Brave New Research Articles

Defect‐Induced Effects in Nanomaterials

Defect‐Induced Effects in Nanomaterials

Creating a Brave New World : How AI Developers’ Imaginations of the Future Shape Their Work

Artificial Intelligence (AI) may change work, management, and societies in the future. This study questions how AI developers consider the potential consequences of their work. It proposes an imagined futures perspective to understand how AI developers imagine the futures associated with AI and how these imaginations shape their work and practices. It examines qualitatively the case of some AI developers and their work and find that they consider the future consequences of the AI they participate in developing as tangential – i.e., loosely connected to what they do - or integral – i.e., closely associated with what they do - to their work. These imaginations of the future are in tension, prompting some AI developers to work at connecting them as they adjust how they view the future and their work. This study adds to scholarship by revealing how AI development relies upon particular imaginations of the future, by illuminating how practitioners engage speculatively with the future, and by explaining the importance for Information Technology (IT) development of developers’ answers to what their work may do in the future.

The Long Christmas Dinner, Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Ireland

<i>The Long Christmas Dinner</i>, Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Ireland

Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering. By Wesley J. Wildman and Kate StocklyReligion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, Artificial Intelligence, and Transhumanism. By Calvin Mercer and Tracey J. Trothern

Religion and technology are constant companions who are often treated as strange bedfellows. Our perception of technology’s newness—the shiny chrome and bright twinkling lights of the “latest thing” that has caught our eye—often seems to stand in contrast to the deeply embedded “old” traditions we commonly understand as religion or spirituality, even though there is a long history of religious uses of technology, from the obvious, such as the printing press, to the less obvious, like the now-ubiquitous church website. Some might even consider religion itself a technology, a human-created device for navigating our world, or a technology of the self in the Foucauldian sense. However, in Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering, we are again being told that we are in shocking new territory as spirituality uses new technologies (xiii). And in Religion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, Artificial Intelligence, and Transhumanism, we are told, nigh on apocalyptically, that “the religions of the world will come to an end, or thrive, depending on how they respond to the topic of this book” (3). Both books are catalyzed and enthused by technologies from the past few years. Still, they tackle their emergence and impact in radically different ways, and in doing so provide very different resources to the reader.

Technological Brave New World? Eschatological Narratives on Digitization and Their Flaws

AbstractArtificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics have made autonomous technical systems a reality that can replace human performance in more and more aspects and tasks, often with better quality and higher speed. This has changed the perspective from the fascination of visionary technology to the question of what will happen to humans as technology gets better and better. Improvement and replacement narratives about the future of humans circulate primarily in trans- and posthumanism, but also engage mass media, academies, and conferences across various disciplines. The aim of this article is to provide an overview and analysis of the recent literature to strengthen and criticize the thesis that in many debates on new technologies and AI across different disciplines (from computer science to philosophy, futurism and the broader public) teleological positions have been taken, according to which the technological perfection constitutes the historical goal of human destiny.

Aldous Huxley’s Futuristic World from the Perspective of Its Translation Properties

The article focuses on A. Huxley's famous novel "Brave New World" and the two versions of its translation (Russian and Armenian). The aim of the analysis is identification of linguistic means specifying A. Huxley's futuristic world, the so-called World State of the XXVI century (AD 2540), a world, where psychological manipulation predominates as a method of creating a totalitarian society, its dictatorship subjugation and people’s successful standardization. The next step is the determination of communicative/functional properties of the ST and two target texts (Russian and Armenian) in order to reveal how the linguistic manifestation of the author’s worldview is transmitted into a different cultural domain to become cohesive with a different target audience. To transmit exactly A. Huxley’s futuristic world vision into a TL the translator should keep closely to the author’s philosophical conceptualization of this world and the psychological manipulation principles the authorities employ to achieve the expected impact on the fictional society.&#x0D;

