The Complexity of angel-daemons and game isomorphism

The analysis of the computational aspects of strategic situations is a basic field in Computer Sciences. Two main topics related to strategic games have been developed. First, introduction and analysis of a class of games (so called angel/daemon games) designed to asses web applications, have been considered. Second, the problem of isomorphism between strategic games has been analysed. Both parts have been separately considered. Angel-Daemon Games A service is a computational method that is made available for general use through a wide area network. The performance of web-services may fluctuate; at times of stress the performance of some services may be degraded (in extreme cases, to the point of failure). In this thesis uncertainty profiles and Angel-Daemon games are used to analyse servicebased behaviours in situations where probabilistic reasoning may not be appropriate. In such a game, an angel player acts on a bounded number of ¿angelic¿ services in a beneficial way while a daemon player acts on a bounded number of ¿daemonic¿ services in a negative way. Examples are used to illustrate how game theory can be used to analyse service-based scenarios in a realistic way that lies between over-optimism and over-pessimism. The resilience of an orchestration to service failure has been analysed - here angels and daemons are used to model services which can fail when placed under stress. The Nash equilibria of a corresponding Angel-Daemon game may be used to assign a ¿robustness¿ value to an orchestration. Finally, the complexity of equilibria problems for Angel-Daemon games has been analysed. It turns out that Angel-Daemon games are, at the best of our knowledge, the first natural example of zero-sum succinct games. The fact that deciding the existence of a pure Nash equilibrium or a dominant strategy for a given player is Sp 2-complete has been proven. Furthermore, computing the value of an Angel-Daemon game is EXP-complete. Thus, matching the already known complexity results of the corresponding problems for the generic families of succinctly represented games with exponential number of actions. Game Isomorphism The question of whether two multi-player strategic games are equivalent and the computational complexity of deciding such a property has been addressed. Three notions of isomorphisms, strong, weak and local have been considered. Each one of these isomorphisms preserves a different structure of the game. Strong isomorphism is defined to preserve the utility functions and Nash equilibria. Weak isomorphism preserves only the player preference relations and thus pure Nash equilibria. Local isomorphism preserves preferences defined only on ¿close¿ neighbourhood of strategy profiles. The problem of the computational complexity of game isomorphism, which depends on the level of succinctness of the description of the input games but it is independent of the isomorphism to consider, has been shown. Utilities in games can be given succinctly by Turing machines, boolean circuits or boolean formulas, or explicitly by tables. Actions can be given also explicitly or succinctly. When the games are given in general form, an explicit description of actions and a succinct description of utilities have been assumed. It is has been established that the game isomorphism problem for general form games is equivalent to the circuit isomorphism when utilities are described by Turing Machines; and to the boolean formula isomorphism problem when utilities are described by formulas. When the game is given in explicit form, it is has been proven that the game isomorphism problem is equivalent to the graph isomorphism problem. Finally, an equivalence classes of small games and their graphical representation have been also examined.Postprint (published version

The Theurgic Turn in Christian Thought; Iamblichus, Origen, Augustine, and the Eucharist.

This dissertation aims to suggest a relationship between the thought of the ancient Christian theologians Origen (c. 185-254 CE) and Augustine (354-430 CE) and the theurgy characteristic of some pagan religious thought of the Greco-Roman world, and systematized by the Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus of Apamea (c. 245-325 CE). Central is the question of the indebtedness of Origen and Augustine’s own theorizing of Christian Eucharist to religious and philosophical convictions that are fundamentally theurgic, and that are most clearly articulated by Iamblichus. The study proceeds theoretically from the assumption that the transmission of ideas should not be interpreted strictly in terms of straightforward lineal descent, an approach that has previously limited discussion of theurgy’s role in Christian thought to its genealogical influence on much later thinkers, particularly Pseudo-Dionysius (late 5th – early 6th century). This dissertation argues rather that earlier Christian thought on Eucharist is already taking shape within a basically theurgic template. The justification for invoking Iamblichus and Origen is their participation in the Middle Platonist and Neopythagorean intellectual culture that shaped the Platonism of the third century. The addition of the much later Augustine is supported by his own conscious re-engagement of the issue, and particularly by his argument’s direct confrontation with the third century thinker Porphyry, the philosopher whose challenges to theurgy first provoked Iamblichus’ response in the previous century. Augustine is therefore reasonably viewed as a participant in an older debate, and is further implicated by his use of a rhetoric very much like Origen’s, whose postures of exclusion aim to obscure perception of Christian thought’s indebtedness to theurgic accounts of cult efficacy. By considering issues of philosophical first principles, cosmology, material reality and material embodiment, and the possibilities for a materially mediated ascent for the soul, the study aims to underscore what is essentially theurgic in the works of Origen and Augustine, as the two thinkers construct provisional systems of Christian sacramental mediation, shaped by a theology of the incarnate Logos, and conceptually parallel to the theurgic systems of hierarchic mediation whose validity their work strives to deny.Ph.D.Classical StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64788/1/jasonbp_1.pd

