Cybernetic Age Research Articles

Book Review: The Informational Logic of Human Rights: Network Imaginaries in the Cybernetic Age

Book Review: The Informational Logic of Human Rights: Network Imaginaries in the Cybernetic Age

SYNTHESIS OF THREATS AND RISKS OF CYBER SECURITY OF MONTENEGRO - THE VULNERABILITY ASPECT OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

That there are no untouchables and that cyber threats are entering Montenegro through the big doors, is indicated by the hacker attack on the Government of Montenegro. Fortunately, the hackers did not get hold of confidential data, but their act itself caused a serious act of endangering state security, especially because they breached the system that is networked with all state bodies. It was not the first time in 2022 that hackers broke into Government IC systems and state and private companies and organizations. Experts from the IT sector have been warning about the vulnerability of the system for a long time, but not loudly enough to be taken seriously. Let’s also mention the attack on Montenegro on the eve of joining NATO, where Montenegro was under increased cyber attacks, and the Ministry of Defense says that it is similar today.Cyber is no longer the world of gamers and geeks, it is increasingly becoming a prefix for terrorism, crime, and other types of threats (Kazerić 2017). Internet trade and the use of electronic services such as e-government are also on the rise. To the global trend, almost everything that was only tangible and materialized in the real world is moving to the virtual community. This brings with it many advantages, but also disadvantages, and one of them is certainly the vulnerability of critical information and communication infrastructure and the danger of cyber attacks. In such circumstances, the issue of security partially shifts the focus to cyber, that is, cyber security. Precisely for this reason, it is necessary to take a critical look at the existing information and communication infrastructure and analyze the existing threats and risks brought by the modern, cybernetic age. The synthesis of threats and risks is necessary so that we can adequately face them and predict the difficulties that may come our way, which could have significant consequences for national security.

Baukultur in a Cybernetic Age: A Conversation

We received and we gladly publish this conversation among distinguished theorists and scholars on an important topic, also aligned with the cross-disciplinary mission of our journal. [MS] ABSTRACT - The article offers a multi-author conversation charting the future of architecture in light of the apparent tension between Baukultur, which combines the culture of building and the building of this culture, and the rapid changes brought about by digital technology, embracing cybernetics and artificial intelligence. The article builds on a discussion of Baukultur to debate in what sense buildings are “machines for living in,” then examines neuromorphic architecture wherein cybernetic mechanisms help buildings sense the needs of their occupants. It closes with an example of a building complex, Kampung Admiralty, that combines cybernetic opportunities with a pioneering approach to building “community and biophilia” into our cities. This article interleaves an abridged version of Michael Arbib’s (2019) article “Baukultur in a Cybernetic Age,” 1 with extensive comments by the co-authors.

The political theology of entropy: A Katechon for the cybernetic age

The digital revolution invites a reconsideration of the very essence of politics. How can we think about decision, control, and will at a time when technologies of automation are transforming every dimension of human life, from military combat to mental attention, from financial systems to the intimate lives of individuals? This article looks back to a moment in the 20th century when the concept of the political as an independent logic was developed, in a time when the boundaries and operations of the classic state were in question. At the same moment, a whole new technological era was opened up with the emergence of intelligent machines and computers in the postwar cybernetic age. Technology, and cybernetics in particular, loomed large in Carl Schmitt’s articulation of the concept of the political, while the problem of radical open decision was at the heart of influential cybernetic approaches to politics. Linking these was the idea of entropic decay. Schmitt’s invocation of the theological concept of the Katechon, who restrains chaos in the time before Christ’s return, in fact exemplifies the new understandings of order in a cybernetic age facing new challenges of technology in a globalized condition.

