Hauntology of the Machinic

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-144
Author(s):  
Atsuhide Ito
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Donna Haraway ◽  
Cognitive Patterns ◽  
Central Agent ◽  
Mode Of Production

The chapter observes the distinction between the mechanical and the machinic, and moves beyond the metaphors of android (Metropolis), or cyborg (Donna Haraway), and considers how the machinic has brought new cognitive patterns for human subjects to interact with their environment and others. Artists' dislocation from the central agent of production has opened passages for the posthuman mode of production. Consequently, the machine has become an integral part of artwork and of the artist. Contrary to this development, some artists retain the machine's materiality as a form of Other. The chapter argues that the machine remains as a form of externalization of the Other within the human subject.

Madness, virtue, and ecology: A classical Indian approach to psychiatric disturbance

2021 ◽  
pp. 095269512098224
Author(s):  
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Psychiatric Disturbance ◽  
Indian Medical ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Moral Relationship

The Caraka Saṃhitā (ca. first century BCE–third century CE), the first classical Indian medical compendium, covers a wide variety of pharmacological and therapeutic treatment, while also sketching out a philosophical anthropology of the human subject who is the patient of the physicians for whom this text was composed. In this article, I outline some of the relevant aspects of this anthropology – in particular, its understanding of ‘mind’ and other elements that constitute the subject – before exploring two ways in which it approaches ‘psychiatric’ disorder: one as ‘mental illness’ ( mānasa-roga), the other as ‘madness’ ( unmāda). I focus on two aspects of this approach. One concerns the moral relationship between the virtuous and the well life, or the moral and the medical dimensions of a patient’s subjectivity. The other is about the phenomenological relationship between the patient and the ecology within which the patient’s disturbance occurs. The aetiology of and responses to such disturbances helps us think more carefully about the very contours of subjectivity, about who we are and how we should understand ourselves. I locate this interpretation within a larger programme on the interpretation of the whole human being, which I have elsewhere called ‘ecological phenomenology’.

scholarly journals V. A letter on a canal in the medulla spinalis of some quadrupeds

1809 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 146-147
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Cauda Equina ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Spinal Marrow ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Contrary Direction

Sir, According to your request, I send you an account of the facts I have ascertained, respecting a canal I discovered in the year 1803, in the medulla spinalis of the horse, bullock, sheep, hog, and dog; and should it appear to you deserving of being laid before the Royal Society, I shall feel myself particularly obliged, by having so great an honour conferred upon me. Upon tracing the sixth ventricle of the brain, which corresponds to the fourth in the human subject, to its apparent termination, the calamus scriptorius, I perceived the appearance of a canal, continuing by a direct course into the centre of the spinal marrow. To ascertain with accuracy whether such structure existed throughout its whole length, I made sections of the spinal marrow at different distances from the brain, and found that each divided portion exhibited an orifice with a diameter sufficient to admit a large sized pin; from which a small quantity of transparent colourless fluid issued, like that contained in the ventricles of the brain. The canal is lined by a membrane resembling the tunica arachnoidea, and is situated above the fissure of the medulla, being separated by a medullary layer: it is most easily distinguished where the large nerves are given off in the bend of the neck and sacrum, imperceptibly terminating in the cauda equina. Having satisfactorily ascertained its existence through the whole length of the spinal marrow, my next object was to discover whether it was a continued tube from one extremity to the other: this was most decidedly proved, by dividing the spinal marrow through the middle, and pouring mercury into the orifice where the canal was cut across, it passed in a small stream, with equal facility towards the brain (into which it entered), or in a contrary direction to where the spinal marrow terminates.

Locomotory Diseases Influence on Body Equilibrium and Balance

2014 ◽  
Vol 555 ◽  
pp. 652-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbu Cristian Braun ◽  
Ileana Constanta Rosca
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Force Plate ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Method ◽  
First Person ◽  
Mass Center ◽  
Stability Problems ◽  
Research Stage

The paper describes a new method of body equilibrium evaluation applied for different human subjects, the principal aim being to demonstrate to what extent any locomotory diseases could influence the body stability and equilibrium. The research refers to identify some persons with different locomotory diseases and to find both the influence on equilibrium and stability and if possible to improve them. Our research stage, synthesized in this paper, explains the body equilibrium evaluation in orthostatic posture done for different subjects, aged between 20 and 40 years. A number of 10 relevant persons were considered to be evaluated, 2 of them having some locomotory diseases. The first person presents any neuro-motor stability problems in case of long standing case. The other person has both Achilles tendons torn and operated. All subjects were tested in orthostatic posture, in 3 distinct positions, using a Kistler force plate. The experiments referred to the body mass center (COM) displacement in sagittal and lateral planes, representing an interesting characteristic for its equilibrium. It was shown that the person with diseases affecting stability presented a loss of equilibrium when standing for 10-20 seconds, i.e. higher COM displacements in both planes reported to the other tested subjects.

