An intelligent, free-flying robot

The ground based demonstration of the extensive extravehicular activity (EVA) Retriever, a voice-supervised, intelligent, free flying robot, is designed to evaluate the capability to retrieve objects (astronauts, equipment, and tools) which have accidentally separated from the Space Station. The major objective of the EVA Retriever Project is to design, develop, and evaluate an integrated robotic hardware and on-board software system which autonomously: (1) performs system activation and check-out; (2) searches for and acquires the target; (3) plans and executes a rendezvous while continuously tracking the target; (4) avoids stationary and moving obstacles; (5) reaches for and grapples the target; (6) returns to transfer the object; and (7) returns to base

Automated Additive Construction (AAC) for Earth and Space Using In-situ Resources

Using Automated Additive Construction (AAC), low-fidelity large-scale compressive structures can be produced out of a wide variety of materials found in the environment. Compressionintensive structures need not utilize materials that have tight specifications for internal force management, meaning that the production of the building materials do not require costly methods for their preparation. Where a certain degree of surface roughness can be tolerated, lower-fidelity numerical control of deposited materials can provide a low-cost means for automating building processes, which can be utilized in remote or extreme environments on Earth or in Space. For space missions where every kilogram of mass must be lifted out of Earth’s gravity well, the promise of using in-situ materials for the construction of outposts, facilities, and installations could prove to be enabling if significant reduction of payload mass can be achieved. In a 2015 workshop sponsored by the Keck nstitute for Space Studies, on the topic of Three Dimensional (3D) Additive Construction For Space Using In-situ Resources, was conducted with additive construction experts from around the globe in attendance. The workshop explored disparate efforts, methods, and technologies and established a proposed framework for the field of Additive Construction Using In-situ Resources. This paper defines the field of Automated Additive Construction Using In-situ Resources, describes the state-of-the-art for various methods, establishes a vision for future efforts, identifies gaps in current technologies, explores investment opportunities, and proposes potential technology demonstration missions for terrestrial, International Space Station (ISS), lunar, deep space zero-gravity, and Mars environments

Is The Daily Show Bad for Democracy? An Analysis of Cynicism and its Significance

In recent years, satirical news programs like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have emerged as an important development in contemporary American society, culture, and politics. Critics have argued that The Daily Show has a negative impact on the political attitudes of American citizens by making them cynical about government and the political process as a whole. As a result of these attitudes, they argue, citizens are less apt to participate in politics and, in turn, this behavior is detrimental to American democracy. The purpose of this research project is to explore the debate over whether or not The Daily Show is indeed bad for democracy. Its objectives are not simply to develop my own answer to this question, but more importantly to critically unpack the question itself in order to analyze the complex relationships between The Daily Show, cynicism, and democracy. To do so, I review, analyze, and assess various and competing definitions of the concepts “cynicism” and “democracy,” and then use close readings of scholarship from political science, communication, and cultural studies to construct a “debate” on the question of the show’s significance for contemporary American democracy

Popular visual language as global communication: the remediation of United Airlines flight 93

This article argues that while the linguistic turn in mainstream IR is important in broadening how IR approaches global communications, the linguistic turn has its limitations because mainstream IR tends to, in Mattelarts terms, `ex-communicate the visual from the linguistic. This is highly problematic, considering, firstly, that popular visual language is increasingly the language that amateurs and experts rely upon in order to claim contemporary literacy and, secondly, that much politics is conducted through popular visual language. If the challenge of this Special Issue is to think about how to bring the discipline of IR to meaningful, political life, then a very good place to start is by asking mainstream IR (again) to take popular visual language seriously as an important aspect of contemporary global communication. This article makes this demand of the discipline of IR. It does so by presenting a case-study the official US remediation of United Airlines Flight 93 as an illustration of how contemporary global communications move from the textual to the visual and of what is lost in not taking this move seriously. In particular, it claims that by failing to analyse popular visual language as integral to global communications, mainstream IR risks misunderstanding contemporary subjectivity, spatiality, and temporality

The epistemic predicament of a pseudoscience: social constructivism confronts Freudian psychoanalysis