Pastoral Power and Algorithmic Governmentality

This paper contributes to inquiries into the genealogy of governmentality and the nature of secularization by arguing that pastoralism continues to operate in the algorithmic register. Drawing on Agamben’s notion of signature, I elucidate a pair of historically distant yet archaeologically proximate affinities: the first between the pastorate and algorithmic control, and the second between the absconded God of late medieval nominalism and the authority of algorithms in the cybernetic age. I support my hypothesis by attending to the signaturial kinships between, on the one hand, temporality and authority in our contemporary conjuncture, and, on the other, obedience and submission in Christian thought from late antiquity and the late Middle Ages. I thereby illustrate the hidden genealogical continuities between theological-pastoral technologies of power and technocratic-algorithmic modalities of governance. I conclude by suggesting that medieval counter-conducts may be redeployed in our present circumstances for emancipatory ends.

Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age: The Transhuman Condition

Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age: The Transhuman Condition

E-lifestyle in EFL Course Books: Case Study of Top Notch Series

Different issues and themes are being raised in EFL course books with miscellaneous illustrations here and there among the exercises and readings. This study aimed to analyze the content of a popular EFL course book in terms of priming what has to be called “Electronic Lifestyle” (or “E-lifestyle”). Following one of the biggest twists of the past century pioneered by “Global Village” metaphor of the Communications theorist Marshal McLuhan (1964) and considering American Heritage Dictionary (2009), the term can be defined as “a way of life or style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or a group in relation to electronic advancements” (“lifestyle”). Henceforth, the study attempted to analyze the visual and textual modes of presenting E-lifestyle and reflect on its traces (especially in terms of targeting computer-oriented way of living) in the 6-volume Top Notch series. As a result, the researchers found various noticeable forms and footprints of electronic lifestyle depicted throughout the mentioned series. Thematically, they majorly include using technology for E-shopping (using the internet to buy and sell products) and E-reservation, on-line communication, and using electronic resources and database in research affairs. Based on the findings of this study, it seems that E-lifestyle shapes a considerable rate of what ELT course book writers have thought is necessary for the learners of English to master in the cybernetic age.

Inward investment: does IP really matter?

A popular debating point among both supporters and opponents of IP concerns the strength and reliability of domestic IP rights in developing countries: which is the best way to attract inward investment into a developing economy? (i) establish a regime of strong IP rights that are easy to enforce, in order to protect investment in innovation and its commercial exploitation; (ii) keep IP to the bare minimum that is necessary for TRIPS compliance in the hope that, freed from the restraints of IP monopolies that are generally exercised by absentee landlords, the local economy will become more competitive and generate its own export-driven momentum. It is assumed for the purpose of this debate that the attraction of inward investment is the desired objective, so this discussion will exclude for this purpose the third, fairly popular option; or (iii) take protectionist steps to control the exploitation of indigenous and collectively held rights in, for example, geographical indications, traditional knowledge, folklore, and bio-materials, while allowing a more laisser-faire approach towards the West’s ‘traditional’ creator-based rights in inventions, designs, and copyrights. While opinions are passionately expressed on this debating point, it is frustratingly difficult to create a methodology for attributing inward investment to any particular set of IP policies. This is because the strength or otherwise of IP rights is not an isolated criterion for determining where foreign investors place their confidence: it is part of a web of interrelated criteria so complex that it is almost impossible to tease out any strand from it and attribute to it any causative function. Some investment criteria are quite unrelated to the excellence or deficiency of domestic IP rights. These include the domestic tax regime, the ability (or otherwise) to remit foreign earnings, the political stability of the target market, and the availability and quality of its skilled labour. Thus, it makes more sense to invest in software development in India, where there is already a vibrant software culture within the workforce, than in countries where familiarity with programming techniques is absent. And countries suffering from substantial civil unrest or economic turmoil, of which Zimbabwe is a sad epitome, are unlikely to attract any sort of foreign investment even where local skills are present. The size and potential of a market may make it attractive for investors too. Thus, China enjoyed a large volume of joint ventures with foreign IP-rich businesses even when the local laws were relatively rudimentary, and their interpretation and enforcement untested, since overall business benefits outweighed any IPrelated risks. Another criterion appears at first blush to be more IP-related. Is the country which seeks foreign investment a member of the major IP conventions and treaties that provide for international filing of registered rights? But does membership of the right club guarantee, or even offer, a promise of inward funding? The Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid and Hague schemes have brought transnational filing within the grasp of many businesses in the developed world, but WIPO statistics suggest that developing countries that crave inward investment do not receive it on the basis of the availability of protection through these systems since the number of rights that are protected in those countries is a small fraction of the scale of protection sought in developed markets. The good news for developing economies may be that, if the possession of a good IP system does not attract inward investment, its absence may not act as a positive deterrent. If this is so, what lessons does this teach us? First, the experience of the past 40 years or so teaches us that you can no longer justify IP rights in developing economies by suggesting that there is any direct causative link between having a good IP rights system and attracting foreign investment. Given the efficiencies of manufacturing in the age of cybernetics, with regard to many products the output of a single plant will be sufficient to satisfy global demand, no matter how many countries provide it with patent protection. Secondly, the internet provides a medium for the delivery of copyright works that is effectively unrelated to local legal, manufacturing, and market conditions. Particularly, where digital rights management is employed, copyright can be effectively and conveniently exploited without the need to establish a presence in each target market. Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2009, Vol. 4, No. 4 225

