Ethical control of innovation in a globalized and liberal world: Is good science still science?

The independence of science was long seen as of prime importance. This position has become less common today. The perception of scientific research as a public service has led to the opinion that it must be accountable to citizens and produce knowledge and innovation that meet their expectations. Numerous authors have voiced the need for anticipatory ethical control of innovation focusing on the scientific research process. This control is considered as the must-have guarantee for “good science.” The current article attempts to trace the ideological origins of the ethical control of innovation, examines its effectiveness against the challenge of globalization and technology-derived major threats and its compatibility with scientific methodology. It also suggests ways to both regulate the innovation process and preserve the independence of science. On the whole, we conclude that truly effective ethical regulation of innovation, i.e. one that protects the greatest number from its adverse effects, is achieved first and foremost by questioning our liberal economic model and the place given to science in our societies.     

Preserving a combat commander’s moral agency: The Vincennes Incident as a Chinese Room

We argue that a command and control system can undermine a commander’s moral agency if it causes him/her to process information in a purely syntactic manner, or if it precludes him/her from ascertaining the truth of that information. Our case is based on the resemblance between a commander’s circumstances and the protagonist in Searle’s Chinese Room, together with a careful reading of Aristotle’s notions of ‘compulsory’ and ‘ignorance’. We further substantiate our case by considering the Vincennes Incident, when the crew of a warship mistakenly shot down a civilian airliner. To support a combat commander’s moral agency, designers should strive for systems that help commanders and command teams to think and manipulate information at the level of meaning. ‘Down conversions’ of information from meaning to symbols must be adequately recovered by ‘up conversions’, and commanders must be able to check that their sensors are working and are being used correctly. Meanwhile ethicists should establish a mechanism that tracks the potential moral implications of choices in a system’s design and intended operation. Finally we highlight a gap in normative ethics, in that we have ways to deny moral agency, but not to affirm it.     

Social robots as cultural objects: The sixth dimension of dynamicity?

We investigate youths' conceptualization of social robots. Informed by Schudson's theory of the potency of the cultural object, we conducted two studies. The first study centered on essays on social robots written by bachelor's and master's students. The second study centered on prototypes of social robots built by small groups comprised of same students. The essays and prototypes were content analyzed. The results confirm that social robots embody all five dimensions that characterize cultural objects. However, to fully understand this peculiar cultural object, another dimension needs to be introduced: dynamicity.     

Anticipating Ethical Challenges: Is There a Coming Era of Nanotechnology?

In this paper I question the claims made for a ‘coming era of nanotechnology’ and the ethical challenges, it is argued, that are entailed by this particular technological revolution. I argue that such futurist claims are sustained by an untenable modernist narrative which separates the technical and the social. This is exemplified by the work of K. Eric Drexler and his claim that whilst the course of scientific knowledge may remain unpredictable we nevertheless can predict with accuracy the trajectory of technology and particularly the emergence of nanotechnology. The problem then, on the basis of knowledge about the future state of technology, is to make choices now which will forestall unintended and undesirable consequences. Firstly, the paper argues for a radical scepticism towards all forms of forecasting or prediction but especially technological forecasting of the type exemplified in the debate around nanotechnology. Secondly, given this radical scepticism the paper criticises the idea that a prospective ethics can be created on the basis of an assessment of consequences of nanotechnology.     

The spacetime scale as a quantum coördinate system

In the Introduction the several branches of Physics are classified according to the sensory experience whereby the coincidence is recorded, thereby orienting the term “visual coincidence.” The rôle of the clock mechanism in dynamical formulation is briefly discussed.In Part I, an array of Michelson rotating mirror clocks, giving a postulated light-velocity effect, is used as a background for an empirical criterion for the synchronization of clocks.In Part II, the empirical criterion for synchronization in question is formulated in such a way as to disclose the existence of an absolute kinematic quantum, capable of macroscopic test, contingent on the light-velocity effect postulated in Part I.In Part III, the galilean spacetime scale is introduced as a kinematic “crystal” lattice whose gauge is the absolute kinematic quantum discussed in Part II. The question is raised whether in problems involving the ordering of sharp steady light images concentrated in lines or points, the images themselves may not form a three coördinate galilean or non-galilean spacetime lattice of synchronized clock-points, and are not more immediately described this way than by reference to the amorphous galilean or non-galilean four-coördinate reference systems. It is suggested that the quantum problem insofar as it treats of spectroscopic and crystallographic electromagnetic image patterns may be treated through an establishment of transformation equations between observed coincidences of a spacetime scale, as such, and the same observed coincidences referred to a uniform length scale.     