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The Multistable Material of Modernism: Perception, Objects, and Identity

This dissertation argues that modernist writers channeled the transformative potential of multistability, a popular concept among twentieth-century theorists of perception, into politically charged literary practices whose goals continue to reverberate in recent antiracist and decolonial theory. In the first half of the twentieth century, psychologists used the concept of multistability to explain human perception and captured this concept in paradoxical images that appear first as one thing and then another, through a shift in what the viewer perceives as figure and ground. Writers as different as H.D., Virginia Woolf, Amos Tutuola, and Wilson Harris adapted multistability into literary practices that sought to dismantle the bounds of patriarchal, imperialist, and anthropocentric hierarchies. These writers infused their representations of perception, objects, and power dynamics with a multistability that ceaselessly troubles the divide between subject and object and its related structures of social exploitation. Moreover, placing these writers’ efforts to expand what counts as a subject or agent alongside recent theories of extrahuman ontologies that seek empowering alternatives to the exclusions of Western subjectivity offers a compelling link between modernist literary experiment and contemporary antiracist and decolonial theory concerning objects, identity, and ecology

Sovereignty in Ruins

Featuring essays by some of the most prominent names in contemporary political and cultural theory, Sovereignty in Ruins presents a form of critique grounded in the conviction that political thought is itself an agent of crisis. Aiming to develop a political vocabulary capable of critiquing and transforming contemporary political frameworks, the contributors advance a politics of crisis that collapses the false dichotomies between sovereignty and governmentality and between critique and crisis. Their essays address a wide range of topics, such as the role history plays in the development of a politics of crisis; Arendt's controversial judgment of Adolf Eichmann; Strauss's and Badiou's readings of Plato's Laws; the acceptance of the unacceptable; the human and nonhuman; and flesh as a biopolitical category representative of the ongoing crisis of modernity

Narrating Policy Transfer: Renewable Energy and Disaster Risk Reduction in ECOWAS

The thesis contributes to the policy transfer literature through the examination of narratives presented by policy actors engaged in policy transfer. The actors’ policy narratives are analysed through the application of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). With the use of the NPF, the research investigates the portrayal of narrative elements, including, setting, character, plot, and moral, by the transfer actors, in depicting their perception of the transfer process and object, and of the other actors involved in the policy transfer. The investigation is aimed at having a better understanding of factors that facilitate the occurrence of policy transfer i.e. transfer mechanisms, such as, conditionality, obligation, and persuasion, and how they manifest and drive the transfer process. To examine how policy narratives may inform the manifestation of transfer mechanisms, the research studies two cases of policy transfer involving international governmental organisations (IGOs) as transfer agents. These are i) the transfer of renewable energy policy by the European Union to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and ii) the transfer of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy by the United Nations International Strategy for DRR (UNISDR) to ECOWAS. The thesis argues that the mechanisms of conditionality and persuasion were involved in the transfer of renewable energy policy, while the mechanism of obligation can be observed in the transfer of DRR policy. It further argues that the portrayals of the narrative setting, character, plot and moral, in the policy narratives of the transfer agents and recipient, shaped the manifestation of these transfer mechanisms. The application of the NPF to the two case studies enabled the identification and association of different policy narrative elements that will likely characterise specific transfer mechanisms. In addition, the study highlights the opportunity of broadening policy transfer research beyond a limited geographical reach, through covering two instances of policy transfer to a region in sub-Sahara Africa. It also broadens the group of actors that are often studied in the literature by considering policy transfers initiated and led by IGOs

