and draw on in times of war. Theories of causality that fail to account for this complexity obscure understanding of the many ways in which young people and conflict may be linked.

In the world republic of letters : towards a reconceptualisation of the notion of "Weltliteratur"

Artykuł ten stanowi próbę problematyzacji genezy, cech charakterystycznych oraz możliwych kierunków rozwoju terminu "Weltliteratur". Oferuje on wnikliwą analizę jego interdyscyplinarnego, transnarodowego charakteru oraz komentarz na temat nieciągłości rozwoju tego terminu. Po raz pierwszy pogłębione badania nad domeną "literatury światowej" podjął Johann Wolfgang von Goethe pod koniec lat dwudziestych XIX wieku, w okresie nasilonych niepokojów politycznych i licznych zmian społeczno-kulturowych. Z jednej strony idea ta była przedmiotem żywego zainteresowania już wśród starożytnych (H. M. Posnett), z drugiej zaś - rezonowała ona z wieloma pisarzami i myślicielami współczesnymi, którzy podejmowali się jej rekonceptualizacji zarówno w ramach badań literaturoznawczych, jak i poprzez różnorakie, ciągle rozwijające się metodologie nowo powstałych dyscyplin, takich jak literaturoznawstwo porównawcze, genologia, krytyka przekładu, hermeneutyka czy kulturoznawstwo. Działania te były istotne również dla rozwoju wielu poetyk tematycznych. Podejmując dialog z "historią pojęć" Reinharta Kosellecka i jej wysoce idiosynkratycznym aparatem teoretycznym, niniejszy artykuł adaptuje nomenklaturę niemieckiego badacza w celu wstępnego usystematyzowania mechanizmów antycypacyjnych, które wpłynęły na recepcję kategorii "Weltliteratur" i przełożyły się na jej późniejszy rozwój - zarówno w środowisku akademickim, jak i w XX-wiecznych i XXI-wiecznych dyskursach politycznych. Tekst postuluje, iż Goethe w swojej wizjonerskiej analizie literatur narodowych oraz heterogeniczności dyskursów artystycznych położył podwaliny pod rozwój nowych metodologii badań porównawczych, a tym samym pod to, co Pascale Casanova nazywa "światową republiką literatury".The paper problematises the origins, characteristics, and implications of the term Weltliteratur, proffering critical insights into its interdisciplinary, transnational character and presuppositions about its discontinuous development. Having been initially conceptualised as a heretofore undeveloped research area, the domain of "world literature" is first eulogised as worthy of further scholarly attention by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the late 1820s - the time of political unrest and multiple socio-cultural changes. As such, the idea also seems to have been of paramount interest to the ancients (H. M. Posnett), in which sense it may be portrayed as borderline anachronistic. Conversely, it does possess and evoke great resonance in future writers, thinkers, and intellectuals alike, resulting in its many reconceptualisations, not only in the field of literary studies but also in numerous nascent or still-developing disciplines such as comparative literature, genology, translation criticism, hermeneutics, cultural studies; furthermore, it is equally relevant for a number of various thematic poetics. Engaging in a dialogue with Reinhart Koselleck's "conceptual history" alongside its highly idiosyncratic theoretical apparatus, the present paper adapts and reappropriates Koselleck's nomenclature with a view towards a preliminary systematisation of anticipatory mechanisms which influenced the reception of the category of Weltliteratur as much as they governed its subsequent re-development, be it in academia or in twentieth- and twenty-first-century public discourse. In this sense, Goethe's prescient analysis of various national literatures as well as of the heterogeneity of artistic discourses of his time may be said to have laid the foundations for new comparative research methodologies, and, by extension, to what Pascale Casanova would eventually name as "the world republic of letters.

Frege – The Unintentional Linguist. On Frege’s Views of Language in the Context of 19th Century German Linguistics

Sein ganzes berufliches Leben hindurch betrachtete Frege die Sprache als eine gefährliche Bedrohung des wissenschaftlichen Erkennens, der mit allen Mitteln der Logik zu begegnen war. Im ersten Teil des Aufsatzes wird aufgezeigt, wie Frege diese Auffassung in oft unbewusster und ungewollter Übereinstimmung mit gleichzeitigen Tendenzen sowohl in der deutschen Linguistik (Becker, Steinthal, Paul, Wundt) als auch in der deutschen Sprachkritik (Gruppe, Nietzsche, Mauthner) entwickelte und wie sein epistemologischer ‚Kampf gegen die Sprache’ mit einer bitteren persönlichen und professionellen Niederlage endete. Der zweite Teil des Aufsatzes enthält eine Rekonstruktion von Freges logischer Grammatik sowie eine Darstellung des linguistischen Argumentes, das für Freges endgültiges (und tragisches) Akzept vom Sprachskeptizismus entscheidend wurde (das sogenannte Fregesche Paradox). Der Aufsatz schließt mit einer Evaluierung der Relevanz des Fregeschen Paradoxes für die heutige Linguistik