Clinical and diagnostic utility of saliva as a non-invasive diagnostic fluid:?a systematic review

This systematic review presents the latest trends in salivary research and its applications in health and disease. Among the large number of analytes present in saliva, many are affected by diverse physiological and pathological conditions. Further, the non-invasive, easy and cost-effective collection methods prompt an interest in evaluating its diagnostic or prognostic utility. Accumulating data over the past two decades indicates towards the possible utility of saliva to monitor overall health, diagnose and treat various oral or systemic disorders and drug monitoring. Advances in saliva based systems biology has also contributed towards identification of several biomarkers, development of diverse salivary diagnostic kits and other sensitive analytical techniques. However, its utilization should be carefully evaluated in relation to standardization of pre-analytical and analytical variables, such as collection and storage methods, analyte circadian variation, sample recovery, prevention of sample contamination and analytical procedures. In spite of all these challenges, there is an escalating evolution of knowledge with the use of this biological matrix.Key words: saliva, non-invasive, biological markers, drug monitoring, oral health     

Oxygen as a catalyst in the Earth's interior?

The abundance of the element oxygen is not only crucial for life at the surface of the Earth, but also greatly affects the properties and dynamics of the interi...     

The scientific and technological cross-space: Is technological diversification driven by scientific endogenous capacity?

The principle of relatedness allows us to explore the likelihood that territories diversify their current technological portfolios based on the global co-occurrence patterns of technologies. Countries that excel at developing semiconductors should develop mobile phones because both technologies require similar endogenous capacities, including scientific knowledge. However, thus far, studies have been mostly limited to the knowledge common base assumption and have not questioned enough whether different scientific endogenous capacities may be behind similar diversification performances. To address this question, we introduce the concept of scientific and technological cross-density, which we define as the average proximity of a new potential technology to a country's scientific and technological portfolio. To conceptualize and measure the effect that scientific and technological cross-density may have on technological diversification, we applied a two-stage methodology to a sample of 182 countries during the 1988–2014 period. First, we build a network, the science and technology cross-space, (sci-tech cross-space), which relates knowledge and technologies based on co-occurrence values. Second, we estimate the effect of scientific-technological cross-density and technological density on technological diversification at the country level. We find that the more a new technology is related to a country's scientific portfolio, the greater its entry probability; additionally, the effect of technological density on technological diversification is greater than the effect of scientific and technological density.     

Is small actually big? The chaos of technological change

In this paper, we develop themes from complexity and chaos theory that help to explain the technological change process. We apply two quantifiers, correlation dimensions and Lyapunov exponents, to examine the signs and degrees of chaotic technological dynamics. To illustrate our ideas, we study the development of electronic displays from 1976 to 2010, using patent data. The results of the chaos model are matched against the profiles of patent citations. Our analysis contributes to the development of a chaotic model of technological change.     

The city as a context for scientific activity: creating the Mediziner-Viertel in fin-de-siècle Vienna

At the turn of the 19th century, a surprisingly dense network of academic institutes and medical facilities developed on the margins of Ringstrasse, the impressive boulevard that surrounded the old city of Vienna. Enmeshed, socially and culturally in the life of the city, that area known as the Mediziner-Viertel grew out of the needs of natural scientists and physicians as much as it was shaped by the liberal ideology, feminists' petitions for women's acceptance to university studies, Vienna's intellectuals and Kaffeehaus culture. Recovering the city behind the structure of modern academic institutes tells us a good deal about the context in which intellectual work was developed and its impact on the production of scientific knowledge.     

The “sailing ship effect”: Reassessing history as a source of insight on technical change

The so-called “sailing ship effect” has often been stated as though there is no doubt that it really took place in the end of the 19th century. The notion has, moreover, been used as a stylised fact that is in charge of conveying the idea that the substitution threat of new radical technologies may lead to a renewed spurt of innovation in an old and established technology. On the basis of quantitative evidence and a systematic review of the field of maritime history this paper shows that the effect is nowhere to be found in the very case it derives its name from. The modernisation of the sailing trader occurs before, not after, the steamship had become an effective competitor. It is argued that if history is to be used to give credence to explanations of empirical regularities in a variety of settings the original source of the relevant concepts must be carefully revisited and deeply researched.     

Is social networking a waste of time? The impact of social network and knowledge characteristics on job performance

People use social media to help them solve problems and enhance performance. Users may engage in diverse social interactions online, increasing their knowledge base through both weak and strong ties. In this study we investigate the impact of social networks on job performance, focusing on knowledge quality and diversity based on social network theory and the knowledge-based view. The empirical analysis reveals that the strength of social network ties is strongly associated with knowledge quality in offline interactions, while social network diversity is associated with knowledge quality in online interactions. Knowledge quality acquired from social network has a significant impact on both creativity and productivity of job performance in the workplace. However, knowledge diversity acquired from diverse social network interactions is strongly associated with creativity, but not with productivity. The results of this study increase our understanding of the knowledge sourcing behaviors of workers.     

The impact of AI: can a robot get into the University of Tokyo?

<正>The ‘Todai Robot Project(Can a robot get into the University of Tokyo?)’ was initiated by the National Institute of Informatics(NII),the Japan’s only general academic research institution of informatics,in 2011 as an AI grand challenge.he goal of the project is to create an AI system that answers real questions on university entrance