Evolution of Complexity

The evolution of complexity has been a central theme for Biology [2] and Artificial Life research [1]. It is generally agreed that complexity has increased in our universe, giving way to life, multi-cellularity, societies, and systems of higher complexities. However, the mechanisms behind the complexification and its relation to evolution are not well understood. Moreover complexification can be used to mean different things in different contexts. For example, complexification has been interpreted as a process of diversification between evolving units [2] or as a scaling process related to the idea of transitions between different levels of complexity [7]. Understanding the difference or overlap between the mechanisms involved in both situations is mandatory to create acceptable synthetic models of the process, as is required in Artificial Life research. (...)Comment: Introduction to Special Issu

"All The Things We Could [Se]e by Now [Concerning Violence & Boko Haram], If Sigmund Freud's Wife was Your Mother": Psychoanalysis, Race, & International Political Theory

In response to the sonic media and ludicrosity of her time, Hortense J. Spillers' paradigmatic essay ""All the Things You Could Be by Now, If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother": Psychoanalysis and Race," transfigures Charles Mingus' melodic, cryptic, and most puzzling record title into a workable theoretical cacophony. Closely written within the contexts and outside the confines of "some vaguely defined territory between well established republics," Spillers is able to open up the sarcophagus of meaning(s) within the Black occupation of the psychoanalytic discourse. Mingus' original assertion, "all the things you could be by now, if Sigmund Freud's wife was your mother," means absolutely nothing insofar as it means everything in the face of constructed openings and invitations into "extending the realm of possibility for what might be known." As such, this article asks a similar question relating to what might be known about the sensual convergence of media, violence, and representation ('all the things we could see by now') of international, political, and theoretical significance. If anything, Spillers and Mingus compel us toward locating some semblance of forgotten relationality between what appears to be abstract, distant, and unfamiliar. Given our contemporary era of violent post-colonial terror and desires for alternatives to the afterlife of slavery, this article endorses the free-floating investigation into the live survey of unprotected human flesh in the specific case of Boko Haram's explosion in modern media. Is it possible that such a study is able to uncover the motive behind the assembly of spectatorship? Through a Freudian reading of human nature into international political theory, this article indicates that narrative formation and transmission is an essential component to the development of both ethno-universalisms and global constructions of race and captivity

Future users, future cities: dweller as designer

As technology advances, users get more detached from the way things work and are produced. Users end up being pure consumers and leave their positions as decision makers behind. Before the architecture and buildings processes were industrialized, most practitioners of the so-called vernacular architecture were in fact the dwellers of what they built and they easily met the specific personal needs since they were in total control. Some “architectural theorists have turned to vernacular construction with the conviction that such buildings and settlements express the interconnectedness between humans and the landscapes they live in.” (Beesley and Bonnemaison 2008). Considering the present day intense building activity, such relationship of dweller and architecture seems not possible excepting a very few examples to later referred to. This paper will instead focus on the possibility of the non-architect users of architectures as decision makers in order to reach designs that meet the requirements of their addressees

Why do Filipinos have fewer reported work accidents than other nationals? Findings from literature

According to statistics, Filipinos working on Danish ships experience fewer work accidents than their colleagues. In an ongoing project, we are trying to find out what lies behind the figures. The first step of the project is a review of recent studies on the relationship between nationality and safety. The reviewed studies confirm that there is no reason to believe that employees’ ethnic or national background determines their safety practice, all things being equal, mainly because things are never equal. If we are to believe the reviewed studies, it is not the minority or migrant status, as such, which makes employees vulnerable, but more likely convergent factors

Why do Filipinos have fewer reported work accidents than other nationals? Findings from literature

According to statistics, Filipinos working on Danish ships experience fewer work accidents than their colleagues. In an ongoing project, we are trying to find out what lies behind the figures. The first step of the project is a review of recent studies on the relationship between nationality and safety. The reviewed studies confirm that there is no reason to believe that employees’ ethnic or national background determines their safety practice, all things being equal, mainly because things are never equal. If we are to believe the reviewed studies, it is not the minority or migrant status, as such, which makes employees vulnerable, but more likely convergent factors

Design semantics of connections in a smart home environment

As the environments in which we live become more intelligent— through more computational power, embedded sensors and network connections between the devices that reside in the environment—there is a risk of leaving its users clueless about what is going on. User interaction changes from interaction with a single device into interaction with a larger system— an ecology of things. Physical things are becoming mediators between the physical world and the digital, invisible world that is inside and behind them. The work we present in this article is part of ongoing academic research on using explicit design semantics to convey abstracted models of connections between devices in a smart home environment. This enables users to understand and construct meaningful mental models of the smart environment and interact with it accordingly. We illustrate our findings by presenting a demonstrator that gives users physical control over invisible, wireless connections between devices in a home entertainment scenario

Sense about science - making sense of crime

Booklet 'Making Sense of Crime' published by registered charity 'Sense About Science'There’s always heated debate about crime in the media and a lot of political argument about how we should respond to it. But these arguments rarely provide insight into what actually causes crime, what lies behind trends over time and in different places, and how best to go about reducing it. Values inform how a society decides to deal with crime. We may decide that rehabilitation is a better principle than punishment, and this will influence how we decide what is most effective. However, we also expect these choices to be disciplined by sound evidence, because if crime policy ignores what works and what doesn’t, there are likely to be bad social consequences. And with over £10bn spent annually on tackling crime through the police, prisons, probation and courts, unless we look at evidence we can’t see how effective any of it is. Crime policy usually has twin aims – to prevent crime, and to seek justice by punishing those who commit offences. Research shows there’s only a loose link, if any, between the way offenders are punished and the number of offences committed. There is no reliable evidence for example, that capital punishment reduces serious crimes as its supporters claim. Yet politicians and commentators regularly claim that more punishments are a way to cut crime. Academic, government and community organisations have all said crime policies need to be based more on evidence, but much of the evidence available at the moment is poor or unclear. Debates about crime rarely reflect how strong the evidence behind opposing policies is, and even when politicians honestly believe they’re following the evidence, they tend to select evidence that supports their political views. This guide looks at some of the key things we do know and why it has been so difficult to make sense of crime policy. An important point throughout is that policymakers sometimes have to make decisions when things are not clear-cut. They have a better chance of making effective policies if they admit to this uncertainty – and conduct robust research to find out more. In the following pages we have shared insights from experts in violent crime, policing, crime science, psychology and the media’s influence on the crime debate. They don’t have all the answers, but we hope they leave you better-placed to hold policymakers and commentators to account and promote a more useful discussion about crime

EAST AND WEST, THE TWAIN SHALL MEET:A Cross-cultural Perspective on Higher Education

Both India and the U.S. were once colonies of Great Britain, the world''s first but short-lived global power. And both India and the U.S. ultimately threw off the imperialist yoke. Despite independence, both democracies inherited certain things from Great Britain. Whereas India inherited the English language, parliamentary governance, socialism, and, last but not least, the English educational system; the U.S. inherited the English language, the Judeo-Christian value system, and the .white. racial identity. The English educational system of India was augmented by Soviet-style central planning which resulted in several .Institutes. that have come to dominate higher education in India. Despite being ethnically closer to Great Britain, the U.S. evolved its own system of political governance, and, more important, its own educational system. While American higher education has come to define the .gold standard. for higher education, India still lags considerably behind in higher education. This paper seeks to explain certain cultural differences that may have contributed to this imbalance between the Indian and American higher education systems.