Artificial intelligence as an anthropotechnology

Artificial intelligence is a computer system that thinks or acts like humans. Features of AI systems embody implicit beliefs concerning the human nature that AI developers have. “Strong” AI, which has the general cognitive abilities of an adult, has not yet been created, while “weak” AI is already part of the planetary computation infrastructure. Neural network AI mimics specific types of human behavior, generalizing data about the everyday lives of its users. This AI approach corresponds to the philosophical mainstream of the 20th century, when everyday life was seen as a source of the linguistic and the social pre-given that yields mutual understanding. This approach is also based on the traditional human-machine dichotomy and the corresponding idea that human nature is stable and independent of the technological condition. However, in the post-metaphysical age, when human interaction with technology is communicative rather than instrumental, data on everyday life cannot be an independent paragon of the human nature. AI systems do not only codify the descriptive features of human nature, but also discipline their users, as the digital environment in which everyday data can be collected is already organized by AI. Accordingly, in the digital environment, people are forced to reproduce new norms of behavior, codified by AI, which became one of the forms of human self-mastery, or anthropotechnology. The impact of AI is rarely noted, as the digital environment in which people interact with AI is not organized in a way that is clearly understandable. The anthropotechnological nature of AI is a side effect of the development of platforms, so AI developers rarely take responsibility for the norms embodied in the systems they create.

The Technological Condition of Human Evolution: Lithic Studies as Basic Science

The recent elaboration and rapid expansion of aDNA, paleoproteomics, and related fields have propelled a profound “biomolecular turn” in archaeology and fundamentally changed the topology of archaeological knowledge production. Such a transformation of the archaeological research landscape is not without consequence for long-standing research practices in the field, such as lithic analysis. This special issue derives from the session Old Stones, New Eyes? organized by the authors at the UISPP World Congress in Paris in 2018, which aimed to explore the future of lithic studies. An underlying theme of our session was the felt need to respond to the increasing marginalization of lithic research in terms of its capacity to (1) contribute to the grand narratives of early human evolution and (2) better articulate the role and significance of lithic studies in interdisciplinary human origins research. In this editorial, we briefly outline some of the questions and challenges raised by the biomolecular turn and advocate for a more self-conscious and reflexive stance among lithic experts. We argue that lithic studies fulfill all necessary requirements to act as a basic science for human origins research and that its role and status depends less on technological advances, such as, e.g., improved computing facilities, novel analytical software, or automated shape capture technologies, than on continuous work on the conceptual and methodological foundations of inquiry. We finally draw attention to the unique capability of lithic studies to shed light on the human technological condition and illustrate this potential by introducing and briefly discussing the papers included in this issue.

Optimierung unter der technologischen Bedingung von Künstlicher Intelligenz und Robotik

Optimization under the Technological Condition of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics In this paper, the anthropological development of an understanding of technology is derived as a condition of the socio-historical significance of optimization. The technology deficit of education in the digital transformation is problematized. Optimization under the technological condition of robotics is deepened regarding the human-animal relationship. Finally, the need for an accelerated focus on the phenomena of optimization under the technological condition of artificial intelligence and robotics is referred to.

A New Fe-C Porous Filter Material From Dredged Sediment: Preparation, Characterization, And Its Application

A new Fe-C porous filter material was prepared with dredged sediment of river as raw material. The orthogonal test L9(34) and component ratio experiment of raw material were conducted to investigate the optimum technological condition. Further, the filter obtained was characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results showed that the optimal technological condition was sludge: straw: starch: iron powder: foam: iron powder 74.5∶10∶7.5∶3∶5, preheating temperature 280 ℃, preheating 15 min, sintering temperature 1080 ℃, and sintering 11 min. The BET surface area of the filter was 3.32 m2 g− 1, and average pore size was 10.05 nm. Phase composition mainly included SiO2, Fe3O4, Fe2O3 and muscovite (KAl2(Si3Al)O10(OH)2). Average effluent concentrations of total phosphorus (TP), total organic carbon (TOC), and total nitrogen (TN) of the biofilter system filled with the filter obtained were decreased to 0.08, 3.43, and 3.76 mg L− 1, separately, at hydraulic retention time 4 h. Thus, the filter prepared with dredged sediment of rive as raw material is an alternative material for polluted river water purification.

Mediating actio in distans: Leibniz, Clarke and Newton on the communicability of forces

This article revisits the debate between Leibniz and Clarke to explore conceptual shifts in the use of the term medium. A basic tenet of physics since antiquity says that every act of communication ‐ that is, every transmission of a force from the place of its cause to that of its effect ‐ requires a medium to ensure its interaction. In the context of the Early Modern Period, media were regarded as mediating instances that enabled communication. If these instances were not immediately connected but rather spatially separated from one another ‐ as in the case of gravitation, magnetism or electricity ‐ then there had to be a medium to ensure both the transmission of the force and the causal connection. Although the mediation of the medium took place in an inexplicable way, it seemed to explain one process or another by its mere introduction. The epistemological foundations of communicability ‐ those with which Leibniz, Clarke and Newton were attempting to come to terms ‐ remain relevant to the descriptive language with which we depict our present and its technological condition. Without duration there is no mediation but rather immediacy and simultaneity. Immediacy means that the necessary separation between the two events, the abyss of communication, is negated. Immediacies, like instantaneous actions at a distance, presuppose the difference they are deemed to eradicate.

