The Received Wisdom

Author(s):  
Meghan Sullivan

This chapter introduces the reader to future discounting and some received wisdom. The received wisdom about rational planning tends to assume that it is irrational to have near‐biased preferences (i.e., preferences for lesser goods now compared to greater goods further in the future).Thechapter describes these preferences by introducing the reader to value functions. Value functions are then used to model different kinds of distant future temporal discounting (e.g., hyperbolic, exponential, absolute). Finally, the chapter makes a distinction between temporal discounting and risk discounting. It offers a reverse lottery test to tease apart these two kinds of discounting.

Author(s):  
Richard Pettigrew

This chapter asks whether it is rationally permissible to assign less weight to the values of my other selves in line with the degree of psychological connectedness between us. This draws on Derek Parfit’s (1984, ‘Personal Identity’, in Philosophical Review, 80) rational reconstruction of temporal discounting. The chapter considers an argument by Arif Ahmed (2018, ‘Rationality and Future Discounting’, in Topoi, February) that such weights result in temporal discounting of a variety that makes the individual vulnerable to exploitation. It agrees with Ahmed, but argues that such exploitation does not render the individual irrational.


2019 ◽  
pp. 282-288
Author(s):  
Anne Fuchs

This epilogue connects the analysis of time and temporality with a broader perspective on the future direction of the humanities. In 2017, the renowned German writer Juli Zeh published Leere Herzen (Empty Hearts), a dystopian novel that imagines life in postdemocratic Germany and Europe. Zeh's novel does not rank among her highest literary achievements. From a temporal perspective, however, Leere Herzen is an intriguing novel: it places what one might call a “plausible dystopia” within close reach of the disillusioned age. Dystopia no longer designates the final apocalyptic catastrophe that dramatically unfolds in the distant future but rather the gradual erosion of democracy in the here and now. By radically shrinking the temporal gap between now and the future, Zeh's dystopia suspends the future perfect as an enabling perspective that can mobilize preventative action. By contrast to the apocalyptic staging of the tipping point that terminates life on this planet, presentist dystopias envisage the future as unfolding incrementally and cumulatively in the extended present.


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L Goffe ◽  
Robert P Parks

This paper is a first look at how the information infrastructure for economists will change with the arrival of the Internet. While paper has long been used for the flow of information in the profession, computer networks are starting to supplement it and, in the not-to-distant future, will replace paper. The authors examine the myriad ways in which a networked world will benefit the profession. The most exciting is the easy access to the material that lies at the heart of their profession: journals, working papers, data, and teaching.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Thomas Vincent ◽  
Neil Stewart

While parameters are crucial components of cognitive models, relatively little importance has been given to their units. We show that this has lead to some parameters to be contaminated, introducing an artifactual correlation between them. We also show that this has led to the illegal comparison of parameters with different units of measurement – this may invalidate parameter comparisons across partic- ipants, conditions, groups, or studies. We demonstrate that this problem affects two related models: Stevens’ Power Law and Rachlin’s delay discounting model. We show that it may even affect models which superficially avoid the incompatible units problem, such as hyperbolic discounting. We present simulation results to demonstrate the extent of the issues caused by the muddled units problem. We offer solutions in order to avoid the problem in the future or to aid in re-interpreting existing datasets.


Bosniaca ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (26) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
Emira Kulenović

