UTOPIA CONFRONTS DYSTOPIA IN THE ACTUAL LANDSCAPE-CULTURAL MOSAIC

2The old equation “public interest” = “praiseworthy”, “private interest” = “deplorable”, must be compared with the equation “public enterprise” = “waste”, “private enterprise” = “gain”. Both equations of course do not hold, but undoubtedly some truth can be found. In this framework the place of utopia and dystopia, keeping in mind all the three keywords, is not easily found, since the handy and appealing equation “utopia” = “public projects”, “dystopia” = “private projects” cannot be derived, especially if we consider also value. It seems rather that as far as the evolution of the landscape-cultural mosaic is concerned synergies and contrasts between public and private powers must be studied, analyzing also the potential transitions. It must be recalled that public interest for landscape is somehow a recent acquisition, since many important infrastructures were completed when attention was directed to the actual costs rather than to the prospective losses of value.Indexed by ISI WosopenopenPiccinini L; Rapisarda P.Piccinini, Livio Clemente; Rapisarda, P

The future of modernized agriculture and the return of traditional techniques

The industrialization of the agricultural sector has resolved, at least in Europe and in the United States, the thousand year-old problem of the lack of food. Unfortunately, during the last years the limits of such an agriculture clearly exploded. The modernized agriculture, in fact, produces negative externalities and it does not assure food safety. Through our contribution we hypothesize three future scenarios for modernized agriculture. We shall study in particular the one that foresees the conversion to sustainability through the return of traditional techniques. In order to analyze the problem, we shall introduce the Sraffian framework of the “re-switching of techniques”. Finally we shall build an original and new model of “reswitching” for the short period. The aim of our work is to show that, at least theoretically, it is possible that a traditional agricultural technique could be convenient in a context of both low and high profit level.Re-switching of techniques, modernized agriculture, sustainable development

Future scenarios of the modernized agriculture and a Sraffian framework for the “return of techniques” scenario

Rural areas in Europe are characterized by several agricultural models and paths. We can schematically divide them in two typologies of agriculture: the modernized and the traditional agriculture. The first typology is characterized by agricultural techniques of production pervaded by industrial (or modernized) elements and values. It is based on the most fertile soils of the European rural areas. The modernized agriculture has also reached elevated levels of productivity but it lacks in socio-environmental terms (i.e. biodiversity losses). The traditional agriculture, instead, has his base on the less favored areas and it is an unintentional keeper of traditional and virtuous techniques and elements (i.e. crop rotation and local genetic resources). It is such because it does not accept exogenous elements (i.e. mountainous agriculture where mechanization is applied with low efficiency/effectiveness) and it has therefore remained excluded from the processes of industrialization. The weak point of traditional agriculture, which has caused its decline, is the economic inefficiency. It is however an unknowing producer of positive externalities (i.e. safe food, local genetic resources, landscape). In our paper we try to assess the hypothesis of the return of traditional elements and techniques in the modernized agriculture. In order to analyze the problem, we shall introduce the theoretical framework of the “re-switching of techniques” from the neo-ricardian theory (Sraffa 1960). Sraffa, within the “re-switching” framework, pointed out that a low-capital-intensive technique may be competitive both at a relatively low and high rate of profit. Finally, after we have shown two examples of economic models of “re-switching of techniques”, we shall build an example of “re-switching” for the short period and an original example with multiple-switching points.Re-switching of techniques, modernized agriculture, traditional agriculture, sustainable development

LIFELONG EDUCATION BETWEEN THE USEFUL AND THE USELESS : LEARNING CITY TOPONYMY

The aim of the paper is to discuss the balance between the useful and the useless in the actual lifelong learning, in a conceptual scheme that goes beyond purely economical or technical evaluations. The authors chose an exemplary field starting from last year’s paper on the exploration of nets. In order to delimitate the research field, the official city toponymy has been considered, both in the structure of hypernyms and in the choices of proper names. The analysis considers Italian city hypernyms, with some regional or local varieties, explaining the underlying historical and contact phenomena. The grouping of similar proper names is then analyzed, finding out segmentations and some strange aversions. The non correspondence between the conceptual hierarchy and the perceptual geographical hierarchy is highlighted. Useful practical reference systems are compared with official ones