Comparing the Literatures: Literary Studies in a Global Age

Comparing the Literatures: Literary Studies in a Global Age

Conscience and Controversy

Conscience and Controversy

We Have Sent Ourselves to Iceland (With Apologies to Iceland): Changing the Academy From Internally-Driven to Externally Partnered

In Brave New World, Aldus Huxley presented a dystopic vision of the world where global despotic power was maintained, in part, through isolating academics in Iceland. Current academic accountability is based on notions of excellence that reflect prestige. In governing itself based on excellence, I argue academia has metaphorically sent itself to Iceland, which has consequences for the relevance of academia toward sustainable development. Internally-driven academies are facing their own sustainability issues, as more students are trained for too-few professor positions, and must find work in other fields with inadequate training. Academic measures of excellence attempt to reflect merit but perpetuate pre-conceived notions of prestige, which is discriminatory, contributes to intellectual gate-keeping, and distracts from research rigor and policy relevance. Measures of excellence fail to translate to real-world impact in three important ways: academic reviews that accounts for prestige lead to poor and biased predictions of outcomes of research projects; prestigious individuals are not more reliable experts than less prestigious individuals (and may be more overconfident); prestigious institutions are not more likely to contribute to sustainable development outcomes than less prestigious institutions. It is time to drop academic notions of excellence and turn toward external partnerships, where academic institutions can focus more on real-world impact, train students for diverse careers, and allow academic research to focus on quality over quantity. For academia to be relevant to society, and to serve people graduating academic institutions, academia must proactively leave Iceland and rejoin the rest of the world.

The need for accelerated change in diversity, equity and inclusion in publishing and learned societies

AbstractDiversity, equity and inclusion (DE&amp;I) is a key priority for many organizations and institutions, including learned societies. With diversity at universities, both in the UK and around the world, being reported as low, it was decided to make DE&amp;I one of the main areas of enquiry for the seventh Wiley Society Member Survey, conducted in May 2021. We found that satisfaction with levels of representation for gender, race and ethnicity was falling and that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic had disproportionately affected those already most disadvantaged within the academic hierarchy. In order to fully understand the current status of DE&amp;I in academia, and within societies in particular, this paper also draws on other research undertaken or supported by Wiley, including a survey of journal editors and the Brave New World study, as well as further research in which Wiley was not involved. What it shows is that academic research, learned societies and publishing all have their own DE&amp;I issues that need to be addressed, but that through improved DE&amp;I can come better research.

Brave New E‐World: Medical Students’ Preferences for and Usage of Electronic Learning Resources during Two Different Phases of Their Education

E‐learning strategies have become an essential part of biomedical education. However, why and how students select hardware tools and software formats during their education has not been sufficiently analyzed and documented. Yet, these aspects should be taken into account when designing or offering new e‐learning modalities to learners. Two medical school classes at a major US medical school were surveyed about their use of e‐learning resources during their first year of medical school or their preparation for their first licensing examination (USMLE® Step 1), respectively. Their responses were analyzed for patterns and significant changes. Students’ answers from both classes indicated that computers and computer tablets were considered the most important hardware devices to support students’ learning. During the first year, students often preferred resources that were tailored to the specific courses in their curriculum. In contrast, some preferences changed when students prepared for the USMLE® Step 1, with students shifting almost exclusively to a solitary learning mode using commercial e‐learning resources. Across all phases of medical school education queried, peer advice was the major determinant influencing e‐learning resource selection, with faculty only playing a minor role during the first year of medical school. Videos were the most popular e‐learning modality, and students cited efficient acquisition of knowledge and preparation for examinations as major reasons for e‐learning tool utilization. These data suggest that the selection of e‐learning resources is task‐oriented, with students choosing specific resources based on the challenges they are facing. These factors need to be considered when offering or developing e‐learning resources for medical and other students during different phases of their training.

