Human Artifacts Research Articles

Technological scenarios of posthumanism: which [built] environment towards sustainability

Abstract Human kind has always been an explorer and technological innovation over the centuries is been implemented thanks to his thirst for novelty. Technological progress today clashes with the limitations of available resources and environmental impacts. The acceleration in the introduction of technological innovations determines rapid obsolescence of human artifacts and the need for continuous replacement, reducing the useful life of products. Having exhausted the physicality of planet Earth, human exploration now continues in two directions: on the one hand, the colonization of Space, on the other, the construction of new virtual worlds (Metaverse) and new physical and cognitive capabilities (biotechnology and artificial intelligence). However, these explorations are the source of considerable energy consumption (e.g., of space flights and data centers) and contribute to climate change, increasing the critical issues regarding the sustainability of lifestyles. Technological and scientific progress, after having changed the natural environment, today comes to change human nature (posthumanism), and consequently the living environment of human kind. The research is approached through the comparison of different philosophical and scientific positions (literature analysis), transferring some general considerations to the building sector. What next generation built environment will be?

Visual fields, foraging and collision vulnerability in gulls (Laridae)

Wide variation in visual field configuration has been recorded among avian species and it is hypothesized that this variation is driven primarily by foraging ecology and predator detection. It has also been shown that visual field configurations can render some species more vulnerable to collisions with human artefacts that extend into open airspace, such as power lines and wind turbines. Visual fields have three main components: the monocular fields describe the extent of the world seen by each eye, the binocular field describes the region where the monocular fields overlap, and the blind area describes the region in which no vision is provided. Among birds, the topography of the binocular field, and the extent and position of the blind area, show considerable interspecific variation. Although Laridae (gulls, terns, skimmers) are a large and cosmopolitan taxon, visual field characteristics of only one species, Black Skimmer Rynchops niger, have been determined. However, skimmers are distinct from other Laridae species because they use a specialized foraging technique based upon tactile cues. We determined visual fields in three species of gulls (European Herring Gulls Larus argentatus, Lesser Black‐backed Gulls Larus fuscus, Black‐legged Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla), and found that they show the key characteristics associated with visually guided foraging. However, the binocular field does not extend through the full height of the frontal field. This results in a blind sector, which can project in the direction of flight when gulls pitch their heads sufficiently far forwards to visually search the surface below. This could render gulls vulnerable to collisions with anthropogenic structures (power lines, wind turbines) that extend into the open airspace. Photographs show that gulls in level flight do pitch their heads forward sufficiently to render them almost blind in the direction of travel, and further work on the head positions adopted by gulls in flight are recommended. The visual field of skimmers differs markedly from those of gulls. Their binocular field topography is interpreted as functioning in the control of bill position when skimming (flying just above the water surface with the elongated, blade‐like, rhamphotheca of the mandible extending through the water surface). Skimmers also have a blind area, which projects forwards in the direction of travel when skimming. This can be associated with the vulnerability of skimmers to collisions with objects that extend just above the water surface.

Eyespots: Supernatural or supernormal? A case study from Papua New Guinea

AbstractEyespots are found across many taxa, usually for predator intimidation. In human artefacts, eye designs have been presumed to have an apotropaic function (warding off supernatural evil and envy) rather than an evolutionary function related to protection from agonistic interactions. We hypothesised that, instead, eyespot designs may have been used in human cultures for intimidation of opponents (deimatic display). We examined 1,070 objects from Papua New Guinea, where eyespots are frequently displayed on various objects. We predicted that objects used for guarding or protection would be more likely to have eyespots than domestic objects. Chi-square tests of independence showed that significantly more canoe prows and shields and fewer domestic objects had eyespots than expected. Furthermore, we surveyed 81 respondents, showing objects with and without eyespot patterns. Chi-square tests showed that objects with eyespots elicited significantly more fear and anxiety related emotions, and non-eyespot designs elicited more calm and relaxed emotions than expected. Thus, objects with eyespots were considered more intimidating than those displaying geometric, or plain designs. This research provides empirical evidence for the use of eyespot designs for deimatic display in humans and possible convergent evolution of eyespots due to gene – culture coevolution.

“(The) Play’s the Thing”: Shakespearean drama as an end in itself

Drama, more obviously than other genres of art, is a form of play; and play, according to Johan Huizinga, is essentially autotelic, or not a means to an end. Shakespeare’s plays are trivialised if they are seen essentially as means to other ends. Science conceives of the material world as an endless chain of causes, just as utilitarianism demands that all human artefacts and endeavours take their place on an eternal chain of purposes. This model devalues all its elements, for they acquire their worth only in terms of what appears next along the chain, never in or of themselves. The model is also counter-intuitive, since human experience values things, people and events differently from one another. Some items give us more pause than others; a few invite us to lose ourselves, as a child becomes lost in a game. Drama asks an audience to play along with its playing actors, pointlessly. If there is a point – moral or utilitarian – it is a mere side effect. A play, like Cleopatra’s hopping, is a digression from the straight journey of human lives toward death; and, as Freud suggests in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, detours are the only places in which the life drive makes any inroads into the death instincts’ relentless onward progress. Shakespeare’s dramatic works not only demonstrate play, and hook their audiences into the delightful, terrifying and all-absorbing world of (the) play, but they also provide a metanarrative about play, playing with the idea of playing. This essay resists the tendency to interpret Shakespeare’s dramatic works pragmatically, and instead shows, with examples from comedies and romances, especially The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and from tragedies including King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra, how they refuse to be means toward other ends, but “play till doomsday”, throwing reflective aspects up to their audiences and defying the puritans to stop them as they do so.

