Kirjahaku

It is not a question of whether artificial intelligence is really conscious or truly intelligent. Rather, it centers on whether we have crossed a major threshold where large numbers of people around the world believe that A.I. applications are conscious and intelligent and may even have developed their own agendas, hidden or otherwise. The danger is in human perception, not in A.I. per se, and this in itself can lead to all sorts of unforeseen problems, not the least of which is prematurely shutting down machine learning and/or progressive funding of A.I. because of irrational fears of a doomsday scenario. On the other end of the spectrum, we run the risk of over-humanizing A.I. and treating it much more special than it actually is, imputing it with rights, ethics, and freedoms that ultimately do a disservice to the greater good of humanity. In this essay, we focus on the theory of other minds, intentional stances, the neural basis of consciousness, and the future of education and how best to incorporate the latest iterations of synthetic intelligence, such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, ElevenLabs, and more into the curriculum. The argument is simple: the A.I. cyborg has already entered the classroom and we need to co-adapt to what it has to offer.

This graphic novel with over 100 tantalizing pictures describes a futuristic company that has developed a new virtual reality application called the Prajna Project. There are ten distinct libraries, each with 10,000 books, that the user can read or listen to in an ever-changing meditative environment. Moreover, there are A.I. curators that can guide the reader and respond to almost any query in hundreds of languages. But what makes this app unique is that the reader can actually live out the narrative as a character and become an integral part of the story. Yet, there is a glitch in the system that forces the company to confront a strange mystery, what has become known as the Mystery of the Eleventh Portal.

I have always wanted to teach a philosophy course utilizing virtual reality technologies. I first introduced the Oculus Quest headset just prior to the onset of the Covid 19 epidemic and it was a huge hit with my students. However, because of the lockdown and mask requirements, we were unfortunately delayed in offering a class that fully integrated VR. Now, thankfully, the time has arrived that makes it possible to incorporate the full potential of virtual reality into the classroom. The following workbook contains twelve distinct assignments that are based on various virtual reality applications and games currently available on the Oculus Quest 2 headset (now rebranded as Meta). Each module focuses on a different aspect of philosophical inquiry, ranging from existentialism to idealism to political science to consciousness studies to the latest developments in artificial intelligence, etc. The structure of each assignment is as follows: 1. Instruction. 2. Reading. 3. VR engagement. 4. Completion. While several of the modules include writing essays, usually in an autobiographical or experimental format, many are concerned with creating new and distinctive content within virtual reality. This includes composing a short soundtrack to accompany a particularly ponderous and deep insight, constructing a new version of Plato's famous "Allegory of the Cave," and building a unique city from the ground up to better understand the necessary checks and balances necessary to manage a thriving and industrious community. This workbook is just one of three required for the "Virtual Reality Philosophy Course" being offered here at Mt. San Antonio College. The second one is entitled, Digital Teleportation: A Philosophic Journey in Virtuality, which at over three hundred pages long contains twenty-five original articles on neuroscience, machine learning, evolutionary biology, and the future of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. The third required text, and the guiding philosophical overview for the class, is David Chalmers' book, Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. Each student will also be required to create their own website which will house all the work--written or otherwise--that they produce during the course of the semester and which they can share with their fellow cohorts to exchange ideas.

In this investigation into the criminal underworld of the cities and villages of the Italian South, David Lane provides an unrivaled expos of the operations of the Mafia today From Naples, home of Mafia-controlled mozzarella and toxic waste, through the no less rotten Calabria, to Sicily, cradle of Cosa Nostra, the hold of the Mafia on Southern Italy is as strong as ever. Following a multi-decade career as a journalist in Italy, David Lane uses his extensive contacts into the world of organized crime to demonstrate how globalization has transformed the Mafia into more than simply a global phenomenon. In painful detail, Into the Heart of the Mafia describes the unceasing mafia pressure endured by priests and politicians, businessmen, trade unionists, and ordinary citizens, and the risks undertaken by the policemen, judges, and politicians who fight to weaken the Mafia's influence. A travelogue with the most deadly of implications, Into the Heart of the Mafia stands as a guide like no other into the darkest side of Italy.

