Open Access Books

The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to Norbert Wiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it—cybernetics. In God & Golem, Inc., the author concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues.The first point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almost exclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only can be programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience and improve on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It did win," writes the author, "and it did learn to win; and the method of its learning was no different in principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers.A second point concerns machines which have the capacity to reproduce themselves. It is our commonly held belief that God made man in his own image. The propagation of the race may also be interpreted as a function in which one living being makes another in its own image. But the author demonstrates that man has made machines which are "very well able to make other machines in their own image," and these machine images are not merely pictorial representations but operative images. Can we then say: God is to Golem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, golem is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fully created, hence a monster, an automation.The third point considered is that of the relation between man and machine. The concern here is ethical. "render unto man the things which are man's and unto the computer the things which are the computer's," warns the author. In this section of the book, Dr. Wiener considers systems involving elements of man and machine. The book is written for the intellectually alert public and does not involve any highly technical knowledge. It is based on lectures given at Yale, at the Société Philosophique de Royaumont, and elsewhere.

Tourism must be planned and developed differently from what is customary today, as growth in rigid economic terms is still prioritised over the cultural and socioecological sustainability of lived-in cultural and natural environments. The global ecological crisis can no longer be ignored by tourism developers and investors – or by tourists. The seventeen authors of this book are from a variety of disciplines and fields of expertise. Through research-driven and profession based knowledge on different aspects of tourism planning in Finland and elsewhere, they offer transformative perspectives and practical applications for responsible tourism planners, investors and political decision-makers to utilise. Through the book’s overarching themes – learnings from the history of tourism planning, wellbeing, participation, building and architecture, people and infrastructure – it addresses a general audience, professional communities, and academic communities. The book’s urgent quest is to prevent tourism from remaining one of the causes for the greatest problem of all time, the worsening baseline of living conditions on Earth.

Die Arbeit nimmt eine Neubewertung der Geschichte des Kriegsrechts vor. Sie verlässt die ausgetretenen Pfade linear-progressiver Fortschrittsnarrative und rekonstruiert die Kodifizierung kriegsrechtlicher Normen durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz, der juristische Dogmatik mit archivgestützten ideengeschichtlichen Elementen verbindet. Auf diese Weise identifiziert die Arbeit sicherheitspolitische Reaktionen auf Systemverschiebungen im europäischen Völkerrecht als Ausgangspunkt des Kodifikationsprojekts. Raphael Schäfer ist Referent am Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht sowie Schriftleiter des Journal of the History of Interntional Law. Er forscht und lehrt zum Völkerrecht und dessen Grundlagen.

This open access book gathers contributions presented at the International Joint Conference on Mechanics, Design Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing (JCM 2020), held as a web conference on June 2–4, 2020. It reports on cutting-edge topics in product design and manufacturing, such as industrial methods for integrated product and process design; innovative design; and computer-aided design. Further topics covered include virtual simulation and reverse engineering; additive manufacturing; product manufacturing; engineering methods in medicine and education; representation techniques; and nautical, aeronautics and aerospace design and modeling. The book is organized into four main parts, reflecting the focus and primary themes of the conference. The contributions presented here not only provide researchers, engineers and experts in a range of industrial engineering subfields with extensive information to support their daily work; they are also intended to stimulate new research directions, advanced applications of the methods discussed and future interdisciplinary collaborations.

Animal genetics is a field of science with important theoretical and practical significance in finding the answers for the actual problems of mankind. We hope that the readers will discover some new facts regarding the relationship between plasma proteins and boar semen freezability, the importance of some behavioral factors that affect reproduction in horses, and also an important chapter regarding the use of genetically modified organisms for the repopulation of species of commercial importance in aquatic environments, their effect on the genetic pool, risks to protected areas, and policies for their proper management.

¿Qué es ser “moreno”, “libre”, “chocoano”, “cholo” o “Emberá” en los ríos del Chocó rural? ¿Son necesarios la presencia, el impacto cultural y la parcial inclusión del otro en el espacio social propio para desplegar todos los recursos y competencias sociales y culturales para sentirse plenamente uno mismo? ¿Pueden entenderse la trama interétnica y sus diferentes figuras como una de las fuentes de la creatividad social y de la singularidad cultural de ciertos grupos minoritarios acercados por ...