The Prisoner's Dilemma Game and Cooperation in the Rat

1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick M. Gardner ◽  
Terry L. Corbin ◽  
Janelle S. Beltramo ◽  
Gary S. Nickell
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Prisoner's Dilemma ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma ◽  
The Other ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma Game ◽  
Prisoner's Dilemma Game ◽  
Cooperative Behaviors

Cooperation in pairs of rats playing the prisoner's dilemma game was investigated. Six pairs of animals were taught to make either cooperative or uncooperative responses by running to one or the other end of a T-maze. Two T-mazes were joined together such that animals could respond simultaneously. Animals were run under conditions in which visual communication was present and absent. Mutually uncooperative responses were the most common and mutually cooperative behaviors the least preferred. Introduction of a barrier between the mazes, which removed visual communication between pairs, sharply accentuated uncooperative behavior. Similarities of the present findings to results with human subjects and the implications of using game theory for studying cooperative behavior in animals are discussed.

Simulating the action of zeitgebers on a coupled two-oscillator model of the human circadian system

1984 ◽  
Vol 247 (3) ◽  
pp. R418-R426
Author(s):  
P. H. Gander ◽  
R. E. Kronauer ◽  
C. A. Czeisler ◽  
M. C. Moore-Ede
Keyword(s):  
Core Temperature ◽  
Activity Rhythm ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Oscillator Model ◽  
Temporal Isolation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Temperature Rhythm ◽  
Rest Activity

Our two-oscillator model was originally designed to describe the circadian rhythms of human subjects maintained in temporal isolation. The performance of this model in response to simulated environmental synchronizing cycles (zeitgebers) is examined here. Six distinct types of synchronization are demonstrated between the x oscillator (postulated to regulate the core temperature rhythm), the y oscillator (postulated to regulate the rest-activity rhythm), and z (the zeitgeber). Four types of synchronization are identifiable, if we consider only the periods of the three oscillators. Both x and y may be synchronized by z; either may synchronize with z while the other exhibits a different period; or x, y, and z may each show different periods. Two further classes of synchronization are discernible when phase criteria are taken into account. When either x or y is on the verge of desynchronizing from the other two oscillators, it undergoes periodic phase modulations while retaining the common overall period. The type of synchronization observed depends on the periods of x, y, and z and on the strength of the z drive. The effects of modifying each of these parameters have been systematically investigated by simulation, and model performance is summarized in terms of range of entrainment "maps." These constitute extensive sets of predictions about expected patterns of entrainment of the core temperature and rest-activity rhythms of human subjects exposed to various environmental zeitgebers. Experimental data are available against which model predictions can be tested.

scholarly journals What Can Play: The Potential of Non-Human Players

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara Stone
Keyword(s):  
Game Design ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Donna Haraway ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post Humanism

What can post-humanism teach us about game design? This paper questions the line drawn between what species and matter can play and what cannot play. Combining works by scholars of feminist post-humanism, new materialism, and game studies, primarily Jane Bennett, Donna Haraway, and T.L. Taylor, it proposes that play is a form of communication not only between animals and humans but also between plants and cyborgs, insects and atoms. Beginning by interrogating the borders of the human that have been built on ableist and racist discourses, this paper moves towards considering the human as interspecies and outlines that we must reassess the ways in which a multiplicity of species experience the intra-action that constitutes “play.” With a brief look into the history of defining play in both game studies and animal studies and their small crossover, play is reconfigured into an outlook or an approach rather than a set of rules. It is a drive that all species and matter experience, including insects, bacteria, and metal. This moves us beyond considering solely the materiality of our bodies at play by reconsidering the objects of play as our co-players, as matter with agential force. I argue that we need to reconsider the videogame player as an interspecies being, an assemblage of human and non-human bodies. The de-anthropocentricization of the popular notions of player agency allows for a multiplicity of reactions not created in the linear cause and effect course, the belief in ultimate player control within procedural systems, which dominates game studies. This paper concludes by submitting possibilities of what considering the non-human through a feminist and anti-ableist lens can offer game designers, players, and critics, such as considering the material platform’s impact on play, reforming the individualistic agency of players, and designing for the Other(s).

scholarly journals Human response to the thermal indoor environment created by a radiant, and a combined radiant and convective cooling system

2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 02060
Author(s):  
Ongun B. Kazanci ◽  
Dolaana Khovalyg ◽  
Takayoshi Iida ◽  
Yoshitaka Uno ◽  
Tomo-oki Ukiana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Indoor Environment ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Indoor Environments ◽  
Climate Chamber ◽  
Convective Cooling ◽  
Physical Measurements ◽  
Two Systems

