Digital Humanities

J. Hillis Miller is one of the premier literary critics in the American academy over the last half-century. He is a first-generation deconstructive critic. I studied with him in the 1960s at Johns Hopkins and then went a different way, toward cognitive science. This working paper consists three documents: 1) A letter to the editor (of PMLA) responding to Miller’s 1986 President’s address, 2) a long open letter from 2015 in which I discuss structuralism, cognitive science, and computational criticism, and 3) a chronology sketching out parallel developments in literary theory and cognitive science from the 1950s through the end of the century.

En esta ponencia me propongo presentar parte de mi investigación etnográfica que explora las formas de aprendizaje en grupos informáticos como un motor invisible de su activismo, que posibilita la combinación de aspectos sociales con otros puramente técnicos
para conformar comunidades abiertas de Redes Inalámbricas Libres con Internet Comunitaria (RILIC).
Denominados comunmente “Redes Libres”, estos grupos están formados por personas que conectan sus computadoras para compartir datos y servicios utilizando tecnología inalámbrica (WiFi). Estas redes no siempre brindan acceso a la Internet global ya que sus integrantes buscan generar formas horizontales de comunicación y colaboración
entre pares utilizando computadoras conectadas a redes locales. Existen cientos de estas redes alrededor del mundo, surgidas en el marco del movimiento del “Software Libre” 1 , trabajando voluntaria y/o comercialmente para construir antenas caseras, hackear routers y
diseñar arquitecturas de conexión en red. Como parte de mi investigación doctoral, que da marco a este texto, seguí a los informáticos de tres redes que funcionaron en la ciudad y la
provincia de Buenos Aires en la década del 2010. Al igual Internet estas redes también están tensionadas por múltiples intereses contrapuestos: libertad o restricción, centralismo u horizontalidad, colaboración o individualismo, público o privado, activismo o voluntariado.
Mi investigación buscaba comprender estas controversias desde el punto de vista de los informáticos que buscan construir formas alternativas, horizontales y cooperativas para reconfigurar a la “red de redes”. En este texto me voy a detener a profundizar en las particularidades de sus formas de aprender, intentando comprender la importancia de “autodidactismo” y al mismo tiempo, la relación con la colaboración entre pares en espacios formales y no formales (que incluyen a las máquinas informáticas con las que trabajan cotidianamente). En este sentido, a modo de conclusión, el texto describe el aprendizaje en la práctica basado en la autogeneración de problemas, la búsqueda de errores y la exploración de la libre atención.

The presence of developed regional transport and telecommunication infrastructure is considered a factor that can directly or indirectly contribute to regional competitiveness, especially in the age of digitalization. Through this phenomenon, we embrace a world that is becoming more connected and complex than ever. With the new technological innovations and solutions becoming available, more advanced levels of mobility can be achieved: concepts of smart urban mobility and autonomous transportation systems are becoming a reality. These rapid changes require swift action both from the perspectives of society and economy. This action includes the re-examination of our currently effective policies, with the use of a multidisciplinary mindset considering the perspectives of policymakers, manufacturers, and consumers as well. The goal of the paper is twofold: First, to explore why the concept of regional competitiveness is more relevant in the digital age and second, to explore how EU policies are nudging towards the future spread of self-driving cars; potential enhancers of regional competitiveness.

The careful excavation of physical evidence and examination of contexts and provenance allow us to make informed hypotheses about the physical construction and location of past structures. But is it possible to inform our understandings of how people moved around and through these structures? Is there any manner in which we can use the same physical evidence to infer how these structures were used? Can we apply understandings of how human perception informed past people about the meanings of environmental objects? Can we apply elements of Experimental Archaeology in an attempt to replicate past processes? Can we borrow from J.J. Gibson’s theories of affordance or direct-perception (1979), where objects and events have inherent meaning detected and exploited by human beings without mental calculation to aid our understanding of past places? Do ecological approaches to embodiment and cognition help us to understand relationships between past peoples, their tools, their environments, and how all of these elements function together as a system? If human movements, or moving humans, are added to heritage reconstructions without consideration of how environment, artefact, perception, and action are linked, they become aesthetic adornments. However, if movement is captured and applied with rigour similar to that applied to the materials used for the reconstructions, the virtual models become more than sculptures and can more usefully reflect the activities and behaviours conjectured to have taken place in the location.

https://www.spektrum.de/podcast/historische-netzwerke/1675072

Podcast-Interview of Nora Ludewig with Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

In dem Gespräch mit Johannes Preiser-Kapeller von der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften geht es um die Verflechtungen in der mittelalterlichen Welt und ihre Erforschung mit Methoden der Netzwerkanalyse. Wir sprechen über den Austausch von Menschen, Waren und Informationen zwischen Europa, Afrika und Asien, darüber, wie stark vernetzt die Menschen damals schon waren und wie diese Zusammenhänge heute erforscht werden.

