scholarly journals The Human Machine at the Aboagora Symposium

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Anna Haapalainen

Aboagora 2013 discussed the complex relationships between man and machine, where not only may the human being itself be viewed as a corporeal machine, but it is also possible to interpret the machine as an extension of the human sensory system. After three days of lectures and workshops about the multifaceted relationship between man and the machine, the ontological dividing line between humans and machines was open to question. For example, while the human body can be defined as the ultimate machine – an assemblage of forces, actions and mechanisms ranging from the optics of the eye to the processes of cognition – the boundaries between man and machine may be blurred as technological devices are used as integral parts of the human body. Where do we draw the line between man and machine in such situations? The Aboagora symposium on 'The Human Machine' raised important questions about the ontological qualities and delineations of various entities.

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Sandra Junker

This article deals with the idea of ritual bodily impurity after coming into contact with a corpse in the Hebrew Bible. The evanescence and impermanence of the human body testifies to the mortality of the human being. In that way, the human body symbolizes both life and death at the same time; both conditions are perceivable in it. In Judaism, the dead body is considered as ritually impure. Although, in this context it might be better to substitute the term ‘ritually damaged’ for ‘ritually impure’: ritual impurity does not refer to hygienic or moral impurity, but rather to an incapability of exercising—and living—religion. Ritual purity is considered as a prerequisite for the execution of ritual acts and obligations. The dead body depends on a sphere which causes the greatest uncertainty because it is not accessible for the living. According to Mary Douglas’s concepts, the dead body is considered ritually impure because it does not answer to the imagined order anymore, or rather because it cannot take part in this order anymore. This is impurity imagined as a kind of contagious illness, which is carried by the body. This article deals with the ritual of the red heifer in Numbers 19. Here we find the description of the preparation of a fluid that is to help clear the ritual impurity out of a living body after it has come into contact with a corpse. For the preparation of this fluid a living creature – a faultless red heifer – must be killed. According to the description, the people who are involved in the preparation of the fluid will be ritually impure until the end of the day. The ritual impurity acquired after coming into contact with a corpse continues as long as the ritual of the Red Heifer remains unexecuted, but at least for seven days. 


Author(s):  
Oksana Romaniuk ◽  
Bohdan Zadvornyi

The article is devoted to theoretical and methodological substantiations of the body flexibility development practically applying the stretching techniques. It was generalized scientific data on the organization and methodological features of stretching exercises. Semantic content and structural componential model of stretching usage in the process of flexibility development and the estimation of the changes of this characteristic according to the age were carried out. In particular, some parameters were highlighted especially which allow to recommend that methodology both for individual and group usage were analyzed. Besides, it was analyzed the diversity of physiological mechanism of the influence of stretching on human body, especially it was singled out the effect on mental and physical spheres of human being. The generalized scientific data on the theoretical and practical aspects of flexibility development with the help of stretching techniques indicate the priority of usage of this method in many types of physical activities irrespective of the scope of its practical application.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Carlos Rios Llamas