This book seeks to discover the extent to which the claim—the provision of regular paid labour and a permanent occupation for all who are able to work—is true and whether there are any features of society in distinction from capitalism which lead to the provision of full employment.

This book seeks to discover the extent to which the claim—the provision of regular paid labour and a permanent occupation for all who are able to work—is true and whether there are any features of society in distinction from capitalism which lead to the provision of full employment.

This is an up-to-the-minute revised edition of a text which, since its publication in 1990, has been extremely influential. The great changes of the past 18 months have entailed a comprehensive updating of the book. This edition takes account of new developments that include the independence of the Baltic states and the treaty which sparked 1991's attempted coup.

David Lane outlines succinctly yet comprehensively the development and transformation of state socialism. While focussing on Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe, he also engages in a discussion of the Chinese path. In response to the changing social structure and external demands, he outlines different scenarios of reform. He contends that European state socialism did not collapse but was consciously dismantled. He brings out the West’s decisive support of the reform process and Gorbachev’s significant role in tipping the balance of political forces in favour of an emergent ascendant class. In the post-socialist period, he details developments in the economy and politics. He distinguishes different political and economic trajectories of countries of the former USSR, the New Member States of the European Union, and China; and he notes the attempts to promote further change through ‘coloured’ revolutions. The book provides a detailed account not only of the unequal impact of transformation on social inequality which has given rise to a privileged business and political class, but also how far the changes have fulfilled the promise of democracy promotion, wealth creation and human development. Finally, in the context of globalisation, the author considers possible future political and economic developments for Russia and China. Throughout the author, a leading expert in the field, brings to bear his deep knowledge of socialist countries, draws on his research on the former Soviet Union, and visits to nearly all the former state socialist countries, including China.

It is now well over a hundred years since the birth of Lenin. If his writings are to have the relevance for contemporary political action, it is necessary that they be understood within the specific historical context in which they arose. It is such an understanding that David Lane provides in this book. Dr Lane addresses four distinct, though related, topics: Lenin's analysis of revolution; Leninism as an ideology legitimating the Russian Revolution; a detached analysis of the revolutionary process; and the relevance of Lenin and the Russian Revolution for social and political change. He begins by showing that, studied thematically, the various parts of Lenin's thinking are complementary in providing an analysis of capitalism and the justification for socialist revolution. The book is a short, concise, detached, yet sympathetic account of Lenin's thinking on revolution, its implications for the rise of Stalinism and its significance for the model of socialism as developed in the USSR. It will appeal to sociologists, political scientists and historians interested in Leninism, Stalinism and revolutionary theory, as well as to others concerned with the theories and processes of social change.

An accessible book covering the momentous changes that have occurred, and are still occurring, since the fall of the USSR in 1989. Contributions from an impressive collection of authors are drawn from the most recent and original research available and address political and social issues which impact on all levels of Russian society. The book consists of a selection of specially commissioned pieces which have evolved from the conference of the same name, held at Cambridge University in December 1994.

The play presents the life of King Louis XVI of France during the French Revolution and is based on the tradition dating from the seventeenth century of an unfulfilled request by Jesus Christ through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that, to avert a future catastrophe in the realm, Louis' great grandfather, Louis XIV, must consecrate France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In return for this act of humility, the Lord promised to shower France with graces and blessings. Louis XIV and the kings who followed him delayed in making the consecration until, finally, on June 17, 1789, one hundred years later to the day, the Third Estate of the Estates General declared itself the National Assembly, challenging King Louis XVI and initiating the French Revolution. Louis was later stripped of his powers and sent to the guillotine to be put to death like a common criminal; France thereupon became engulfed in the horrors of the Revolutionary Terror. This play, therefore, like the ancient Greek tragedies, has a religious dimension in the concepts of divine retribution and the iniquity of the fathers visited upon the sons to the third and fourth generation (cf., The Bible, Euripides, Shakespeare).

