Allusive Machines: Encounters with Android Life

On the basis of an ethnographic field study among artificial life researchers, this article proposes the concept of allusive machines to describe how technical systems variously allude people into shaping their own beliefs. The concept of allusive machines is inspired by previous research on persuasive technology, which defines technologies as instruments with the explicit purpose of changing human attitudes and behaviours, and the notion of theory machines, which refers to how objects in the world stimulate new theoretical formulations. We particularly introduce the concept of allusive machines to the analysis of how robot technology operates allusively to hatch new ideas and knowledge about life, for both designers in the laboratory as well as general publics during demonstrations. Focusing on Alter, an android based on artificial neuronal networks, we show how the concept of allusive machines is useful to rethink the relationship between designers and users analytically by showing how technical systems, like Alter, become allusive to human thinking and acting.On the basis of an ethnographic field study among artificial life researchers, this article proposes the concept of allusive machines to describe how technical systems variously allude people into shaping their own beliefs. The concept of allusive machines is inspired by previous research on persuasive technology, which defines technologies as instruments with the explicit purpose of changing human attitudes and behaviours, and the notion of theory machines, which refers to how objects in the world stimulate new theoretical formulations. We particularly introduce the concept of allusive machines to the analysis of how robot technology operates allusively to hatch new ideas and knowledge about life, for both designers in the laboratory as well as general publics during demonstrations. Focusing on Alter, an android based on artificial neuronal networks, we show how the concept of allusive machines is useful to rethink the relationship between designers and users analytically by showing how technical systems, like Alter, become allusive to human thinking and acting

Physicochemical study of spiropyran-terthiophene derivatives: photochemistry and thermodynamics

The photochemistry and thermodynamics of two terthiophene (TTh) derivatives bearing benzospiropyran (BSP) moieties, 1-(3,3’’-dimethylindoline-6’-nitrobenzospiropyranyl)-2-ethyl 4,4’’-didecyloxy-2,2’:5’,2’’-terthiophene-3’-acetate (BSP-2) and 1-(3,3’’-dimethylindoline-6’-nitrobenzospiropyranyl)-2-10 ethyl 4,4’’-didecyloxy-2,2’:5’,2’’-terthiophene-3’-carboxylate (BSP-3), differing only by a single methylene spacer unit, have been studied. The kinetics of photogeneration of the equivalent merocyanine (MC) isomers (MC-2 and MC-3, respectively), the isomerisation properties of MC-2 and MC-3, and the thermodynamic parameters have been studied in cetonitrile, and compared to the parent, non-TThfunctionalised, benzospiropyran derivative, BSP-1. Despite the close structural similarity of BSP-2 and 15 BSP-3, their physicochemical properties were found to differ significantly; examples include activation energies (Ea(MC-2) = 75.05 KJ mol-1, Ea(MC-3) = 100.39 kJ mol-1) and entropies of activation (S‡ MC-2 = - 43.38 J K-1 mol-1, S‡ MC-3 = 37.78 J K-1 mol-1) for the thermal relaxation from MC to BSP, with the MC-3 value much closer to the unmodified MC-1 value (46.48 J K -1 mol-1) for this latter quantity. The thermal relaxation kinetics and solvatochromic behaviour of the derivatives in a range of solvents of 20 differing polarity (ethanol, dichloromethane, acetone, toluene and diethyl ether) are also presented. Differences in the estimated values of these thermodynamic and kinetic parameters are discussed with reference to the molecular structure of the derivatives

University of Arizona Phoenix in Tucson: Arizona\u27s Department of Communication\u27s Campaign for Fairness and Survival

This article provides information on a campaign for fairness and survival by the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona in Tucson, as of September 1995. The faculty of the department consists of four professors and six associate professors. The department uses few adjunct faculty. The undergraduate curriculum is carefully constructed to provide students in the first year with an introduction to the field, along with courses on communication skills. Two years ago, the university initiated an intensive self-study of all its administrative units, including al academic departments. The Program for the Assessment of Institutional Priorities, or PAIP, as it came to be called, required that each academic department submit a report on its activities, which was to include information on its scholarly accomplishments, student load and contributions to graduate and undergraduate instruction among others

Implicit theories and offender representativeness in judgments about sexual crime

