scholarly journals Distraction Machines? Augmentation, Automation and Attention in a Computational Age

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (98) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Beatrice Fazi
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
Attention Deficits ◽  
Cognitive Agents ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Computing Machines

It is often argued (and feared) that the human capacity to pay attention is being transformed by computational technologies. Are computing machines distraction machines? This article takes this question as its starting point in order to address concerns about attention deficits visà-vis questions and issues about the mechanisation of cognitive procedures. I will claim that, when approaching the attention ecology of the twenty-first century, it is necessary to differentiate between augmentation and automation. While augmentation implies the extension of predefined forms or modes of behaviour, contemporary developments in computational automation ask us instead to consider the possibility of moving beyond phenomenological analogies. The article will thus discuss how transformations in the capacity to pay attention in a computational age need to be analysed in relation to the emergence of quasi-autonomous artificial cognitive agents driven by AI technologies, such as those known as machine learning. I will argue that these artificial cognitive agents can no longer be described in terms of technological add-ons to pre-existing human cognitive capacities. Today, we think alongside machines that are, is a sense, already thinking. Similarly, we pay attention alongside machines that are, in a sense, already paying attention. The challenge for philosophy and cultural theory is that of moving beyond 'projectionist' conceptions of such technological agency. This challenge, however, also involves overcoming the anthropomorphism that is implicit in expression such as 'thinking machines'. In a century where robot-to-robot communications have outpaced and outnumbered human-machine interactions, these artificial cognitive agents are not just reframing the human capacity to pay attention: they are also re-structuring the conditions for such capacity. Addressing the conditions for attention beyond augmentation and vis-à-vis computational automation involves considering the role and scope of both human and algorithmic decisionmaking, and engaging with the ways in which the humanities can intervene upon contemporary complex cognitive scenarios.

scholarly journals An Intelligent Mobile Floating Application to Aid Seniors in using the Smartphone using Machine Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yilin Chen ◽  
Yu Sun
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
Technology Advancement ◽  
Technological Growth ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Right ◽  
Google Play

The twenty-first century is a century of rapid technological growth, one significant area being the smartphone [4]. By 2021, more than eight percent of US adults own a smartphone. Smartphones are capable of making phone calls, messaging texts, making purchases, taking pictures, playing games, finding roads, and more. However, not everyone is a beneficiary of this technology. Seniors often fall behind in this technology advancement. They often struggle with finding the right button to press or get confused with the variety of functions. This paper develops a floating application that when launched, checks the opening application and displays a list of its functions. Then, the user can select what they want to do, and the application will begin a tutorial to guide the senior in using their phone. We applied our application to Google Play and conducted a qualitative evaluation of the approach. The results show that this application will be effective in facilitating seniors in using the smartphone.

Prolegomena to the Study of the Jewish Magical Tradition

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Bohak
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
First Century ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Trace Processes ◽  
Twenty First Century

Recent years have seen a steady rise in the scholarly interest in Jewish magic. The present paper seeks to take stock of what has already been done, to explain how further study of Jewish magical texts and artifacts might make major contributions to the study of Judaism as a whole, and to provide a blueprint for further progress in this field. Its main claim is that the number of unedited and even uncharted primary sources for the study of Jewish magic is staggering, and that these sources must serve as the starting point for any serious study of the Jewish magical tradition from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Such a study must both compare the Jewish magical texts and practices of each historical period with those of the contemporaneous non-Jewish world, and thus trace processes of cross-cultural contacts and influences, and compare the Jewish magical texts and practices of one period with those of another, so as to detect processes of inner-Jewish continuity and transmission. Finally, such a study must flesh out the place of magical practices and practitioners within the Jewish society of different periods, and within different Jewish communities.

