Developmental Learning: A Case Study in Understanding “Object Permanence”

The concepts of muddy environment and muddy tasks set the ground for us to understand the essence of intelligence, both artificial and natural, which further motivates the need of Developmental Learning for machines. In this paper, a biologically inspired computational model is proposed to study one of the fundamental and controversial issues in cognitive science – “Object Permanence.” This model is implemented on a robot, which enables us to examine the robot’s behavior based on perceptual development through realtime experiences. Our experimental result shows consistency with prior researches on human infants, which not only sheds light on the highly controversial issue of object permanence, but also demonstrates how biologically inspired developmental models can potentially develop intelligent machines and verify computationalmodeling that has been established in cognitive science

Educational Ideas in English Novels about Thailand As Perceived By Western Authors

The purposes of this study were: 1) To identify and analyze educational ideas in English novels about Thai people as perceived by Western authors; 2) To identify and analyze educational ideas in English novels about Thai locations as perceived by Western authors; 3) To ascertain and analyze ideas in English novels about Thai culture and education as perceived by Western authors. The procedure for the research design was to review various leadership documents, textbooks, websites, and research journals at various libraries, bookshops, and online databases. The researcher used the content analysis method to synthesize the leadership characteristics in the leadership theories related to the research. Books written about Thailand by Western authors were surveyed, reviewed, carefully read, and randomly selected. In the Assumption University, Bangkok, library, there were 4114 English books with 6865 copies and over two hundred books written about Thailand as fiction/non-fiction by Western writers. For data collection, three books were selected by random for content and context and divided into categories of Location, People, and Culture with an educational background. The content was analyzed using words, sentences, or paragraphs. The sampling units used were excerpts in the form of sentences, paragraphs, or words. Coding units were utilized and word frequency counts elicited from sentences or paragraphs in which used. The validity and reliability of the proposed model will be tested by experienced eight outside coders the first time and another eight in the second round by different coders. The experts selected will have the leadership qualities with a knowledge of the process of content analysis, be linguistically qualified (English) and be competent educational leader

Economic crisis in Eastern Europe : prospects and repercussions

First made available online in May 2015.Since the mid-seventies a crisis has developed in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This paper reviews the symptoms of the crisis, grouped under i) deterioration of growth performance, ii) external imbalance, iii) internal imbalance, and outlines an explanatory model of the functioning of Soviet-type economies, which embodies their specific systemic features (in particular the centralisation of political power and economic decision-making, and the systemic commitment to economic growth, full employment and price stability) and is capable of generating economic and political cycles of the kind experienced by Eastern countries. The implications for East-West relations are also considered; the combined effect of economic crisis in both systems is claimed to be exercising a positive influence on those relations, especially in Europe

“To Think Exactly And Courageously”: Poetry, Ingeborg Bachmann’s Poetics, And Her Bohemia Poem

This chapter demonstrates the importance of close reading and criticism to the philosophy of poetry. Its reading of Ingeborg Bachman’s ‘Böhmen liegt am Meer’ explores the extent to which the poem is exemplary of the distinctive achievements of lyric poetry. The poem provides an object study in how the lyric allows the human voice to pursue, and at times acquire, expressive freedom. The various sonic, affective, rhythmic, figurative, and expressive devices of poetry account for why its products are not merely lovely aesthetic objects but exemplary of the ‘imaginative economy of human life’. What lyric that aspires to this status shows us is the unique claim poetry has to providing what Stendhal called the promesse de bonheur

The concept of plausibility in a risk analysis context: Review and clarifications of defining ideas and interpretations

The plausibility concept has gained increasing attention in recent years in risk analysis settings. A number of definitions exist, most of which interpret plausibility as an expression of uncertainty. The concept is frequently referred to in scenario analysis and emerging risk contexts, which are characterized by large uncertainties. The difficulty of assigning probabilities in such cases has led some to claim that, by offering a purely qualitative approach, plausibility is a more suitable tool for measuring uncertainty. However, a proper clarification of what the plausibility concept means in a risk analysis context is missing; current definitions of the concept do not provide a clear understanding of how plausibility is linked to fundamental aspects of risk and uncertainty. The present paper aims to rectify these issues, by i) reviewing and discussing how the plausibility concept is interpreted and used in the literature, ii) providing a suggested interpretation of the concept in a risk analysis context, and iii) giving our recommendations on how the practical application of the plausibility concept can be enhanced by drawing on contemporary risk science, specifically with regard to highlighting the likelihood and knowledge dimensions of risk. Based on the review, it is shown that the concept of plausibility should be seen as a measure of uncertainty capturing a combination of likelihood and judgments on the supporting knowledge. We conclude that a prudent use of the concept requires that each of these dimensions are addressed explicitly, using imprecise probabilities and strength of knowledge judgments.publishedVersio

The Sovereignty of the World: Towards a Political Theology of Modernity (After Blumenberg)

Reading with and against Blumenberg’s The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, and following his own account of the epochal shift from the Middle Ages to modernity, this chapter takes up the genealogy and the political theology of Blumenbergian modernity so as to reanimate its relevance for contemporary theory. Beginning with the shared opposition to Gnosticism found in both Christianity and modernity, we trace the emergence of modernity as creating a “counterworld” of possibility in the face of the alienation engendered by medieval nominalist ideas of God’s absolute transcendence and hiddenness. In modernity, the world becomes sovereign: the modern world positions—and reproduces—itself as a sovereign and transcendent totality of possibility that its subjects must endlessly work to actualize, thus creating new operations and legitimations of domination. We conclude by outlining a programme of thinking what is constitutively foreclosed by Blumenberg’s modernity: an immanence alien to this Christian-modern apparatus of transcendence and possibility, a life for disorder and against the world

Plausability and probability in scenario planning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore extant distinctions between plausibility and probability in scenario planning and re-frame the either/or stance in the literature within a broader set of methodological choice possibilities. Design/methodology/approach – The paper surveys the history of both terms in both the English language and more narrowly within scenario planning, critically assessing the confusions that have arisen. The paper questions the distinctions that have been made and offers a richer set of combinations to open up the methodological space available. Findings – The paper suggests that the either/or stances that have been dominant in the literature – and even shaped distinctions between different schools of scenario planning – must be surpassed by a richer set of combinations that open up new methodological approaches and possibilities. Research limitations/implications – This is a conceptual and exploratory paper. Therefore the findings are propositions and tentative. Practical implications – The paper opens up new ways of producing scenarios and may dissolve some of the infertile distinctions that have plagued the field to now. Originality/value – The paper dilutes distinctions that have been accepted for decades and opens up new possibilities in the scenarios field, which is growing and is now producing some 2,200 peer-reviewed articles/year in English alone as per the EBSCO database

Commonwealth Times 1995-09-25

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