Animal Telos and Preference Adaptation

Abstract This article considers Bernard Rollin’s justification of the genetic modification of the telos of livestock animals for welfare purposes. While agreeing that a pragmatic approach to animal welfare might well reach this far, the claim is that Rollin’s approach leaves some important harms out of the picture. Section (1) will outline the rationale for a pragmatic approach towards animal rights. Section (2) will outline Rollin’s telos-based argument for allowing modification. Sections (3) and (4) will draw upon analogies that (respectively) lend support to and problematize Rollin’s telos-based argument: the production of anencephalic ‘Chicken Little’ lumps of animal tissue as a way to avoid suffering; and the manipulation of preferences by ‘hypnopaedia’ in Huxley’s Brave New World. Section (5) will suggest that this does not rule out modification, but it does require us to recognize that modification involves harms, even if they are sometimes outweighed by benefits.

The (Un)Ethical Womb: The Promises and Perils of Artificial Gestation.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the changes that the implementation of artificial wombs would bring to society, the family, and the concept of motherhood and fatherhood through the lens of two recent books: Helen Sedgwick's The Growing Season and Rebecca Ann Smith's Baby X. Each of the two novels, set in a near future, follows the work of a scientist who develops artificial womb technology. Significantly, both women experience concerns about the technology and its long-term effects that make both of them leave their laboratories and rethink the technology they invented, while considering its many ethical implications. Both novels can be seen as feminist revisionary rewritings of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, rejecting the vision of rows of mass-produced, anonymous babies in artificial wombs, stressing instead the closeness of the parents to their offspring. They nevertheless critically evaluate not only the many potential benefits for women of ectogenetic technology but also the possible disadvantages and pitfalls.

External COVID-19 Deep Learning Model Validation on ACR AI-LAB: It's a Brave New World.

PurposeDeploying external artificial intelligence (AI) models locally can be logistically challenging. We aimed to use the ACR AI-LAB software platform for local testing of a chest radiograph (CXR) algorithm for COVID-19 lung disease severity assessment.MethodsAn externally developed deep learning model for COVID-19 radiographic lung disease severity assessment was loaded into the AI-LAB platform at an independent academic medical center, which was separate from the institution in which the model was trained. The data set consisted of CXR images from 141 patients with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction–confirmed COVID-19, which were routed to AI-LAB for model inference. The model calculated a Pulmonary X-ray Severity (PXS) score for each image. This score was correlated with the average of a radiologist-based assessment of severity, the modified Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema score, independently interpreted by three radiologists. The associations between the PXS score and patient admission and intubation or death were assessed.ResultsThe PXS score deployed in AI-LAB correlated with the radiologist-determined modified Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema score (r = 0.80). PXS score was significantly higher in patients who were admitted (4.0 versus 1.3, P < .001) or intubated or died within 3 days (5.5 versus 3.3, P = .001).ConclusionsAI-LAB was successfully used to test an external COVID-19 CXR AI algorithm on local data with relative ease, showing generalizability of the PXS score model. For AI models to scale and be clinically useful, software tools that facilitate the local testing process, like the freely available AI-LAB, will be important to cross the AI implementation gap in health care systems.

