Ethics, Religion, and Spiritual Health

What does human enhancement technology (HET) and artificial intelligence (AI) have to do with religion? This book explores, specifically, the intersection of HET and AI with spiritual health, Christianity, and ethics. The exploration strengthens an emergent, robust body of publications about human enhancement ethics. What does it mean to make us “better” must also address the potential spiritual implications. Concern for spiritual health promises to make the study of religion and human enhancement ethics increasingly pressing in the public sphere. Some of the most significant possible and probable spiritual impacts of HET and AI are probed. Topics include warfare, robots, chatbots, moral bioenhancement, spiritual psychotherapy, superintelligence, ecology, fasting, and psychedelics. Two sections comprise this book: one addresses spirituality in relation to HETs and AI, and one addresses Christianity in relation to HETs and AI

Grammars of schooling in the post-authoritarian context : comparative study of changing teaching practices in elementary education in Czech, Polish and Portuguese schools

As a teacher in early childhood education, I was delighted that within the EDiTE program. I could choose my dissertation topic from my field – elementary education – and even do interviews with elementary teachers in Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic, where I conducted my research. All three countries have had recent experience with authoritarian regimes. After the fall of these regimes, the three could seize the opportunity to adapt to new conditions in society and bring new democratic principles into education. After three years of research, reading and studying on these issues while also monitoring current education issues in various European countries, I know that this is not an easy task and that calls for transformative education do not always sound clearly. Society and political conditions are constantly changing, and schools and teachers have to respond. Education and schooling are a picture of the society we live in. They are part of politics. But teachers cannot be solely responsible for the state of education. That is why it was interesting for me to describe and find out, with critical pedagogy as the background, how teachers respond to change: whether they are passive or active, what they consider important, whether they are solving problems and reflecting changes, whether they have a need to teach in other ways. My research problem is generally about teachers’ consciousness (at the elementary level in education) of change: to what extent they carry the post-communist burden with themselves; their relation to tradition and innovation; how and why they are willing to accept and create new ways in teaching in daily practice, and whether they are willing to do so at all. Elementary teachers are crucial creators of school culture, with great influence on pupils and other participants in the children’s learning process. In my interviews, I wanted to point out problems, things teachers are missing in their practice, issues they try to solve. I addressed my main research question: What kind of “Grammar of Schooling” is internalized and practiced by teachers in the Polish, Portuguese and Czech schools? The “Grammar of Schooling” metaphor, originated by David Tyack and William Tobin, is a conceptual framework for my project. They defined “Grammar of Schooling” as “the regular structure and rules that organize the work of instruction,” including standardized organizational practices such as “dividing time and space, classifying students and allocating them to classrooms (grading) and splintering knowledge into ‘subjects’” (Tyack and Tobin, 1993, p. 454). All these features are common and natural for children, teachers and parents. But are they right for today’s world nowadays, or can they be replaced? Tyack and Tobin tried to illuminate why some educational reforms take strong hold while other efforts at changing the “Grammars of Schooling” – the way the schooling process is organized and proceeds – remain unsuccessful. The challenges for teachers seem enormous. Many teachers can feel comfortable in the everyday school practices they are used to, even though the social and political context has changed. This dilemma – between the comfort of the customary and the challenge of innovation – is one of the sources of “Grammar of Schooling.” To describe these aims, I chose Paolo Freire’s theoretical approach to teachers’ consciousness – their ability to think about established, traditional, conservative paradigms of schooling and education. Teachers believe in myths and stereotypes about school education. They have their own experience, but they probably have mental and emotional obstacles to changes in their teaching, within the democratization of education. According to Freire’s theory, they don’t even know they are at a certain stage of oppression and serving the existing system (Freire, 2005). Freire tried to explain how school is important to awakening pupils’ perception of their own uniqueness. Similarly, I see the problems in teachers and their thinking; hence my work refers to all three of Freire’s types of consciousness: naïve, magical and critical. Critical thinking engages the essence of human consciousness. I have linked Freire’s critical theory with phenomenography as research approach because phenomenography investigates the content of consciousness – subjects’ thinking about particular phenomena. I have tried to describe how teachers’ consciousness strengthens and how it limits their attitudes toward change. Phenomenography as the method of qualitative research uses interviews and observation as its main research methods. I conducted a total of 28 semi-structured interviews: 10 in Poland, 4 in Portugal and 14 in the Czech Republic. In addition, I relied on teachers' narratives, asking them to describe important changes during their practice – how they had to adapt to the changes from above (system, Ministry, administration) and what changes they made in their own practice, in their approach to work and their teaching. Based on these research methods, I expected to discover the prevailing opinions of teachers in early education, how teachers reflect changes and how they are involved in them. I have described, interpreted and explained the role of “Grammar of Schooling” and the content of teachers’ consciousness as a basis for keeping tradition or making changes. As my main finding, the answer to my main research question, I can plainly say that “Grammar of Schooling” – the kinds of traditions that are internalized and then practiced in the consciousness of Polish, Portuguese and Czech teachers – are influenced most by educational policy, teachers’ personal experience and role, and their relationships with parents, who are very often obstacles to change. Teachers are willing to make many changes, and I have introduced them in my categories of description (space, time, evaluation, parenting, relationships in the schools, authority, self-criticism, curriculum, hidden curriculum, inclusion). Nonetheless, teachers often follow traditional approaches or make changes temporarily. They have no clear signal; they do not have a free hand, and thus more autonomy or the conditions from educational policy to work in an innovative way. The reasons teachers’ attitudes toward change seem obsolete and passive are often similar in all three countries. Unfortunately, the frequent explanation for why teachers are passive is that they are tired. In Poland, for example, teachers are tired of frequent changes in fundamental rules. In the Czech Republic, teachers are tired because of their low incomes, constant criticism and the underestimation of the teaching profession. In Portugal, teachers are tired from increasing paperwork and the competitiveness among them engendered by the system, which exacerbates relationships in the workplace. Teachers’ conditions are not improving in comparison to those in other professions, nor is the prestige of the profession. Their work is often questioned and criticized; they are expected to perform miracles. It is not their fault, but the system’s. Over the last 30 years, new laws found both opponents and adherents; they have brought advantages and disadvantages for individuals in society. Just as there is no ideal society or regime, there can be no ideal education system that suits everyone. I believe my thesis points to the shortcomings in educational systems of these three countries, contributes to thinking about important issues in schools and can help in initiating relevant stakeholders. Or, at least, my work serves as a reminder, according to Freire's critical theories, that schools cannot support the culture of silence and oppression. It is important to say the teachers’ opinions in a loud voice and to support these views from their practice, thus improving teaching, bringing satisfaction to pupils, and helping to create a democratic community of social actors in education

