scholarly journals AI Ecosystems for Human Flourishing: The Recommendations

Author(s):  
Bernd Carsten Stahl

AbstractThis chapter develops the conclusions that can be drawn from the application of the ecosystemmetaphor to AI. It highlights the challenges that arise for the ethical governance of AI ecosystems. These provide the basis for the definition of requirements that successful governance interventions have to fulfil. Three main requirements become apparent: the need for a clear delimitation of the boundaries of the ecosystem in question, the provision and maintenance of knowledge and capacities within the ecosystem, and the need for adaptable, flexible and careful governance structures that are capable of reacting to environmental changes. Based on these requirements, the chapter then spells out some recommendations for interventions that are likely to be able to shape AI ecosystems in ways that are conducive to human flourishing.

2011 ◽  
Vol 356-360 ◽  
pp. 903-907
Author(s):  
Ai Jun Li ◽  
Yan Ying Guo ◽  
Feng He ◽  
Rui Jia Yuan

There are few indicator systems available for monitoring and assessing the environmental quality of large-scale regions. We constructed an indicator system for integrated assessment of the environmental quality of the Dianchi Basin. First, the definition of regional environmental quality is determined by both the supply of materials and energy in the region and the extent to which the region is polluted. Second, the indicator categories used for assessment mainly comprise vegetation biomass and the concentrations of various pollutants. Third, owing to spatial heterogeneity of a region, evaluation of the regional environment first requires division into sub-regions, each of which should be relatively homogeneous with regard to physical conditions (e.g. marine and terrestrial) and appearance (e.g. vegetation cover). Finally, the mathematical models for assessing regional environmental quality can be built according to the relationships between the various indicators, the sub-regions and regional environmental quality. The indicator system built using this approach can reflect environmental changes over time and identifies reasons for environmental variation.


2010 ◽  
pp. 387-397
Author(s):  
Ben Clegg ◽  
Mario Binder

Due to environmental changes and business trends such as globalisation, outsourcing and virtualisation, more and more companies get involved in business activities that are outside their direct control. This typically occurs by entering into collaborative relationships and joint ventures with specialised companies in order to fulfil the demands of customers quickly (DiMaggio, 2001). Organisational structures that results from such collaborative relationships and joint ventures are referred to in this paper as enterprises and the management of them known as enterprise management. The authors use the definition of the European Commission (2003) that defines an enterprise as “… an entity, regardless of its legal form … including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in economic activities.” Therefore in its most simple form an enterprise could be a single integrated company. However, findings from this research show that enterprises can also be made up of parts of different companies and the structure of the enterprise is contingent upon a variety of different factors. The success of the enterprise as a collaborative venture depends on the ability of companies to intermediate their internal core competencies into other participating companies’ value streams and simultaneously outsource their own peripheral activities to companies that can perform them quicker, cheaper, and more effectively (Lal et al., 1995). In other words, the peripheral activities of one member-company must be complemented by a core competence of another member-company within an overall enterprise.


2019 ◽  
Vol 139 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 271-284
Author(s):  
Amichai Magen

Adherents of economic and political liberty are again compelled to ask fundamental questions about the nature and prospects of good order (or Eunomia). This article: (1) offers a quaternary definition of the concept of “order;” (2) contends that Eunomia is essentially about the creation, adaptation, and protection of the conditions necessary for human beings to live lives that are free from fear so as to maximize each individual’s unique potential for human flourishing; and (3) outlines an evolutionary understanding of Eunomia, whereby contemporary liberal orders represent the cumulative outcome of three sets of elite-selected “wins” over illiberal ones. To survive and thrive in the twenty-first century liberalism must once again contest and defeat rival orders.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Adele Fasick

Although technology and the Internet have enabled the information professions to make huge strides, there are still many issues to be resolved. This article outlines and discusses many of them including environmental changes; linking - access, knowledge of location is not enough to access information; the proposed Information Commons by the University of Toronto; changes in definition of professions; the need for alternative delivery of education and for service orientation. Finally, the need for flexible basic education for Information Studies students is emphasized in order to guarantee the future of the profession. 


Author(s):  
Ricardo Machado Ruiz ◽  
Rodrigo Loureiro Medeiros

This paper discusses the Brazilian development and environmental sustainability. The industrial structures matter for the type of economic and social development. It is necessary to make choices, to rethink and plan the Brazilian economy in order to articulate technological innovations and environmental sustainability. The predatory and extractives model that characterizes the Brazilian economy and its international relations needs to be discussed. The global debate about environmental changes started in the 1970s, but it still doesn´t play an important role in the definition of the Brazilian economic structure. The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations is pointed out as a reference to be followed.


Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Jenkinson ◽  
Laurent Seuront ◽  
Haibing Ding ◽  
Florence Elias

Gas exchange reduction (GER) at the air-sea interface is positively related to the concentration of organic matter (OM) in the top centimetre of the ocean, as well as to phytoplankton abundance and primary production. The mechanisms relating OM to GER remain unclear, but may involve mechanical (rheological) damping of turbulence in the water immediately below the surface microlayer, damping of ripples and blocking of molecular diffusion by layers of OM, as well as electrical effects. To help guide future research in GER, particularly of CO2, we review published rheological properties of ocean water and cultures of phytoplankton and bacteria in both 3D and 2D deformation geometries, in water from both the surface layer and underlying water. Production of foam modulates air-sea exchange of many properties and substances, perhaps including climate-changing gases such as CO2. We thus also review biological modulation of production and decay of whitecaps and other sea foam. In the ocean literature on biological production of OM, particularly that which associates with the sea surface, the terms “surfactant” and “surface-active” have been given a variety of meanings that are sometimes vague, and may confuse. We therefore propose a more restricted definition of these terms in line with usage in surface science and organic chemistry. Finally, possible changes in OM-modulated GER are presented in relation to predicted global environmental changes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 268-285
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Lowe

The “right to belong” is a human right in two ways. First, there is the right to belong in a limited sense, i.e., to the extent necessary for individuals to secure all other human rights, such as those recognized by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Second, there is a deeper aspect of the right to belong, that which is necessary to flourish as a human being. To establish, first, that the right to belong in a limited sense should be a human right, I draw upon Hannah Arendt’s claim that stateless persons are without rights, as only communities can grant them. I argue that this limited level of belonging is a necessary but insufficient condition for human flourishing. Full human flourishing requires belonging on a deeper level. To articulate the nature of this deeper level of belonging I draw on Simone Weil’s definition of the “need for roots” and John Dewey and Jane Addams’ constructions of the self as social. I then show how “belonging” in a deeper sense necessarily connects with how a person is perceived and received by individuals and institutions in a community and argue that full perception by and participation in a community is necessary for humans to flourish. Thus, the right to belong imposes an ethical obligation on other members of the community to perceive undocumented immigrants as full human persons with the potential to lead flourishing lives.


Author(s):  
Ryan P. Hanley

This chapter examines the ways in which three of the most prominent thinkers of the eighteenth century—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant—understood the process by which we come to appreciate, embrace and practice one of the crucial virtues for human flourishing: justice. It begins with an analysis of Rousseau’s specifically relational conception of justice. It then turns to Rousseau’s contemporary Smith and his definition of justice as a virtue of nonmalfeasance. The chapter concludes with an examination of Kant, whose anthropological understanding of the person and conception of our duties to others offer a nuanced understanding of our duty to become just which also synthesizes elements of both Rousseau’s and Smith’s positions.


What has social science learned about the common good? Would humanists even want to alter their definitions of the common good based on what social scientists say? In this volume, six social scientists—from economics, political science, sociology, and policy analysis—speak about what their disciplines have to contribute to discussions within Catholic social thought about the common good. None of those disciplines talks directly about “the common good”; but nearly all social scientists believe that their scientific work can help make the world a better place, and each social science does operate with some notion of human flourishing. Two theologians examine the insights of social science, including such challenging assertions that theology is overly irenic, that it does not appreciate unplanned order, and that it does not grasp how in some situations contention among self-interested nations and persons can be an effective path to the common good. In response, one theologian explicitly includes contention along with cooperation in his (altered) definition of the common good.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Koppel Maldonado

Environmental changes, such as sea level rise, are forcibly displacing communities around the world. Forced displacement, inadequate governance mechanisms to address relocation and economic-based adaptation and restoration efforts are leading to devastating social, cultural, health, and economic consequences for the people and communities affected. This article focuses on three tribal communities in coastal Louisiana that are experiencing rapid environmental change and risk of displacement due to historical discriminatory processes, oil and dam-related development projects, oil disasters, increased exposure to hurricanes, and relative sea level rise. Focusing on the political ecology of the communities' experiences of environmental change, including the impacts of displacement and decisions to stay in-place vs. relocate, this paper addresses broader issues of adaptive governance structures and policy implications. Building on Bronen's (2011) rights-based approach to adaptation and Shearer's (2012) approach to a political ecology of adaptation, I argue that governance structures should be put in place that support communities' in-situ adaptation efforts or, if the community decides its current location is no longer inhabitable, to assist community-led relocation efforts. Multiple forms of knowledge should be incorporated into and should inform the structures supporting the adaptation process. I highlight the social, political, environmental and economic context within which environmental changes are occurring in coastal Louisiana through discussion on the loss of the commons, the creation of an energy sacrifice zone, costbenefit based restoration efforts and forced displacement and relocation.Key words: Environmental change, displacement, relocation, adaptation


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