Alan Turing and Human-Like Intelligence

Alan Turing’s model of computation (1936) is explicated in terms of the potential operations of a human “computer”, and his famous test for intelligence (1950) is based on indistinguishability from human verbal behaviour. But this chapter challenges the apparent human-centredness of the 1936 model, suggesting a focus instead on mathematical concepts, with human comparisons making an entrance only retrospectively. The 1950 account of intelligence also turns out to be far less human-centred than it initially appears to be, because the universality of computation makes human intelligence just one variety amongst many. It is only when Turing considers consciousness that he treats intelligence in a way that cannot properly be carried over to machines. But here he is mistaken, since his own work gave ample reason to reinterpret intelligence as sophisticated information processing for some purpose, and to divorce this from the subjective consciousness with which it is humanly associated.

Elections, Civic Trust, and Digital Literacy: The Promise of Blockchain as a Basis for Common Knowledge

Few recent developments in information technology have been as hyped as blockchain, the first implementation of which was the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Such hype furnishes ample reason to be skeptical about the promise of blockchain implementations, but I contend that there’s something to the hype. In particular, I think that certain blockchain implementations, in the right material, social, and political conditions, constitute excellent bases for common knowledge. As a case study, I focus on trust in election outcomes, where the ledger records not financial transactions but vote tallies. I argue that blockchain implementations could foster warranted trust in vote tallies and thereby trust in the democratic process. Finally, I argue that if the promise of blockchain implementations as democratic infrastructure is to be realized, then democracies first need to ensure that these material, social, and political conditions obtain.

Hiding the Guillotine

This book examines the question of state involvement in violence by tracing the evolution of public executions in France. Why did the state move executions from the bloody and public stage of the guillotine to behind prison doors? The book exposes the rituals and theatrical form of the death penalty and tells us who watched, who participated in, and who criticized (and ultimately brought an end to) a spectacle that the state called “punishment.” France's abolition of the death penalty in 1981 has long overshadowed its suppression of public executions over forty years earlier. Since the Revolution, executions attracted tens of thousands of curious onlookers. But, gradually, there was a shift in attitude and the public no longer saw this as a civilized pastime. Why? The book answers this question. It demonstrates the ways in which the media was at the vanguard of putting an end to the publicity surrounding the death penalty. The press had ample reason to be critical: cities were increasingly being used for leisure activity and prisons for those accused of criminal activity. The agitation surrounding each execution, coupled with a growing identification with the condemned, would blur these boundaries.

Organellar protein multi-functionality and phenotypic plasticity in plants

With the increasing impact of climate instability on agricultural and ecological systems has come a heightened sense of urgency to understand plant adaptation mechanisms in more detail. Plant species have a remarkable ability to disperse their progeny to a wide range of environments, demonstrating extraordinary resiliency mechanisms that incorporate epigenetics and transgenerational stability. Surprisingly, some of the underlying versatility of plants to adapt to abiotic and biotic stress emerges from the neofunctionalization of organelles and organellar proteins. We describe evidence of possible plastid specialization and multi-functional organellar protein features that serve to enhance plant phenotypic plasticity. These features appear to rely on, for example, spatio-temporal regulation of plastid composition, and unusual interorganellar protein targeting and retrograde signalling features that facilitate multi-functionalization. Although we report in detail on three such specializations, involving MSH1, WHIRLY1 and CUE1 proteins in Arabidopsis , there is ample reason to believe that these represent only a fraction of what is yet to be discovered as we begin to elaborate cross-species diversity. Recent observations suggest that plant proteins previously defined in one context may soon be rediscovered in new roles and that much more detailed investigation of proteins that show subcellular multi-targeting may be warranted. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Linking the mitochondrial genotype to phenotype: a complex endeavour’.

Well-Being

Utilitarians have ample reason for wanting to know the nature of well-being. The central issue in this debate is whether some form of subjectivism is true. However, this chapter claims that the arguments for and against subjectivism are currently in stalemate, and that we should remain agnostic about the nature of well-being. Yet we can still make progress in thinking about well-being and how to promote it by considering how we can know whether something would be good for someone. In particular, the chapter argues that we should use Peter Railton’s idea of alienation for epistemic purposes. It then discusses how best to formulate the alienation test in light of false beliefs and subjects’ changing values. It concludes that decreasing the cost and difficulty of trying things may improve our capacity to promote our own and others’ well-being.