Early-connectionism machines

In this paper I put forward a reconstruction of the evolution of certain explanatory hypotheses on the neural basis of association and learning that are the premises of connectionism in the cybernetic age and of present-day connectionism. The main point of my reconstruction is based on two little-known case studies. The first is the project, published in 1913, of a hydraulic machine through which its author believed it was possible to simulate certain "essential elements" of the plasticity of nervous connections. The author, S. Bent Russell, was an engineer deeply influenced by the neurological hypotheses on nervous conduction of Herbert Spencer, Max Meyer and Edward L. Thorndike. The second is the project, published in 1929, of an electromechanical machine in which the author, the psychologist J.M. Stephens, believed it was possible to embody Thorndike's law of effect. Thus both Bent Russell and Stephens referred to the principles of learning that Thorndike defined as "connectionist". Their attempt was that of simulating by machines at least certain simple aspects of inhibition, association and habit formation that are typical of living organisms. I propose to situate their projects within the frame of thediscovery of a simulative (modelling) methodology which I believe might be considered an important topic of the "Culture of the Artificial". Certain more recent steps toward such a methodology made by both connectionism of the 1950s and present-day connectionism are briefly pointed out in the paper.

Special Issue on New Evolution in Vision System

Special Issue on New Evolution in Vision System

On the Line of Flight: Pynchon's Entropy Machine

Pynchon's fictions have, since 1959, been a document of the cybernetic age. Well before Donna Haraway dreamed of the cyborg, Pynchon was expressing the concern she later voiced so well, that "Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert" (152). Somehow, though, the ambivalence of Pynchon's ethical position, of all things, has deterred critics from examining his textual machines; an aversion to the slightest suggestion of post-carbon life turns the machines into demons.

Voyage to Eudoxia: The Emergence of a Post-Rational Epistemology in Literature and Science

IN A NEW NOVEL BY THE JAPANESE NOVELIST Haruki Murakami, Hard Boiled Wonderland or The End of the World, the hero discovers that a brilliant but somewhat amoral scientist has implanted a cybernetic device in his brain. The device has three parts: one controls the conscious perceptions of the hero, one the unconscious dream states, and one the stable sense of the self. As the novel progresses, the hero understands that the switches that keep these three circuits separate from one another in his head are dissolving and as a result, his world-the world as he knows it-will literally end. Interspersed with this hard-boiled narrative in alternating chapters is another thread of the novel, concerned with the hero's shadow self and his actions in the dream world. As the novel progresses, the dream-hero in the dreamland-called End of the World-and the real hero, living in Tokyo-slowly become aware of each other's existence. At the end, Murakami implies in his complex cybernetic fiction, the two worlds inevitably merge, requiring the marriage of two cognitively separate realms as well as two different methods for knowing the world. When the last barriers between ego self and the dream self dissolve, with the aid of that clever cybernetic hardware, Words and Worlds end. Murakami's scheme is a parable for the subject of this paper, the culmination of our Cybernetic Age resulting from the collapse of the barrier between two epistemologies. My thesis is this: the barriers between the rational epistemology of science and the irrational epistemology of literature are dissolving in a way already prefigured in postmodern sciences and literature. The result will be an entirely new order of discourse we can now begin to define. At least one aspect of this new order of discourse is clear: the computer will play the role of l'entremetteur for this transformation of discourse after postmodernism. My goal here is to outline the shape of this final transformation of postmodernism.