FATAL CONFLICT REFLECTIONS IN MARTIN MCDONAGH'S THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (15) ◽  
pp. 198-208
Author(s):  
Ajda BAŞTAN
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
First Century ◽  
Single Woman ◽  
Physical Location ◽  
Irish Family ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Mother And Daughter ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Taking Care

This study focuses on the reasons of mother-daughter conflicts in Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane. As the twenty-first century was approaching, a new movement of young playwrights emerged on the UK theatre scene. One of the most controversial and beloved representatives of this wave is Martin McDonagh. The author was born and raised in London as the son of an Irish family. In 1996, McDonagh's first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane was staged in Ireland, and then found its place in London and New York, fascinating much attention. Also staged in Turkey, this play of four characters has become the starting point of McDonagh's extraordinary theatrical career. In the play, Maureen, a forty-year-old single woman, still lives with her domineering mother Mag. For years, Maureen has spent her time by cooking, feeding the chickens, and shopping while taking care of her ailing and grumpy mother on her own. In The Beauty Queen of Leenane Maureen and Mag live an isolated life due to their physical location and relationships with each other. Maureen dreams of escaping her mother's house and her town called Leenane. She blames her mother and sisters for her miserable situation. The harsh, rude and hurtful conversations between mother and daughter always continue with conflict. As the play progresses it becomes obvious that this relationship between the two characters is completely disintegrated.

‘SUBTLE SHIFTS’: HOWARD SKEMPTON'S TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY MODERNISM

Tempo ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (284) ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Arnold Whittall
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Tonal Pitch ◽  
The Ideal

ABSTRACTHoward Skempton's distinctive presence on the British musical scene, and his prolific compositional output since the mid-1960s, have presented commentators with certain challenges as they contemplate which labels to apply, and, for music analysts, which techniques to deploy. Skempton's own comments, in various interviews and essays down the years, remain the ideal starting point, suggest a range of contexts, some of which underpin this study. With reference to a few of his smaller vocal and keyboard compositions, the quality of constantly shifting rather than strictly fixed elements is explored. When pitch materials conform more or less exactly to tonal or modal tradition, rhythm is particularly important as a determinant of subtle shifting. But it is often the case that pitches identities themselves shift between functions best defined as tonal scale degrees at one extreme and post-tonal pitch classes at the other. The result is a very personal and unaggressive kind of modernism.

Philosophy of Liberal Education for Democracy in the Twenty-first Century

1998 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Willard F. Enteman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Education ◽  
Professional Preparation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Basic Purpose ◽  
Education For Democracy ◽  
Twenty First Century

Current debates about liberal education have distracted us from responding intelligently to the growth and dominance of professional preparation programs. In 1828, the Yale faculty, confronted with similar circumstances, developed what may be the last widely influential philosophy of liberal education. It gives us a starting point, as does Plato's Republic. Democracy and the knowledge-based economy require us to articulate a new philosophy of liberal education. Using Kantian terminology, I argue that, whereas the basic purpose of professional preparation is to produce heteronomous behavior, the purpose of liberal education should be the development of autonomous individuals.

scholarly journals The Economy of Attention and the Novel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Baumbach
Keyword(s):  
High Impact ◽  
First Century ◽  
Attention Deficits ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Night Time ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
White Tiger ◽  
Twenty First Century

Many twenty-first-century novels have reacted to the changing economies of attention as well as to increasing anxieties about inattention and attention deficits. These ‘attention novels’ do not only include multiple shifts in narrative perspective, fragmented styles, and an aggregation of high-impact stimuli to bind readers’ attentional capacities: They also develop a multi-layered poetics of attention, which resonates with the politics of attention conducted by, for instance, the literary prize economy, and the increasing desire for fascination in a media-saturated age. Focussing on Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008) and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003), this chapter explores the ways in which twenty-first-century novels relate to discourses on attention and attention deficits and introduces new approaches for analysing ‘attention narratives.’

scholarly journals XXI wiek a funkcjonalno-przestrzenne problemy Wenecji

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-90
Author(s):  
Magdalena Jagiełło-Kowalczyk
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Market Development ◽  
Local Perception ◽  
Cruise Ships ◽  
Testing Ground ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The City