The First Baby Born After Polygenic Embryo Screening

The First Baby Born After Polygenic Embryo Screening

CRITICAL THOUGHT AND BRAVE NEW ACCOUNTINGS

Muhasebe uygulamaları bir yandan toplumlardan, örgütlerden, yönetimlerden etkilenmekte, diğeryandan daha adaletli bir toplum, daha eşitlikçi örgüt ve daha demokratik yönetim oluşumunu hızlandırarakya da engelleyerek sosyal değişimi etkilemektedir. Muhasebenin topluma ve doğaya tam hesapverilebilirliği sağlaması için öncelikle finansallaşmanın boyunduruğundan kurtulması gerekmektedir.Bu ise finansal kapitalizmin sürdürülebilir olmadığını ve finansal sermayenin kontrolünde olmayanbaşka bir dünya kurmanın mümkün olduğunu kabul etmeyi gerektirmektedir. Tersi durumda finansal/finansallaşmış muhasebe sözde sosyal, çevresel, yeşil muhasebelere dönüşme becerisini göstermektedir.Ancak bu tür muhasebeler örgütlerin toplum ve doğa yararına saydamlaştırılması ve düzenlenmesinimümkün kılamamakta ve bürokratik, hiyerarşik, tekelci ve oligopolcü örgütlerin halkla ilişkilerve propaganda çalışmaları olmaktan öteye geçememektedir. Eleştirel düşünce, cesur yeni muhasebeleryaratmadan önce ya da böyle bir çabayla eşzamanlı olarak cesur yeni toplumlar, örgütler ve yönetimleryaratmak gerektiğini, bunların da hem teknik, hem de sosyal, politik, tarihsel boyutların dikkatealınmasını gerektireceğini savunmaktadır. Gerçek anlamda sosyal, yeşil ve insancıl muhasebelertasarlarken mevcut sosyal ve örgütsel yapılar kadar insanların tarih yapma gücünü de dikkate alanyapısalcı ve hümanist düşünce ve uygulamalar arasında uzanan geniş araştırma alanında daha çokzaman ve emek harcamak gerekmektedir, çünkü son tahlilde örgütler ve muhasebe de dahil tüm sosyalyapılar insan ürünü olmakta ve insanın özgür iradesiyle değiştirilebilmektedir.

The Brave (and Uncertain) New World of International Taxation under the 2020s Compromise

When significant changes are made to the way the world allocates the right to tax cross-border income, there is an obvious need to assess whether the new regime is an appropriate response to the challenges posed by the perceived problems in the old regime. This article has two objectives: first, to show that the proposed changes to the international tax regime relating to the taxation of business profits are so significant that they are regarded as absolutely fundamental. Secondly, and far more controversially, to assert that the changes are brave and appropriate irrespective of the final assessment of these changes (which could be in a decade from now). This article asserts that the 2020s Compromise is a positive step forward for four reasons. First, and most importantly, it was necessary to overcome the deficiencies of the previous regime, particularly for large MNEs with a significant digital business footprint. Three other factors suggest that history might regard some of these changes as brave. These are: more effective source taxation with a partial move to taxation at destination, the rise of multilateral instruments and processes, and the increase in tax cooperation between countries or the reduction of tax competition. However, the absence of an articulated theoretical basis for taxation means both uncertainty and instability in the international tax framework for some time.

Pelevin and Unfreedom: Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics by Sofya Khagi

