5,806 research outputs found
The Language Labyrinth: Constructive Critique on the Terminology Used in the AI Discourse
In the interdisciplinary field of artificial intelligence (AI) the problem of
clear terminology is especially momentous. This paper claims, that AI debates
are still characterised by a lack of critical distance to metaphors like
'training', 'learning' or 'deciding'. As consequence, reflections regarding
responsibility or potential use-cases are greatly distorted. Yet, if relevant
decision-makers are convinced that AI can develop an 'understanding' or
properly 'interpret' issues, its regular use for sensitive tasks like deciding
about social benefits or judging court cases looms. The chapter argues its
claim by analysing central notions of the AI debate and tries to contribute by
proposing more fitting terminology and hereby enabling more fruitful debates.
It is a conceptual work at the intersection of critical computer science and
philosophy of language.Comment: 16 page
THE GLOBALIZING WORLD AND THE REALITY OF GLOBAL RISKS AND CATASTROPHES
This article is devoted to the possible emergence of global risks in the form of catastrophes that change the development of the Earth's space. Thus, the author motivates the necessity of measuring in advance the risks faced by nature and humanity in order to overcome these real threats and their consequences. The author analyzes the concept of "global catastrophe" and measures it as a concept and analyzes the scientific thought on this issue. It assesses the significance of the risk on the entire global space of a global catastrophe of a local or international nature. Also important is the author's approach to the issues under study and his views on the resolution of a number of conflicts and problems of global development
Towards a more just refuge regime: quotas, markets and a fair share
The international refugee regime is beset by two problems: Responsibility for refuge falls
disproportionately on a few states and many owed refuge do not get it. In this work, I explore
remedies to these problems. One is a quota distribution wherein states are distributed
responsibilities via allotment. Another is a marketized quota system wherein states are free to buy
and sell their allotments with others. I explore these in three parts. In Part 1, I develop the prime
principles upon which a just regime is built and with which alternatives can be adjudicated. The
first and most important principle â âJustice for Refugeesâ â stipulates that a just regime provides
refuge for all who have a basic interest in it. The second principle â âJustice for Statesâ â stipulates
that a just distribution of refuge responsibilities among states is one that is capacity considerate. In
Part 2, I take up several vexing questions regarding the distribution of refuge responsibilities
among states in a collective effort. First, what is a stateâs âfair shareâ? The answer requires the
determination of some logic â some metric â with which a distribution is determined. I argue that
one popular method in the political theory literature â a GDP-based distribution â is normatively
unsatisfactory. In its place, I posit several alternative metrics that are more attuned with the
principles of justice but absent in the political theory literature: GDP adjusted for Purchasing
Power Parity and the Human Development Index. I offer an exploration of both these. Second,
are states required to âtake up the slackâ left by defaulting peers? Here, I argue that duties of help
remain intact in cases of partial compliance among states in the refuge regime, but that political
concerns may require that such duties be applied with caution. I submit that a market instrument
offers one practical solution to this problem, as well as other advantages. In Part 3, I take aim at
marketization and grapple with its many pitfalls: That marketization is commodifying, that it is
corrupting, and that it offers little advantage in providing quality protection for refugees. In
addition to these, I apply a framework of moral markets developed by Debra Satz. I argue that a
refuge market may satisfy Justice Among States, but that it is violative of the refugeesâ welfare
interest in remaining free of degrading and discriminatory treatment
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The Child in Games: From the Meek, to the Mighty, to the Monstrous
Drawing across game studies, childhood studies, and childrenâs literature studies, this thesis catalogues and critiques the representation of children in contemporary video games.
It poses two questions:
1) How are children represented in contemporary video games?
2) In what ways do the representations of children in video games affirm or
challenge dominant Western beliefs about the figure of the child?
To answer these questions, I combine a large-scale content analysis of over 500 games published between 2009 and 2019 with a series of autoethnographic close readings. My content analysis is designed to provide a quantitative snapshot of the representation of children in games. I use statistical analysis to assemble data points as meaningful constellations. I use the axes of race, gender, and age, as well as genre, age-rating, and publication year, to identify patterns in representation. I distil my findings as a set of seven archetypes: The Blithe Child, The Heroic Child, The Human Becoming, The Child Sacrifice, The Side Kid, The Waif, and The Little Monster. This typology is not intended to work against the granular detail of the information recorded in the dataset, but to draw attention to patterns of coherence and divergence that occur between particular examples, as well as to intersections with representational tropes about children identified in other media.
