Is artificial intelligence capable of understanding? An analysis based on philosophical hermeneutics

From Deep Blue to AlphaGo, the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the areas of problem solving and deep learning has lent credence to the prospect that it may one day develop an ability for understanding similar to that of humans or even surpass human intelligence. However, understanding is not a piece of knowledge, a method or an ability. Knowledge can be possessed as an impersonal and public resource. In a certain sense, it can be objectified by a group's understanding, which is characterized by certainty, whereas understanding seems to be in a state of constant transformation and movement. Moreover, a method cannot be separated from the subject and is always subsumed by understanding and interpretation. For a method to be useful, it must be the product of understanding and interpretation. Understanding is not enabled by a method; rather, it is understanding that possesses the method. Finally, understanding cannot be described and defined simply as ability. As an important manifestation of human intelligence, understanding is not an empty shell of method filled by its objects, but an appreciation and extension of the meaning of the objects. Computers are good at dealing with simple and formalized activities that are not associated with a context, but the human activities of understanding are not formalized. From the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics, understanding is filled with elements of reflection and in itself is a form of self-understanding. Furthermore, AI lacks the fore-structure of human understanding. Therefore, whether understanding can be viewed from the perspective of historicity is an important difference between human intelligence and AI, and the missing historical connection of computational programs of AI may be an important reason why it cannot acquire understanding in a real sense.

PENGARUH PENAMBAHAN BIOCHAR TERHADAP PENURUNAN KADAR TOTAL PETROLEUM HYDROCARBON (TPH) PADA TANAH TERCEMAR MINYAK BUMI

Hydrocarbons are compounds produced as a result of the activities of the petroleum industry, which can pollute the soil and waters. Due to the amount of waste, biochar from agricultural waste could potentially be used as a soil amendment agent for hydrocarbon contamination. The high lignocellulose in oil palm shells and empty bunches makes them potential raw materials for biochar. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of biochar application on petroleum-contaminated soil to reduce Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) levels. In this study, the dosage of biochar was added to the soil contaminated with petroleum with a variation of 3%, 5%, and 7% (w/w) and control without the addition of biochar. The parameters analyzed were TPH levels by gravimetric method every week for four weeks. The results showed that the addition of biochar had an effect on the degradation of TPH. The greater the dose of biochar used, the higher the percentage of TPH degradation. The highest decrease in TPH levels occurred at the addition of biochar dose by 7%, where the empty shell was 60.65%, and empty bunches was 54.1% which was greater than without the addition of biochar by 32.79%.

Aftermaths

This chapter examines the provisional regeneration aftermaths at three estates – West Hendon (Barnet), Woodberry Down (Hackney) and Carpenters (Newham) – in relation to what kind of new places are being created. West Hendon and Woodberry Down form hybrid places consisting of the remaining old estate which is undergoing degeneration, displacement and demolition, and the redeveloped section which is receiving new residents. At the intermediate spatial scale, although some interviewees appreciated the enhanced security features in the new gated blocks, the latter were routinely described as soulless, hotel-like non-places (Auge). One major aim at both West Hendon and Woodberry Down was to create mixed-tenure communities. However, at neither estate had this been achieved as far as social tenants were concerned. Despite the attempts made to enhance community development, there was a common lament at both redeveloped estates – that their previous sense of community had been lost. There was also little evidence of class/tenure mixing, and these hybrid neighbourhoods constitute fragmented rather than mixed communities. The final section focuses on the Carpenters estate where no redevelopment has occurred despite its being nominally under regeneration for fifteen years. By 2019 it was a half-empty shell of a previously functioning multi-ethnic, working-class east London community.

“Our Posthuman Future” in Utopias of Contemporary Art

The evolution of the concept of body and progress, specifically from Modernity and with the implementation of technologies, allows us to delve into new utopian / dystopian visions about the human subject and his corporality. Technological art, which originated in the second half of the twentieth century, is actively working towards dismantling the classic utopian paradigms that have accompanied culture for more than five centuries. The new art took over the function of managing the utopias that the artistic avant-garde created in an industrial society in the first half of the last century and replaced them with the utopias of a digital society. The understanding of the body as a space of utopian creativity, the idea-force of the automaton body persists even today implicitly in many of these figurations. Physical practices such as bodybuilding, plastic surgery, implants, makeup, and tattoos allow the body to act as a "utopian object". Along with this, there are attempts to present the body not as a living object of nature, but as a machine, as a bodily automaton. It is also remarkable to propose the body as a machine and not as a natural or animal object, an issue that will not fail to bring consequences when exercising activities with and on the body. New technologies offer the possibility of overcoming the limits imposed by our biological inheritance in a kind of explicit desire neither to accept our past, nor our natural-organic origin. In this sense, an important series of thinkers, scientists and artists consider the body as something completely obsolete, like an empty shell that must be shed to technologically give way to the next level in human evolution: the Techno Sapiens or the Cyborg. They advocate that the anthropology’s object of study passes from the “human being” to the “cyborg”, considering this one as a more suitable representative of our present, and above all, of our future. The figure of the cyborg has become the center of a new utopian transhumanist paradigm (K. Hayles, N. Bostrom, R. Hanson, H. Moravec), analogously in the sphere of art appear figures who want to represent this technoevolution, artists like Stelarс, Marcel.lí Antúnez among others.