Przedstawione w artykule wyniki badań dotyczących spojrzenia mieszkańców Wenecji na problemy nurtujące ich miasto posłużyły jako punkt wyjścia do rozważań na temat możliwości zaradzenia tym problemom przy wykorzystaniu potencjału jaki niesie XXI wiek. Dyplomowe prace magisterskie studentów architektury mogą być doskonałym poligonem doświadczalnym i miejscem prowadzenia badań i przedstawiania propozycji dla stworzenia wyobrażeń o lepszej przyszłości. Przedstawione w publikacji rozwiązania funkcjonalno-przestrzenne pozwalają spojrzeć w oryginalny sposób na część problemów Wenecji, o których dyskutuje się od lat jak wpływanie wielkich statków wycieczkowych na wody laguny, tłumy turystów, poszukiwanie nowych przestrzeni dla mieszkańców, rozwijanie rynku pracy, czy proponowanie nowych form zwiedzania miasta. Contemporary functional and spatial challanges of Venice based on local perception The findings presented in this study, which focused on how Venice’s residents perceive the problems their city suffers from, served as a starting point for a discussion on the potential to address them by using the potential of the twenty-first century. Thesis design projects by architecture students can serve as an excellent testing ground for studies and presenting proposals of visions of a better future. The functio-spatial solutions presented in this paper can provide an original perspective on some of Venice’s much-discussed problems, such as enormous cruise ships entering the lagoon’s waters, tourist crowds and the search for new spaces for residents, employment market development or proposing new forms of sightseeing in the city.

scholarly journals Mazurski model współczesnego regionalizmu

2021 ◽  
pp. 112-119
Author(s):  
Magdalena Jagiełło-Kowalczyk
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Agricultural Tourism

W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań dotyczących spojrzenia mieszkańców Mazur na współczesny kształt budownictwa mieszkaniowego jednorodzinnego i przeznaczonego na turystykę w ich regionie. Wnioski z badań posłużyły jako punkt wyjścia do przygotowania propozycji projektowych współczesnych założeń krajobrazowo mieszkalnych z wykorzystaniem domów na wynajem, czy gospodarstw agroturystycznych. Dyplomowe prace inżynierskie studentów architektury są odpowiedzią na preferencje formalne mieszkańców. Zakres czasowy części opartej na badaniu ankietowym dotyczy XXI wieku, a części dotyczącej analiz archetypu sięga wieku XVII. Masurian Model of Contemporary Regionalism This paper presents the results of a survey that explored how the residents of Masuria perceived the contemporary form of singlefamily and tourist housing in their region. The conclusions of this study were used as a starting point for preparing design proposals of contemporary landscape and housing layouts based on homes for rent or agricultural tourism facilities. Bachelor of Engineering in Architecture thesis projects became an answer to the formal preferences of the residents. The temporal scope of the section presenting the survey study concerns the twenty-first century, while the archetype analysis section reaches back to the seventeenth century.

Pop Masculinities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Arne Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
First Century ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Media Ethnography ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Aesthetic

Pop Masculinities investigates the performance and policing of masculinity in pop music as a starting point for grasping the broad complexity of gender and its politics in the early twenty-first century. Drawing together perspectives from critical musicology, gender studies, and adjacent scholarly fields, the book presents extended case studies of five well-known artists: Zayn, Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, and Take That. By directing particular attention to the ambiguities and contradictions that arise from these artists’ representations of masculinity, author Kai Arne Hansen argues that pop performances tend to operate in ways that simultaneously reinforce and challenge gender norms and social inequalities. Providing a rich exploration of these murky waters, the author merges the interpretation of recorded song and music video with discourse analysis and media ethnography in order to engage with the full range of pop artists’ public identities as they emerge at the intersections between processes of performance, promotion, and reception. In so doing, he advances our understanding of the aesthetic and discursive underpinnings of gender politics in twenty-first century pop culture and encourages readers to contemplate the sociopolitical implications of their own musical engagements as audiences, critics, musicians, and scholars.

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