Knowledge and regularity in planning

The field of planning has focused on several methods of using domain-specific knowledge. The three most common methods, use of search control, use of macro-operators, and analogy, are part of a continuum of techniques differing in the amount of reused plan information. This paper describes TALUS, a planner that exploits this continuum, and is used for comparing the relative utility of these methods. We present results showing how search control, macro-operators, and analogy are affected by domain regularity and the amount of stored knowledge

Innovation in UK Law Enforcement: The Emergence of Mobile Data

In this paper we use activity theory to illuminate our understanding of the emergence of an innovation (mobile data) in one police constabulary. In particular, we focus our efforts on the salient developments of the innovation and relationships formed with IT suppliers and government bodies. The case study provides an instructive example of the innovation process and a presents a number of interesting findings. The analysis showed that the innovation process can be described as a shared activity and the innovation itself as modular. Along these lines, the innovation activity demonstrated the case of open innovation in a policing context and identified the importance and concerns surrounding central body intervention

A Conceptual and Computational Model of Moral Decision Making in Human and Artificial Agents

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in general, comprehensive models of human cognition. Such models aim to explain higher order cognitive faculties, such as deliberation and planning. Given a computational representation, the validity of these models can be tested in computer simulations such as software agents or embodied robots. The push to implement computational models of this kind has created the field of Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI. Moral decision making is arguably one of the most challenging tasks for computational approaches to higher order cognition. The need for increasingly autonomous artificial agents to factor moral considerations into their choices and actions has given rise to another new field of inquiry variously known as Machine Morality, Machine Ethics, Roboethics or Friendly AI. In this paper we discuss how LIDA, an AGI model of human cognition, can be adapted to model both affective and rational features of moral decision making. Using the LIDA model we will demonstrate how moral decisions can be made in many domains using the same mechanisms that enable general decision making. Comprehensive models of human cognition typically aim for compatibility with recent research in the cognitive and neural sciences. Global Workspace Theory (GWT), proposed by the neuropsychologist Bernard Baars (1988), is a highly regarded model of human cognition that is currently being computationally instantiated in several software implementations. LIDA (Franklin et al. 2005) is one such computational implementation. LIDA is both a set of computational tools and an underlying model of human cognition, which provides mechanisms that are capable of explaining how an agent’s selection of its next action arises from bottom-up collection of sensory data and top-down processes for making sense of its current situation. We will describe how the LIDA model helps integrate emotions into the human decision making process, and elucidate a process whereby an agent can work through an ethical problem to reach a solution that takes account of ethically relevant factors

Consciousness And Ethics: Artificially Conscious Moral Agents

What roles or functions does consciousness fulfill in the making of moral decisions? Will artificial agents capable of making appropriate decisions in morally charged situations require machine consciousness? Should the capacity to make moral decisions be considered an attribute essential for being designated a fully conscious agent? Research on the prospects for developing machines capable of making moral decisions and research on machine consciousness have developed as independent fields of inquiry. Yet there is significant overlap. Both fields are likely to progress through the instantiation of systems with artificial general intelligence (AGI). Certainly special classes of moral decision making will require attributes of consciousness such as being able to empathize with the pain and suffering of others. But in this article we will propose that consciousness also plays a functional role in making most if not all moral decisions. Work by the authors of this article with LIDA, a computational and conceptual model of human cognition, will help illustrate how consciousness can be understood to serve a very broad role in the making of all decisions including moral decisions

Dynamic Spectrum Access: Implications of the diffusion of spectrum sharing technology

This poster describes early research into the impacts of Dynamic Spectrum Access technology and the implications of the diffusion of spectrum sharing technolog

Dall’oggetto al campo: le condizioni di campo in architettura e urbanistica

Il concetto di “condizioni di campo” si sposta dall’uno al molteplice, dagli individui ai gruppi, dagli oggetti ai campi. il termine stesso gioca su un doppio significato. Gli architetti non lavorano solo in ufficio o in studio, ma nel campo: sul luogo, a contatto con il tessuto dell’architettura. Le “condizioni del campo” implicano l’accettazione del reale in tutta la sua complessità e imprevedibilità

After mechanical reproduction

Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium vom 27. bis 30. Juni 1996 in Weimar an der Bauhaus-Universität zum Thema: ‚Techno-Fiction. Zur Kritik der technologischen Utopien

Understanding the role of information systems pilots: evaluation, legitimization and experimentation

In this paper, we seek to draw attention to the piloting stage of information systems (IS) in organizations. We argue that this stage has been neglected by IS scholars. To illustrate this argument, we draw on previous research and examine and review the pilot process across a number of studies undertaken with police forces in the United Kingdom. The studies reveal a different process of piloting than is outlined in the traditional IS and design literature. The findings indicate that results of the pilot (including laboratory and field measurements) are open to interpretation by organizational actors. We discuss the concept of legitimization of the technology being piloted and its role in the success of the pilot phase

Developing activity theory in information studies (DATIS)

Over the last two decades the use of Activity Theory has grown within the field of information studies. However, while there is a budding community, the use and development of Activity Theory in information studies remains underdeveloped and fragmented. This community building workshop provides an opportunity to: (1) introduce information scholars to the basic conceptual premises of Activity Theory focusing on the use, development and contribution of Activity Theory; (2) provide a forum to extend the development of Activity Theory; and (3) It will also provide a networking opportunity for scholars already utilizing activity theory and an opportunity to discuss the contributions iSchool scholars can make to the wider Activity Theory community. The aim of the afternoon session is to both stimulate discourse and advance the use of the theory. A 500-word position paper is due 4th of March