'n Leë dop is soms beter as 'n halwe eier / An empty shell is sometimes better than half an egg – Gounden v Master of the High Court [2015] JOL 32896 (KZD) and Govender v Gounden 2019 2 SA 262 (KZN)

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Durban, recently had the opportunity to interpret section 15(3)(b)(iii) of the Matrimonial Property Act 88 of 1984 within the context of the South African law of succession. This section states that: "A spouse shall not without the consent of the other spouse … receive any money due or accruing to that other spouse or the joint estate by way of … inheritance, legacy, donation, bursary or prize left, bequeathed, made or awarded to the other spouse." The question before the court was whether a person who is married in community of property requires the consent of his or her spouse in order to repudiate an intestate inheritance. The following aspects were considered by both the court a quo (Gounden v Master of the High Court [2015] JOL 32896 (KZD)) as well as the full bench on appeal (Govender v Gounden 2019 2 SA 262 (KZN)): the distinction between dies cedit and dies venit; the importance of this distinction in electing to either adiate or to repudiate an inheritance; and the implications for the joint estate of spouses married in community of property. The purpose of this contribution is to analyse and critically discuss the reasoning in the judgments in relation to these three aspects.

Joseph P. Huffman, The Imperial City of Cologne: From Roman Colony to Medieval Metropolis (19 B.C. – 1125 A.D.). The Early Medieval North Atlantic, 2. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018, 280 pp.

Cologne was the most populous German city in the High Middle Ages, a leading member of the Hanseatic League, and an important archdiocese, whose archbishop <?page nr="291"?>was one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Established as a Roman city in 19 B.C., it later became the capital of the province of Lower Germany. But what of the period between the Principate and the High Middle Ages? For quite some time historians believed that Cologne had become an empty shell: Its population declined steeply, so that only a remnant remained, clustered around the cathedral and a few other churches, while the other buildings fell into ruin; recovery did not begin until A.D. 1000. But in the past three decades archeologists have shown that early medieval Cologne was in fact a thriving city. However, this research has been almost exclusively published in German, limiting its availability. Now, fortunately, Joseph Huffman has published a monograph on Cologne that makes this research available to Anglophone audiences, and he deserves our whole-hearted thanks for doing so.

A preliminary study on the traits of Chamelea gallina (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Gulf of Antalya, Mediterranean Coast of Turkey (Levantine Sea)

This study aimed to examine on some properties and to draw attention to why it cannot create an intensive stock amount of Chamelea gallina (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Gulf of Antalya in the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, Levantine Sea. Specimens of C. gallina displayed total shell legths of 6 to 32 mm, mean 14.5 mm and total weights of 0.1 to 11.44 g, mean 1.82 g. The total shell length and total weight relationship of C. gallina was calculated as TW =0.3333 * TSL 2.9894 (R² =0.9850). The mean meat yield was found as 12.10±0.9264%. A small number of C. gallina samples were collected. The majority of the collected striped venus were determined as empty shell. It was observed that the razorfish (Xyrichtys novacula) were fed with C. gallina during research. Finally, these results may draw attention the reasons why this species cannot form an intensive stock amount. It is thought that the empty shells of the striped venus can be caused from feeding of the razorfish (X. novacula) with C. gallina and environmental factor changes.Keywords: Chamelea gallina; length; weight; meat yield; mediterranean

Northward range extension of Porcellanopagurus nihonkaiensis Takeda, 1985 (Decapoda, Anomura, Paguridae) in Japan

For the first time the occurrence of Porcellanopagurus nihonkaiensis Takeda, 1985 is reported both from Sagami Bay and Otsuchi Bay. The use of an empty shell of a true limpet of the family Lottiidae Gray, 1840 by Porcellanopagurus sp. is herein also reported for the first time.