Towards the techno-social Uncanny

This paper explores a technical unfinished half-method [Halbzeug] of a metaphorology (Blumenberg) of the technological other in its variations and the philosophical mise-en-scène of the techno-social uncanny. The roboticist Mori had revived the concept of a technological uncanny in human machine interaction in the spatial metaphor derived from a diagram of an uncanny valley in the reaction of a human being shaking an artificial hand in order to show why we feel a certain eeriness in relation to technological artefacts, a topic that gains importance today to reflect human technological automata relations with robots/AI/Avatars that mimic and socially resonate with humans and may even drive further technological transhumanism. Although in an artefact design approach uncanniness is said to be avoided in the human-like automaton-human encounter this paper dwells on the critic of techno-social otherness avoidance by technological overcoming of obstacles and thus argues for a cybernetic uncanny that can’t be avoided. This paper introduces in a broader sense than Mori’s a philosophical dramaturgy of Emmanuel Levinas’ temporal notion of the relation to the other, including a preliminary metaphorological variation of the temporal techno-social uncanny.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN TECHNOLOGY: OUTLOOK ON COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENTS IN AVATAR/ VIRTUAL REALITY SCHIZOPHRENIA THERAPY

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Hacking into Cybertherapy: Considering a Gesture-enhanced Therapy with Avatars ( g+T A)

info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

On Hacking Cultures

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Rehearsals on Faciality Diagrams of AI Avatars

As the post-Kantian schēma tradition emphasizes the importance of using mental concepts and frameworks to understand and interpret sensory experiences, in our case dramaturgies of faciality, rethinking different schemata concepts in various rehearsals and theoretical scenes seem fruitful to critically heed the development and use of faciality applied to AI avatars in virtual and augmented reality environments. One theoretical rehearsal to be explored is the baby schema theory as proposed by Konrad Lorenz to explain why certain physical features are perceived as cute. In recent years, the baby schema-cuteness relation has also been studied culturally in Kawaii aesthetics and in the context of virtual humans. In another rehearsal we critically heed exemplary faciality diagrams of Paul Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS) as a system for identifying and analyzing facial expressions of emotion based on the problematic idea that specific facial muscle movements correspond to emotions as a highly questionable facial diagrams (Stjernfelt/Peirce) –fallible as such – and finally glimpse towards the scenes of Todorov’s critic of facial rapid glance inferences and Lavater’s physiognomics

Hacking into algorithmic aesthetics

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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

On Ali Moini's Avatar hacking

info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Notes on embodied and disembodied notions of infinity and continuity (considering C.S.Peirce, Rudy Rucker´s 'White Light' and Milan Kundera ´Immortality´

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Workpackage 6 EU Horizon 2020 Proposal

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