The growing acknowledgement of the limited applicability to humanistic material of the analytical approach to data and visualization imported from the sciences naturally led to the search for partnership with other disciplines that could help adapt data visualization to the interpretation and contextual analysis of complex historical data. That is where communication design came into play, because this is precisely what design has been always doing: bridging scientific advancement and human needs by leveraging its nature as an ‘interdisciplinary, integrative discipline’ placed at ‘the intersection of several large fields’.

The paper deals with the influence of digital environment-digital media, in particular television and the Internet as the most influential mass media, on children through different cultural, social, educational and behavioral aspects. It analyzes the changes that information revolution and digital mass media brought to the society in terms of changes in patterns of behavior, new ways of creating personal identity through the patterns imposed by television and the Internet. The paper also represents the main educational and behavioral aspects of television and the Internet, especially e-learning; the implications and aspects of using smart mobile phone, and the concept of m-learning. In addition authors analyzed the advantages and risks mentioned returns, and they give their overview and proposals for developing e-learning and m-learning as concepts.

Key words: Internet, television, pedagogical, educational, behavior, identity, e-learning, m-learning

In recent years, the category of "practice-based research" has become an essential component of discourse around public funding and evaluation of the arts in British higher education. When included under the umbrella of public policy concerned with "the creative industries", technology researchers often find themselves collaborating with artists who consider their own participation to be a form of practice-based research. We are conducting a study under the "Creator" Digital Economies project asking whether technologists, themselves, should be considered as engaging in "practice-based" research, whether this occurs in collaborative situations, or even as a component of their own personal research [1]. Creative Technologists The recent upswell of interest in "creative technologies" has moved many technologists into realms more traditionally populated by artists working with technology. This has led to an explosion of novel uses of technology. However, many people trained in the fields of Art and Design claim the work created by these creative technologists lacks depth or critical enquiry. It is more a celebration of novelty, gizmos and gadgetry than any meaningful exploration of technology or creativity. They feel true enquiry has been hijacked by the "demo-or-die" culture of the MIT Media Lab[2]. Many in the creative technology community feel the initial creative spark is the most important aspect of any work and they jump from spark-to-spark before giving any idea enough time to fan into a flame. In the meantime, designers and artists continually struggle to give more depth to their work, to find appropriate contexts, to make something bold which is more than purely decorative or does more

Paper available at: https://rdcu.be/bxgWy

In this article I focus on the authorship of "Siempre ayuda la verdad", an early modern Spanish play first published in 1635 as part of the volume "Segunda parte de las comedias del maestro Tirso de Molina". This drama, which is one of several early modern Iberian plays related to the figure of Inês de Castro, is currently considered by most scholars as penned by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, probably in collaboration with Luis de Belmonte and maybe even with Tirso de Molina. In the first part of this paper I will examine how this traditional attribution relies on a bibliographic ghost, subjective impressions of style, and the creation of a scholarly discourse based on the repetition of statements—including some explicitly made up—without any critical examination of facts. The possible attribution of this play to none other than Lope de Vega—a name that has been associated with "Siempre ayuda la verdad" since 1906—has not received specific examination until now. I will proceed to do so in the second part of this paper by using a variety of resources that offer objective criteria: early modern documentation, strophic versification, stylometry, and orthoepy.

Summary: The article discusses the impact of the phenomena of artificial intelligence and digital man on the morality and the law of modern society and future generations, it is found out either artificial intelligence should be moral, or it is enough to comply with the requirements of current legislation. In comparison with the norms of criminal law (Article 39 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) some variants of solving the trolley problem have proposed for autonomous vehicles controlled by artificial intelligence have been proposed. Several efficiency aspects of the Isaac Asimov’ laws of robotics are investigated and improved. The question about a world religion under the patronage of comprehensive artificial intelligence has raised.
Key words: law, morality, extreme necessity, artificial intelligence, digital human being, trolley problem, autonomous vehicle, Internet of Everything, laws of robotics

Аннотация: В статье рассматривается вопрос о влиянии феноменов искусственного интеллекта и цифрового человека на мораль и право современного общества и последующих поколений, выясняется, следует ли искусственному интеллекту быть моральным, или достаточно соблюдать требования действующего законодательства. В сопоставлении с нормами уголовного права (ст.39 УК Украины) предложены некоторые варианты решения проблемы вагонетки («trolley problem») для автономных от человека транспортных средств под управлением искусственного интеллекта. Исследованы отдельные аспекты эффективности законов робототехники Айзека Азимова и уточнены их формулировки, поставлен вопрос о возможности возникновения всемирной религии под патронатом всеобъемлющего искусственного интеллекта.
Ключевые слова: право, мораль, крайняя необходимость, искусственный интеллект, цифровой человек, проблема вагонетки, trolley problem, автономное транспортное средство, Всеобъемлющий Интернет, законы робототехники

