Mixed systems and interplay. Norbert Wiener meets Walter Benjamin

The article explores Wiener and Benjamin's views about the interaction between human beings and machines, highlighting some similarities. Despite their different areas of interest, they both recognize two kinds of technology, according to the sort of interaction each entertains with humans beings: an older one based on mastery and a second one based on interplay. The latter may eventually lead to «systems of a mixed nature, involving both human and mechanical parts», a new collective «which has its organs in the new technology». The emphasis the two authors share on interaction supports a view of automation that does not delegate human concerns to machines, but encourages the use of the new extended field of action to face these concerns in a new playful fashion together with the apparatus. In a society where machines are more and more able to pursue their own aims, human beings must therefore become even more responsible in setting and preserving the specifically human aims

Le immagini al potere: Flusser e il falso di Timișoara

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Gli specchi invertiti. Vilém Flusser e Jean Baudrillard

During their philosophical careers, both Vilém Flusser and Jean Baudrillard have developed a unique and quite singular perspective about the broader impact of technology and media on humans, from an anthropological and sociological point of view. Despite they shared a general framework and a number of hypothesis, there are several differences – namely in regard to code and simulation – which could be interesting underline. The aim of the article is precisely to reassess the intellectual and philosophical relation between these two major figures of contemporary media theory

Sperare nelle rovine

L’articolo è una riflessione sul valore dell’esperienza delle rovine. Per “attivare” quest’esperienza, non basta trovarsi davanti a qualcosa di danneggiato: la rovina deve presentarsi come mutila (rimandando a qualcosa di perduto) e vulnerabile (mostrando come ciò che resta potrebbe trasformarsi o scomparire da un momento all’altro). La filosofa spagnola Maria Zambrano, nel suo articolo sulle rovine, parte da questa dialettica tra assenza e presenza: ciò che è assente è l’essenziale, ma ciò che è presente è necessario come rimando all’assente. Richiamando la teoria della rappresentazione di Louis Marin potremmo quindi dire che la rovina è una rappresentazione, fortemente riflessiva, della propria distruzione. Dalle rovine impariamo che ogni edificazione, che sia una costruzione architettonica o storica, o una qualsiasi realizzazione di un sogno, finirà per essere distrutta. Lungi dall’essere un monito terribile, tale carattere della rovina la rende secondo Zambrano “una metafora della speranza”. Questo perché, “ogni realizzazione è una frustrazione” e quindi la sua messa in crisi è la riapertura di nuove possibilità. Come affermano in modo diverso Simmel e Benjamin le edificazioni sono delle imposizioni (dello spirito sulla natura, o dei produttori sulla società): ogni edificazione che si pretende definitiva chiude le porte a tutte le altre realizzazioni possibili. La precarietà delle rovine ci insegna invece ad avere uno sguardo critico e a mantenere aperta la possibilità. Non si tratta di una speranza rassicurante, ma di una speranza che mette in moto. L’esperienza delle rovine — preziosa perché educa alla critica e al pensare alternative — è oggi in pericolo, forse perché la loro instabilità ci è intollerabile. A noi spetta mettere in salvo questa esperienza, cercando, anche attraverso l’arte, d’aiutare le rovine a resistere nella loro vulnerabilità

The polysemy of Vilém Flussers concept of illusion

Vilém Flusser uses the concept of illusion in a non-systematic way, resulting in two ostensible contradictions. First of all, he often uses the term illusion, while criticizing the metaphysic assumptions that it implies; secondly, he seems to both dispraise and value the illusionary nature of technical images. This article aims at clarifying Flusser’s thoughts on illusion in the belief that they are not as conflicting as they might seem at first. In fact, when Flusser deplores the risk of deception associated with technical images, he refers to the illusion of transparency. He does not oppose the concept of illusion to a supposed objective truth, on the contrary, he opposes the illusion of the objective nature of images to the awareness of their constructed and mediated character. However, a rational demystification of illusions is not a viable option, since, according to Flusser, they are the result of a voluntary self-deception: we suppress our critical thinking because we cannot bear its complexity, we want images to “release us from the necessity for conceptual, explanatory thought.” This is why Flusser thinks that aware illusion – in other words: fiction – can help us overcome our “inertia of happiness” and develop a critical imagination

Mechanisms for improving information quality in smartphone crowdsensing systems

Given its potential for a large variety of real-life applications, smartphone crowdsensing has recently gained tremendous attention from the research community. Smartphone crowdsensing is a paradigm that allows ordinary citizens to participate in large-scale sensing surveys by using user-friendly applications installed in their smartphones. In this way, fine-grained sensing information is obtained from smartphone users without employing fixed and expensive infrastructure, and with negligible maintenance costs. Existing smartphone sensing systems depend completely on the participants\u27 willingness to submit up-to-date and accurate information regarding the events being monitored. Therefore, it becomes paramount to scalably and effectively determine, enforce, and optimize the information quality of the sensing reports submitted by the participants. To this end, mechanisms to improve information quality in smartphone crowdsensing systems were designed in this work. Firstly, the FIRST framework is presented, which is a reputation-based mechanism that leverages the concept of mobile trusted participants to determine and improve the information quality of collected data. Secondly, it is mathematically modeled and studied the problem of maximizing the likelihood of successful execution of sensing tasks when participants having uncertain mobility execute sensing tasks. Two incentive mechanisms based on game and auction theory are then proposed to efficiently and scalably solve such problem. Experimental results demonstrate that the mechanisms developed in this thesis outperform existing state of the art in improving information quality in smartphone crowdsensing systems --Abstract, page iii

Incentive Mechanisms for Participatory Sensing: Survey and Research Challenges

Participatory sensing is a powerful paradigm which takes advantage of smartphones to collect and analyze data beyond the scale of what was previously possible. Given that participatory sensing systems rely completely on the users' willingness to submit up-to-date and accurate information, it is paramount to effectively incentivize users' active and reliable participation. In this paper, we survey existing literature on incentive mechanisms for participatory sensing systems. In particular, we present a taxonomy of existing incentive mechanisms for participatory sensing systems, which are subsequently discussed in depth by comparing and contrasting different approaches. Finally, we discuss an agenda of open research challenges in incentivizing users in participatory sensing.Comment: Updated version, 4/25/201