TOWARDS A MODEL FOR ARTIFICIAL AESTHETICS - Contributions to the Study of Creative Practices in Procedural and Computational Systems

Este trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de um modelo analítico e da terminologia a ele associada para o estudo de artefactos estéticos computacionais. Reconhecendo a presença e uso crescentes dos media computacionais, começamos por estudar como através da remediação eles transformam quantitativamente os media precedentes, e como as suas propriedades procedimentais e computacionais os afectam qualitativamente. Para perceber o potencial criativo e a especificidade dos media computacionais, desenvolvemos um modelo para a sua prática, crítica e análise. Como ponto de partida recorremos à tipologia desenvolvida por Espen Aarseth para o estudo de cibertextos, avaliando a sua adequação à análise de peças ergódicas visuais e audiovisuais, adaptando-a e expandindo-a com novas variáveis e respectivos valores. O modelo é testado através da análise de um conjunto de peças que representam diversas abordagens à criação procedimental e diversas áreas de actividade criativa contemporânea. É posteriormente desenvolvida uma análise de controlo para avaliar a usabilidade e utilidade do modelo, a sua capacidade para a elaboração de classificações objectivas e o rigor da análise. Demonstramos a adequação parcial do modelo de Aarseth para o estudo de artefactos não textuais e expandimo-lo para melhor descrever as peças estudadas. Concluímos que o modelo apresentado produz boas descrições das peças, agrupando-as logicamente, reflectindo afinidades estilísticas e procedimentais entre sistemas que, se estudados com base nas suas propriedades sensoriais ou nas suas estruturas de superfície provavelmente não revelariam muitas semelhanças. As afinidades reveladas pelo modelo são estruturais e procedimentais, e atestam a importância das características computacionais para a apreciação estética das obras. Verificamos a nossa conjectura inicial sobre a importância da procedimentalidade não só nas fases de desenvolvimento e implementação das obras mas também como base conceptual e estética na criação e apreciação artísticas, como um prazer estético

Romantic Metasubjectivity: Rethinking the Romantic Subject Through Schelling and Jung

This thesis takes up Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy and Carl Jung’s analytical psychology to develop Romantic metasubjectivity, a model of the subject absorbing more of the vast compass of Romantic thinking on subjectivity than what prevails in Romantic criticism. Romantic criticism tends to be dominated by psychoanalysis as well as deconstruction and poststructuralist theory, which see the subject as either a linguistic phenomenon or simply a locus of difference without a unified “I.” In response to this critical tradition, Romantic metasubjectivity discerns a notion of Self which is neither a linguistic fantasy nor a transcendental essence which is or becomes fully present to itself. The Introduction supplies historical and theoretical parameters for what follows, explaining why Schelling and Jung are crucial to the concept of Romantic metasubjectivity. The first chapter establishes analytical psychology as a Schellingian Naturphilosophie après la lettre, with the latter illuminating analytical psychology’s differences from psychoanalysis (particularly Jung’s rethinking of libido). The second chapter focuses on analytical psychology and Naturphilosophie to develop the topography of the Romantic metasubjective unconscious as a dissociative economy of energy. I establish Schelling’s actant and Jung’s archetype as isomorphic dynamisms which create this economy in Nature and the psyche, to articulate the uniquely Romantic historicity and materiality which resists coagulation into history and materialist notions of the subject. Chapter Three articulates the experience of Romantic metasubjectivity as a limit-experience of this dissociative historicity via Schelling’s idea of intellectual intuition (later ecstasy) and Jung’s development of synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle. Chapter Four focuses on the individuation of Romantic metasubjectivity as a radically non-teleological, purposively driven force of self-organisation which informs the person’s experience in the world. Paradoxically, it is Romantic metasubjectivity’s traumatic experience of historicity which both makes this individuation possible and guarantees its interminability. Chapter Five turns to Romantic literature, examining William Wordsworth’s The Prelude and Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound as “case studies” of the Romantic metasubjective psyche. The Conclusion touches on John Caputo’s Against Ethics and the contemporary hit TV series Breaking Bad to question the possibility of a Romantic metasubjective ethics

