1,721,004 research outputs found
L'incommensurabilità dell'esperienza umana. Forma e materia nell'era digitale
No full text1. Dati naturali e dati artificiali
2. Oggetti naturali
3. Oggetti digitali – 3.1. Forma degli oggetti digitali – 3.2. Materia degli oggetti digitali
4. Schematismo computazionale
5. Tecnologia ed esperienz
Reflections on a theory of artificial intelligence
No full textIn the following pages, Bruno Latour’s conception of modern epistemology is analyzed. Although Latour considered modernity to be at an end, the chapter shows how the modern analytical approach is still active in the contemporary world.
Research on artificial intelligence (AI) is no exception. Despite the fact that some experts and practitioners continue to promulgate a modern and reductionist conception of technology, the chapter show how that approach does not stand the test of time and how it leads to misunderstandings and misconceptions about AI and human cognition.
By reflecting on the theoretical assumptions underlying neural networks, currently the state of the art in AI research, the paper proposes an alternative approach to epistemological reductionism. These assumptions bring Latour's call about the constructed and hybrid character of phenomena back to the centre of the debate. This approach will prove fundamental in laying the groundwork for a philosophical reflection on AI
Riqualificazione e rinaturazione del bacino montano del fiume Piave
No full textL’obiettivo di questo progetto di ricerca è stato quello di individuare e mettere a punto una metodologia di lavoro a supporto delle attività di gestione e di ripristino degli ecosistemi fluviali, il cui stato ecologico è spesso compromesso dalle rilevanti pressioni antropiche a cui sono sottoposti. A tal fine, il metodo IFF (Indice di Funzionalità Fluviale - Siligardi et al., 2007) è stato applicato a due tratti del fiume Piave (Provincia di Belluno, Italia) caratterizzati da contesti ambientali ed antropici diversi tra loro. Al rilevamento dei dati di funzionalità fluviale è seguita una fase di rielaborazione ed applicazione alle procedure di pianificazione e riqualificazione degli ecosistemi fluviali, facendo riferimento anche a casi di studio reali. Un importante aspetto della ricerca ha riguardato, inoltre, la valutazione dell’idoneità del metodo adottato rispetto agli obiettivi di ricerca. Sono state quindi individuate le sue potenzialità ma anche i limiti, cercando, ove possibile, di fornire delle indicazioni per la sua messa a punto.The object of this research project has been the identification and setting up of a work methodology in support of the management and restoration of river ecosystems, which ecological status is often threatened by human activities. To this aim, the FFI method (Fluvial Functioning Index - Siligardi et al., 2007) has been applied to two stretches of Piave river (Belluno Province, Italy) characterised by different environmental and human contexts. Subsequently, fluvial functioning data have been revised and applied to planning and restoration procedures, with reference to real case study. An important part of the research has regarded the assessment of FFI suitability respect to the study objects. In this way, potential and limits of the method have been pointed out, trying, where possible, to provide suggestions for its setting up
Some reflections on Mitchell’s pragmatist variant of scientific realism
Full text linkThis article aims at discussing an interesting variant of scientific realism recently proposed and defended by Sandra Mitchell (forthcoming), namely an affordances-based and pragmatist variant of scientific realism. We firstly place Mitchell’s proposal in the context of the current state of the debate over scientific realism. Secondly, we summarize the salient features of Mitchell’s proposal. Thirdly, we point out some aspects of that proposal that might require some further refinement and clarification in order to make it less prone to criticisms by both realists and antirealists. More precisely, in this paper we address the following issues: 1) whether Mitchell’s proposal can be classified as a genuine form of scientific realism; 2) whether the fact that in Mitchell’s proposal figure some variants of the no miracle argument is in tension with some other of its features
Bio-techno-practice. Personal and social responsibility in the academic work
Full text linkThe new challenges posed by biomedicine and biotechnologies ask for a deeper consideration on the relationship among
science, knowledge and social responsibility. On one hand, in fact, technologies seem to shape our idea of human progress
and scientific understanding of the natural world and of life in particular. On the other hand, a thoughtful consideration on
the philosophical foundations of science as human enterprise is required. This also opens important questions about the new
emerging paradigms of ‘excellence’ in the academic, social and market fields and on the role that universities play in training the
future leaders and professionals of our society. After a short review of the contemporary philosophical reflections on the unity
of knowledge, which is the origin and the goal of academic work, we argue that adherence to our current challenges through the
bio-techno-practice prism is a fecund driving force of the academic activities. Moving from the experience of an international
project, we also discuss the impact that such interdisciplinary activities have on what we call hidden curriculum, i.e. the embodied
style of (skills that allow) people in taking care of each other in their physical, social, professional and scientific needs
Digital humanism. A human-centric approach to digitla technologies
No full textThis book provides an accessible and up to date overview of the foundational issues about both emerging constructive understandings of the digital era and still hidden and ignored aspects that could instead be dramatically relevant in the future, in the process of a technological humanism. The book offers relevant scientific and ethical questions bringing together professionals and researchers, from different professional and disciplinary fields, who have a shared interest in investigating operative aspects of technological, digital and cultural transitions of humans and their capacity of building human societies. The challenges are clear but there is a lack of an epistemological, anthropological, economic and social agenda that would enable a drive to such transitions towards a technological humanism.
