Branching Space-Times and Parallel Processing

There is a remarkable similarity between some mathematical objects used in the Branching Space-Times framework and those appearing in computer science in the fields of event structures for concurrent processing and Chu spaces. This paper introduces the similarities and formulates a few open questions for further research, hoping that both BST theorists and computer scientists can benefit from the project

The Social Origins of Networks and Diffusion

Recent research on social contagion has demonstrated significant effects of network topology on the dynamics of diffusion. However, network topologies are not given a priori. Rather, they are patterns of relations that emerge from individual and structural features of society, such as population composition, group heterogeneity, homophily, and social consolidation. Following Blau and Schwartz, the author develops a model of social network formation that explores how social and structural constraints on tie formation generate emergent social topologies and then explores the effectiveness of these social networks for the dynamics of social diffusion. Results show that, at one extreme, high levels of consolidation can create highly balkanized communities with poor integration of shared norms and practices. As suggested by Blau and Schwartz, reducing consolidation creates more crosscutting circles and significantly improves the dynamics of social diffusion across the population. However, the author finds that further reducing consolidation creates highly intersecting social networks that fail to support the widespread diffusion of norms and practices, indicating that successful social diffusion can depend on moderate to high levels of structural consolidation

Reorienting Toward Queerness: Learning with Virtual Reality and Multi-Agent Simulations of Gender and Sexuality

In the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM education, the predominant body of technoscientific scholarship is largely cisheteronormative, leaving queer and trans perspectives underrepresented. The new technology designs presented in this dissertation, across virtual reality and multi-agent simulations, offer productive ways to reorient technology design toward queer and trans perspectives while developing public understanding of critical perspectives in gender and sexuality. This manuscript-based dissertation explores the design and research of technologies that aim to reorient computing education from its roots in cisheteronormative ideologies and toward addressing LGBTQ+ marginalization. First, in a critical review of the literature, I highlight the historical cisheteronormativity in computer science, queer and trans theories of computing, queer game studies, the technological regulation of LGBTQ+ bodies and identities, and possibilities for queering computing and computing education. I offer ways forward by proposing queer coding and computing architectures, working in active solidarity with LGBTQ+ people in designing computational artifacts, and foregrounding LGBTQ+ embodiments, epistemologies, and axiologies in designing virtual reality and computational simulations. Next, I investigate how participants engage with a VR experience designed to deepen their understanding of gender and sexuality-based marginalization in STEM learning environments. The findings reveal how participants, in interaction with the VR experience, produced ideological stances and emotional configurations that reoriented them to marginalized perspectives grounded in critical queer and trans perspectives. Finally, I analyze how the design of a multi-agent simulation of gender and sexuality-based marginalization and resilience can support conversations about the complex, emergent nature of marginalization. The findings demonstrate how the simulation supported multi-level, emotional, and embodied sense-making about emergent experiences of harm and support. I also show how Flocking QT Stories is an essential departure from previous work on multi-agent systems by analyzing how stories in the simulation served as scaffolds to help participants make sense of the simulation and encourage personal storytelling to make deeper, personal connections. Across these papers, this dissertation offers insights into how we can design and research queer technologies that foreground queer and trans embodiments, epistemologies, and axiologies and better support learning about gender and sexuality and encourage learners to challenge cisheteronormativity

Jaded, Issue 5, Winter 2005

Jaded magazine is a form of alternative media to encourage political, cultural, and personal discourse among UCI students. We celebrate and support the Asian Pacific Islander community through the retelling of the past, engaging of the present, and sharing a vision for the future. We hope to build connections and bridge gaps between people of different ethnicities and ways of thinking. The goal of the publication is not only to provide a space where Asian Pacific Islander students can voice different opinions and artistic expressions, but also as a form of community activism through education and awareness. Despite the fact that we are misrepresented, our images misconstrued, and our cultures misunderstood we are not JADED in spirit. This is what we are doing about it.Action Figures. We have all become stoic bodies that watch bad reality TV, eat bad fast food, and listen to bad one dimensional news reporting. The sense of urgency is completely gone. The only people moving are the action figures in our community. In the issue of Jaded, we found some cool-hippy folks to inspire us, to get off our collective ass and do something awesome. Let it be art, making a zine, starting a strike, standing up for your body, inventing sunks, or saying “No” to bad Asian porn, we should at least waste our time on something interesting. As of this issue, we have used up all our printing funds. We need money to print the next issue. Please support alternative forms of publication by donating online at www.jadedmag.org/donate.Most issues of Jaded in this collection were archived from digitized issues originally placed online on the magazine’s original web site (now defunct). Chris Dea, the magazine’s Creative Director, and the UCI Libraries digitized other issues

