Scientific knowledge in the field of Physical Education: paths to complexity

This manuscript aims to discuss possibilities for the incorporation of complex thinking in the scientific field of Physical Education (PE) in Brazil. In dialogue with philosophers who theorize about complex thinking, we analyze the ordering of scientific knowledge structures in Brazil, such as the organization in areas and lines of PE Graduate Programs (PPGs) exposed on their websites and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) document. Regarding sociocultural transformations that occurred throughout the 20th century, science perceives the limits of knowledge, where divisions in disciplines seem to be insufficient to investigate the complexity of problems, giving rise to the epistemological perspective of complex thinking. PE is organized in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary way, but with gaps between human sciences and natural sciences. Therefore, seeking strategies to reduce borders is emerging for the area to adapt to the new scientific needs of the 21st century.

The Value of Duane Rumbaugh’s Comparative Perspective—in Neurobiology

One commonality across the wide-ranging influences Duane Rumbaugh had on late-20th century science was his commitment to the comparative perspective in psychology. I argue here that a commitment similar in force to Rumbaugh’s also infuses mainstream experimental neurobiology. This connection is ironic because Rumbaugh eschewed brain intervention experimentation in vivo throughout his scientific career. Still, the influence and value of a perspective similar to Rumbaugh’s can be found in neurobiology in at least three places. First, recent neurobiology has made good on one of Rumbaugh’s predictions, that rearing and early environment will be shown to influence behavior and cognition in nonprimate animals. Second, the epistemologically justified use of animal models in experimental neurobiology to investigate human brain mechanism presupposes a strong commitment to the comparative perspective. Third, commitment to the comparative perspective raises the most pressing ethical concern in neurobiology, namely, how is it ethical to perform brain intervention experiments on animal models if their brain mechanisms and behaviors compare closely enough with ours to justifiably generalize these experiments’ results?

Understanding Intelligent Systems

Throughout the 20th century, science fiction portrayed a robotic future in both utopian and dystopian ways. The reality of automated systems, intelligent systems, and “robots” in the workforce, however, is much more mundane, even if it is undoubtedly disruptive. The same set of technologies that empower employees to be more effective or bear less physical risk can displace a workforce in other sectors, or undermine economic systems. Unrepentant fear and hope often obscure the complex socio-technical dynamics of intelligent systems in the workplace, yet moving beyond this is critical to developing the right framework for navigating the development of such systems. This is especially important at a moment when the results of a recent canvassing survey of widely-quoted technology builders, analysts, and other insightful figures by the Pew Research Center (Smith & Anderson, 2014) on robots prompted Walter Frick (2014) at the Harvard Business Review to exclaim that, “Experts have no idea if a robot will steal your job.”

Understanding non-governmental organizations in world politics: The promise and pitfalls of the early ‘science of internationalism’

The years immediately preceding the First World War witnessed the development of a significant body of literature claiming to establish a ‘science of internationalism’. This article draws attention to the importance of this literature, especially in relation to understanding the roles of non-governmental organizations in world politics. It elaborates the ways in which this literature sheds light on issues that have become central to 21st-century debates, including the characteristics, influence and legitimacy of non-governmental organizations in international relations. Among the principal authors discussed in the article are Paul Otlet, Henri La Fontaine and Alfred Fried, whose role in the development of international theory has previously received insufficient attention. The article concludes with an evaluation of potential lessons to be drawn from the experience of the early 20th-century ‘science of internationalism’.

Vertical cities: Representations of urban verticality in 20th-century science fiction literature

This paper seeks to intersect two recent trends in urban research. First, it takes seriously the recognition that established traditions of research concerned with urban space have tended to privilege the horizontal extension of cities to the neglect of their vertical or volumetric extension. Second, the paper contributes to the resurgence of interest among social scientists in the validity of fiction – and especially speculative or science fiction – as a source of critical commentary and as a mode of knowledge that can exist in close reciprocity with non-fictional work. From these two starting points the paper develops a reading of the dialogue between the representations of vertical urban life that have featured in landmark works of 20th-century science fiction literature and key themes in contemporary urban analysis.