Teaching ethics through the back door? Employing ideas from assemblage theory to foster a responsible innovation mindset

Adding ethics courses to engineering curricula seeks to equip students with the critical mindset that enables careers committed to serving humanity. Yet, the knowledge of ethical theories is neither a necessary, let alone sufficient condition for being good [1]. There is no automatism that translates ethical knowledge into action, overriding attitudes that were developed during the enculturation of a student. However, we deem teaching assemblage theory a promising means to achieve a sustained commitment to responsible innovation practice. We base our argument on assemblage theory’s (cf. [2, 3]) capacity to conceptualize the interplay of human actors and technological artefacts in terms of dynamic evolutionary systems. The notion of an assemblage as a collection of potentially heterogeneous elements that—despite displaying consistency—remains malleable through reorganization, interconnection and, (re- )attribution forms the ontological basis that guides a conceptual approach to thinking in-between the extremes of technological determinism and social constructivism. Information algorithms, e.g., can be regarded as having the power to facilitate ethical action as part of a larger assemblage [4] and artificial intelligence can arguably only be understood as “trustworthy” within sociotechnological systems in which a shared responsibility realizes both epistemic and moral conditions for trust [5]. Ultimately, we intend engineering students to realize the extent of their influence on the world and, therefore, their responsibility for contributing to a prosperous community. Thus, ethics is not only taught by conveying its classical normative theories but rather explored by discovering the entangledness of technology and society

Using System Virtualization to Create Virtualized Networks

The method of system virtualization is very popular for the use in data centers and desktop virtualization today. In this work, system virtualization is applied to core network elements (routers and links) in order to create a virtualized network. The selection of this virtualization method crucially determines the emerging network model. The network model consists of virtual networks, virtual routers, and virtual links that form overlays on top of the physical network. The properties, features, and limitations of this network model are analyzed and described in this paper. Additionally, a proof of concept implementation using currently available technology and infrastructure is presented. Finally the dynamic configurability of virtual resources in such a system virtualization based virtualized network is evaluated

Om svenskarna från Kõrgessaare och deras öden 1779-1782

Digiteeritud Euroopa Regionaalarengu Fondi rahastusel, projekti "Eesti teadus- ja õppekirjandus" (2014-2020.12.03.21-0848) raames.https://www.ester.ee/record=b4227005*es

Chemie mit solaren Grundstoffen

Wer die Biosphäre als Vorbild sieht, steht schnell unter Verklärungsverdacht. Ihre Leistungen gering zu schätzen ist jedoch kaum rationaler. Zukunftschemie liegt in kluger Anwendung bester wissenschaftlich-technischer Methoden auf Gewinnung, Verarbeitung und minimalinvasive Modifikation solarer Grundstoffe

Comment on Singly Ionizing 100-MeV/amu C⁶⁺+He Collisions with Small Momentum Transfer

In a recent article, Kouzakov suggested that experimental resolution effects can be responsible for discrepancies between measured and calculated fully differential cross sections for the ionization of helium by fast C6+ impact. They further asserted that projectile-coherence effects have no influence on the measured cross sections. In this Comment, we reiterate that the experimental resolution can only explain part of the discrepancies. Furthermore, we note that the conclusion regarding the role of projectile coherence neglects potential interference between first- and higher-order transition amplitudes