Bibliotekarstvo kao nauka i vještina organizacije znanja i njegovih produkata evoluira te je, kao i sve ostale naučne ili praktične discipline, prisiljeno prilagođavati se vremenu. Na tom svom evolucijskom putu, općeprihvaćene teorije i poimanje biblioteke i bibliotekarstva kao struke se mijenjaju te se sve više udaljavaju od tradicionalnih predstava – gotovo do granice naučne fantastike. Pa ipak, do juče fikcijske, književnoumjetničke predstave, danas se posmatraju na krajnje konstruktivan i racionalan način. Jedan od najzanimljivijih primjera je doživljaj i vizija biblioteke u fikcijskom svijetu Jorgea Luisa Borgesa. Na tragu njegovih profetskih zapažanja utkanih u njegov književni univerzum, mnogi naučnici današnjice iz različitih oblasti kroz multidisciplinarni pristup pokušavaju rekonstruirati i kreirati sliku biblioteke budućnosti preoblikovane na način da može odgovoriti zahtjevima novog vremena. Ponajviše zahvaljujući enormnom tehnološkom razvoju i izazovima koje on sobom nosi, vizije sveopšte ili univerzalne biblioteke, biblioteke bez zidova, čine se izvodive i vode ka preispitivanju postojećih i stvaranju novih teorija o budućoj ulozi biblioteke i suštini bibliotečke prakse. Interesantno je i izazovno iz današnje perspektive struke promišljati na koji način će se poimati biblioteka u bližoj ili daljoj budućnosti, kako će izgledati i koja će od postojećih vizija, naučna ili literarna, biti bliže realizaciji u stvarnosti. = Librarianship as a science and skill of the organization of knowledge and its products is evolving and, like all other scientific or practical disciplines, it is forced to keep up with the times. In this evolutionary path, traditional theories and notions of libraries and librarianship as professions are changing and reaching far beyond the traditional ones – almost to the limits of science fictions. Nevertheless, theories which were until recently considered fictional literary and artistic performances are today already seen from an extremely constructive and rational perspective. One of the most interesting examples is the experience and vision of the library in the fictional world of Jorge Luis Borges. Following his prophetic observations woven into his literary universe, many scholars from various fields, are trying through a multidisciplinary approach to reconstruct and create an image of the library of the future reshaped in a way that can respond to demands of modern times. Mostly thanks to the enormous technological development and challenges it brings, visions of a Universal Library seem feasible and lead to rethinking of existing and creating new theories about the future role of the library and the essence of library practice. It is interesting and challenging from today’s professional perspective to think about the way that library will be understood in the near or distant future, what it will look like and which of the existing visions – scientific or literary – will be closer to realization in reality.


Author(s):  
Martha Hernández

When looking back into our history, science and technology have been the tools used by our species to fight its survival battle against its old enemies (diseases, famine, epidemics, etc.). But, ever since human discovered genetics and NBIC technologies (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science), our ambitions went one step further. We do not longer limit ourselves to ‘fix’ the Homo sapiens. Now we dream of enhancing the Homo sapiens and bring it into the next level: the Homo Deus. The consequences of our desires remain uncertain; but whatever they are, we need to accept that in a not too distant future the notions and understandings about ‘being human’ will appear less straight forward and even start to fade away. This paper discusses the senses in which science and technology have made humanity more distinctive as a species. As constructors of our own future, we need to question: will science and technology redeem humanity in the future? Or will they be the source of our collective downfall?


Author(s):  
David Forman

The ancient doctrine of the eternal return of the same embodies a thoroughgoing rejection of the hope that the future world will be better than the present. For this reason, it might seem surprising that Leibniz constructs an argument for a version of the doctrine. He concludes in one text that in the far distant future he himself ‘would be living in a city called Hannover located on the Leine river, occupied with the history of Brunswick, and writing letters to the same friends with the same meaning’. However, his argument shows not that the future will be absolutely identical to the present, but rather that any finite description of the present and future worlds would be identical. In this way, the argument leaves room for the promise of a different and better future—even if it is one that could not be recognized by us as such.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizio Tressoldi ◽  
Luciano Pederzoli

Even though it is still difficult for many to accept that our minds have the ability to influence and acquire information at a distance, that is to say, by unconventional means, there have already been several attempts to apply these abilities. This paper provides a review of state-of-the-art practical applications of our mind’s ability to obtain information at a distance, even from the future, and its ability to influence, always distantly and unconventionally, the behaviour, emotions, and physiology of human beings and biological and physical targets. Within the rich variety of these applications, some are already common outside the sphere of pure scientific research because their efficacy has by now been validated, while others’ applicability still require fine-tuning so that they too, in a not too distant future, become real mental technologies.


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