Cybernetics and Religion

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noreen Herzfeld
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Computer Design ◽  
Social Competition ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Unique Identity ◽  
Flow Of Information

Cybernetics is the study of systems of control and communication. While often used to refer to control systems in or by machines, such as computers, cybernetic theory can be applied to control and communication within a variety of areas, including human interaction and systems of production, distribution, or design, systems that may be comprised of humans, machines, or a combination of humans and machines. A cybernetic view of any system focuses on information and the flow of information, for that is what effects both control and communication. While cybernetics is a concept that can be used to describe any system through which information flows, today most human generated information flows through computers or computer controlled networks; thus in the popular mind, cybernetics is frequently used as a referent to anything pertaining to computer design, use, and human-computer interaction. A cybernetic view of the human person finds each person’s identity in the information comprising our memories, feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Human beings are considered in this view to be biological machines, each of whose unique identity is found in the patterns stored in the neuronal structures of the brain. In such an anthropology, there is no soul. Each of us is merely a vast and ever-changing collection of information. However, there is the possibility of a form of immortality effected by uploading the human brain to a computer. Cybernetics is, historically, closely associated with the field of artificial intelligence. Though experiencing initial successes in fields such as game playing or mathematics, producing a full, human-like intelligence has so far been limited by the difficult problems of giving a robot a body similar to ours, in order to experience the world as we do, and the necessity of emotion for true cognition and autonomous decision making. We have come closer to realizing the dreams of cybernetics by using the computer to mediate human-to-human relationships, especially through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. This has implications for religion, in that the widespread dissemination of a variety of religious materials and discussions has led to increased contact with other religions, increased conversions, and an increase in fundamentalism. Cybernetic theories can also be used to describe the origin of religion and the development of ethical systems. In general, a cybernetic view of the development of religion focuses on religion as an adaptive mechanism for the survival of groups as they evolve and change in an atmosphere of physical and social competition.

Opinion Paper: Ethical Problems in Health Information Systems

2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (04) ◽  
pp. 359-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Grémy ◽  
J.-M. Fessler
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Information Systems ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Automatic Information

Summary Objectives: To introduce term and concept of infoethics and to argue on its importance for health information systems. Methods: To argue about our viewpoint of the dominance of the human component, which has been discussed at an IMIA working conference held in Helsinki, Finland (February 1998) devoted to the evaluation of health information systems. Results and conclusions: Any technology sets a relationship between human beings and their environment, both physical and human. No technology can be seen as merely instrumental. This is especially relevant when dealing with large automatic information systems, developed to contribute to the management and integration of large organizations, such as hospitals. In such a context, the environment is mainly made up of humans. In evaluating such information systems, human factors preside over merely technical factors. Even if satisfying the latter is mandatory, they are never really sufficient. A perfect hard- and software system can be an absolute failure in everyday use. In any information system, the human factor is, of course, human-computer interaction, which always occurs when one person interacts with the machinery. However, in a simultaneous multi-user context, human-human interaction is the main question to tackle. The evaluation of large information systems, such as those found in hospitals, is founded in the whole concept of inter-human relationships which underlie the design and use of the system. Indeed, such an information system predominately appears as a social system, with its psychological, sociological and ethical features.

The Holy Trinity of Healthy Relationships

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Marginal Cost ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Healthy Relationships ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
School Year ◽  
Experience Teaching ◽  
Paper Towels

The pandemic has thrust students of all ages more forcefully into the arms of technology. Now that the Zoom-enabled school year is underway, I've pondered just how far technology will go toward replacing old-fashioned, one-on-one human interaction. It is indeed amazing what robots and chatbots can do. I schedule 90% of my meetings using an artificial intelligence “assistant” and not once has anyone guessed that their calendar appointment, reminder, and chirpy “Thanks!” came from an algorithm. And it has occurred to me that the two undergraduate classes I am now teaching remotely, attended by fewer than 100 students in total, could in theory balloon to a million at nearly zero marginal cost. And yet my experience teaching remotely has convinced me that human beings are built for human relationships. We don't mind buying paper towels on our browsers, but there is no one-click equivalent to feeling understood, respected, and cared for by another person.