Prospects for the Cyberiad: Certain Limits on Human Self‐Knowledge in the Cybernetic Age

Prospects for the Cyberiad: Certain Limits on Human Self‐Knowledge in the Cybernetic Age

You've Come a Long Way, Babbitt! From Zenith to Ilium

Well over a century ago, Emerson said that an institution is but the lengthened shadow of one man. Some shadows happily extend themselves while others are relegated to history or the Smithsonian; few are as disturbingly tenacious as that of George F. Babbitt. We may classify Sinclair Lewis's novel as a period piece, an imitation of men and institutions which faded with the twenties. But in Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano, Babbitt again darkens the horizon, rooting for the Boosters and dreaming of his fairy chi'd. Business has been computerized, of course, but the essential George survives in the Cybernetic Age. The American spirit continues on its inventive way, perpetuating de Tocqueville's go ahead and never mind in the twenty-first century, busily creating a paradise quite opposite that envisioned by Jefferson. The old wine of Zenith has been rebottled in Ilium but the ingredients are the same: Efficiency, Productivity, Democracy, and Gadgetry.

Continuity and Change in Society and Theology

“Are there abiding principles of selection in the Hebrew-Christian tradition which provide for the re-formation of tradition itself? Perhaps the major division among theologians today is over that question. Some argue that the Hebrew-Christian tradition is to be reformed from within its own presuppositions; others argue that it can only be reformed from without by some really new presuppositions of the twentieth century. As a participant in the cybernetic age, I am inclined to think that the answer here again is ‘both.’”

Monitors and clinical judgment

M ANY of us have been invoIved in discussions of the curricuIa for premedica1 and medica students. In most of these discussions there is genera1 agreement that “eIectronics” is a critica item in the modern curricuIum. I suspect that some physicians are led to this beIief because they are impressed with the array of electrica gear that surrounds the anesthetist, the cardiac surgeon and other physicians who use such instruments. I suspect aIso that those who look upon bIinking, beeping and clicking machines that spew out reams of paper with hieroglyphic tracings or make unintelligibte Iines on an oscilloscope have some idea that these devices are providing answers to cIinica1 probIems that are not possibIe through the exercise of we11 deveIoped cIinica1 judgment. FinaIIy, I suspect that some physicians, incIuding those on the faculties of medica1 schooIs, are interested in incIuding “eIectronics” in medica education because they beIieve that the modern physician needs to be a super electrician. This concept has about reached the stage at which lay people and attorneys (encouraged by the events of this eIectronic era) are incIined to beheve that faiIure to empIoy machinery in the practice of medicine constitutes malpractice. I am incIined to beIieve that modern medicine is overwheImed by gadgetry to the extent that physicians are permitting instruments to usurp cIinica1 judgment. I do not mean to decry the use of instruments in the practice of medicine. The study of “eIectronics” may provide the modern physician with knowIedge that wiI1 be usefu1 in the better understanding of transmission of nerve impuIses, the changes in potential accompanying muscle action, the eIectrophysica1 factors associated with synaptic transmission, and the like. Certainly, there are many usefu1 and dependabIe gadgets that provide reIiabIe information about the patient. It is important, however, for the physician empIoying machines, either directIy or indirectIy, to be aware of their limitations. I propose to cite a few exampIes of standard instruments which are capabIe of adding to the tota information about a patient but which are not capable, even in this age of cybernetics, of doing anything more than providing data which stiI1 have to be interpreted by the physician. I have been invoIved in discussions with the medica staffs of hospitaIs in which a serious effort was being made to require routine monitoring, during anesthesia and operation, with an eIectrocardiograph. Such discussions were often prompted by the naive belief that such monitoring wouId at Ieast diminish, if not entireIy eIiminate, cardiac arrests. It wouId be foohsh indeed to debate the usefuIness of an electrocardiogram. However, it would be foohsh also to assume that such monitoring can compensate for the indoIent, inattentive or inept anesthetist. It is obvious to a11 familiar with eIectrocardiography that this instrument reports only the eIectrica1 events taking place in the heart and it cannot represent functiona competence of the heart. Changes in the eIectrocardiogram may presage deterioration of function, and to this extent the instrument may be useful as a monitor. There have been many documented instances in which essentiaIIy norma compIexes appeared on the tracing in the presence of a compIeteIy nonfunctioning heart. As I wiI1 state severa times during this discussion, the instrument reflects only one aspect of cardiac activity and the physician must be aware of this limitation and not assign to the instrument any occuIt powers. The eIectrocardiograph is usefu1 in those patients in whom there is need to define more specificaIIy changes that may be precipitated or augmented

