How the Future Has a Grip on Us

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-282
Author(s):  
Martin Sand ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Technological Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Correspondence Theory Of Truth ◽  
Inferential Knowledge ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Theory

Being faced with bold statements about the technological future, the wickedness of technological systems and our frequent cluelessness when aiming at predicting the course of such systems, scholars from philosophy of technology and Technology Assessment (TA) have given up believing that any method can enhance our knowledge about the future. Hence, hermeneutic TA, forensics of wishing and other approaches shift their focus on the present of such futures. While these approaches are meaningful in their own right, they basically rest on a too sceptical foundation. In my article I will present some objections to these approaches. It is clearly true as has been pointed out that knowledge about the future cannot be tested to correspond with reality, since the future does not yet exist. However, it is debatable whether such a criterion is generally required for robust knowledge. Giving that we cannot observe the past but claim to know a lot about, I will argue that a commitment to the correspondence theory of truth is too strong a requirement for robust knowledge about the future. Theory building departs by inferring from present observations into both directions, future and past. To show this, some examples that illustrate how the future has a lock on us will be discussed. Furthermore, it will be outlined that the often cited notion of future’s openness also rests on such inferential knowledge, which indicates incoherence in the skeptics’ approach. These arguments build the basis for a modest realism about the future.

Has Human Factors Come of Age?

1977 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 457-461
Author(s):  
Kenyon B. De Greene
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Laboratory Model ◽  
Psychology Laboratory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Future ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Systemic View

A number of critical factors in the past, present, and future of the human factors field are evaluated. By many criteria human factors is efflorescent. However, probing beneath the surface and taking a longer-range and more systemic view suggests conditions of morbidity that, if unheeded, may lead to the demise of human factors as a separate entity. In order for human factors to be viable and useful in the future, theory building must be advanced which is explanatory of the interactions among people and machines (or technologies) in environments. Human factors must brake the momentum generated by existing institutional settings and overreliance on the experimental psychology (laboratory) model. A number of possible new liaisons with other fields and means of anticipating the future are identified. A number of specific research questions, deemed important to human factors expansion and realworld usefulness, are posed.

scholarly journals Coming of age in L3 initial stages transfer models: Deriving developmental predictions and looking towards the future

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 683-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge González Alonso ◽  
Jason Rothman
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
The Past ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
Data Basis ◽  
The Future ◽  
Advanced Stages ◽  
Ultimate Attainment ◽  
Do So ◽  
Transfer Models

Aims: Over the past decade in particular, formal linguistic work within L3 acquisition has concentrated on hypothesizing and empirically determining the source of transfer from previous languages—L1, L2 or both—in L3 grammatical representations. In view of the progressive concern with more advanced stages, we aim to show that focusing on L3 initial stages should be one continued priority of the field, even—or especially—if the field is ready to shift towards modeling L3 development and ultimate attainment. Approach: We argue that L3 learnability is significantly impacted by initial stages transfer, as such forms the basis of the initial L3 interlanguage. To illustrate our point, the insights from studies using initial and intermediary stages L3 data are discussed in light of developmental predictions that derive from the initial stages models. Conclusions: Despite a shared desire to understand the process of L3 acquisition in whole, inclusive of offering developmental L3 theories, we argue that the field does not yet have—although is ever closer to—the data basis needed to effectively do so. Originality: This article seeks to convince the readership of the need for conservatism in L3 acquisition theory building, whereby offering a framework on how and why we can most effectively build on the accumulated knowledge of the L3 initial stages in order to make significant, steady progress. Significance: The arguments exposed here are meant to provide an epistemological base for a tenable framework of formal approaches to L3 interlanguage development and, eventually, ultimate attainment.

scholarly journals Contour mapping of civilization

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Svetlana S. Neretina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Structure ◽  
Contour Mapping ◽  
The Past ◽  
Network Connections ◽  
Adjusted Means ◽  
The Future ◽  
Separate Region ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Temporal Shifts

The article, which is a reaction to the report of A.V. Rubtsov “Russian project of civiliza­tional development: thematic structure and framework of categories”, contour mapping of structures, ways to identify the content, meaning and objectives of civilizations is dis­cussed as having theoretical and methodological significance. At the same time, the prob­lem of understanding the terms “state”, “nation”, “civilization”, “law”, and above all “history” is posed, with which the very appearance of the idea of civilization is closely connected, which can have different meanings not only in different civilizations, but also within different regions of one civilization, depriving the sense of trying to achieve con­sensus in controversial situations. The analysis of these concepts, which make up the framework of civilizations, entailed the need to identify the difference between the con­cept of New history as a designation of the border of time and Modernity as the content of the new, to show the ways of temporal shifts. Contour mapping of civilization reveals both the difference between them and their commonality, and the historicity mode, which establishes relationships and strategies of relationships between different times, allows you to create a variety of network connections: political with physical, historical, social maps that fit in the pockets of each person, etc., revealing and the similarities and unique­ness of the time in each separate region. This kind of ability to identify differentials of civilization, history or culture with the help of technically adjusted means makes it possi­ble to predict crisis moments during which any time (past, present and future) begins to lose its shape. The crisis and the awareness of the crisis make it possible to overcome his­tory as an expression of Modernity, because one cannot raise the question of the future while being inside history. The task is to correctly form the composition of the project, which should exclude attempts to create a future theory from the past. Trying to build only on the basis of a supposedly known and settled past is to doom your attempts to fail­ure: the purpose of the project is to overcome the past, the departure from which indicates that the expected changes should not be similar to the events of the past. The project is an attempt to find a language in which the future can speak.

Integrative Action: The Past for Physiology, the Future for Psychology

1980 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-231
Author(s):  
MARCEL KINSBOURNE
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
The Future
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