Implicit theories structure the way people understand and respond to various human actions. Typically, people believe attributes are either fixed (entitists) or malleable (incrementalists). The present study aimed to examine: (a) whether attitudes towards sexual offenders differ depending upon one’s implicit theory about human nature and sexual offenders, and (b) whether implicit theories are associated with judgments made about different types of child abuser. A sample of 252 community participants was recruited. Their attitudes, implicit theories, and political orientation were assessed via self-report. One of three vignettes describing an incidence of child sexual abuse was then presented. The cases were identical except the perpetrator was either an adult male, an adult female, or a male juvenile. Participants then made judgments about the offender's deserved sentence and moral character. Entitists (across both domains) held more negative attitudes than incrementalists, although the magnitude of the difference was greatest when examining implicit theories about sexual offenders. Compared to those with an incremental theory of sexual offenders, entity theorists judged sexual offending to be more: (a) indicative of the perpetrator’s moral character, and (b) deserving of punishment. However, scores were greater towards the adult male relative to the adult female and juvenile. The findings suggest that implicit theories about sexual offenders are domain-specific. They also indicate that judgments made by those with an entity theory (about sexual offenders) are affected by whether a case is representative of a stereotypical sexual offender. Implications of the findings are discussed, along with limitations and future research

The [Dissipative] Joy of Accounting: Desiring, Imagining, and Talking about NFTs While the Planet Burns

Promoters of art-oriented non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and online NFT auction houses like Foundation, OpenSea, and SuperRare claim to be “revolutionizing” and “democratizing” the worlds of art and art collecting by deploying blockchain technology to track sales and purchases and thereby eliminating the threats of transactional opacity and fraud that have long plagued art markets. This article complicates such claims by arguing that with NFTs, the usual clamoring for authenticity in art becomes so abstract that only code remains, as the aesthetic object becomes effectively indistinct from the account of its provenance and transaction history. An NFT, like a financial derivative, has no necessary or representational relationship with any actual underlying object. The artwork associated with the token is, rather, prised apart from its existence as property and finds its use not in being seen or felt, but in the truth of its copyability. Looking beyond the NFTs themselves, this article interrogates the discourses promulgating this trend. Comment threads in Reddit and Discord groups, for example, do much to channel the libidinal energy elicited by an artwork, while the digital token itself generates an acquisitive enthusiasm wholly apart from the sensation of seeing or hearing the associated work. Despite fronting radical social change, NFTs ultimately reinforce traditional forms of property and ownership, exhibit reactionary aesthetic and cultural values, and anticipate increasingly authoritarian modes of social control. Taking a wider view, I consider ours an age of post-information, wherein, contrary to Bateson’s classic definition of information in terms of a doubled difference, we find data-based artifacts like NFTs (following cryptocurrency) to be increasingly productive of widespread social and political indifference, a perpetuation of sameness, and an augmentation of the narcissistic ego. In this case: data as the afterlife of art

Fight and flight: Evidence of aggressive capitulation in the face of fear messages from terrorists

In an era of digital technology and the Internet, terrorists can communicate their threats directly to citizens of Western countries. Yet no research has examined whether these messages change individuals’ attitudes and behaviour, or the psychological processes underlying these effects. Two studies (conducted in 2008 and 2010) examined how American, Australian, and British participants responded to messages from Osama bin Laden that threatened violence if troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan. Heightened fear in response to the message resulted in what we call “aggressive capitulation,” characterized by two different group-protection responses: (1) submission to terrorist demands in the face of threats made against one’s country, and (2) support for increased efforts to combat the source of the threat, but expressed in abstract terms that do not leave one’s country vulnerable. Fear predicted influence over and above other variables relevant to persuasion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Novel synthesis and characterisation of 3,3-dimethyl-50-(2-benzothiazolyl)- spironaphth(indoline-2,30-[3H]naphth[2,1-b] [1,4]oxazine) derivatives

Novel modified spirooxazines (SOs) with additional chelating groups were synthesised and the crystal structure of one of these was determined. UV–vis spectroscopic characterization of the photoisomerization of the SO derivatives shows that the photochromic behaviour is altered with Zn2+ coordination. In particular, addition of a group as in carboxylic acid 5 to the indole section of the SO increases the lifetime of the merocyanine Zn 2+ complex by 20-fold compared to the methylated indole 6

Consumers’ evaluation of allocation policies for scarce health care services: Vested interest activation trumps spatial and temporal distance

The allocation of scarce health care service resources often requires trade-offs between individual and collective outcomes (e.g., when some individuals benefit more strongly from a given policy th

Dimensions of Majority and Minority Groups

Several definitions of majority and minority groups can be found in the social psychological literature. They involve numeric size, power/status, and counternormative position, but size is most commonly used in experimental research to manipulate minority/minority status. Does this practice mirror real-world conceptualizations? To address this question, 77 participants were asked to describe majority and minority groups using a structured openended measure. Content analysis of their responses revealed that majority and minority groups were conceptualized along eight dimensions, which included power, number, distinctiveness, social category, group context, dispositions, and being the source or target of behavior. Although these dimensions were relevant to both majorities and minorities, they often were applied differentially. Also, minorities were associated with more divergent thinking and viewed more negatively than were majorities. On the basis of these findings, a new typology of groups was proposed that could be used in future experimental research to advance our understanding of majorities and minorities