Situation awareness and ability in coalitions

This paper proposes a discussion on the formal links between the Situation Calculus and the semantics of interpreted systems as far as they relate to Higher-Level Information Fusion tasks. Among these tasks Situation Analysis require to be able to reason about the decision processes of coalitions. Indeed in higher levels of information fusion, one not only need to know that a certain proposition is true (or that it has a certain numerical measure attached), but rather needs to model the circumstances under which this validity holds as well as agents' properties and constraints. In a previous paper the authors have proposed to use the Interpreted System semantics as a potential candidate for the unification of all levels of information fusion. In the present work we show how the proposed framework allow to bind reasoning about courses of action and Situation Awareness. We propose in this paper a (1) model of coalition, (2) a model of ability in the situation calculus language and (3) a model of situation awareness in the interpreted systems semantics. Combining the advantages of both Situation Calculus and the Interpreted Systems semantics, we show how the Situation Calculus can be framed into the Interpreted Systems semantics. We illustrate on the example of RAP compilation in a coalition context, how ability and situation awareness interact and what benefit is gained. Finally, we conclude this study with a discussion on possible future works

Understanding Judicial Decision-Making: The Importance of Constraints on Non-Rational Deliberations

All of social science is based on the assumption that people act rationally, in a logical, unemotional fashion. This is true for all disciplines in social science, including both economics and law. Neoclassical price theory assumes that producers and consumers are rational actors, while the reasonable person in law is the rational cousin to the economic actor. New institutional economists were among the first scholars to examine economic issues by modifying rational choice theory. Today, a large and growing body of scholarship exhibits a willingness to modify the rationality assumption by using cognitive science, behavioral psychology, and experimental economics. This Essay shares that perspective. In the Essay, we reexamine the way judges make decisions by using contemporary theories from cognitive science and concepts from the new institutional economics

Data Epistemologies / Surveillance and Uncertainty

Data Epistemologies studies the changing ways in which ‘knowledge’ is defined, promised, problematised, legitimated vis-á-vis the advent of digital, ‘big’ data surveillance technologies in early twenty-first century America. As part of the period’s fascination with ‘new’ media and ‘big’ data, such technologies intersect ambitious claims to better knowledge with a problematisation of uncertainty. This entanglement, I argue, results in contextual reconfigurations of what ‘counts’ as knowledge and who (or what) is granted authority to produce it – whether it involves proving that indiscriminate domestic surveillance prevents terrorist attacks, to arguing that machinic sensors can know us better than we can ever know ourselves. The present work focuses on two empirical cases. The first is the ‘Snowden Affair’ (2013-Present): the public controversy unleashed through the leakage of vast quantities of secret material on the electronic surveillance practices of the U.S. government. The second is the ‘Quantified Self’ (2007-Present), a name which describes both an international community of experimenters and the wider industry built up around the use of data-driven surveillance technology for self-tracking every possible aspect of the individual ‘self’. By triangulating media coverage, connoisseur communities, advertising discourse and leaked material, I examine how surveillance technologies were presented for public debate and speculation. This dissertation is thus a critical diagnosis of the contemporary faith in ‘raw’ data, sensing machines and algorithmic decision-making, and of their public promotion as the next great leap towards objective knowledge. Surveillance is not only a means of totalitarian control or a technology for objective knowledge, but a collective fantasy that seeks to mobilise public support for new epistemic systems. Surveillance, as part of a broader enthusiasm for ‘data-driven’ societies, extends the old modern project whereby the human subject – its habits, its affects, its actions – become the ingredient, the raw material, the object, the target, for the production of truths and judgments about them by things other than themselves

The Great Climate Debate - A Developing Country Perspective

For over two decades, scientific and political communities have debated whether and how to act on climate change. The present paper revisits these debates and synthesizes the longstanding arguments. Firstly, it provides an overview of the development of international climate policy and discusses clashing positions represented by sceptics and supporters of action on climate change. Secondly, it discusses the market-based measures as a means to increase the win-win opportunities and to attract profit-minded investors to invest in climate change mitigation. Finally, the paper examines whether climate protection policies can yield benefits both for the environment and the economy. The paper suggests the possibility of building environmental and climate policies around development priorities that are vitally important for developing countries and stresses the need for using sustainable development as a framework for climate change policies.Climate change, Sceptic, Supporter, Developing country

The Great climate debate : A Developing country perspective

For over two decades, scientific and political communities have debated whether and how to act on climate change. The present paper revisits these debates and synthesizes the longstanding arguments. Firstly, it provides an overview of the development of international climate policy and discusses clashing positions represented by sceptics and supporters of action on climate change. Secondly, it discusses the market-based measures as a means to increase the win-win opportunities and to attract profit-minded investors to invest in climate change mitigation. Finally, the paper examines whether climate protection policies can yield benefits both for the environment and the economy. The paper suggests the possibility of building environmental and climate policies around development priorities that are vitally important for developing countries and stresses the need for using sustainable development as a framework for climate change policies.Climate change, Sceptic, Supporter, Developing country