The Cosa Mithraeum: A Long Overdue Survey

Summary Very likely due to its modest nature, the Cosa Mithraeum has been mentioned in scholarly publications only four times – each in passing – since its discovery in 1954. This sparse attention, restricted solely to literature on Cosa, has meant that the mithraeum is well-known among those intimately familiar with the colony, but has languished in complete obscurity among Mithraic scholars for the past half century. In addition to bringing the Cosa Mithraeum to the attention of a wider audience, this article also argues for a re-evaluation of the most recent dating of the mithraeum. Recent advances in scholarship on mithraea at Ostia give ample reason to suggest that the original date for the Cosa Mithraeum might be more accurate than later interpreters have assumed. Furthermore, the ongoing excavations of Cosa's bath complex, conducted by Florida State University, Bryn Mawr College, and Tübingen University have revealed a city that was still quite active during the 2nd century CE. In light of these developments, this article is an overdue study of the Cosa Mithraeum and its role in the history of the colony.

W poszukiwaniu niepodległości w sztuce: Pawilon polski na wystawie paryskiej 1925

After reappearance of Poland on the map of Europe in 1918, the first major manifestation of the new country’s creative potential was at the 1925 International Exhibition of Applied Arts and Modern Industry in Paris. The Polish Pavilion, which had divided the opinion of critics at home, won the Grand Prix. The award of over 170 prizes to the Polish section in different areas and categories – from posters to art schools – gave ample reason to consider the exhibition an unquestionable success. The forms used in the architecture and interior design of the Polish Pavilion inspired various solutions applied in Polish public architecture of the 1920s. On the wave of the “Paris success” designers tried to translate the Polish variety of art deco into a type of national style which some scholars even came to refer to as the “style of regained independence” which manifested itself in architecture, particularly in interior design, bas reliefs, painted decorations textiles and furniture. Its emergence coincided with the introduction of new education methods in art and craft schools. The text discuss the Polish art deco style in context of two basic currents of interwar years: modernity and tradition. The problem of “Polishness” in art relates also to the concepts of interwar culture and visons of its progress or decadence.

Capernaum: A ‘Hub’ for the Historical Jesus or the Markan Evangelist?

One of the less controversial points among Jesus scholars is the importance of Capernaum to the historical Jesus, variously described as his ‘hub,’ ‘headquarters,’ ‘centre,’ etc. This article instead suggests that the importance of Capernaum may be understood as a specific to Mark’s depiction of Jesus and that Mark’s redactional interest in Capernaum prematurely treated as a datum concerning the historical Jesus. Indeed, exegetical insights about Mark’s interest in Galilee have more recently developed into arguments that the Second Gospel was composed somewhere in that region. This article will survey Mark’s characterization of the region to not only argue that Capernaum is a distinctively Markan point of interest, but that there is ample reason to believe that the Gospel was composed in that village.

9. Big issues and major challenges

Unless something dramatic happens, the AIDS epidemic will be under control across the world by 2022. The number of new infections will continue to fall; there will be virtually no vertical transmission from mothers to infants; and for those infected, treatment will be increasingly effective and simple, with fewer side effects. But AIDS will not end by 2030, as hoped by the UNAIDS 2015 report. ‘Big issues and major challenges’ examines key areas for the challenge ahead: the need to focus on specific areas and populations, harnessing new technologies, and the sensible use of finance. In 2016 there is ample reason to be optimistic, but there must be continued vigilance.

GENERATIONEN: GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN UND CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH: IMPULSE – TRANSFORMATIONEN – KONTRASTE MAGDEBURG, 17–18 MARCH 2014

This conference continued a series of meetings (biennial since 1994) dedicated to Telemann scholarship and held in Magdeburg, city of the composer's birth and home of the Zentrum für Telemann-Pflege und -Forschung. The theme of the conference linked it to a host of international events dedicated to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach on the occasion of his three hundredth birthday. The close relationship of Telemann to the second oldest Bach son (Telemann was his godfather) provided ample reason to bring together leading authorities on these two composers and their musical cultures. Twenty-five presentations across two days reflected what has already been written about Emanuel Bach and Telemann, what is currently being learned and what topics might fruitfully be explored in future.