ABSTRACTFoucault conceived the human being as defined by biopower forces. After that, the industrial society treated the body as an element of the production process, and the care of the self was derived to healthcare institutions. Recently, Paula Sibilia studied the industrial human being from the capitalism on his transformation through technology and digital hybrids. She thinks that the human body could be at the end in the form we know it. But in the perspectives of both Foucault and Sibilia, the body projects could be at their own obsolescence because they leave a key element aside: the obesogenic environment which is implicit into the current modern technological society. This abstract pretends to visualize how body projects and modernity are interconnected and confronted, from their assumptions and fundamentals, against obesity. RESUMENDe acuerdo con Faucault el cuerpo humano es modelado a partir de dispositivos que corresponden con las formas de poder y con las funciones que se le asignan en una sociedad y en una situación espaciotemporal específica. En esta lógica, el cuidado del cuerpo frente a la obesidad como amenaza, se habría de estudiar desde el entorno social y su evolución en las últimas décadas. Así, mientras que a mediados del siglo XX, las sociedades industriales definieron el cuerpo por su utilidad en los procesos de producción, y el cuidado de uno mismo se derivó a las instituciones como garantes del bienestar, en las últimas décadas las hibridaciones tecnológicas y digitales amenazan el cuerpo biológico y cultural en la forma que lo conocemos. Algunos autores indican que esta forma de cuerpo podría llegar a su fin ante la imbricación de nuevos aditamentos como prótesis, dopaje y alteraciones quirúrgicas. En una lectura desde el margen de los avances en el campo tecnocientífico y biopolítico, todos los proyectos de corporeidad encontrarían hoy su propia obsolescencia ante la obesidad que se instituye como pandemia y que amenaza al cuerpo desde la cultura, la medicina, la economía, la política y los estudios ambientales. Es oportuno, entonces, develar los vínculos entre el cuidado del cuerpo y la contemporaneidad, y desde la obesidad como amenaza de los supuestos avances tecnocientíficos. Por eso, en la conceptualización de “ambientes obesogénicos” se abre una posibilidad para analizar el proyecto contemporáneo de cuerpo desde los espacios donde se construye y se modela su cuidado, y a partir de sus formas de resistencia ante los cambios tecnocientíficos.


2018 ◽  
pp. 146-172
Author(s):  
Eric Daryl Meyer

Chapter 6 takes up the end of the human story with God, the eschatological transformation of the human being through the resurrection of the body end entry into perfect communion with God. Conventionally, theologians have imagined resurrected of human body as being whole and intact, but with several basic vital functions negated—namely digestion and sexual expression. Arguing that such a maneuver safeguards the materiality of the human body precisely by negating its animality, this chapter seeks to construct a vision of transformed human life with God in which digestion and sexual expression are at the center of human communion with God and fellow creatures. The chapter’s efforts are aided by the wealth of the tradition itself: biblical and liturgical imagery such as the wedding feast of the Lamb, eucharistic theology, and Christian nuptial mysticism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (02) ◽  
pp. 251-255
Author(s):  
Du Hyun Ro ◽  
Hyun Sik Gong

Homunculus is a term used to refer to any representation of a miniature human being. In scientific fields, the word homunculus has been used to refer to any scale model of the human body that represents physiological, psychological, or other human functions. The hand is thought as a homunculus of the body in Hand Acupuncture Therapy, a type of alternative medicine in Korea. Hand acupuncture therapists believe stimulating the hand can improve bodily health. Although there is a need for scientific evidence regarding this concept, those that perform hand acupuncture seem to recognize the importance of hand in our body.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 01-08
Author(s):  
P D Gupta

Microbiota is a life line for human being, however if the balance in interspecies of microbiota is disturb, it can cause not only serious diseases but can kill also. Collectively the microbiotal species act as epigenetic factor for humans. First exposure to microbiota is in utero. The whole health programming of the individuals stars even before birth. C-section or fed formula fed babies are immunologically weaker than that of normal delivered and beast fed babies. For the lifelong good health of babies, Mothers should opt for vaginal delivery and breastfeeding for healthy newborn


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 57-80
Author(s):  
Mansur Ali

Organ transplantation is a morally challenging subject. It gives rise to several ethical dilemmas which question the very meaning of what it means to be a human being. For some Muslims, organ transplantation impinges on God’s claim to ownership. Research reveals that proponents of organ transplantation focus on the benefits afforded to the recipient, while opponents highlight the situation of the donor. For them the entire focus on the health benefits to the recipient turns a blind eye to the dignity of the donor who is viewed as nothing more than a repository for organs, to be extracted and then forgotten. After a brief survey of the different opinions on organ transplantation, I present a translation and commentary of an article written by the former grand-mufti of Lebanon, Muḥammad Rashīd Qabbānī which attempts to research the issue of whether organ transplantation impinges on God’s sovereignty over the human body or not.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 11151-11157

Nowadays, the major biomedical data required for diagnosing the disease is neurons in the nerve cell. Just a brief timeframe after the neuron became recognized as the basic unit of the sensory system, the main endeavors were made to appraise the quantity of neurons in various parts of the sensory system. During the previous century, an incredible number of techniques have been utilized in making such gauges. In spite of the fact that the most generally utilized and acknowledged strategy is that of direct including in the magnifying lens, different systems, including photographic, projection, homogenate, programmed, and visual strategies have been planned. And in this project we are taking a brain tissue as an image data and from that image we are finding the number of neurons which are active in state for the first 24 hrs. and again check for 48 hrs. and finally for 72 hrs. so we here find how neurons are responding after giving information to a body and that information flows through nerves of the body and reaches to the neurons present in a human brain and the neurons react to the information and we take the data that how many neurons are responding to the information that is given to a human body. So, by finding the number of neurons responding to the information given to human body we could estimate the neurons which are alive, and which are dead by this we could declare the mental status of a person. So we are finding the number of neurons with the help of neural network method using MATLAB software and we created a page with the help of MATLAB so we can give input image in the page and the code we written will help to check the number of neurons.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 104-135
Author(s):  
L. Novoselova

In this article, an attempt is made to determine the legal status of the human body (organs and tissue) both while a person is alive and after a person dies. The article discusses the points of view of various authors in relation to the possibility of considering the human body, its organs and tissue, after their separation from the body, as objects of a person’s property rights, and also as an object of a person’s non-property rights. The article argues the impossibility of qualifying the human body and the organs that were not separated from it during life as parts – and perhaps critical parts – of the existence of the total human being, as objects of real (property) rights including the rights of the persons themselves. The human body as a single object is a personal non-property benefit. The organs and tissue separated from the body may be considered objects of real rights, but on several conditions: if they were indeed separated from the body and if the person gave permission for this in a will. The specific characteristics of the legal status of the separated organs and tissue of a human being are analyzed as things (possessions) with limited turnover. The specific characteristics of the legal status of the organs and tissue separated from the body as possessions in limited turnover are reviewed as well as the impact of personal non-property rights on this status. The main focus of the article is on the legal status of the human body and the organs separated from it after death in view of the fact that transplantology and postmortem organ donation are becoming more and more widespread. This issue is analyzed in terms of the body as a whole and as it applies to the organs and tissue that are not used for transplantation. The proposal is to base our analysis on the status of the human body after death which as a rule cannot be the object of property rights. The human body is disposed of within the framework of the protection of the personal non-property rights of the deceased, including the right of physical inviolability that covers the organs and tissue separated from the body. The article characterizes the legal nature of living wills when people give instructions as to the procedure of their burial and other means of handling their body, including donation of their bodies to science. The article examines the possibility of the right of ownership to organs and tissue separated from the body after death. This right can exist if a complex legal construct is present, including a direct or assumed living will of the person. The specific characteristics of living acts concerning the possibility of after-death organ and tissue harvesting for further use, including for transplantation purposes, and the differences between such acts and last wills are determined.


Author(s):  
Jingduan Yang ◽  
Daniel A. Monti

This chapter teaches the theory of Yin and Yang, including its definition, examples of Yin and Yang in life and nature, and clinical application of the Yin and Yang theory. It also elaborates on the theory of Wu Xing (Five Elements), its concepts, examples of five elements in all aspects in life and nature, and their dynamic relationships and clinical applications. The human body maintains homeostasis inside itself and with nature through a generating (Shen) and inhibiting (Ke) relationship among the five elements described in Wu Xing theory. The theories of both Yin and Yang and Wu Xing support that the energetic human being is part of nature and the universe and that the relation between the two needs to be cultivated. The modern medical equivalents of Yin/Yang and Wu Xing are described in all regulatory mechanism of hormones, neurotransmitters, immune factors, autonomic nerve systems, metabolism, and biological homeostasis.


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