Passion-based co-creation

As our world is getting evermore interconnected and entwined across professional, organizational and national boundaries, challenges rarely fall neatly into the realm of single functions, departments or disciplines any more. While it is uncertain what the world will look like in a few decades, and many of the needed skills and approaches are unknown, we do know we need a way of creating the future together. Counting on a few heroic innovation champions will not suffice in transforming our organizations. Passion-based co-creation describes the approach to tackling these issues that has led to the creation of Aalto Design Factory and the Global Design Factory Network of 20 co-creation platforms around the globe. Our approach, in a nutshell, is a way of creating something new together, sprinkled with a hefty dose of intrinsic motivation. Sound too hype-y? Worry not, we aren’t preaching the adoption of yet another ‘’perfect’ tool, licensed process, or turnkey solution. Rather, we want to share some principles we have found effective, offer a look into the scientific backbone of our approach, and provide tangible examples on how to bring the mindset and ways of working into your organization. Mix, match, and adapt these elements to create your own personalized stack of building blocks for passion-based co-creation in your unique context

Mindreading for Cooperation: a moderately minimalist approach

This dissertation puts forth a series of arguments about the extent to which human cooperative interaction is fundamentally shaped by mindreading; i.e. the capability to reason about the psychological causes (e.g. intentions, beliefs, goals) of behavior. The introduction to this dissertation discusses the broad philosophical underpinnings that lay the foundations for more specific philosophical issues under discussion in subsequent chapters. In chapter two, I argue that a thorough interpretation of the relevant empirical evidence suggests that mindreading is fast, effortlessly deployed, and operative sub-personally. For this reason, mindreading is principally well-suited to enable most everyday cooperative interactions. In the appendix, I (in collaboration with Evan Westra ) elaborate on this picture, arguing that the cognitive mechanisms operative in social interactions are, in all relevant respects, similar to those operative in non-interactive situations. While chapter two and the appendix defend the idea that the cognitive faculties responsible for mindreading are fit to enable cooperative interactions, chapters three and four take this perspective for granted and discusses whether human cooperation is crucially dependent on a form of reciprocal attribution of mental states that is often labeled common knowledge. In chapter three of this dissertation I address, and reject, the oft defended idea that truly performing an action together with others requires that all parties commonly know their intended goals. I argue that this view is fundamentally mistaken. Successfully acting together with others often requires not knowing these goals. Chapter four explores reciprocal belief attribution in the context of coordination problems. Humans often coordinate their actions by replicating successful past choices; they reason based on precedent. Philosophers have often claimed that solving coordination problems by relying on precedent presupposes common knowledge that all parties rely on precedent in trying to coordinate their actions. Chapter four points out that this assumption is erroneous: Coordinating behavior on the basis of precedent is broadly incompatible with any higher-order knowledge (or beliefs) about the other agents’ choices