Moralitas dalam Novel Negeri di Ujung Tanduk Karya Tere Liye

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-173
Author(s):  
Muhtadin Muhtadin ◽  
Sugi Murniasih
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Mutual Help ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Record Data ◽  
Morality Literature

The objective of this research was to describes the morality contained in the novel Affairs at the Negeri di Ujung Tanduk the works Tere Liye. The research method used content analysis. The data in this research is a sentence containing the moral values ​​contained by the novel of the State at Ujung Tanduk Karya Tere Liye. Technique of collecting data using documentation technique and record. Data analysis techniques with steps: data reduction, data tabulation and coding, interpretation, classification, and conclusion. The result of the research shows that morality in Tere Liye Negeri di Ujung Tanduk novel is: first, human relationships with other human beings in the form of self existence, self esteem, self confidence, fear, death, longing, resentment, loneliness, maintaining the sanctity of greed, developing courage, honesty, hard work, patient, resilient, cheerful, steadfast, open, visionary, independent, brave, courageous, optimistic, envy, hypocritical, reflective, responsible, principle, confident, disciplined , and voracious. Second, human relationships with other humans or social and nature in the form of cooperation, acquaintance, hypocrisy, caring, hypocrisy, caring, friendship, smile, mutual help, and betrayal. Third human relationships in the form of God's menthidising and avoiding shirk, piety and pleading with prayers, prayers performed by human beings, as an awareness that everything in this universe belongs to God. Keywords: morality, literature, novel

Living within Limits

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Population Control ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Population Problem ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Garrett Hardin ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Free Flow Of Information ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Original Thinker

We fail to mandate economic sanity, writes Garrett Hardin, "because our brains are addled by...compassion." With such startling assertions, Hardin has cut a swathe through the field of ecology for decades, winning a reputation as a fearless and original thinker. A prominent biologist, ecological philosopher, and keen student of human population control, Hardin now offers the finest summation of his work to date, with an eloquent argument for accepting the limits of the earth's resources--and the hard choices we must make to live within them. In Living Within Limits, Hardin focuses on the neglected problem of overpopulation, making a forceful case for dramatically changing the way we live in and manage our world. Our world itself, he writes, is in the dilemma of the lifeboat: it can only hold a certain number of people before it sinks--not everyone can be saved. The old idea of progress and limitless growth misses the point that the earth (and each part of it) has a limited carrying capacity; sentimentality should not cloud our ability to take necessary steps to limit population. But Hardin refutes the notion that goodwill and voluntary restraints will be enough. Instead, nations where population is growing must suffer the consequences alone. Too often, he writes, we operate on the faulty principle of shared costs matched with private profits. In Hardin's famous essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons," he showed how a village common pasture suffers from overgrazing because each villager puts as many cattle on it as possible--since the costs of grazing are shared by everyone, but the profits go to the individual. The metaphor applies to global ecology, he argues, making a powerful case for closed borders and an end to immigration from poor nations to rich ones. "The production of human beings is the result of very localized human actions; corrective action must be local....Globalizing the 'population problem' would only ensure that it would never be solved." Hardin does not shrink from the startling implications of his argument, as he criticizes the shipment of food to overpopulated regions and asserts that coercion in population control is inevitable. But he also proposes a free flow of information across boundaries, to allow each state to help itself. "The time-honored practice of pollute and move on is no longer acceptable," Hardin tells us. We now fill the globe, and we have no where else to go. In this powerful book, one of our leading ecological philosophers points out the hard choices we must make--and the solutions we have been afraid to consider.

The entanglement of knowing and being: Hegel, ontology and education in the 21st century

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
Brendan Hyde
Keyword(s):  
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Contemporary Education ◽  
Space Recognition

There has been a revived interest Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Notions emanating from his philosophy concerning the human person and that human beings together create and sustain phenomena through social practice speaks of a relational ontology that has relevance for contemporary education. This article argues that such ontology needs to be considered alongside the epistemological concerns of education. From Hegel’s writing, five interdependent ideas are delineated which have relevance for a relational ontology appropriate for contemporary education ‐ consciousness, self-consciousness, social space, recognition and identity. From these, three propositions for a social ontology of education ‐ learning as a socially constructed activity, learning as the formation of identity and learning as recognition ‐ are posited and discussed.

scholarly journals Equality: A Principle of Human Interaction

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hjördís Hákonardóttir
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Human Beings

The paper focuses on equality as a primary principle of human interaction. Human beings have basic needs, physical and mental, the fulfilment of which is necessary for a flourishing life. These needs transfer into so-called fundamental rights. Humans are entitled to a life as conscious, autonomous actors in respect to those needs. In this respect all humans are equal. It is proposed here that equality in this sense promotes a situation from which fundamental rights are derived. Thus equality is primary to and the reason why recognition of fundamental rights cannot be left to the chance of social development.

scholarly journals As palavras e os bichos: sobre o lugar do homem no jogo das representações científicas | The words and the beasts: on the place of man in the game of scientific representations

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Milla Benicio
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Scientific Representations ◽  
Complex Transformation ◽  
The Creation

