AI ethics in December 2015

The book series Recursions: Theories of Media, Materiality, and Cultural Techniques provides a platform for cuttingedge research in the field of media culture studies with a particular focus on the cultural impact of media technology and the materialities of communication. The series aims to be an internationally signif icant and exciting opening into emerging ideas in media theory ranging from media materialism and hardware-oriented studies to ecology, the post-human, the study of cultural tech

The editors of this volume bring together a collection of papers that, taken together, provide an interesting snapshot of current research on Human Computer Confluence (HCC). HCC stands for a particular vision of how computing devices and human beings (users) can be fruitfully combined. The term was coined some 10 years ago in an attempt to make sense of the increasingly complex technological landscape that was emerging from different interrelated research strands in Information and Communicatio

Abstract The application of game‐based learning adds play into educational and instructional contexts. Even though there is a lack of standard methodologies or formulaic frameworks to better inform game‐based intervention development, there exist scientific and empirical studies that can serve as benchmarks for establishing scientific validity in terms of the efficacy of using games to achieve serious outcomes. The development of these games does not normally follow a specific set of guidelines,

In this paper we look at the phenomenon that is the Turing test. We consider how Turing originally introduced his imitation game and discuss what this means in a practical scenario. Due to its popular appeal we also look into different representations of the test as indicated by numerous reviewers. The main emphasis here, however, is to consider what it actually means for a machine to pass the Turing test and what importance this has, if any. In particular does it mean that, as Turing put it, a

This paper considers two emerging interdisciplinary, but related topics that are likely to create tipping points in advancing the engineering and science areas. Trusted Autonomy (TA) is a field of research that focuses on understanding and designing the interaction space between two entities each of which exhibits a level of autonomy. These entities can be humans, machines, or a mix of the two. Cognitive Cyber Symbiosis (CoCyS) is a cloud that uses humans and machines for decision-making. In CoC

Many music festivals fail because the experiences offered do not ensure relevance and meaning to the attendee. Engagement with new and virtual landscapes and with the enhanced sensory feelings and imaginations that technologies can offer may alleviate this. Utilizing a futures frame, this conceptual article contributes to the pursuit of successful future event design by applying a normative visionary methodology—employing trend analysis, scenarios, and science fiction to create prototypes that m

Children with specific language impairments (SLIs) show impaired perception and production of language, and also show impairments in perceiving auditory cues to rhythm [amplitude rise time (ART) and sound duration] and in tapping to a rhythmic beat. Here we explore potential links between language development and rhythm perception in 45 children with SLI and 50 age-matched controls. We administered three rhythmic tasks, a musical beat detection task, a tapping-to-music task, and a novel music/sp

<JATS1:p>Written by one of Europe’s leading critics, Ecocriticism and Italy reads the diverse landscapes of Italy in the cultural imagination. From death in Venice as a literary trope and petrochemical curse, through the volcanoes of Naples to wine, food and environmental violence in Piedmont, Serenella Iovino explores Italy as a text where ecology and imagination meet. Examining texts where justice, society and politics interlace with stories of land and life, ecosystems and body cells, polluti

Contents: Introduction. Greek Medicine: The transformations of ancient medicine The definition, status and methods of the medical techne in the 5th and 4th centuries Scholarship, authority and argument in Galen's Quod animi mores Theories and practices of demonstration in Galen Mathematics as a model of method in Galen. Greek Mathematics and Philosophy: The alleged fallacy of Hippocrates of Chios The Meno and the mysteries of mathematics Plato and Archytas in the seventh letter Philosophy and me

Accumulating evidence that working memory supports the ability to follow instructions has so far been restricted to experimental paradigms that have greatly simplified the practical demands of performing actions to instructions in everyday tasks. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether working memory is involved in maintaining information over the longer periods of time that are more typical of everyday situations that require performing instructions to command. Forty-two childre

DNA hypomethylation in certain genes is associated with tobacco exposure but it is unknown whether these methylation changes translate into increased lung cancer risk. In an epigenome-wide study of DNA from pre-diagnostic blood samples from 132 case-control pairs in the NOWAC cohort, we observe that the most significant associations with lung cancer risk are for cg05575921 in AHRR (OR for 1 s.d.=0.37, 95% CI: 0.31-0.54, P-value=3.3 × 10(-11)) and cg03636183 in F2RL3 (OR for 1 s.d.=0.40, 95% CI:

In this conceptual article, the relations between sensemaking, learning, and big data in organizations are explored. The availability and usage of big data by organizations is an issue of emerging importance, raising new and old themes for diverse commentators and researchers to investigate. Drawing on sensemaking, learning, and complexity perspectives, this article highlights four key challenges to be addressed if organizations are to engage the phenomenon of big data effectively and reflexivel

UNLABELLED: A recent account of dyslexia assumes that a failure to develop automated letter-speech sound integration might be responsible for the observed lack of reading fluency. This study uses a pre-test-training-post-test design to evaluate the effects of a training program based on letter-speech sound associations with a special focus on gains in reading fluency. A sample of 44 children with dyslexia and 23 typical readers, aged 8 to 9, was recruited. Children with dyslexia were randomly al

Success in the quest for artificial intelligence has the potential to bring unprecedented benefits to humanity, and it is therefore worthwhile to investigate how to maximize these benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls. This article gives numerous examples (which should by no means be construed as an exhaustive list) of such worthwhile research aimed at ensuring that AI remains robust and beneficial.

Imaging plays an essential role in research on neurological diseases in the elderly. The Rotterdam Scan Study was initiated as part of the ongoing Rotterdam Study with the aim to elucidate the causes of neurological disease by performing imaging of the brain in a prospective population-based setting. Initially, in 1995 and 1999, random subsamples of participants from the Rotterdam Study underwent neuroimaging, whereas from 2005 onwards MRI has been implemented into the core protocol of the Rotte

This paper is an attempt to broaden the standard economic discourse by importing insights into human behavior not just from psychology, but also from sociology and anthropology. Whereas the concept of the decision-maker is the rational actor in standard economics and, in early work in behavioral economics, the quasi-rational actor influenced by the context of the moment of decision-making, in some recent work in behavioral economics the decision-maker could be called the enculturated actor. This

Coupled with the ‘smart city’, the idea of the ‘smart school’ is emerging in imaginings of the future of education. Various commercial, governmental and civil society organizations now envisage education as a highly coded, software-mediated and data-driven social institution. Such spaces are to be governed through computational processes written in computer code and tracked through big data. In an original analysis of developments from commercial, governmental and civil society sectors, the arti