Das Zerstörungspotenzial von Big Data und Künstlicher Intelligenz für die Demokratie

Der Ansatz, Massendaten („Big Data“) mit den heutigen mächtigen, nach wie vor exponentiell wachsenden Computerkapazitäten und dazu passenden Methoden zu erfassen, zu speichern, zu durchforsten, zu kombinieren und auszuwerten, hat auch für die Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) neue Impulse und Möglichkeiten geschaffen. Diese rücken einerseits alte KI-Träume näher in den Bereich des Realen, können aber andererseits ein großes zerstörerisches Potenzial entfalten. Damit gehen neue Bedrohungen einher, unter anderem für die Datenintegrität, Persönlichkeitsrechte und Privatheit, für die Unabhängigkeit von Wissen und Information sowie für den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Neue Medien wie Facebook oder Twitter, übermächtige IT-Konzerne wie Google oder Amazon sowie die fortschreitende Digitalisierung alltäglicher Vorgänge und Gegenstände („Internet der Dinge“) spielen dabei eine entscheidende Mittlerrolle

Imagining the collective future: a sociocultural perspective

The present chapter examines how groups imagine their future from a sociocultural perspective. First, we present our sociocultural model of imagination and its three dimensions, before building on it to account for how collectives imagine the future. We maintain that it is a mistake to assume that because imagination is “not real”, it cannot have “real” consequences. Imagination about the future, we argue, is a central steering mechanism of individual and collective behaviour. Imagination about the future is often political precisely because it can have huge significance for the activities of a group or even a nation. Accordingly, we introduce a new dimension for thinking about collective imagination of the future— namely, the degree of centralization of imagining—and with it, identify a related aspect, its emotional valence. Based on two examples, we argue that collective imaginings have their own developmental trajectories as they move in time through particular social and political contexts. Consequently, we suggest that a sociocultural psychology of collective imagination of the future should not only document instances of collective imagining, but also account for these developmental trajectories— specifically, what social and political forces hinder and promote particular imaginings

Psychoanalytic sociology and the traumas of history: Alexander Mitscherlich between the disciplines

This article examines the way aspects of recent history were excluded in key studies emerging from psychoanalytic social psychology of the mid-twentieth century. It draws on work by Erikson, Marcuse and Fromm, but focuses in particular on Alexander Mitscherlich. Mitscherlich, a social psychologist associated with the later Frankfurt school, was also the most important psychoanalytic figure in postwar Germany. This makes his work significant for tracing ways in which historical experience of the war and Nazism was filtered out of psychosocial narratives in this period, in favour of more structural analyses of the dynamics of social authority. Mitscherlich?s 1967 work The Inability to Mourn, co-authored with Margarete Mitscherlich, is often cited as the point at which the ?missing? historical experience flooded back into psychoanalytic accounts of society. I argue that this landmark publication doesn?t hail the shift towards the psychoanalysis of historical experience with which it is often associated. These more sociological writers of the mid-century were writing before the impact of several trends occurring in the 1980s-90s which decisively shifted psychoanalytic attention away from the investigation of social authority and towards a focus on historical trauma. Ultimately this is also a narrative about the transformations which occur when psychoanalysis moves across disciplines

A reference human induced pluripotent stem cell line for large-scale collaborative studies

Human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines are a powerful tool for studying development and disease, but the considerable phenotypic variation between lines makes it challenging to replicate key findings and integrate data across research groups. To address this issue, we sub-cloned candidate human iPSC lines and deeply characterized their genetic properties using whole genome sequencing, their genomic stability upon CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing, and their phenotypic properties including differentiation to commonly used cell types. These studies identified KOLF2.1J as an all-around well-performing iPSC line. We then shared KOLF2.1J with groups around the world who tested its performance in head-to-head comparisons with their own preferred iPSC lines across a diverse range of differentiation protocols and functional assays. On the strength of these findings, we have made KOLF2.1J and its gene-edited derivative clones readily accessible to promote the standardization required for large-scale collaborative science in the stem cell field

Masculinidades e práticas de saúde na região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte - MG

O objetivo desta investigação foi identificar e analisar as representações sociais de saúde e de doença e as práticas de saúde masculina junto a homens residentes na Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte-MG. Foram entrevistados 100 sujeitos com idade entre 45 e 55 anos. Os dados foram submetidos às análises de evocação e de conteúdo. RESULTADOS: elementos centrais da Representação Social (RS) de saúde: "bem-estar", "cuidado" e "importante". Elementos periféricos próximos: "alegria/felicidade" e "alimentação". Elementos centrais da RS de doença: "tristeza" e "dor". Elementos periféricos próximos: "sofrimento" e "morte". Definição de "cuidar da saúde": "cuidar da alimentação" (17,25% das respostas) e "praticar atividades físicas" (11,11%). Dos sujeitos, 52% afirmaram que cuidam da própria saúde e 34% que o fazem "às vezes". Quem contribui para o cuidado com a própria saúde: "eu mesmo" (29,63%), "esposa" (25,93%). Busca por atendimento médico: "às vezes" no Hospital (69% dos sujeitos; motivo principal: "dor forte/persistente", 13,87% das respostas) ou nos consultórios (72% dos sujeitos; motivo principal: "exames de rotina", 22,22% das respostas). A análise dos resultados indica a percepção mais geral do cuidar da saúde como um conjunto de práticas individuais objetivando o "bem-estar". Os resultados também indicam considerável quantidade de ações objetivando os cuidados com a saúde, o que contraria parte das percepções tradicionais quanto à fraca associação entre masculinidades e cuidado de si