Reviewed by: Pelevin and Unfreedom: Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics by Sofya Khagi Sarah Gear Pelevin and Unfreedom: Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics. By Sofya Khagi. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. 2021. xi+284 pp. $39.95; £36.50. ISBN 978-0-81014-302-9. In her detailed consideration of Victor Pelevin's literary output, from his short story 'Hermit and Six Toes' (1990) to his novel iPhuck 10 (2017), Sofya Khagi examines the techniques and theoretical preoccupations of a writer who 'likes to think' (p. 216). Khagi argues convincingly that Pelevin deserves scholarly attention. Whether one reads him in post-Soviet Russia, or in the contemporary West, Pelevin's damning observations about capitalism, consumerism, technology, and our resulting unfreedom are relevant to us all. Khagi's excellent Introduction shows how Pelevin's philosophical concerns and opinions about contemporary society are grounded in the theories of Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, Herbert Marcuse, and Michel Foucault, which she discusses throughout this study. Her first two chapters analyse Pelevin's indictment, in his seminal Generation P (1999), of the consumerism unleashed in 1990s Russia. Chapter 1 situates the same novel alongside other dystopian fiction, drawing comparisons with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, and Evgenii Zamiatin's We, while Chapter 2 scrutinizes what Khagi terms Pelevin's 'language politics' (p. 49): deliberate disruption of Russian literary language in order to intensify his critique of modern society. Using the central protagonist Tatarskii's advertising slogans as key examples of such subversive linguistic techniques, Khagi makes the case that this experimental use of language embodies Pelevin's beliefs about the degradation of contemporary society. The remaining six chapters build on concerns raised in Generation P to cover related themes in a wide-ranging selection of Pelevin's later works. Empire V (2006), according to Khagi, is concerned with biopolitics and with humanity as a biomass commodity exploited by vampires; Helmet of Horror (2005) and Pineapple Water for the Beautiful Lady (2010) deal with Pelevin's concerns about dehumanization, while illustrating his eschatological views with biblical and apocalyptic imagery. In the last two novels, the most likely outcome is an 'apocalypse of entropy' (p. 121). Chapter 6 follows Pelevin's exploration and exhaustion of the trope of alternative history; tracing intertextual references to predecessors, such as Boris and Arkadii Strugatskii and Dostoevskii, occupies Chapter 7. Finally, Khagi considers Pelevin's multifaceted use of irony throughout his texts, applied as much to his authorial persona as to the world he depicts. It is through irony, she contends, that Pelevin successfully introduces a sliver of hope into his predominantly hope-less texts. More broadly, Khagi traces the arc of Pelevin's thematic development: from preoccupation with Soviet ideology to the new focus on 'global techno-consumerism' (p. 4) which replaces the former after the 1990s. She also notes that Pelevin's solipsism, as expressed in his earlier work, has more recently evolved into a wider ethical regard for others. She counters those critics who accuse him of producing repetitious novels by pointing out that Pelevin's work addresses contemporary society and politics. Therefore any thematic stagnation reflects the stagnation of reality, rather than, as some critics suggest, Pelevin's contempt for his readers. [End Page 314] Perhaps Khagi's most notable claim is for Pelevin as a modern-day Dostoevskii. By considering both writers' concerns about contemporary society, their anti-Western sentiment, their hedgehog-like preoccupation with one central idea, and their characters' quests for self-improvement, Khagi demonstrates strong and convincing parallels between Pelevin and Dostoevskii. This thorough and thought-provoking exposition of Pelevin's œuvre provides a rich resource for academic readings of his work. In keeping with Pelevin's Zeitgeist-y texts, Khagi poses vital and timely questions about the true nature of freedom in an increasingly unfree world. Sarah Gear University of Exeter Copyright © 2022 Modern Humanities Research Association

«ЛАНАРК» (1981) АЛАСДЕРА ГРЕЯ: РАБОТА С ПРЕЦЕДЕНТНЫМИ ТЕКСТАМИ НАУЧНО-ФАНТАСТИЧЕСКОГО КАНОНА

The article is devoted to the analysis of Alasdair Gray’s debut novel Lanark (1981) in the context of the world science fiction genre canon. The novel is marked by complex intertextual links, which go beyond quotations and imagery as the writer creatively employs established genre models. Lanark’s fantastic books aim at criticizing consumerism and capitalist totalitarianism. For this reason, they present a number of references to both Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. The novel also contains utopian elements. However, socialist ideals still remain an unattainable dream referable to the alternative past or hypothetical future. In addition, Lanark shows features intrinsic to the science fiction menippea of the Gulliver’s Travels type. These features demonstrate extraordinary liberty of plot, combination of profound symbolism and slum naturalism, protagonist’s eccentric behavior with his subsequent overthrowing, widespread use of inserted genres, three-planned construction (Earth, Olympus, nether-world) coupled with plot testing of the idea of union between power and science. In addition, Gray’s novel puts together science fiction, historical facts and memoirs, just as Vonnegut’s novelistic experiments do. This allows us to speak about Lanark as a genre hybrid of science fiction and autobiography.

Inventions of Nemesis: Utopia, Indignation, and Justice

Inventions of Nemesis: Utopia, Indignation, and Justice