Toward an Aesthetics of New-Media Environments

In this paper I suggest that, over and above the need to explore and understand the technological newness of computer art works, there is a need to address the aesthetic significance of the changes and effects that such technological newness brings about, considering the whole environmental transaction pertaining to new media, including what they can or do offer and what users do or can do with such offerings, and how this whole package is integrated into our living spaces and activities. I argue that, given the primacy of computer-based interaction in the new-media, the notion of ‘ornamentality’ indicates the ground-floor aesthetics of new-media environments. I locate ornamentality not only in the logically constitutive principles of the new-media (hypertextuality and interactivity) but also in their multiform cultural embodiments (decoration as cultural interface). I utilize Kendall Walton’s theory of ornamentality in order to construe a puzzle pertaining to the ornamental erosion of information in new-media environments. I argue that insofar as we consider new-media to be conduits of ‘real-life’, the excessive density of ornamental devices prevalent in certain new-media environments forces us to conduct our inquiries under conditions of neustic uncertainty, that is, uncertainty concerning the kind of relationship that we, the users, have to the propositional content mediated. I conclude that this puzzle calls our attention to a peculiar interrogatory complexity inherent in any game of knowledge-seeking conducted across the infosphere, which is not restricted to the simplest form of data retrieval, especially in mixed-reality environments and when the knowledge sought is embodied mimetically

The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Scalar Fields

We propose a generalisation of the Weak Gravity Conjecture in the presence of scalar fields. The proposal is guided by properties of extremal black holes in ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity, but can be understood more generally in terms of forbidding towers of stable gravitationally bound states. It amounts to the statement that there must exist a particle on which the gauge force acts more strongly than gravity and the scalar forces combined. We also propose that the scalar force itself should act on this particle stronger than gravity. This implies that generically the mass of this particle decreases exponentially as a function of the scalar field expectation value for super-Planckian variations, which is behaviour predicted by the Refined Swampland Conjecture. In the context of ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity the Weak Gravity Conjecture bound can be tied to bounds on scalar field distances in field space. Guided by this, we present a general proof that for any linear combination of moduli in any Calabi-Yau compactification of string theory the proper field distance grows at best logarithmically with the moduli values for super-Planckian distances.Comment: 25 pages. v2: Modified and extended section 4.1. v3: Clarifications added, published versio

Constructing a global counterterrorist legislation database: dilemmas, procedures, and preliminary analyses

Counterterrorist legislation is one of the main ways in which countries, particularly democracies, respond to terror attacks. Yet, there is to date no comprehensive cross-national database of counterterrorist legislation. This article introduces an overarching global counterterrorist legislation database (GCLD), covering more than 1,000 laws in 219 countries and territories over the years 1850-2009. I present the dilemmas and difficulties involved in constructing a global terrorism database and explain how these difficulties were addressed when assembling the current database. The article also brings descriptive statistics and analyses of the data, focusing on the historical development of global counterterrorist legislation and on the regional distribution of this legislation. It concludes with some recommendations for future researchers who may want to use the database.Publisher PD

On Natural Inflation and Moduli Stabilisation in String Theory

Natural inflation relies on the existence of an axion decay constant which is super-Planckian. In string theory only sub-Planckian axion decay constants have been found in any controlled regime. However in field theory it is possible to generate an enhanced super-Planckian decay constant by an appropriate aligned mixing between axions with individual sub-Planckian decay constants. We study the possibility of such a mechanism in string theory. In particular we construct a new realisation of an alignment scenario in type IIA string theory compactifications on a Calabi-Yau where the alignment is induced through fluxes. Within field theory the original decay constants are taken to be independent of the parameters which induce the alignment. In string theory however they are moduli dependent quantities and so interact gravitationally with the physics responsible for the mixing. We show that this gravitational effect of the fluxes on the moduli can precisely cancel any enhancement of the effective decay constant. This censorship of an effective super-Planckian decay constant depends on detailed properties of Calabi-Yau moduli spaces and occurs for all the examples and classes that we study. We expand these results to a general superpotential assuming only that the axion superpartners are fixed supersymmetrically and are able to show for a large class of Calabi-Yau manifolds, but not all, that the cancellation effect occurs and is independent of the superpotential. We also study simple models where the moduli are fixed non-supersymmetrically and find that similar cancellation behaviour can emerge. Finally we make some comments on a possible generalisation to axion monodromy inflation models.Comment: 24 pages. V2: Appendix on backreaction in axion monodromy added. References adde

A Generalized Macaulay Theorem and Generalized Face Rings

We prove that the $f$-vector of members in a certain class of meet semi-lattices satisfies Macaulay inequalities. We construct a large family of meet semi-lattices belonging to this class, which includes all posets of multicomplexes, as well as meet semi-lattices with the "diamond property", discussed by Wegner, as spacial cases. Specializing the proof to that later family, one obtains the Kruskal-Katona inequalities and their proof as in Wegner's. For geometric meet semi lattices we construct an analogue of the exterior face ring, generalizing the classic construction for simplicial complexes. For a more general class, which include also multicomplexes, we construct an analogue of the Stanley-Reisner ring. These two constructions provide algebraic counterparts (and thus also algebraic proofs) of Kruskal-Katona's and Macaulay's inequalities for these classes, respectively.Comment: Final version: 13 pages, 2 figures. Improved presentation, more detailed proofs, same results. To appear in JCT

The rights of persons and the rights of property

Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, not one usually associated with sympathy for tenants on the rental market, said earlier this year that ‘renting in Australia is generally a very miserable customer experience…the whole industry is set up to serve the owner not the tenant’ Her observation is basically correct and the solution she offers is to change the current situation where small investors, supported by generous government tax concessions, provide effectively all of the country’s private rental housing. Lloyd-Hurwitz wants Mirvac, a property group currently managing over $15 billion of assets, to become an apartment landlord that would own not one or several properties like small investors currently do but rather thousands of properties to rent out. The proposal is for Mirvac to build apartment blocks and then, instead of selling individual apartments, rent them out on long-term or indefinite leases. This build-to-rent housing scheme would of course make the real estate–investment company a great deal of money. At the same time it would do very little to alleviate the current housing crisis. Such schemes are a nonstarter for people who want the security, stability and independence of home ownership, which is a very Australian aspiration that is increasingly becoming unobtainable not only for those experiencing homelessness, but also for the poor and middle-class. Those of us who care about finding a real solution to the housing crisis would do well to consider how we got into this situation in the first place, and then consider how this might inform what we do next. The following then, traces some of the historical and philosophical roots of our understanding of property and their institutionalisation via various levels of government, especially in the Australian context

The Philosophical Significance of Wittgenstein’s Experiments on Rhythm, Cambridge 1912–13

Wittgenstein’s experiments on rhythm, conducted in Charles Myers’s laboratory in Cambridge during the years 1912–13, are his earliest recorded engagement in thinking about music, not just appreciating it, and philosophizing by means of musical thinking. In this essay, I set these experiments within their appropriate intellectual, scientific, and philosophical context in order to show that, its minor scientific importance notwithstanding, this onetime excursion into empirical research provided an early onset for Wittgenstein’s career-long exploration of the philosophically pervasive implications of aspects. Dramatically moving beyond the conceptual limitations, which were inscribed by Charles Myers’s scientific program, Wittgenstein got a glimpse of a philosophical angle, which was bound to become very important to him not only in aesthetics, but also for his overarching philosophical development. He became interested in what we actually do when we re-phrase, compare, come up with good similes in order to illuminate something definite within the space of possibility, so a new aspect may come to life