Анотація: В статті розглядається питання про вплив феноменів штучного інтелекту та цифрової людини на мораль і право сучасного суспільства та майбутніх поколінь, з’ясовується, чи потрібно штучному інтелекту бути моральним, або достатньо дотримуватися вимог чинного законодавства. Продовжено спроби розв’язання проблеми вагонетки («trolley problem») у зіставленні з нормами кримінального права (ст.39 КК України) у зв’язку з появою автономних від людини транспортних засобів під керуванням штучного інтелекту. Досліджено окремі аспекти ефективності законів робототехніки Айзека Азімова та запропоновано їх уточнення, поставлено питання про можливість виникнення всесвітньої релігії під патронатом всеосяжного штучного інтелекту.
Ключові слова: право, мораль, крайня необхідність, штучний інтелект, цифрова людина, проблема вагонетки, trolley problem, автономний транспортний засіб, Всеосяжний Інтернет, закони робототехніки

To better understand the effects of social media on placemaking – our experiential connection to geographic place -- this study explored the use of social media posts by the residents of Brazoria County, Texas in the Brazoria County “Rocks!” Facebook group. This group is a unique integration of interpersonal communication, social media strategy, and geographic community. Using a grounded theory analysis of group posts during the seminal month of the group, this study argues that social media, and Facebook in particular, can digitally augment human experience of geographic location. This research suggests that bringing a discussion of placemaking into the study of social media can create new conversations about interaction and engagement in communities that are at once geographic and digital.

The paper continues a series of preliminary notes for the digital catalogue of collections brought by German ethnologist Albert Grubauer in 1911 from ex British North
Borneo (now state Sabah, Malaysia) and sold to the MAE in 1914. The author completes the work started by her predecessors in the museum on identification of two objects misrecognized when the collection was registered. Reconstructing museum biographies of the two tools for genital piercing, the author creates a textual model of digital publication in hope to show that a
properly organized digital infrastructure is able to facilitate not just museum records and exhibitions, but also research on museum collections. This experimental text is a collection of digital data objects: images of artifacts, fragments of documents and publications and their transcripts, commentaries of the researcher. The textual format makes the author put the objects in a certain rigid line, giving her at the same time possibility of metacommentary for her actions. An obvious limitation of digital publication of a museum collection is impossibility to digitize tactile qualities of an object which are so important for museum heuristics. Still, possibility to juxtapose images and excerpts from documents at the one surface of a digital page may significantly lower chances for identification failures and prompt to productive comparisons. With such a tool at hand, curator of a digitalized museum collection inevitably becomes also researcher.

Ho letto con interesse il saggio di Paolo Gervasi, Doctor strangelove. Il pezzo, uscito sul terzo numero di L'età del ferro, risponde a un articolo di Matteo Marchesini, I dottori di Molière al capezzale delle Humanities, pubblicato sul numero precedente della stessa rivista. Senza avere la pretesa di sintetizzare la complessità dei due interventi, alla cui lettura integrale rimando, Marchesini muove un attacco ai tentativi fatti in ambito internazionale di innestare sulla riflessione teorico-letteraria strumenti tratti dalle neuroscienze, dalla biologia e dalla teoria dell'informazione. La sua polemica prende le mosse da una sulfurea critica a due testi apparsi recentemente: quello di Michele Cometa, Perché le storie ci aiutano a vivere. La letteratura necessaria (Raffaello Cortina, 2017) e quello di Alberto Casadei, Biologia della letteratura (Il Saggiatore, 2018). Gervasi riparte proprio da quei due testi, e articolando nel suo saggio una risposta che è insieme anche una proposizione di intenti e un rilancio: quelli che per Marchesini sono i limiti più forti mostrati dagli approcci delle humanities allo studio del fenomeno letterario-scarsa aderenza alla specificità dei singoli testi, incapacità di un gergo seducente di farsi valido strumento di analisi, sovrapposizione tra modelli teorici, sudditanza alle scienze dure, incapacità di proporre una visione non ancillare della letteratura rispetto alle nuove forme di espressione e creatività umana-vengono rovesciati da Gervasi in altrettanti paradossali punti di forza. Trovo utile che si possa ragionare a partire da questo scambio, esplicitando questioni che restano spesso latenti in un dibattito dai confini incerti com'è quello delle forme che possono o devono assumere, nel contemporaneo e per il futuro, gli studi letterari. Me ne è nato il desiderio di riflettere a mia volta, perché leggendo il saggio di Gervasi ho scoperto affermazioni con cui mi trovo d'accordo, mentre su altre ho avvertito un certo disagio, e ho voluto provare a chiarire prima di tutto a me stessa il perché.