Logic and the Foundations of Game and Decision Theory (LOFT 7)

This volume collects together revised papers originally presented at the 7th Conference on Logic and the Foundations of Game and Decision Theory (LOFT 2006). LOFT is a key venue for presenting research at the intersection of logic, economics and computer science, and the present collection gives a lively and wide-ranging view of an exciting and rapidly growing area

Vendo através de transparência reformas educacionais: Iluminando o “local”

Utilizing “assemblage,” a notion associated with Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we explore what discourses of transparency can, and cannot, accomplish in a network of education reform that includes schools, government agencies, and community organizations. Drawing on data collected between July 2011 and March 2013 in an ethnographically-informed case study, we interrogate the ways in which notions of transparency illuminate, and also conceal, information, as well as reveal how they reorder power dynamics and relationships, impacting what it legitimized as reform in a city in Western New York. We problematize the linkages between the political conditions in which mandatory transparency and accountability in schooling become connected to voluntary transparency in local education reform, and we examine the investment made by schools and reform organizations in using transparency as a proxy for meeting accountability demands and establishing education expertise. The findings show that discourses and enactments of transparency can be effective in drawing targeted and repeated attention to select things, such as funding inequities. However, such discourses can also be utilized to obscure other issues, such as persistent disparities in academic achievement by race. When used synonymously with accountability, transparency can, and is, incorrectly positioned as an education solution.Utilizando la noción de “ensamblaje”, una idea asociada con la teoría de actores-red (ANT), exploramos lo que los discursos sobre la transparencia pueden, y no pueden, lograr en una red de reformas educativa que incluyen escuelas, agencias gubernamentales y organizaciones comunitarias. Sobre la base de datos recogidos entre julio de 2011 y marzo de 2013, en un estudio de casos etnográficos, interrogamos las formas en que las nociones de transparencia iluminan, y también ocultan, la información, así como revelan cómo se reordenan las dinámicas de poder y relaciones, impactando lo que se legitima como reforma en una ciudad en el oeste de Nueva York. Problematizamos los vínculos entre condicionamientos políticos que hacen que modelos de transparencia y rendición de cuentas obligatorios se conecten con modelos de transparencia voluntaria en reformas educativas locales. También examinamos las inversiones realizadas por las escuelas y las organizaciones de reforma en el uso de transparencia como un proxy para satisfacer las demandas de rendición de cuentas y el establecimiento de competencia educativa. Los resultados muestran que los discursos y las representaciones sobre transparencia pueden ser eficaces en focalizar la atención específicamente y repetidamente para seleccionar factores, tales como desigualdades de financiamiento. Sin embargo, este tipo de discursos se pueden utilizar también para ocultar otros problemas, tales como las disparidades persistentes en logros académicos por raza. La transparencia cuando se usa como sinónimo de rendición de cuentas, puede ser y es, colocada incorrectamente como una solución a los problemas educativos.Usando a noção de “montagem”, uma idéia associada com a teoria do ator-rede (ANT), nós exploramos o que os discursos sobre a transparência podem e não podem realizar em uma rede de reformas educacionais que incluem escolas, agências organizações governamentais e comunitárias. Com base em dados coletados entre julho de 2011 e março de 2013, em um estudo de casos etnográficamente, estamos interrogando as formas que iluminam os conceitos de transparência e também esconder a informação, e revelam como dinâmica reordenadas poder e relações, impactando o que é legitimada como a reforma em uma cidade em New York ocidental. Nós problematizar as relações entre as condições políticas que tornam os modelos de transparência e prestação de contas de contas obrigatórias para se conectar com os modelos de transparência voluntária em reformas educacionais locais. Também examinamos os investimentos feitos por escolas e organizações de reforma no uso de transparência como um proxy para atender às exigências de prestação de contas e o estabelecimento de uma concorrência educacional. Os resultados mostram que os discursos e representações sobre a transparência pode ser eficaz na focalização da atenção específica e repetidamente para selecionar fatores, tais como as desigualdades de financiamento. No entanto, esses discursos também pode ser usado para esconder outros problemas, tais como as disparidades persistentes no desempenho escolar por corrida. Transparência quando usado como sinônimo de prestação de contas, pode ser e está posicionado incorretamente como uma solução para os problemas educacionais

ISIPTA'07: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications

B

Communication between agents in dynamic epistemic logic

This manuscript studies actions of communication between epistemic logic agents. It starts by looking into actions through which all/some agents share all their information, defining the model operation that transforms the model, discussing its properties, introducing a modality for describing it and providing an axiom system for the latter. The main part of the manuscript focuses on an action through which some agents share part of their information: they share all that they know about a topic defined by a given formula. Once again, the manuscript defines the model operation that transforms the model, discusses its properties, introduces a modality for describing it and provides an axiom system for the latter