Japan and Germany—Why Sea Power Failed

Today the series takes a slightly different turn as we examine how previously dis­cussed theories and concepts were either applied or ignored in the naval strategies of Germany and Japan, who suffered total defeat in World War II. It is, in a sense, a study of naval failure

Artificial Intelligence and Theological Personhood

Can AI be a person? What does God tell us about humanity and personhood? These are questions of theological anthropology and involve inquiring after the nature of humanity as God’s creation and what God wills for human personhood. To address these inquiries, we will look at three biblical texts that bear on issues of theological anthropology, hopefully garnering some theological resources to consider the anthropological status of AI. Specifically, we will look at three “creation” texts that necessarily deal with the nature of human personhood within the divine economy of salvation history. The first is Genesis 1 and 2, which recount the origin of humanity within God’s creative action. The second is the Prologue of the Gospel of John, which speaks of the incarnation as the will of God in the world, revealing and reconciling the nature of personhood. The third is Pentecost, which speaks of the divine reign of God in the redemption of humanity and the rest of creation. In each section, I will look at the text with an eye toward drawing out theological themes that will help in our inquiry concerning both the nature of personhood and the nature of AI

The Scouring of the Shire as a Hobbit Coming-of-Age

Contends the events of The Lord of the Rings, culminating in the Scouring of the Shire, demonstrate a coming-of-age for the individual hobbits of the Fellowship, for some social and for others spiritual. The Shire’s response to Sharkey, especially after the Fellowship members return, is a coming-of-age for Hobbit society as a whole

A Theological Framework for Reflection on Artificial Intelligence

The theological questions before us in a digital age are pressing. What does God think of AI? Is AI good or evil? Will AI save us? What sort of future will AI give us? In what follows, I want to briefly introduce a few theological concepts that will hopefully help equip us for theological reflection on AI. We will begin with the question of epistemology, or how it is that we come by knowledge; in the realm of theology, this centers on revelation. We will then touch on the doctrine of creation, including the understanding of what it means to be a human creature. Next, we will review aspects of the doctrine of salvation. Finally, we will discuss eschatology, the study of “last things.” I will close by posing some thoughts on what and how theology fits within our evolving digital wisdom

Choice of Measurement Sets in Qubit Tomography

Optimal generalized measurements for state estimation are well understood. However, practical quantum state tomography is typically performed using a fixed set of projective measurements and the question of how to choose these measurements has been largely unexplored in the literature. In this work we develop theoretical asymptotic bounds for the average fidelity of pure qubit tomography using measurement sets whose axes correspond to vertices of Platonic solids. We also present complete simulations of maximum likelihood tomography for mixed qubit states using the Platonic solid measurements. We show that overcomplete measurement sets can be used to improve the accuracy of tomographic reconstructions.Comment: 13 Pages, 6 figure

Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations (SMACs) for C3 to C8 Aliphatic Saturated Aldehydes

Spacecraft maximum allowable concentrations (SMACs) for C3 to C8, straight-chain, aliphatic aldehydes have been previously assessed and have been documented in volume 4 of Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations for Selected Airborne Contaminants (James, 2000). These aldehydes as well as associated physical properties are shown in Table 1. The C3 to C8 aliphatic aldehydes can enter the habitable compartments and contaminate breathing air of spacecraft by several routes including incomplete oxidation of alcohols in the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) air revitalization subsystem, as a byproduct of human metabolism, through materials off-gassing, or during food preparation. These aldehydes have been detected in the atmosphere of manned space vehicles in the past. Analysis performed by NASA of crew cabin air samples from the Russian Mir Space Station revealed the presence of C3 to C8 aldehydes at concentrations peaking at approximately 0.1 mg/cu m

Modelling trade offs between public and private conservation policies

To reduce global biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need to determine the most efficient allocation of conservation resources. Recently, there has been a growing trend for many governments to supplement public ownership and management of reserves with incentive programs for conservation on private land. At the same time, policies to promote conservation on private land are rarely evaluated in terms of their ecological consequences. This raises important questions, such as the extent to which private land conservation can improve conservation outcomes, and how it should be mixed with more traditional public land conservation. We address these questions, using a general framework for modelling environmental policies and a case study examining the conservation of endangered native grasslands to the west of Melbourne, Australia. Specifically, we examine three policies that involve: i) spending all resources on creating public conservation areas; ii) spending all resources on an ongoing incentive program where private landholders are paid to manage vegetation on their property with 5-year contracts; and iii) splitting resources between these two approaches. The performance of each strategy is quantified with a vegetation condition change model that predicts future changes in grassland quality. Of the policies tested, no one policy was always best and policy performance depended on the objectives of those enacting the policy. This work demonstrates a general method for evaluating environmental policies and highlights the utility of a model which combines ecological and socioeconomic processes.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure