scholarly journals Digital Limit Situations

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Lagerkvist
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Predictive Modelling ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Open Future ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Technological Transformation ◽  
The Future ◽  
Responsible Action ◽  
End Times ◽  
And Task

In the present age AI (artificial intelligence) emerges as both a medium to and message about (or even from) the future, eclipsing all other possible prospects. Discussing how AI succeeds in presenting itself as an arrival on the human horizon at the end times, this theoretical essay scrutinizes the ‘inevitability’ of AI-driven abstract futures and probes how such imaginaries become living myths, by attending how the technology is embedded in broader appropriations of the future tense. Reclaiming anticipation existentially, by drawing and expanding on the philosophy of Karl Jaspers – and his concept of the limit situation – I offer an invitation beyond the prospects and limits of ‘the new AI Era’ of predictive modelling, exploitation and dataism. I submit that the present moment of technological transformation and of escalating multi-faceted and interrelated global crises, is a digital limit situation in which there are entrenched existential and politico-ethical stakes of anticipatory media. Attending to them as a ‘future present’ (Adam and Groves 2007, 2011), taking responsible action, constitutes our utmost capability and task. The essay concludes that precisely here lies the assignment ahead for pursuing a post-disciplinary, integrative and generative form of Humanities and Social Sciences as a method of hope, that engages AI designers in the pursuit of an inclusive and open future of existential and ecological sustainability.

scholarly journals From Event to Node: How Nodal Structures Impact on Teaching and Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-284
Author(s):  
Christoph Bode
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Future ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Future Narratives ◽  
The Impact

While Past Narratives have events as their basic units, Future Narratives characteristically operate with nodes. A node is a situation that allows for more than just one continuation. Therefore, by definition, Past Narratives are uni-linear, while Future Narratives are multi-linear. Thus, by operating with nodes, Future Narratives cannot only talk about the future, but they perform aspects of futurity that seem essential: its openness, its contingency, and the fact that behind each present moment there opens up a space of possibilities that has not yet coagulated into actuality. Since Future Narratives can be found in all genres and media and, what is more, bridge the fiction/non-fiction divide, the impact of Future Narratives and their conceptualization is across the board and of greatest importance not only to media studies and teaching, but also to any kind of communicating about the future.

Reflections into the Spirit of the Islamic Corpus of Knowledge and the Rise of the New Science

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-164
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Dhaouadi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Third World ◽  
New Physics ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Western Science ◽  
New Science ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Primary Reference

There is no question that contemporary western civilization has beendominant in the field of science since the Renaissance. Western scientificsuperiority is not limited to specific scientific disciplines, but is rather anovetall scientific domination covering both the so-called exact and thehuman-social sciences. Western science is the primary reference for specialistsin such ateas as physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, economics,psychology, and sociology. It is in this sense that Third World underdevelopmentis not only economic, social, and industrial; it also suffersfrom scientific-cultutal underdevelopment, or what we call "The OtherUnderdevelopment" (Dhaouadi 1988).The imptessive progress of western science since Newton and Descartesdoes not meari, however, that it has everything tight or perfect. Infact, its flaws ate becoming mote visible. In the last few decades, westernscience has begun to experience a shift from what is called classical scienceto new science. Classical science was associated with the celestialmechanics of Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, the new physics of Galileo,and the philosophy of Descartes. Descartes introduced a radical divisionbetween mind and matter, while Newton and his fellows presented a newscience that looked at the world as a kind of giant clock The laws of thisworld were time-reversible, for it was held that there was no differencebetween past and future. As the laws were deterministic, both the pastand the future could be predicted once the present was known.The vision of the emerging new science tends to heal the division betweenmatter and spirit and to do away with the mechanical dimension ...

Time and Truth: The Presentism-Eternalism Debate

Philosophy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Stoneham
Keyword(s):  
Open Future ◽  
Equal Footing ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Growing Block ◽  
The Open Future ◽  
Block Universe ◽  
The Way

AbstractThere are many questions we can ask about time, but perhaps the most fundamental is whether there are metaphysically interesting differences between past, present and future events. An eternalist believes in a block universe: past, present and future events are all on an equal footing. A gradualist believes in a growing block: he agrees with the eternalist about the past and the present but not about the future. A presentist believes that what is present has a special status. My first claim is that the familiar ways of articulating these views result in there being no substantive disagreement at all between the three parties. I then show that if we accept the controversial truthmaking principle, we can articulate a substantive disagreement. Finally, I apply this way of formulating the debate to related questions such as the open future and determinism, showing that these do not always line up in quite the way one would expect.

Teaching the Future Tense: An Application of Historical Linguistics

Italica ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 398
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Koubek
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
The Future

Futures Honed

Futures ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Barbara Adam
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
The Past ◽  
Writing Theory ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Verse Form ◽  
The Way

This chapter comprises an interview between Barbara Adam and the editors, and is followed by Adam’s ‘Honing Futures’, which is presented in four short verses of distilled theory. In the interview Adam reflects on thirty-five years of futures-thinking rooted in her deeply original work on time and temporality, and her innovative response to qualitative and linear definitions of time within the social sciences. The interview continues with a discussion of the way Adam’s thinking on futures intersects in her work with ideas of ethics and collective responsibility politics and concludes with a brief rationale for writing theory in verse form. In ‘Honing Futures’, a piece of futures theory verse form, Adam charts the movements and moments in considerations of the Not Yet and futurity’s active creation: from pluralized imaginings of the future, to an increasingly tangible and narrower anticipated future, to future-making as designing and reality-creating performance. Collectively, the verses identify the varied complex interdependencies of time, space, and matter with the past and future in all iterations of honing and making futures.

scholarly journals Two bridges between biology and learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
Jorun Nyléhn
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Adaptive Memory ◽  
The Future

Human biology, in terms of organization of our brains and our evolutionary past, constrains and enables learning. Two examples where neurobiology and evolution influences learning are given and discussed in relation to education: mirror neurons and adaptive memory. Mirror neurons serves imitation and understanding of other peoples intentions. Adaptive memory implies that our memory is an adaptation influenced by our evolutionary past, enabling us to solve problems in the present and in the future. Additionally, the aim is to contribute to bridges between natural and social sciences in an attempt to achieve an improved understanding of learning. The relevance of perspectives on learning founded in biology are discussed, and the article argues for including biological perspectives in discussions of education and learning processes.

scholarly journals Ambiguity of Future in the Past in the Modern English Language

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Nikolaevna Selezneva
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Action ◽  
The Future

The article raises the question of ambiguity of Future in the Past in expressing the future tense in the modern English language. The author of the article analyzes should/would + infinitive, its grammatical status and the expressed lexical meaning. The article notes that ambiguity of Future in the Past is mainly due to the homonymy of should/would + infinitive forms with the forms of the subjunctive mood. However, Future in the Past is a part of the verb system of tenses in the modern English language and it expresses assumption, intention or obligation to perform a future action from the past position.

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