Signposts to Silence. Metaphysical mysticism

Signposts to Silence provides a theoretical map of what it terms ‘metaphysical mysticism’: the search for the furthest, most inclusive horizon, the domain of silence, which underlies the religious and metaphysical urge of humankind in its finest forms. Tracing the footsteps of pioneers of this exploration, the investigation also documents a number of historical pilgrimages from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. Such mountaineers of the spirit, who created paths trodden by groups of followers over centuries and in some cases millennia, include Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu, Siddhattha and Jesus, Sankara and Fa-tsang, Plato and Plotinus, Isaac Luria and Ibn Arabi, Aquinas and Hegel. Such figures, teachings and traditions (including the religions of ‘Judaism’, ‘Christianity’ and ‘Islam’; ‘Hinduism’, ‘Buddhism’ and ‘Taoism’) are understood as, at their most sublime, not final destiny and the end of the road, but signposts to a horizon of ultimate silence. The hermeneutical method employed in tracking such pioneers involves four steps: • sound historical-critical understanding of the context of the various traditions and figures • reconstruction of the subjective intentional structure of such persons and their teachings • design, by the author, of a theoretical map of the overall terrain of ‘metaphysical mysticism’, on which all such journeys of the spirit are to be located, while providing a theoretical context for understanding them tendentionally (i.e. taking the ultimate drift of their thinking essentially to transcend their subjective intentions) • drawing out, within the space available, some political (taken in a wide sense) implications from the above, such as religio-political stances as well as ecological and gender implications. Continuing the general direction of thought within what the author endorses to be the best in metaphysical mysticism in its historical manifestations, the book aims to contribute to peace amongst religions in the contemporary global cultural situation. It relativizes all claims to exclusive, absolute truth that might be proclaimed by any religious or metaphysical, mystical position, while providing space for not only tolerating, but also affirming the unique value and dignity of each. This orientation moves beyond the stances of enmity or indifference or syncretism or homogenisation of all, as well as that of mere friendly toleration. It investigates the seemingly daunting and inhospitable yet immensely significant Antarctica of the Spirit, the ‘meta’-space of silence behind the various forms of wordy ‘inter’-relationships. It affirms pars pro toto, totum pro parte, and pars pro parte: that each religious, mystical and metaphysical orientation in its relative singularity represents or contains the whole and derives value from that, and that each represents or contains every other. This homoversal solidarity stimulating individual uniqueness is different from and in fact implies criticism of the process of globalisation. While not taking part in a scientific argument as such, Signposts to Silence aims at promoting an understanding of science and metaphysical mysticism as mutual context for each other, and it listens to a number of voices from the domain of science that understand this

Messages from the deep : water divinities, dreams and diviners in Southern Africa

This thesis is a comparative regional study of a complex of beliefs and practices regarding the water divinities in southern Africa. These snake and mermaid-like divinities, which are said to work in conjunction with one's ancestors, are believed to be responsible for the calling and training of certain diviner-healers by taking them underwater for periods of time. In addition to granting healing knowledge, these divinities are associated with fertility, water and rain, and the origins of humanity. The research combines comparative ethnography with the anthropology of extraordinary experience (AEE), and focuses particularly on the Zulu, Cape Nguni, Shona and Khoisan groups. The use of the 'radical participation' method, as recommended by AEE, was facilitated by the author being identified as having a ' calling' from these water divinities, which subsequently resulted in her initiation under the guidance of a Zulu isangoma (diviner-healer) who had reputedly been taken underwater. The research details the rituals that were performed and how dreams are used to guide the training process of izangoma. This resulted in the research process being largely dream-directed, in that the author traces how the izangoma responded to various dreams she had and how these responses opened new avenues for understanding the phenomenon of the water divinities. The comparative study thus combines literature sources, field research and dream-directed experiences, and reveals a complex of recurring themes, symbols and norms pertaining to the water divinities across the selected groups. In seeking to explain both the commonalities and differences between these groups, the author argues for a four-level explanatory model that combines both conventional anthropological theory and extraordinary experience. Responses to the author's dream-led experiences are used to throw light on the conflicting discourses of morality regarding traditional healers and the water divinities in the context of political-economic transformations relating to capitalism and the moral economy; to illuminate the blending of ideas and practices between Zulu Zionists and diviner-healer traditions; and to link up with certain issues relating to San rock art, rain-making and healing rituals, which contribute to the debates regarding trance-induced rock art in southern Africa