Merleau-Ponty on Human Motility and Libet’s Paradox

In 1979, neuroscientists Libet, Wright, Feinstein and Pearl introduced the “delay-and-antedating” hypothesis/paradox based on the results of an on-going series of experiments dating back to 1964 that measured the neural adequacy [brain wave activity] of “conscious sensory experience”. What is fascinating about the results of this experiment is the implication, especially when considered in the light of Merleau-Ponty’s notions of “intentionality” and the “pre-reflective life of human motility”, that the body, and hence not solely the mind, is a thinking thing. The experiments and conclusions of Libet et al. have attracted considerable academic attention and have been used in the development of psychological theories on automotivism and the adaptive unconscious. Moreover, they have engendered a series of important considerations in respect of the question of free will. This paper outlines the connections between the findings of Libet et al. and Merleau-Ponty’s ontology as presented in the Phenomenology of Perception (1945/1962). It is not our intention to argue that the former amounts to new wine in old bottles, but rather to show counterfactually (since we offer no new scientific data and assume the conclusions of the experiments) that Merleau-Ponty’s ontology provides a theoretical framework which explains the experimental data obtained by Libet et al., and provides further speculative confirmation of the work stemming from neuro-physical research and emerging theories on the adaptive unconscious. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Volume 7, Edition 1 May 200

The concept of competition with special reference to physical education and sport

Looks at the ethical concerns of those who disfavor competitiveness in physical education and sport. Suggests how some of these objections may be overcome

Sensor Based Auditory And Haptic Guidance System

A system and method are disclosed that use data provided by a mobile device equipped with sensors to guide a human or machine along a vector path through sensory feedback. The system uses motion and depth sensor information and object recognition to create models of an interior space, which facilitate movement for a person who has never been inside a space before, and to use those models for navigation. The method utilizes interior space maps to identify safe vectors. A realtime algorithm compares the user’s location and direction of movement with the desired path in the model, providing a measure of the deviation. It then plays an auditory and/or haptic signal that focuses the user’s attention to follow a safe path in response to the deviation. Using realtime object recognition sensor data allows the detection of spatial obstacles that are otherwise difficult to navigate using traditional solutions for aiding the visually impaired

Enhancing the lean enterprise through supply chain design : establishing remarketing and reverse logistics at a high tech firm

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-83).by Brian N. Bowers.S.M

Iris: an Extensible Application for Building and Analyzing Spectral Energy Distributions

Iris is an extensible application that provides astronomers with a user-friendly interface capable of ingesting broad-band data from many different sources in order to build, explore, and model spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Iris takes advantage of the standards defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, but hides the technicalities of such standards by implementing different layers of abstraction on top of them. Such intermediate layers provide hooks that users and developers can exploit in order to extend the capabilities provided by Iris. For instance, custom Python models can be combined in arbitrary ways with the Iris built-in models or with other custom functions. As such, Iris offers a platform for the development and integration of SED data, services, and applications, either from the user's system or from the web. In this paper we describe the built-in features provided by Iris for building and analyzing SEDs. We also explore in some detail the Iris framework and software development kit, showing how astronomers and software developers can plug their code into an integrated SED analysis environment.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Computin

Natural Language Video Processing (Machine Learning-based Identification, Search, Extraction)

The systems and methods described herein provide for a natural-language to generative video process using language-classification and knowledge graph identifiers to find frame segments within a codex of videos that depict the scene described. The mechanics necessary for converting speech to meaningful entities that can be matched to non-text images/videos serve as an underlying basis for generative video