Does an Ontic Whole Exist?:Conditions of Possibility and Technology Use

In this commentary, I scrutinize Coeckelbergh’s criticism of postphenomenology, and question whether postphenomenology indeed tends to neglect the social dimension of technology use (ontic), and must necessarily be conceived as being in opposition to transcendental philosophy (ontological). Second, I suggest that the Wittgensteinian concepts that Coeckelbergh introduces are interesting additions to the concepts used in postphenomenology, but that his use of the term “transcendental” seems up to now primarily to be a rhetorical means enabling him to distance himself from postphenomenology.</p

Insect consumption and aesthetic disgust: Using design fiction to imagine novel food experiences

Disgust is a strong emotion influencing human behaviour in many domains, including food choices. For example, many western consumers are hesitant about eating insects. This is understandable as insects have been connected with the emotion of disgust. We conducted two design workshops to gain a better understanding of factors that can give rise to the emotion of disgust in the context of grasshoppers and explore alternative food design solutions. Based on the insights, we created four design fiction examples to illustrate how disgust can be an integral part of grasshopper consumption. We argue that changing the attitude of Europeans towards novel food items like grasshoppers requires exploring design strategies that neither solely focus on the sustainability benefits of insect consumption nor take disgust to be something that must be circumvented

Negotiating becoming:a Nietzschean critique of large language models

Large language models (LLMs) structure the linguistic landscape by reflecting certain beliefs and assumptions. In this paper, we address the risk of people unthinkingly adopting and being determined by the values or worldviews embedded in LLMs. We provide a Nietzschean critique of LLMs and, based on the concept of will to power, consider LLMs as will-to-power organisations. This allows us to conceptualise the interaction between self and LLMs as power struggles, which we understand as negotiation. Currently, the invisibility and incomprehensibility of LLMs make it difficult, if not impossible, to engage in such negotiations. This bears the danger that LLMs make reality increasingly homogeneous by recycling beliefs and creating feedback loops that ultimately freeze power struggles and thus consolidate the status quo. In view of this, LLMs constrain self-formation.</p

Simulation of a fully coupled 3D glacial isostatic adjustment - ice sheet model for the Antarctic ice sheet over a glacial cycle

Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) has a stabilizing effect on the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet by reducing the grounding line migration following ice melt. The timescale and strength of this feedback depends on the spatially varying viscosity of the Earth's mantle. Most studies assume a relatively long and laterally homogenous response time of the bedrock. However, the mantle viscosity is spatially variable, with a high mantle viscosity beneath East Antarctica and a low mantle viscosity beneath West Antarctica. For this study, we have developed a new method to couple a 3D GIA model and an ice sheet model to study the interaction between the solid Earth and the Antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial cycle. With this method, the ice sheet model and GIA model exchange ice thickness and bedrock elevation during a fully coupled transient experiment. The feedback effect is taken into account with a high temporal resolution, where the coupling time steps between the ice sheet and GIA model are 5000 years over the glaciation phase and vary between 500 and 1000 years over the deglaciation phase of the last glacial cycle. During each coupling time step, the bedrock elevation is adjusted at every ice sheet model time step, and the deformation is computed for a linearly changing ice load. We applied the method using the ice sheet model ANICE and a 3D GIA finite element model. We used results from a regional seismic model for Antarctica embedded in the global seismic model SMEAN2 to determine the patterns in the mantle viscosity. The results of simulations over the last glacial cycle show that differences in mantle viscosity of an order of magnitude can lead to differences in the grounding line position up to 700gkm and to differences in ice thickness of the order of 2gkm for the present day near the Ross Embayment. These results underline and quantify the importance of including local GIA feedback effects in ice sheet models when simulating the Antarctic ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle

Поліваріантний вплив біоактивної води Нафтуся на секрецію шлунка і пошкодження його слизової за умов перев’язки воротаря у щурів

Употребление крысами-самцами в течении 10-11 дней биоактивной воды Нафтуся вызывает в 72% случаев увеличение секреции кислоты желудком в условиях лигирования привратника. У 17% крыс кислотообразование не отличается от такового у контрольных животных, употреблявших водопроводную воду, а у 11% крыс констатирован кислотоингибиторный эффект биоактивной воды Нафтуся. Обнаружена инверсная связь между ацидогенезом и выделением гастрина в кровь и полость желудка, а также выраженностью язвенных повреждений его слизистой.The use rats-males in a flow 10-11 days of bioactive water Naftussya cause in 72% cases increase of secretion of acid by stomach in the conditions of ligating of pylorus. For 17% rats acid secretion does not differ from such for control animals, using a tapwater, and for 11% rats the inhibiting effect is established. Found out inverse relationship between acid secretion and secretion of gastrin in blood and cavity of stomach, and also expressed of ulcerous damages to his mucous membrane