This book provides a timely and detailed analysis of key climate change cases in domestic courts across the globe, examining the procedural, evidentiary, legal, and strategic dimensions of the complex climate governance landscape. It reveals how, as the threats of climate change grow and as policy fails to respond, individuals and groups have increasingly been turning to national courts to seek relief and clarity through litigation.

Minas de Riotinto, 4 février 1888 : des milliers de mineurs et d’habitants des villages alentour manifestent contre les calcinations de pyrites à l’air libre pratiquées par la Rio Tinto Company, dont les fumées toxiques affectent gravement la santé publique, l’agriculture, l’environnement. Placée au milieu d’une foule pacifique, l’armée tire sans sommation, faisant près de 200 morts, bilan travesti par les autorités, sans équivalent dans l’Europe du temps. À partir de centaines de documents d’archives inédits, cet ouvrage inscrit le drame de « el año de los tiros » dans une décennie de luttes locales tout en décryptant les stratégies et responsabilités des différents pouvoirs, compagnie minière, politiques, experts. Le conflit et le massacre conduisent à une réflexion sur le fonctionnement même du régime de la Restauration et, au-delà de l’Espagne, sur les comportements des populations et de l’ensemble des acteurs devant une catastrophe environnementale.

Lo studio Incrocio di culture analizza le differenze culturali comuni e reciproche − un approccio all’inter- culturalità − di tedeschi, italiani e francesi in materia di patrimonio architettonico, storico, letterario, cinemato- grafico, teatrale e lirico e sui riferimenti o le figure della cultura popolare. L’inchiesta è stata condotta su 4.500 persone appartenenti alle tre popolazioni: si tratta di un’iniziativa inedita nel proprio ambito e per portata, che mira a sondare il fondamento comune delle culture in Europa, di una cultura europea o dell’identità culturale europea mediante la cultura. I risultati confermano la correlazione delle conoscenze e del livello di istruzione, mettono in evidenza la pregnanza degli stereotipi sui popoli e l’assenza di una vera e propria cultura comune. L’esistenza di alcuni riferimenti transnazionali fortemente condivisi mostra tuttavia che l’interculturalità, che suppone la conoscenza degli altri popoli, non è irraggiungibile. Lo studio invita pertanto a ripensare gli obiet- tivi, i metodi e gli strumenti dell’interculturalità europea.

This book is a collection of articles that have been published in the Special Issue “Responsive Architecture” of the MDPI journal Buildings. The eleven articles within cover various areas of sensitive architecture, including the design of packaging structures reacting to supporting components; structural efficiency of bent columns in indigenous houses; roof forms responsive to buildings depending on their resiliently transformed steel shell parts; creative design of building free shapes covered with transformed shells; artistic structural concepts of the architect and civil engineer; digitally designed airport terminal using wind analysis; rationalized shaping of sensitive curvilinear steel construction; interactive stories of responsive architecture; transformed shell roof constructions as the main determinant in the creative shaping of buildings without shapes that are sensitive to man-made and natural environments; thermally sensitive performances of a special shielding envelope on balconies; quantification of generality and adaptability of building layout using the SAGA method; and influence of initial conditions on the simulation of the transient temperature field inside a wall.

Almost exactly one hundred years have passed since the death of Daniel Paul Schreber, and so it would be hard to find a better occasion to take a closer look at ‘the most described case in the history of psychiatry’, the man suffering (as he claimed himself) from a nervous illness. Freud proclaimed that the man would have made an ideal director of a psychiatric institution, while Lacan stated that he showed a talent and passion of a theologian. ‘Schreber’s case’ is not only a system of delusions, fascinating in its complexity, of a former judge, but also a challenge for the emerging tradition of psychoanalysis. What is more, this challenge has accompanied psychoanalysis throughout the entire history of its development, forcing it, each time, to revise its own premises, to question its dogma, and to rethink its fundamental notions.