When Children Draw Gods

This open access book explores how children draw god. It looks at children’s drawings collected in a large variety of cultural and religious traditions. Coverage demonstrates the richness of drawing as a method for studying representations of the divine. In the process, it also contributes to our understanding of this concept, its origins, and its development. This intercultural work brings together scholars from different disciplines and countries, including Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Iran, Brazil, and the Netherlands. It does more than share the results of their research and analysis. The volume also critically examines the contributions and limitations of this methodology. In addition, it also reflects on the new empirical and theoretical perspectives within the broader framework of the study of this concept. The concept of god is one of the most difficult to grasp. This volume offers new insights by focusing on the many different ways children depict god throughout the world. Readers will discover the importance of spatial imagery and color choices in drawings of god. They will also learn about how the divine's emotional expression correlates to age, gender, and religiosity as well as strategies used by children who are prohibited from representing their god

When Children Draw Gods

This open access book explores how children draw god. It looks at children’s drawings collected in a large variety of cultural and religious traditions. Coverage demonstrates the richness of drawing as a method for studying representations of the divine. In the process, it also contributes to our understanding of this concept, its origins, and its development. This intercultural work brings together scholars from different disciplines and countries, including Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Iran, Brazil, and the Netherlands. It does more than share the results of their research and analysis. The volume also critically examines the contributions and limitations of this methodology. In addition, it also reflects on the new empirical and theoretical perspectives within the broader framework of the study of this concept. The concept of god is one of the most difficult to grasp. This volume offers new insights by focusing on the many different ways children depict god throughout the world. Readers will discover the importance of spatial imagery and color choices in drawings of god. They will also learn about how the divine's emotional expression correlates to age, gender, and religiosity as well as strategies used by children who are prohibited from representing their god

Territorial Violence and Design, 1950-2010: A Human-Computer Study of Personal Space and Chatbot Interaction

Personal space is a human’s imaginary system of precaution and an important concept for exploring territoriality, but between humans and technology because machinic agencies transfer, relocate, enact and reenact territorially. Literatures of territoriality, violence and affect are uniquely brought together, with chatbots as the research object to argue that their ongoing development as artificial agents, and the ambiguity of violence they can engender, have broader ramifications for a socio-technical research programme. These literatures help to understand the interrelation of virtual and actual spatiality relevant to research involving chatrooms and internet forums, automated systems and processes, as well as human and machine agencies; because all of these spaces, methods and agencies involve the personal sphere. The thesis is an ethical tale of cruel techno-science that is performed through conceptualisations from the creative arts, constituting a PhD by practice. This thesis chronicles four chatbots, taking into account interventions made in fine art, design, fiction and film that are omitted from a history of agent technology. The thesis re-interprets Edward Hall’s work on proxemics, personal space and territoriality, using techniques of the bricoleur and rudiments (an undeveloped and speculative method of practice), to understand chatbot techniques such as the pick-up, their entrapment logics, their repetitions of hateful speech, their nonsense talk (including how they disorientate spatial metaphors), as well as how developers switch on and off their learning functionality. Semi-structured interviews and online forum postings with chatbot developers were used to expand and reflect on the rudimentary method. To urge that this project is timely is itself a statement of anxiety. Chatbots can manipulate, exceed, and exhaust a human understanding of both space and time. Violence between humans and machines in online and offline spaces is explored as an interweaving of agency and spatiality. A series of rudiments were used to probe empirical experiments such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Tucker, 1950). The spatial metaphors of confinement as a parable of entrapment, are revealed within that logic and that of chatbots. The ‘Obedience to Authority’ experiments (Milgram, 1961) were used to reflect on the roles played by machines which are then reflected into a discussion of chatbots and the experiments done in and around them. The agency of the experimenter was revealed in the machine as evidenced with chatbots which has ethical ramifications. The argument of personal space is widened to include the ways machinic territoriality and its violence impacts on our ways of living together both in the private spheres of our computers and homes, as well as in state-regulated conditions (Directive-3, 2003). The misanthropic aspects of chatbot design are reflected through the methodology of designing out of fear. I argue that personal spaces create misanthropic design imperatives, methods and ways of living. Furthermore, the technological agencies of personal spaces have a confining impact on the transient spaces of the non-places in a wider discussion of the lift, chatroom and car. The violent origins of the chatbot are linked to various imaginings of impending disaster through visualisations, supported by case studies in fiction to look at the resonance of how anxiety transformed into terror when considering the affects of violence

Proceedings 2016: Selected papers from the twentieth college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature

"Celebrating Voices - past • present • future": Selected papers from the annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature at the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (2016).Selected papers from the annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature at the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.Support for the conference was provided by the UH College of Language, Linguistics & Literature and the National Foreign Language Resource Cente