The Philosophical Foundations of PLEN: A Protocol-theoretic Logic of Epistemic Norms

In this dissertation, I defend the protocol-theoretic account of epistemic norms. The protocol-theoretic account amounts to three theses: (i) There are norms of epistemic rationality that are procedural; epistemic rationality is at least partially defined by rules that restrict the possible ways in which epistemic actions and processes can be sequenced, combined, or chosen among under varying conditions. (ii) Epistemic rationality is ineliminably defined by procedural norms; procedural restrictions provide an irreducible unifying structure for even apparently non-procedural prescriptions and normative expressions, and they are practically indispensable in our cognitive lives. (iii) These procedural epistemic norms are best analyzed in terms of the protocol (or program) constructions of dynamic logic. I defend (i) and (ii) at length and in multi-faceted ways, and I argue that they entail a set of criteria of adequacy for models of epistemic dynamics and abstract accounts of epistemic norms. I then define PLEN, the protocol-theoretic logic of epistemic norms. PLEN is a dynamic logic that analyzes epistemic rationality norms with protocol constructions interpreted over multi-graph based models of epistemic dynamics. The kernel of the overall argument of the dissertation is showing that PLEN uniquely satisfies the criteria defended; none of the familiar, rival frameworks for modeling epistemic dynamics or normative concepts are capable of satisfying these criteria to the same degree as PLEN. The overarching argument of the dissertation is thus a theory-preference argument for PLEN

Placing Birds On A Dynamic Evolutionary Map: Using Digital Tools To Update The Evolutionary Metaphor Of The Tree Of Life

This dissertation describes and presents a new type of interactive visualization for communicating about evolutionary biology, the dynamic evolutionary map. This web-based tool utilizes a novel map-based metaphor to visualize evolution, rather than the traditional tree of life. The dissertation begins with an analysis of the conceptual affordances of the traditional tree of life as the dominant metaphor for evolution. Next, theories from digital media, visualization, and cognitive science research are synthesized to support the assertion that digital media tools can extend the types of visual metaphors we use in science communication in order to overcome conceptual limitations of traditional metaphors. These theories are then applied to a specific problem of science communication, resulting in the dynamic evolutionary map. Metaphor is a crucial part of scientific communication, and metaphor-based scientific visualizations, models, and analogies play a profound role in shaping our ideas about the world around us. Users of the dynamic evolutionary map interact with evolution in two ways: by observing the diversification of bird orders over time and by examining the evidence for avian evolution at several places in evolutionary history. By combining these two types of interaction with a non-traditional map metaphor, evolution is framed in a novel way that supplements traditional metaphors for communicating about evolution. This reframing in turn suggests new conceptual affordances to users who are learning about evolution. Empirical testing of the dynamic evolutionary map by biology novices suggests that this approach is successful in communicating evolution differently than in existing tree-based visualization methods. Results of evaluation of the map by biology experts suggest possibilities for future enhancement and testing of this visualization that would help refine these successes. This dissertation represents an important step forward in the synthesis of scientific, design, and metaphor theory, as applied to a specific problem of science communication. The dynamic evolutionary map demonstrates that these theories can be used to guide the construction of a visualization for communicating a scientific concept in a way that is both novel and grounded in theory. There are several potential applications in the fields of informal science education, formal education, and evolutionary biology for the visualization created in this dissertation. Moreover, the approach suggested in this dissertation can potentially be extended into other areas of science and science communication. By placing birds onto the dynamic evolutionary map, this dissertation points to a way forward for visualizing science communication in the futur