“Parental equality”, “sexist justice!”. Regularly, men perch on top of monuments to hold up, for a few hours, signs displaying these slogans. These mobilizations, which can be seen all over the world, are protesting against a family justice system that would be unfavorable to men because it would massively organize the residence of children with their mothers, after the parents' separation. How can these mobilizations shed light on contemporary issues of family transformation and, more specifically, on the judicial regulation of post-marital parenthood? In the light of a field study among groups of separated fathers, Aurélie Fillod-Chabaud shows how much these mobilizations can be part of a reactionary and antifeminist movement, criticizing in essence the “feminization” of society and of the major State bodies. This book, based on a doctoral thesis in sociology, offers an analysis of the mobilisations of separated fathers from a comparative perspective (France-Quebec) for an academic, associative, and activist readership.

The Routledge Companion to Media and Race serves as a comprehensive guide for scholars, students, and media professionals who seek to understand the key debates about the impact of media messages on racial attitudes and understanding. Broad in scope and richly presented from a diversity of perspectives, the book is divided into three sections: first, it summarizes the theoretical approaches that scholars have adopted to analyze the complexities of media messages about race and ethnicity, from the notion of "representation" to more recent concepts like Critical Race Theory. Second, the book reviews studies related to a variety of media, including film, television, print media, social media, music, and video games. Finally, contributors present a broad summary of media issues related to specific races and ethnicities and describe the relationship of the study of race to the study of gender and sexuality.

Dégagé de la plupart de ses contrepouvoirs depuis la fin des années 1980, le projet politique néolibéral et les inégalités qu’il renforce paraissent aujourd’hui sans remède. Est-il si difficile de ne pas céder à la résignation ou, pire, à l’indifférence ? Les outils pour identifier ces inégalités, les expliquer et les dénoncer ne manquent pas. La pensée critique connaît, en France comme ailleurs, un formidable renouveau. Dans toutes les disciplines des sciences sociales, l’apport de nos aînés est revisité et enrichi de nouvelles propositions pour se confronter aux injustices contemporaines, qui semblent rendues acceptables par des manipulations intellectuelles et des ficelles de plus en plus grossières. L’espace est, comme le temps et l’argent, un redoutable allié des dominants. Accaparé, exproprié, spolié, marchandisé, financiarisé, surveillé, refusé, l’espace se révèle être, à toutes les échelles et dans toutes ses configurations, une excellente clef de lecture de la situation des dominés. Confinement, relégation, enfermement en sont les modalités extrêmes, mais bien d’autres, plus subtiles et moins visibles, contribuent à pérenniser des rapports de force à ce point asymétriques qu’il n’est de meilleur terme pour les qualifier que celui de domination. Mais l’espace est aussi l’allié des dominés engagés dans des processus de résistance, de contestation ou de lutte contre l’ordre du capitalisme néolibéral. Dotés de ressources propres, les dominés construisent aussi des stratégies, individuelles ou collectives, qui prennent appui dans l’espace et peuvent faire de ce dernier une ressource pour se faire entendre ou se rendre visible. Dans un contexte académique mondial dominé par les travaux anglophones, en particulier ceux de la géographie radicale, cet ouvrage entend présenter la manière dont les chercheurs et chercheuses francophones travaillant sur les questions spatiales analysent les rapports sociaux de domination, qu’ils soient de classe, de race, de sexe, autant de rapports sociaux qui ont un fondement matériel. Plusieurs entrées thématiques sont explorées, qui renvoient à des champs de recherche bien identifiés : la question urbaine, les études sur le genre, le sexe, la sexualité et l’intersectionnalité, la question des migrations et celle des populations marginalisées et, enfin, l’environnement. Cet ouvrage témoigne donc de la grande vivacité des travaux francophones, tout en réaffirmant l’utilité de penser l’espace dans la critique sociale.

This book is intended for the technical reader who works with large volumes of data. Written by experts in information systems management, the book includes chapters on software development, cloud implementation, networking, and handling large datasets, among other topics. Blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are the foundations of automated systems and the authors provide their viewpoints on information management by using these fundamental domains of information technology.