FROM LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION TO FUZZY MATHEMATICS IN GROWN UP PEOPLE

The aim of this note is to give some critical examples where even the use of the same clustering rules lead to fuzziness. It starts from poor numerical systems and compares them with the expanded Sergeyev model, where the grossone is used, as an infinite terminal element. It can be compared with terminal elements of the ancient languages, such as the Greek myriad and the Chinese wan. On them some propositions that hold in the arithmetic of the grossone are similar, while they are not meaningful for the countable system of infinity. The note shows that both the upward and downward trend are actually present in human language and in conceptual arrangements. The note then goes on to sketch the model of evolution of Bak-Sneppen, showing two significant applications: the case of the evolution and  study of foreign languages and, according to the model of Lloyd, the territorial analysis. In both cases it is highlighted how the Bak-Sneppen model becomes more stable when the universe is segmented, as already proven by the authors in previous works. The third part examines some cases of false probabilistic intuition due to incomplete perception  of the phenomena, what could therefore be defined as hidden conditional probability. Interesting is the classic application of the theory of games to lotteries and ternary games, such as Chinese morra

Partitioned Frames in Bak Sneppen Models

In the first section we recall Bak Sneppen model and its evolutions. In this paper we wish to present some simplified cases in which explicit computations via Markov chains are possible, hence reaching a better understanding of some rather hidden phenomena of the general case: in particular “avalanches” can be read in terms of average return times and in terms of transitions between structures. A short comparison of the behaviour of different model of graphs of interaction is contained in section 2. The simple models allow us to introduce new frames that do not seem to have been considered in the previous literature, namely the case of partitioned Bak-Sneppen frames, that appear more realistic from the point of view of speed of evolution and do not present a unique criticality level, but a staircase tending towards a final equilibrium level. This is the object of section 3, while section 4 shows how this model clearly explains the overtaking of competitors with respect to species that seem to be well assessed and recalls some of our experimental data

Perception, Connotation, Translation of Numbers

The purpose of the note is to discuss the translation of the numbers from one language to another in order to retain their meaning (in this case it is easy) and to preserve their connotations (and this is the hard part, as in every translation). The lexical system of numbers is an excellent laboratory to study the semiotic phenomena of hypocoding and hypercoding at an intermediate level of complexity, that does not avoid the problems but still allows rigorous solutions. This problem takes a well-defined role in the two sections dedicated to perception and connotations, when some numbers assume the role of hypernyms similar to adjectives "some, many, too many". The various languages do not use the same system of hypernyms, so the translation, beyond the literal meaning, requires a particular knowledge, typical of bilingualism

Endogenous control in a ternary lotka-volterra model and its applications

This paper aims at highlighting the role of endogenous controls in Lotka-Volterra predator-prey models. Unlike other studies in which the core lies in expanding the number of con\ub0icting species, here the stress is laid upon a control variable that does not need to be of the same nature as the species involved in the con\ub0ict. As in the case of the logistic equation Lotka-Volterra models have proved highly fruitful also outside the pure biological frame, clarifying many socio-economical and psychological evolution phenomena. A main problem lies in the change of the structural parameters, that can alter the evolution. Rather than an exterior action a model is most satisfactory in pres- ence of an endogenous change, that should happen without any external intervention. The critical model is described in Section 2 under the name of tripartite antagonist model, where there are three actors, and three predator-prey equations involving, two at each time, the actors. The structure is that each actor once is predator and once prey in a circular scheme. In some natural cases the three variables are all biological, but in most meaningful cases the control has a di\uaeerent nature, usually social or behavioral. The paper highlights the particular case where the initial existence of a control, albeit at a very low level, is essential to allow the development towards equilibrium, while its absence leads to the destruction of the prey. A similar case arises when predator and prey are in temporary equilibrium, but a hidden control variable operates until a sudden change of equilibrium bursts out. Section 1 is devoted to recall some preliminary know-ledge of system theory and of Lotka.Volterra classical equations. Section 3 is devoted to illustrate some actual cases where tripartite antagonist system can explain social, psychological, economic developments, even with reference to the academic world. The long lasting competition between Stoicism and Epicurism, between hedonism and Aristotle's eudaimonia fully enters in this scheme

Minimal models of self-organized criticality

The paper deals with an evaluation of the behavior of non equilibrium systems displaying self- organized criticality, according to the concept of Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld ([3]). One of the fundamental characteristics of a system in a self-organized state is to exhibit a stationary state with a long-range power law of decay of both spatial and temporal correlations