New Techno-Humanities最新文献

In this paper I identify and discuss a number of features that I argue are necessary for the realization of AGI. As a preliminary step, common definitions of AGI are presented in respect to their understanding of mind, intelligence, and consciousness. I show that, despite the amazing performance of artificial systems, at present they are still far from exhibiting AGI, and I identify some of their central short-comings. Secondly, inspired by research within the philosophy of mind, embodiment and situatedness, I suggest a number of features that I deem necessary for a mind. I then investigate the possible objection against the relevance of these features namely that they are overly anthropocentric or biocentric. I further discuss aspects of these features in relation to their transfer to artificial systems with the goal of creating an artificial mind. I finally conclude that self-reflexivity and the re-creation of the world as an inner world should be strongly focused upon if one wishes to create an artificial mind or artificial consciousness. However, I also issue a warning about some well-known risks when creating AGI.

The paradigm of the new global (economic) history aims to present new case studies cross-referencing western and Asian sources and using new tools and methods from other disciplines such as digital humanities and computer sciences. Within such an interdisciplinary approach new digital solutions are being conceptualized and implemented to renew global history research and revise the Great Divergence debate. The GECEM Project Database is presented as example that follows the paradigm of the “Complex-Systems Landscape” metaphor used and developed in this special issue. Thus, the core hypothesis in these papers is based on the role and agency of merchants and the networks they formed which ultimately changed consumer behavior and fostered the global circulation of goods in early modern China, Europe, and the Americas.

This article introduces a complex-systems metaphor/model for a world history greater than the sum of its parts. Due to the difficulty of thinking about any event within such a complicated context, we present a visualization to guide researchers’ recognition of the relationships that shape the historical process they study. To support thought, we repurpose a pair of linked visualizations that model gene expression in the morphogenesis of tissues and organs from a fertilized egg. The visual metaphor presents the shaping factors in two ways. First, the historical process encounters, as it moves through the complex-systems landscape, a series of elevations and depressions, which can be identified with significant relations. Second, from below, the metaphor permits the identification of these perturbations, the hills and valleys, with networks connecting the landscape's undulations to developments in specific places and larger geographic areas. These networks also serve to represent the way the complex human system couples with the complex natural systems relevant to the historical process in question. Moreover, the metaphor demands the recognition of hierarchies of instability, on which historians must focus to understand when a level of instability is reduced through some localized development, and when the instability level in places most relevant to the overall human system become so unstable that the system enters a period of phase transition to a new historical system and period. Employing the metaphor in this manner allows historians to defend the importance of their own research by tying it to world historical processes.

The emergence of artificially sentient beings raises moral, political, and legal issues that deserve scrutiny. First, it may be difficult to understand the well-being elements of artificially sentient beings and theories of well-being may have to be reconsidered. For instance, as a theory of well-being, hedonism may need to expand the meaning of happiness and suffering or it may run the risk of being irrelevant. Second, we may have to compare the claims of artificially sentient beings with the claims of humans. This calls for interspecies aggregation, which is a neglected form of interpersonal aggregation. Lastly, there are practical problems to address, such as whether to include artificially sentient beings in the political decision-making processes, whether to grant them a right to self-determination in digital worlds, and how to protect them from discrimination. Given these, the emergence of artificially sentient beings compels us to reevaluate the positions we typically hold.

This article shows that the use new technology and computer programs sheds light on the role that Jesuits played in the commercial networks of the Iberian Empires during the early modern period. A number of studies have focused on the evangelical and missionary contribution by the members of the Society of Jesus in the Latin American and Asian frontiers, but this article puts forward a different point of view. I use the GECEM Database to compare two Jesuit mission areas (Macau and Paraguay) and their role in the global commercial routes. So, this article further departs from earlier scholarship on Jesuits by emphasising the local, by combining local scale with an analysis of inter-regional processes on a continental scale. My main sources are Jesuit letters, regulations, reports, accounts, and stories, and I also used the GECEM Database to analyse this empirical data.

Resumen

Este artículo muestra que el uso de las nuevas tecnologías y los programas informáticos arroja luz sobre el papel que los jesuitas desempeñaron en las redes comerciales de los imperios ibéricos durante la época moderna. Diversos estudios se han centrado en los aportes evangelizadores y misioneros de los miembros de la Compañía de Jesús en las fronteras latinoamericanas y asiáticas, pero este artículo plantea un punto de vista diferente. Utilizo la base de datos GECEM para comparar dos áreas de misión jesuita (Macao y Paraguay) y su papel en las rutas comerciales globales. De esta manera, el presente artículo se aleja de los estudios anteriores sobre los jesuitas al hacer hincapié en lo local, combinando la escala local con un análisis de los procesos interregionales a escala continental. Mis fuentes principales son las cartas, reglamentos, informes, relatos e historias de los jesuitas, y también utilicé la base de datos GECEM para analizar todos estos datos empíricos.

This paper discusses the importance of relational analysis to understand the role ofactors, institutions, and forms of cooperation and competition in the regional markets of the novo-Hispanic region. The analysis of fiscal, notarial and corporate sources is broughted to explain how commercial interests, corporate actions and egocentric actors are articulated in the novo-Hispanic markets. Spatial relationships, circulation nodes, and Chinese products in local markets are emphasized.