Social constructivist approaches to science have often been dismissed as inaccurate accounts of scientific knowledge. In this paper, we take the claims of robust social constructivism seriously and attempt to find a theory which does instantiate the epistemic predicament as described by SC. We argue that Freudian psychoanalysis, in virtue of some of its well known epistemic complications and conceptual confusions, provides a perfect illustration of what SC claims is actually going on in science. In other words, the features SC mistakenly ascribes to science in general correctly characterize the epistemic status of Freudian psychoanalysis. This sheds some light on the internal disputes in the field of psychoanalysis, on the sociology of psychoanalytic movement, and on the “war” that has been waged over Freud’s legacy with his critics. In addition, our analysis offers an indirect and independent argument against SC as an account of bona fide science, by illustrating what science would look like if it were to function as SC claims it does

From Biological to Synthetic Neurorobotics Approaches to Understanding the Structure Essential to Consciousness (Part 3)

This third paper locates the synthetic neurorobotics research reviewed in the second paper in terms of themes introduced in the first paper. It begins with biological non-reductionism as understood by Searle. It emphasizes the role of synthetic neurorobotics studies in accessing the dynamic structure essential to consciousness with a focus on system criticality and self, develops a distinction between simulated and formal consciousness based on this emphasis, reviews Tani and colleagues' work in light of this distinction, and ends by forecasting the increasing importance of synthetic neurorobotics studies for cognitive science and philosophy of mind going forward, finally in regards to most- and myth-consciousness

The Effects of cellular theta breathing meditation on cell mediated immune response: A controlled, randomized investigation of altered consciousness and health

Medical anthropology is well positioned to make contributions to consciousness research based on biocultural approaches that integrate methodologies from the biological, behavioral and social sciences to explore aspects of human health. The ubiquity and perseverance of health related activities involving altered states of consciousness (ASC) across cultures past and present suggest that these potentials are deeply rooted in human sociocultural evolution. Analyzing the relationship between immune function and meditative ASC represents an effort to empirically investigate the adaptive value of these human potentials. A controlled, randomized investigation of two meditation practices was conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to determine how ASC-meditation might influence immune function. In the 3 week study of 13 subjects, a gentle breathing meditation technique called Cellular Theta Breathing (CTB), was compared against a mindfulness guided meditation (GM) technique and a reading control activity with respect to quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. Biomarkers including antibodies against the Epstein-Bar Virus (EBV) and salivary cortisol were measured in addition to qualitative assessments of consciousness states, reported levels of anxiety, and perceived personal meaning associated with each activity. CTB meditation activity was found to generate statistically significant reductions in measured anxiety. CTB also produced statistically significant increased frequencies of ASC when compared to GM and the control activity. CTB and GM resulted in statistically significant occurrences of 5 ASC characteristics (sound, temperature, physical sensations, emotion and time distortion) compared to the control activity. CTB generated a statistically significant frequency of 2 ASC characteristics (sound and physical sensation) compared with GM. Results suggest that increased episodes of altered consciousness characterized by changes in physical sensation, sound, temperature, emotion and time distortion during CTB and GM are linked with lowered anxiety and subsequently have an indirect influence in immune competence. No significance for salivary cortisol was indicated in either meditation technique or the control. CTB was found to have a measurable impact on EBV (p=0.06) antibody titer levels. However this finding should be tempered by the presence of outlier and disproportionate leverage values. EBV antibody reduction was statistically significant for all subjects during the first week of the study and 62% of subjects ended the study with reduced EBV antibodies compared to beginning baseline levels, suggesting that participation in the study improved immune system functioning for study participants. Results also show that when ASC characteristics, lowered anxiety and ascribed meaning were simultaneously present, EBV antibodies were reduced twice as much as during CTB compared to GM, and 4 times as much compared to the control. Findings suggest the combination of ASC, ascribed meaning, and lowered anxiety impact EBV antibodies. The presence of ascribed meaning and perceived anxiety reduction implicate socio-cultural factors in cell-mediated immune function and provides supportive evidence for the biological efficacy of culturally mediated healing-orientated practices involving ASC so common in the ethnographic record