Psychological training of future specialists in physical culture and sports for the activities of a sports coach in higher education institutions

The purpose of the article is to highlight the features of the methodology of psychological training of future specialists in physical culture and sports for the activities of a sports coach and its implementation in higher education institutions. To achieve this goal, the analysis and generalization of scientific literature on issues related to the psychological training of future professionals in physical culture and sports to the activities of a sports coach; the categorical apparatus of the research was formulated and the object, subject, concept and general hypothesis of the research were determined. Methods of psychological training of future specialists in physical culture and sports for the activities of a sports coach in higher education institutions involves a consistent movement of educational levels: the level of motivation for training for the activities of a sports coach, the level of theoretical experience, the level of practical experience. Implementation of the developed methods of psychological training of future specialists in physical culture and sports to the activities of a sports coach was carried out during theoretical and practical classes in the disciplines «Introduction to the specialty», «Theory and methods of physical education», «Theory and methods of gymnastics», «Fundamentals sports training», «Olympic and professional sports» and coaching practice. A necessary technological condition for the implementation of the leading idea is the observance of strict sequence in the assimilation of educational material: the development of the studied information, the formation of skills to use this material, the formation of skills to act adequately in professional activities. The organization of psychological training of future specialists in physical culture and sports for the activities of a sports coach was carried out during practical classes in professional disciplines and includes the following components: forms of system of formation of psychological readiness of future specialists in physical culture and sports for sports coach activities, interactive educational technologies, business games that involve future professionals in physical therapy and occupational therapy professional tasks and responsibilities, problem-oriented learning, project-oriented learning, team-oriented learning, means of physical education and sports training, textbooks, manuals, test tasks, information tools and communication technologies.

Mourning the Nightingale’s Song: The Audibility of Networked Performances in Protests and Funerals of the Arab Revolutions

Given the salient role of embodied tactics in contemporary networked protests in performance, in this essay I listen for how the embodied sonic praxis of protests during the Arab revolutions translates into the audio, visual, and text modalities of digital media. I propose audibility, or the appearance and perceptibility of sound objects, as that which translates the “live” sound that occurs in physical spaces into representational spaces, and, in so doing, alters the temporality and spatiality of the sonic experience. Interrogating who and what are rendered audible as part of the political contestations that drive protest actions, I demonstrate how audibility is a technological condition, sensory force, and social process through which affective publics emerge in networked spaces. I begin with social media posts from the first months of non-violent protest actions in 2011, in Egypt and Syria, analyzing the translation of sonic objects into written texts that narrativize the subjects and spaces of the Arab revolutions. I then shift to the sonic praxis of revolutionary mourning in a discussion of the audibility of the crowd in footage of protest funerals that reclaimed martyrs of the Syrian revolution in 2018 and 2019, interrogating how the sounds of the crowd enable the mythologization of the martyrs’ bodies and help mobilize the cause for which they died. Both approaches to audibility – as expressing voice and documenting sounds – underscore how audibility, I argue, is crucial for understanding the affect-rich intensities that drive networked protest performances, and that forge political possibilities as imaginable, sensible, and perceptible.

RETHINKING FINANCIAL AND MONETARY POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF MARKET TRANSFORMATION AND PROSPECTIVE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINE

The article is dedicated to the issue of adequacy of financial resources for structural changes in the context of market transformation of Ukraine’s economy. It was determined that formal character and uncompleted market reforms in most cases had resulted a strong motivational environment to reduce the domestic development potential and the spread of the shadow economy. The decisive factor in the implementation of the relevant changes was the use of cheap labor, which allowed maintaining a high level of employment, but at the cost of falling efficiency and profitability of production. The GDP cut by almost half but unemployment rate achieved 2%, and not only the labor force but also the enterprises that were privatized depreciated. The funds raised from their sale served as an additional, but very limited, source of public finance. The objects of privatization were depreciated enterprises, the funds from which served as an additional, but very limited, source to public finance. Their permanent deficit with falling GDP required a stronger tax component to offset rising government spending. The article presents the consequences of using a deficit model of the economy financing, in particular: falling GDP, including GDP per capita, the formation of a large power of the self-employed population, a significant spread of the shadow economy and the associated large stratification, development of inflationary processes, strengthening of tax pressure on legal business, deteriorating technical and technological condition of enterprises, lack of investment resources in their renewal, a significant amount of non-performing loans, which limits the motivation to invest as well as essential accumulation of debts. The proposals are made to change the model of economy financing via the transition to domestic sources of expanding effective demand, which stimulates increased productivity through innovation and investment. The implementation of this model involves a consistent increase in the cost of labor, consistent with the reduction of the tax burden, strengthening incentives to reduce costs and increase efficiency and provides expanded investment based on increasing domestic demand.