This study reports the main findings from a series of human subject experiments, where the subjects were exposed to the different indoor environments created by different cooling systems. The studied systems were a radiant cooling system (chilled ceiling and mixing ventilation, CCMV), and a combined radiant and convective cooling system (radiant diffuse ceiling ventilation, RDCV). The experiments were conducted in a climate chamber under controlled conditions. The climate chamber was configured as a two-person office room. 24 human subjects (12 female and 12 male) were chosen. The exposure lasted three hours and the participants were allowed to work on their own tasks (normal office work) during the exposure. The cooling load was 54 W/m2 and the room temperature at a reference location was kept constant at 26°C (summer conditions). The results show that under both systems, whole body thermal sensation was between slightly warm and neutral (closer to neutral with the RDCV system), and the overall thermal acceptability was almost the same for both systems (close to clearly acceptable). The satisfaction of the human subjects with the thermal environment was very close under the two systems; between satisfactory and slightly satisfactory (closer to satisfactory). Air movement acceptability (slightly higher and closer to clearly acceptable with the RDCV system) was also very close with the two systems. The results of the human subject experiments agree well with the physical measurements of the thermal indoor environment and confirm that the studied systems created very similar thermal indoor environments.

scholarly journals Characterizing Current Attitudes and Practices for Human Subject Safety in Studies Involving Pupil Dilation

2020 ◽  
pp. 155626462096898
Author(s):  
Jacob Szpernal ◽  
Joseph Carroll ◽  
Ryan Spellecy ◽  
Jane A. Bachman Groth
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Vision Research ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Pupil Dilation ◽  
Institutional Review Boards ◽  
Human Subjects Research ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Institutional Review

Standards in pupil dilation practices regarding the safety of human subjects are not present in vision research despite the potential for significant adverse effects. We developed two surveys to examine current practices around pupil dilation among vision researchers and individuals associated with oversight of human subjects research. While both groups note an absence of adverse events associated with pupil dilation, vision researcher practices differed with informed consent use and measures taken to minimize complications. For Institutional Review Boards, general risk assumption associated with dilation was not unanimous and there was a lack of specific guidance available to researchers for minimizing risk. These results uncover the need for standardized practices regarding pupil dilation in human subjects research.

See / Witness and the ‘setting-subject construction’

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-301
Author(s):  
Christelle Lacassain-Lagoin
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Cognitive Schemas ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Perception Verbs

Abstract Perception verbs prototypically occur with a grammatical subject NP referring to a person. However, see and witness also license an inanimate grammatical subject, more precisely a spatial or temporal setting, in a “setting-subject construction” (Langacker 1991, 2008). The present study addresses this kind of variation, and demonstrates how the two alternate constructions reveal shifts from an egocentric perspective to an anthropocentric perspective. It sets out to accomplish three main goals: first, to establish whether each construction aligns perfectly with one particular perspective; second, to identify the semantic and syntactic characteristics of setting-subject constructions and explain how an inanimate subject NP can be favored over a human subject NP; third, to determine what can motivate speakers’ choices between the two alternate constructions licensed by see and witness. To achieve this, a qualitative, corpus-based analysis is carried out, which helps to understand to what extent the grammatical coding embodies a specific way of viewing the scene. First, the cognitive theoretical concepts (e.g., the Extended Animacy Hierarchy (Croft, 2003), egocentric and canonical viewing arrangements, cognitive schemas and models) that are helpful for the proper characterization of the two structures are presented, as well as the methodology employed to collect data for the present study. I then focus on prototypical, human subject NP constructions which reveal either an egocentric or an anthropocentric point of view of the scene. Finally, setting-subject constructions are addressed: not only are the characteristics of such structures highlighted but also the parameters and factors that contribute to their occurrence are identified. The study shows that such constructions convey the conceptualizer’s assessment of a situation, as the viewing relationship is construed subjectively. A setting-subject construction thus reveals a perspective that indirectly turns out to be more anthropocentric than ‘setting-centric’, as the inanimate locative subject, ranking at the bottom of the Animacy hierarchy, winds up alluding to any possible human being, including the speaker, the addressee and the Other.

Progressive Increase in Platelet Activation With Smoke Exposure: Human Subject and In-Vitro Studies

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Girdhar ◽  
Sulan Xu ◽  
Jolyon Jesty ◽  
Danny Bluestein
Keyword(s):  
Cigarette Smoke ◽  
Platelet Activation ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Prolonged Exposure ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Progressive Increase ◽  
In Vitro Studies ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Shs Exposure

Second hand cigarette smoke (SHS) is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and has been shown to substantiate platelet activation and aggregation in several studies [1, 2]. Most of these studies, under chronic or acute exposure conditions or over prolonged exposure, do not represent the initiation of a disease state or hematological damage under normal levels of cigarette smoke. These above studies of platelet activation with SHS together with our previous in-vitro studies demonstrating cardio-protective effects of nicotine [3], have motivated the present investigation of physiological levels of SHS exposure on human subjects and within an in-vitro endothelial cell-platelet system, with cigarettes (or smoke extracts) of varying nicotine content to confirm analogous cardio-protective effects of nicotine.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document