RESUMO O principal objetivo deste artigo é traçar o itinerário científico e filosófico que permitiu à modernidade a criação de um novo campo de visibilidade dentro da ciência, enfraqueceu o antigo pressuposto da centralidade do homem em relação aos demais seres e levou a uma complexa transformação nas relações do homem com o mundo natural. Nosso foco será, portanto, a grande reorganização epistemológica e cultural do Ocidente, cujas quebras de paradigmas revolucionaram não apenas as noções ligadas à natureza, mas, principalmente, ao papel do homem nesse cenário.Palavras-chave: Reorganização Epistemológica; Homem; Mundo Natural.      ABSTRACT This article aims to draw the scientific and philosophical route which allowed to modernity the creation of a new field of visibility within science. This field weakened the old assumption of the centrality of human beings in relation to other and led to a complex transformation in human relationships with the natural world. Our focus will therefore be the major epistemological reorganization of the Western, whose breaking paradigms revolutionized not only the concepts related to the nature, but, mainly, to the role of the man in this scenario.Keywords: Epistemological Reorganization; Man; Natural World.

scholarly journals Safety Assistance Visual Surveillance Robot

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 752-756
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Object Detection ◽  
Radar System ◽  
Visual Surveillance ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Toxic Environment ◽  
Echo Time

There is a need for safety assistance visual surveillance that can be effectively used to navigate hazardous places which cannot be accessed by human beings. Several high-risk conditions like radioactive zone, toxic environment and accident-prone areas are usually approached/tackled by humans with little to no information about their conditions. Hence our aim is to reduce any human interaction with these unsafe circumstances by proposing a visual surveillance robot that is capable of moving in any terrain and can relay live information to the controller situated at a remote location. In this paper we address the implementation of Visual Surveillance bot by using a Camera that rotates at 360 degree with the help of DC motor, which illustrate the surrounding so as to provide the estimation of danger if any. We present the execution by efficiently live streaming information with the help of Raspberry pi and by using the MATLAB software to create a RADAR plot by analyzing the object detected by Ultrasonic sensor. The usage of MATLAB not only simplifies the analysis but also helps in creating an enhanced RADAR system by using an ARDUINO to support the ultrasonic system in recording the echo time and object detection angle.

Real Selves: Persons as a Substantial Kind

1991 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 87-107
Author(s):  
E. J. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Body Problem ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Human Case ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Animal Body ◽  
Biological Substance ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
The Mind

Are persons substances or modes? (The terminology may seem archaic, but the issue is a live one.) Two currently dominant views may be characterized as giving the following rival answers to this question. According to the first view, persons are just biological substances. According to the second, persons are psychological modes of substances which, as far as human beings are concerned, happen to be biological substances, but which could in principle be non-biological. There is, however, also a third possible answer, and this is that persons are psychological substances. Such a view is inevitably associated with the name of Descartes, and this helps to explain its current unpopularity, since substantial dualism of his sort is now widely rejected as ‘unscientific’. But one may, as I hope to show, espouse the view that persons are psychological substances without endorsing Cartesianism. This is because one may reject certain features of Descartes's conception of substance. Consequently, one may also espouse a version of substantial dualism which is distinctly non-Cartesian. One may hold that a person, being a psychological substance, is an entity distinct from the biological substance that is (in the human case) his or her body, and yet still be prepared to ascribe corporeal characteristics to this psychological substance. By this account, a human person is to be thought of neither as a non-corporeal mental substance (a Cartesian mind), nor as the product of a mysterious ‘union’ between such a substance and a physical, biological substance (a Cartesian animal body). This is not to deny that the mind—body problem is a serious and difficult one, but it is to imply that there is a version of substantial dualism which does not involve regarding the ‘mind’ as a distinct substance in its own right.

scholarly journals A Systematic Literature Review of Animal-Assisted Interventions in Oncology (Part II): Theoretical Mechanisms and Frameworks

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 153473542094326
Author(s):  
Timothy R. N. Holder ◽  
Margaret E. Gruen ◽  
David L. Roberts ◽  
Tamara Somers ◽  
Alper Bozkurt
Keyword(s):  
Human Interaction ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Cancer Treatments ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Activation Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Animal Bond ◽  
Base Study ◽  
Physical Touch

Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) can improve patients’ quality of life as complementary medical treatments. Part I of this 2-paper systematic review focused on the methods and results of cancer-related AAIs; Part II discusses the theories of the field’s investigators. Researchers cite animal personality, physical touch, physical movement, distraction, and increased human interaction as sources of observed positive outcomes. These mechanisms then group under theoretical frameworks such as the social support hypothesis or the human-animal bond concept to fully explain AAI in oncology. The cognitive activation theory of stress, the science of unitary human beings, and the self-object hypothesis are additional frameworks mentioned by some researchers. We also discuss concepts of neurobiological transduction connecting mechanisms to AAI benefits. Future researchers should base study design on theories with testable hypotheses and use consistent terminology to report results. This review aids progress toward a unified theoretical framework and toward more holistic cancer treatments.

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