The Picture of Artificial Intelligence and the Secularization of Thought

ABSTRACT

This article offers a critical interpretation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a philosophical notion which exemplifies a secular conception of thinking. One way in which AI notably differs from the conventional understanding of “thinking” is that, according to AI, “intelligence” or “thinking” does not necessarily require “life” as a precondition: that it is possible to have “thinking without life.” Building on Charles Taylor’s critical account of secularity as well as Hubert Dreyfus’ influential critique of AI, this article offers a theological analysis of AI’s “lifeless” picture of thinking in relation to the Augustinian conception of God as “Life itself.” Following this critical theological analysis, this article argues that AI’s notion of thinking promotes a societal privilege of certain rationalistic or calculative ways of thought over more existential or spiritual ways of thinking, and thereby fosters a secularization or de-spiritualization of thinking as an ethical human practice.     

Mathematics,Music and Chess

Abstract

Mathematicians, musicians and chess players were singled out by the British Foreign Office during the Second World War for the exacting task of breaking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park. One of these cryptographers, the present author, has remained intrigued with the common factors linking these three noble activities of the human intellect: he suggests symbols of power and a logical tine of thought. But an expert in one activity need not excel in the others, he concludes.     

Creative Thinking and Emotion in Human Social Life: The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms

Abstract

There is debate whether The Merchant of Venice is an anti-Semitic play. However, in this debate there has been insufficient attention paid to Shylock's relationship with Tubal. In his criticisms of Shylock, Tubal represents the larger Jewish community. This criticism shows that, in Shakespeare's view, Jewish self-understanding of what it means to be a good Jew is incompatible with the character of Shylock.     

Implementing Artificial Intelligence in H-BIM Using the J48 Algorithm to Manage Historic Buildings

ABSTRACT

The preservation of the architectural heritage is characterized by the intervention of different technicians, who may disagree on decision-making criteria. In recent years, the H-BIM methodology has emerged to manage these buildings, although the multidisciplinary technical personnel make the decision-taking something of a challenge. In this regard, artificial intelligence may be an opportunity to establish automatic responses, thus optimizing the process. This article proposes a methodology to implement models of classification using the J48 algorithm in a H-BIM model. The case study was focused on a tiles panel from a building which belongs to the Real Alcazar of Seville. First, a model of classification was developed to estimate the degree of intervention with an adequate degree of adjustment. Then, the model was implemented in the H-BIM software by programming using GDL. This methodology automates the decision-making and reduces times of assessments, visualizing and managing the information in the H-BIM model.     

Feminising the Economy: Metaphors,strategies, politics

Within contemporary feminism, common approaches to feminising the economy involve adding a sphere or sector or attributing a monetary value to women's unpaid labour. Each of these approaches is interested in creating an accurate representation of the real or 'whole' economy. But these representations are in the same lineage as mainstream economic conceptions; the economy remains a bounded entity that can be known by enumerating its parts. The 'adding on' and 'counting in' strategies employed by feminists complete the picture of what is needed to produce social well-being but do not necessarily help us think differently about how goods and services are or might be produced. In this article, the authors ask how feminist economic theory might contribute to envisioning or enacting alternative economies. They find answers to this question through reading feminist interventions for glimmers of a deconstructive project that opens 'the economy' to difference. Pursuing these glimmers, they attempt to insert the possibility of non-capitalist forms of economy, including economies of generosity, non-profit businesses, worker collectives and alternative capitalist enterprises impelled by a social or environmental ethic. In place of the view of the economy as a whole comprised of a pre-established number of parts or sectors, it can begin to be seen as a discursive construct that can be reconstructed to contribute to social transformation.     

Racial Metaphors: Interpreting Sex and AIDS in Africa

Western preconceptions regarding African sexuality distorted early research on the social context of AIDS in Africa and limited the scope of preventive policies. Key works cited repeatedly in the social science and policy literature constructed a hypersexualized pan–African culture as the main reason for the high prevalence of HIV in sub–Saharan Africa. Africans were portrayed as the social ‘Other’ in works marked by sweeping generalizations and innuendo, rather than useful comparative data on sexual behaviour. Although biomedical studies demonstrate the role of numerous factors that influence HIV transmission among poor people, a narrowly behavioural explanation dominated the AIDS–in–Africa discourse for over a decade and still circumscribes preventive strategies in Africa and elsewhere.     

Internationalization in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area: Images,Discourses and Metaphors

This paper investigates promotional images in the Metropolitan Area of Helsinki, focusing on the projection, outside national boundaries, of specific “ideas” concerning the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. After introducing the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, presenting its geographical features, urban dynamics, actual problems and actors involved in image-building, the focus of this research will be a comparison between the images proposed in promotional materials and policy documents by the various territorial units, looking at their differences, overlaps, synergies and clashes. In fact, as will be discussed, even if the images proposed by the cities consist of the same thematic fields (technology, nature, culture, etc.), they contain slightly different implicit messages, targets, representations of the cities, values, strategic orientations and approaches.     

The European Family and Athenian Fatherland: Political Metaphors Ancient and Modern

Abstract

This article explores the role and modes of operation of metaphorical framing in ancient Greek and modern European and American political discourse. It looks at how concepts such as citizenship, ownership, family, morality, finance, sport, war, domination, human life, and animals are used to reframe political issues in ways promoted by the speaker, and how they may continue to be reshaped in the ongoing political discourse. The analysis of examples of ancient Athenian public rhetoric and of modern European and American political debates reveals the differences and some striking similarities in the ways political and civic values were expressed and reframed in antiquity and how they are used today. This essay also discusses the potential effects of such framing in antiquity and in more recent times.     

War on the Mind

Abstract

The new biology, a formidable triad of the disciplines of biochemistry, genetics and cell biology, has given an entirely new insight into disease processes. It is forcefully argued here that this interdisciplinary approach should be applied to tropical diseases. The detailed strategy and possible engineering of a malaria vaccine, as developed at the author's Institute, are cited as an example. But finally, society must decide if the new biology is to be used for research on the diseases of the rich or the poor peoples of this planet.     

蝙蝠的藏文化隐喻

在纳西东巴文化中,蝙蝠被视力人神之间的信息传递者。在西藏笨教文化中,蝙蝠的地位也很高,世间的公平石(塞多)、金头白猴和蝙蝠,被认为世间的“证人”,能理顺是非曲直。2020年年初,随着新型冠状病毒的传播和有关病毒源的信息层出不穷,一段时间内,蝙蝠似乎成了第一嫌疑。