MONITORS AND CLINICAL JUDGMENT

M ANY of us have been invoIved in discussions of the curricuIa for premedica1 and medica students. In most of these discussions there is genera1 agreement that “eIectronics” is a critica item in the modern curricuIum. I suspect that some physicians are led to this beIief because they are impressed with the array of electrica gear that surrounds the anesthetist, the cardiac surgeon and other physicians who use such instruments. I suspect aIso that those who look upon bIinking, beeping and clicking machines that spew out reams of paper with hieroglyphic tracings or make unintelligibte Iines on an oscilloscope have some idea that these devices are providing answers to cIinica1 probIems that are not possibIe through the exercise of we11 deveIoped cIinica1 judgment. FinaIIy, I suspect that some physicians, incIuding those on the faculties of medica1 schooIs, are interested in incIuding “eIectronics” in medica education because they beIieve that the modern physician needs to be a super electrician. This concept has about reached the stage at which lay people and attorneys (encouraged by the events of this eIectronic era) are incIined to beheve that faiIure to empIoy machinery in the practice of medicine constitutes malpractice. I am incIined to beIieve that modern medicine is overwheImed by gadgetry to the extent that physicians are permitting instruments to usurp cIinica1 judgment. I do not mean to decry the use of instruments in the practice of medicine. The study of “eIectronics” may provide the modern physician with knowIedge that wiI1 be usefu1 in the better understanding of transmission of nerve impuIses, the changes in potential accompanying muscle action, the eIectrophysica1 factors associated with synaptic transmission, and the like. Certainly, there are many usefu1 and dependabIe gadgets that provide reIiabIe information about the patient. It is important, however, for the physician empIoying machines, either directIy or indirectIy, to be aware of their limitations. I propose to cite a few exampIes of standard instruments which are capabIe of adding to the tota information about a patient but which are not capable, even in this age of cybernetics, of doing anything more than providing data which stiI1 have to be interpreted by the physician. I have been invoIved in discussions with the medica staffs of hospitaIs in which a serious effort was being made to require routine monitoring, during anesthesia and operation, with an eIectrocardiograph. Such discussions were often prompted by the naive belief that such monitoring wouId at Ieast diminish, if not entireIy eIiminate, cardiac arrests. It wouId be foohsh indeed to debate the usefuIness of an electrocardiogram. However, it would be foohsh also to assume that such monitoring can compensate for the indoIent, inattentive or inept anesthetist. It is obvious to a11 familiar with eIectrocardiography that this instrument reports only the eIectrica1 events taking place in the heart and it cannot represent functiona competence of the heart. Changes in the eIectrocardiogram may presage deterioration of function, and to this extent the instrument may be useful as a monitor. There have been many documented instances in which essentiaIIy norma compIexes appeared on the tracing in the presence of a compIeteIy nonfunctioning heart. As I wiI1 state severa times during this discussion, the instrument reflects only one aspect of cardiac activity and the physician must be aware of this limitation and not assign to the instrument any occuIt powers. The eIectrocardiograph is usefu1 in those patients in whom there is need to define more specificaIIy changes that may be precipitated or augmented