17,128 research outputs found
Towards Understanding the Origin of Genetic Languages
Molecular biology is a nanotechnology that works--it has worked for billions
of years and in an amazing variety of circumstances. At its core is a system
for acquiring, processing and communicating information that is universal, from
viruses and bacteria to human beings. Advances in genetics and experience in
designing computers have taken us to a stage where we can understand the
optimisation principles at the root of this system, from the availability of
basic building blocks to the execution of tasks. The languages of DNA and
proteins are argued to be the optimal solutions to the information processing
tasks they carry out. The analysis also suggests simpler predecessors to these
languages, and provides fascinating clues about their origin. Obviously, a
comprehensive unraveling of the puzzle of life would have a lot to say about
what we may design or convert ourselves into.Comment: (v1) 33 pages, contributed chapter to "Quantum Aspects of Life",
edited by D. Abbott, P. Davies and A. Pati, (v2) published version with some
editin
Cioranâs âgrain of ataraxyâ : boredom, nothingness, and quietism
In reading E.M. Cioranâs Ćuvre, one is faced with an immediate and unremitting abrasiveness that has its roots with our being born into time. Indeed, the author of The Fall into Time and The Trouble with Being Born thought that it is precisely this accidental and unredeemable temporality, an original sin that results in a life forever situated in cycles of striving and becoming, which is to be exhuastingly apprehended in the experience of boredom: âLife is more and less than boredom, though it is in boredom and by boredom that we discern what life is worth.â Cioranâs pessimism never relents; even his lugubrious friend Samuel Beckett had to keep a distance after finding him âtoo pessimisticââwho else but Cioran could write that âleukemia is the garden where God bloomsâ? Despite this, in Cioranâs often autobiographical, aphoristic and essayistic writings, we find a richly-timbred boredom (ironically so) which gives us incisive observations into a multitude of related concepts and realities. Nothingness, God, silence, mysticism, suffering, and quietism (among others) all feature in Cioranâs writings on boredom, as well as in this paperâs attempt to better situate Cioranâs work with respect to his more famous pessimistic and existentialist relationsâs take on the subject, namely Arthur Schopenhauer and Martin Heidegger. In exploring his work on boredom vis-Ă -vis his specific interest in mysticism, Taoism, nothingness, time and insomnia, this paper aims to show how the failure to attain what Cioran called âa grain of ataraxyâ, necessarily presupposes a limited set of âpossibilitiesâ and âprospectsâ when faced with the experience of âthe sensation of the emptiness of existenceâ that is boredom (Schopenhauer).peer-reviewe
Refining Implicit Argument Annotation for UCCA
Predicate-argument structure analysis is a central component in meaning
representations of text. The fact that some arguments are not explicitly
mentioned in a sentence gives rise to ambiguity in language understanding, and
renders it difficult for machines to interpret text correctly. However, only
few resources represent implicit roles for NLU, and existing studies in NLP
only make coarse distinctions between categories of arguments omitted from
linguistic form. This paper proposes a typology for fine-grained implicit
argument annotation on top of Universal Conceptual Cognitive Annotation's
foundational layer. The proposed implicit argument categorisation is driven by
theories of implicit role interpretation and consists of six types: Deictic,
Generic, Genre-based, Type-identifiable, Non-specific, and Iterated-set. We
exemplify our design by revisiting part of the UCCA EWT corpus, providing a new
dataset annotated with the refinement layer, and making a comparative analysis
with other schemes.Comment: DMR 202
Search for identity in post-war Lebanon: Arab vs Phoenician
Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019This study uses textual analysis and network mapping in order to understand the rhetoric
surrounding Phoenicianism in modern day Lebanon, using 1,336 data points from a political
discussion forum. The ability of rhetoric grounded in science to persuade others of genetically
essentialist views is examined, as well as the ability of social constructionism to naturally resist
such rhetoric. We identify common themes found in our data set, the use of science based
ethos in Phoenicianist rhetoric, and the growth (or lack thereof) of the Phoenicianist network in
order to answer this question. Our research indicates that science based rhetoric and science
based proofs do not lead to the growth of a network through the persuasion of others. This also
presents us with some interesting opportunities for future research, such as the reasons why
Phoenicianism failed to create long lasting identity change in Lebanon. A study on the various
environmental factors that resulted in this instance of failed rhetoric could shine a light on the
importance of demographics when it comes to successfully creating social movements
Meaning and Understanding
Explores the central role in Wittgenstein's later work of his opposition to a 'mechanistic' conception of understanding. Offers a diagnosis of Kripke's skeptical paradox on this basis
Template Mining for Information Extraction from Digital Documents
published or submitted for publicatio
A Case Study on Computational Hermeneutics: E. J. Loweâs Modal Ontological Argument
Computers may help us to better understand (not just verify) arguments. In this article we defend this claim by showcasing the application of a new, computer-assisted interpretive method to an exemplary natural-language ar- gument with strong ties to metaphysics and religion: E. J. Loweâs modern variant of St. Anselmâs ontological argument for the existence of God. Our new method, which we call computational hermeneutics, has been particularly conceived for use in interactive-automated proof assistants. It aims at shedding light on the meanings of words and sentences by framing their inferential role in a given argument. By employing automated theorem reasoning technology within interactive proof assistants, we are able to drastically reduce (by several orders of magnitude) the time needed to test the logical validity of an argu- mentâs formalization. As a result, a new approach to logical analysis, inspired by Donald Davidsonâs account of radical interpretation, has been enabled. In computational hermeneutics, the utilization of automated reasoning tools ef- fectively boosts our capacity to expose the assumptions we indirectly commit ourselves to every time we engage in rational argumentation and it fosters the explicitation and revision of our concepts and commitments
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