This book provides a critical assessment of dramatic literature since 1995, situating texts, companies and writers in a cultural, political and social context. It examines the shifting role of the playwright, the dominant genres and emerging styles of the past decade and how they are related. Beginning with an examination of how dramatic literature and the writer are placed in the contemporary theatre, the book then provides detailed analyses of the texts, companies and writing processes involved in six different professional contexts: new writing, verbatim theatre, writing and devising, Black and Asian theatre, writing for young people and adaptation and transposition. The chapters cover contemporary practitioners, including Simon Stephens, Gregory Burke, Robin Soans, Alecky Blythe, Kneehigh Theatre, Punchdrunk, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Edward Bond, Filter Theatre and Headlong, and offers detailed case-studies and examples of their work. Key Features * The first book to examine contemporary British drama from the In-Yer-Face era (1995 - 2000) to the present day and track the changes and developments through this period * Extended case-studies of Simon Stephens, Gregory Burke and Caryl Churchill and the last decade of new writing in Britain * Focus on recent adaptation, including Kneehigh Theatre, Punchdrunk, Filter Theatre and Headlong

This book provides a critical assessment of dramatic literature since 1995, situating texts, companies and writers in a cultural, political and social context. It examines the shifting role of the playwright, the dominant genres and emerging styles of the past decade and how they are related. Beginning with an examination of how dramatic literature and the writer are placed in the contemporary theatre, the book then provides detailed analyses of the texts, companies and writing processes involved in six different professional contexts: new writing, verbatim theatre, writing and devising, Black and Asian theatre, writing for young people and adaptation and transposition. The chapters cover contemporary practitioners, including Simon Stephens, Gregory Burke, Robin Soans, Alecky Blythe, Kneehigh Theatre, Punchdrunk, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Edward Bond, Filter Theatre and Headlong, and offers detailed case-studies and examples of their work. Key Features * The first book to examine contemporary British drama from the In-Yer-Face era (1995 - 2000) to the present day and track the changes and developments through this period * Extended case-studies of Simon Stephens, Gregory Burke and Caryl Churchill and the last decade of new writing in Britain * Focus on recent adaptation, including Kneehigh Theatre, Punchdrunk, Filter Theatre and Headlong

Discover a roadmap for a life of purposeIn a time of unprecedented change, how do we go beyond old patterns and meet humanity's challenges from a new perspective? How can we harness ancient spiritual laws that quantum science is now demonstrating, too, and apply them to our lives? In A Guidebook for a New Humanity, author David Lane offers a step-by-step guide, including practical exercises that teach us how to build personal awareness, identify patterns of thought and behaviour that may be holding us back, and work with higher forces to fulfill the potential of our lives.This illuminating book provides tools to increase the vibration of our consciousness on a personal level and demonstrates how individual actions reverberate through the universe. Showing a way forward to a world of greater compassion and spiritual advancement, A Guidebook for a New Humanity is an inspirational manual to begin or continue the journey of mastery over our lives.

The Socialist Industrial State (1976) examines the state-socialist system, taking as the central example the Soviet Union – where the goals and values of Marxism-Leninism and the particular institutions, the form of economy and polity, were first adopted and developed. It then considers the historical developments, differences in culture, the level of economic development and the political processes of different state-socialist countries around the globe.

The Socialist Industrial State (1976) examines the state-socialist system, taking as the central example the Soviet Union – where the goals and values of Marxism-Leninism and the particular institutions, the form of economy and polity, were first adopted and developed. It then considers the historical developments, differences in culture, the level of economic development and the political processes of different state-socialist countries around the globe.

The End of Social Inequality (1982) examines class and social stratification under state socialism and in particular in the Soviet Union. Its discussion ranges over such aspects as income and education differentials, the rise of white-collar occupations, the position of women and ethnic groups, and social mobility.

The End of Social Inequality (1982) examines class and social stratification under state socialism and in particular in the Soviet Union. Its discussion ranges over such aspects as income and education differentials, the rise of white-collar occupations, the position of women and ethnic groups, and social mobility.

An accessible book covering the momentous changes that have occurred, and are still occurring, since the fall of the USSR in 1989. Contributions from an impressive collection of authors are drawn from the most recent and original research available and address political and social issues which impact on all levels of Russian society. The book consists of a selection of specially commissioned pieces which have evolved from the conference of the same name, held at Cambridge University in December 1994.