I select four of these seven archetypes to structure my autoethnographic close readings. While content analysis is a useful tool for documenting the presence, absence, and dominant function of child-characters in games, close reading allows for a more intersectional approach that can attend to the nuances of representation across identity markers, creating opportunities to examine internal contradictions, ironies, and the polysemy generated through interpretive gaps. I develop my own close reading method building on the autoethnographic approaches of Carr (2019), Vossen (2020), McArthur (2018), and Jennings (2021), which I call critical ekphrasis. Chapter one argues that the Blithe Child triangulates âchildrenâ, âtoysâ, and âpaidiaâ. It suggests that both childhood and play can be conceptualised as a âmagic circleâ, and that the immateriality of the Blithe Child implies childhood can be a mode of being unconnected to anatomical markers or chronological age. Chapter two explores how the Heroic Child challenges the apparent affinity between video games and traditional hero
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narratives. It argues that the dependence of the childly protagonist undermines dualistic thinking and instead celebrates cooperation, compromise, and connection. Chapter three compares the Child Sacrifice to the woman-in-the-refrigerator trope, arguing that it functions to justify aggressive, hypermasculine, militarised violence. The final chapter compares the Little Monster and the Waif to examine how the uncanny child raises metareferential questions about autonomy in interactive media and agency in intergenerational relationships.
My research project concludes by suggesting that virtual children in simulated worlds point to the active construction and delimitation of âthe childâ in society and can reveal that much of what is assumed to be natural, obvious, and universal about the figure of âthe childâ is in fact ideological. It hints at the possibility that just as virtual children are used as rhetorical figures to explain and justify the rules, mechanics, and moral systems of a digital game, so too is the figure of âthe childâ used to routinise and vindicate the rules, workings, and moral systems of Euro-American culture.AHR
How to survive a dystopian world? Thinking about food in Atwood`s The Year of the Flood and WintersonÂŽs The Stone Gods
Esta dissertação propĂ”e examinar de que forma as representaçÔes de hĂĄbitos e prĂĄticas alimentares configuram as narrativas distĂłpicas que contemplam a crise climĂĄtica e projetam visĂ”es do futuro suscetĂveis de se tornarem realidade, particularmente em The Stone Gods (2007) de Jeanette Winterson e The Year of the Flood (2009) de Margaret Atwood. AlĂ©m disso, pretende analisar a forma como as referĂȘncias Ă alimentação podem expressar um posicionamento de gĂ©nero, particularmente no que toca ao gĂ©nero feminino. Esta anĂĄlise permite concluir que a comida nas distopias pode representar nĂŁo apenas desespero, mas tambĂ©m esperança e que se pode estabelecer uma relação entre os hĂĄbitos e prĂĄticas alimentares e o impulso utĂłpico nestas duas narrativas distĂłpicas.This dissertation proposes to examine how representations of foodways shape dystopian narratives that cover climate crisis and project visions of the future that are likely to come true. Falling under this category and chosen as case studies are Jeanette Wintersonâs The Stone Gods (2007) and Margaret Atwoodâs The Year of the Flood (2009). More than focusing on the way food shapes the narrative, the analysis will also consider how references to food can express gender positioning, particularly when it comes to the female gender. This analysis allows us to conclude that food in dystopias can represent not only despair but also hope, and that it is possible to establish a relationship between foodways and the utopian impulse in these two dystopian narratives
Judicial Errors: Fake Imaging and the Modern Law of Evidence, 21 UIC Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 82 (2022)
Walking with the Earth: Intercultural Perspectives on Ethics of Ecological Caring
It is commonly believed that considering nature different from us, human beings (qua rational, cultural, religious and social actors), is detrimental to our engagement for the preservation of nature. An obvious example is animal rights, a deep concern for all living beings, including non-human living creatures, which is understandable only if we approach nature, without fearing it, as something which should remain outside of our true home. âWalking with the earthâ aims at questioning any similar preconceptions in the wide sense, including allegoric-poetic contributions. We invited 14 authors from 4 continents to express all sorts of ways of saying why caring is so important, why togetherness, being-with each others, as a spiritual but also embodied ethics is important in a divided world
How to Be a God
When it comes to questions concerning the nature of Reality, Philosophers and Theologians have the answers.
Philosophers have the answers that canât be proven right. Theologians have the answers that canât be proven wrong.
Todayâs designers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games create realities for a living. They canât spend centuries mulling over the issues: they have to face them head-on. Their practical experiences can indicate which theoretical proposals actually work in practice.
Thatâs todayâs designers. Tomorrowâs will have a whole new set of questions to answer.
The designers of virtual worlds are the literal gods of those realities. Suppose Artificial Intelligence comes through and allows us to create non-player characters as smart as us. What are our responsibilities as gods? How should we, as gods, conduct ourselves?
How should we be gods
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