This book provides an ideal platform for professionals and scholars, not only providing tools for problem analysis, but also indicating shared directions, needs and objectives for a common goal; the creation of new scenarios instead of the creation of fears and manipulated social imaginaria
Co-emergence and Collapse: The Mesoscopic Approach for Conceptualizing and Investigating the Functional Integration of Organisms
No full textThe fall of reductionist approaches to explanation leaves biology with an unescapable challenge: how to decipher complex systems. This entails a number of very critical questions, the most basic ones being: "What do we mean by 'complex'?" and "What is the system we should look for?" In complex systems, constraints belong to a higher level that the molecular one and their effect reduces and constrains the manifold of the accessible internal states of the system itself. Function is related but not deterministically imposed by the underlying structure. It is quite unlikely that such kind of complexity could be grasped by current approaches focusing on a single organization scale. The natural co-emergence of systems, parts and properties can be adopted as a hypothesis-free conceptual framework to understand functional integration of organisms, including their hierarchical or multilevel patterns, and including the way scientific practice proceeds in approaching such complexity. External, "driving" factors - order parameters and control parameters provided by the surrounding microenvironment - are always required to "push" the components' fate into well-defined developmental directions. In the negative, we see that in pathological processes such as cancer, organizational fluidity, collapse of levels and dynamic heterogeneity make it hard to even find a level of observation for a stable explanandum to persist in scientific practice. Parts and the system both lose their properties once the system is destabilized. The mesoscopic approach is our proposal to conceptualizing, investigating and explaining in biology. "Mesoscopic way of thinking" is increasingly popular in the epistemology of biology and corresponds to looking for an explanation (and possibly a prediction) where "nontrivial determinism is maximal": the "most microscopic" level of organization is not necessarily the place where "the most relevant facts do happen." A fundamental re-thinking of the concept of causality is also due for order parameters to be carefully and correctly identified. In the biological realm, entities have relational properties only, as they depend ontologically on the context they happen to be in. The basic idea of a relational ontology is that, in our inventory of the world, relations are somehow prior to the relata (i.e., entities)
Real and Virtual Clinical Trials: A Formal Analysis
Full text linkSystems biology is an interdisciplinary approach to complex biological problems through modelling, simulation, and systems-level analysis, which is increasingly establishing itself as an alternative and complementary source of knowledge to standards laboratory, clinical and epidemiologic studies in medicine. It has been proposed that such computer simulation and computer-aided modelling techniques could be employed in the setting of clinical testing, in order to support the planning of clinical trials, refine their conduct and reduce the possibility of their failure. According to this view, patient-specific computer models should be used to generate simulated populations, on which new biomedical products can be safely tested. The Avicenna Alliance refers to this methodology as In Silico Clinical Trial (ISCT). In their recently published Roadmap (Viceconti et al., 2016), the Avicenna alliance produced an in-depth examination of the scientific, technological, and societal obstacles that have to be overcome in order to establish a role for the ISCT in medical research. With the present paper we provide an analysis of ISCTs epistemological status, in particular with respect to the gold standard instrument of clinical investigation: Randomized Controlled Trials. We draw on Cartwright's analysis (2011) of RCTs as a basis for a formal analysis of their epistemic value and as a benchmark for investigating ISCTs. Britton et al.'s study (Britton et al., 2013) on the impact of ion current variability on cardiac electrophysiology is used for illustrative purposes
Is Cancer Reversible? Rethinking Carcinogenesis Models—A New Epistemological Tool
No full textA growing number of studies shows that it is possible to induce a phenotypic transformation of cancer cells from malignant to benign. This process is currently known as “tumor reversion”. However, the concept of reversibility hardly fits the current cancer models, according to which gene mutations are considered the primary cause of cancer. Indeed, if gene mutations are causative carcinogenic factors, and if gene mutations are irreversible, how long should cancer be considered as an irreversible process? In fact, there is some evidence that intrinsic plasticity of cancerous cells may be therapeutically exploited to promote a phenotypic reprogramming, both in vitro and in vivo. Not only are studies on tumor reversion highlighting a new, exciting research approach, but they are also pushing science to look for new epistemological tools capable of better modeling cancer
Rethinking “digital”: a genealogical enquiry into the meaning of digital and its impact on individuals and society
Full text linkIn the current social and technological scenario, the term digital is abundantly used with an apparently transparent and unambiguous meaning. This article aims to unveil the complexity of this concept, retracing its historical and cultural origin. This genealogical overview allows to understand the reason why an instrumental conception of digital media has prevailed, considering the digital as a mere tool to convey a message, as opposed to a constitutive conception. The constitutive conception places the digital phenomenon in the broader ground of media studies, and it considers digital technologies as an interface between the subject and the world. In this perspective, the media is not added to the experience of the person, but it shapes it from within on a cognitive, expressive and communicative level. The article makes use of two powerful examples to show the shortcomings of an instrumental conception of the digital, and to affirm the value of a constitutive conception for current media studies regarding digital interfaces
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