Does the composition of meteoritic metal change with forging? An experimental study

AbstractThe use of meteoritic iron in the manufacture of human artifacts since the Bronze Age has been well documented, including the iron blade of Tutankhamun's dagger. Whereas the preservation of textures and mineral inclusions suggest relatively low temperature (<950°C) working of meteoritic metal used in artifacts, higher temperature working—that is, forging—could have occurred, based on studies of Bronze Age slag. The extent to which the forging of meteoritic iron might change the bulk composition, especially the trace elements used for classification of iron meteorites, is largely unknown. Using electron microbeam methods (SEM and EPMA), and trace element analysis (ICP‐MS), we analyze metal obtained at different stages during the modern forging of a set of knife blades from fragments of the Gebel Kamil meteorite, and assess the degree to which bulk element composition, mineral inclusions, and textures are modified. We find that while forging does destroy the original texture and removes mineral inclusions, it does not significantly modify the trace elements typically used in iron meteorite classification, at least for the relatively Ni‐rich composition represented by Gebel Kamil. While we acknowledge that the modern method by which the knife blades were forged from Gebel Kamil would not have occurred in the Bronze Age, our results represent an upper temperature limit relative to the inferred conditions used in ancient forging. The identification of the meteorite (if still in existence) that was used for artifacts is feasible, based on our results and current literature on ancient meteoritic artifacts.

Application of DSO algorithm for estimating the parameters of triple diode model-based solar PV system

Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) technology advancements are primarily aimed at decarbonizing and enhancing the resiliency of the energy grid. Incorporating SPV is one of the ways to achieve the goal of energy efficiency. Because of the nonlinearity, modeling of SPV is a very difficult process. Identification of variables in a lumped electric circuit model is required for accurate modeling of the SPV system. This paper presents a new state-of-the-art control technique based on human artefacts dubbed Drone Squadron Optimization for estimating 15 parameters of a three-diode equivalent model solar PV system. The suggested method simulates a nonlinear relationship between the P–V and I–V performance curves, lowering the difference between experimental and calculated data. To evaluate the adaptive performance in every climatic state, two different test cases with commercial PV cells, RTC France and photo watt-201, are used. The proposed method provides a more accurate parameter estimate. To validate the recommended approach's performance, the data are compared to the results of the most recent and powerful methodologies in the literature. For the RTC and PWP Photo Watt Cell, the DSO technique has the lowest Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 6.7776 × 10–4 and 0.002310324 × 10–4, respectively.

The Three Worlds of Task Complexity

Aim/Purpose: To provide a systematic approach to defining task complexity using a three worlds model previously introduced in informing science research. Background: The task complexity construct presents researchers with a quandary. While it appears useful on the surface, repeated attempts to define it rigorously have failed to gain traction in the broader research community. The level of inconsistency between definitions is shown to have changed little in the past 20 years. Methodology: Using a common framework that treats task complexity as a latent construct residing between sources and outcomes, moderated by both task familiarity and task discretion, separate models for each of the three worlds are developed. Contribution: Our paper proposes a potential path forward by showing how many issues in past task complexity research can be reconciled by framing the construct according to the three worlds model: the world we experience, the world of human artifacts, and the “real world.” Findings: The framework defines experienced complexity as occurring in the mind of the task performer while performing a single task instance, intrinsic complexity as a function of the internal characteristics of the problem space used to perform a bounded set of task instances, and extrinsic complexity as the ruggedness of the fitness landscape in which the task is performed. Recommendation for Researchers: It offers a path to convergence for definitions of task complexity. Future Research: The three worlds of task complexity can potentially be applied to many practical problems.

Towards digitizing the botanical legacy of Fritz and Paul Sarasin in Basel and Zurich

The botanical heritage of multitalented naturalists Paul Benedict (1856–1929) and Karl Friedrich (Fritz) (1859–1942) Sarasin of Basel is poorly known. The second-degree cousins from Basel inherited great wealth, which funded their expeditions to the tropics in India, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, and New Caledonia. Both were doctors in zoology with interdisciplinary interests from geography and anthropology to botany. They mixed race theories with traditional descriptions of biodiversity, blurring boundaries between anthropology and natural sciences. With the help of the local colonial governments where they travelled, they avidly collected many thousands of natural history objects and human artefacts, now kept in institutions across Europe.

On Dreams, Human Imagination, and Technology

In this paper, I reflect on human imagination, the intention of technology, and the future of humanity in the era of the Anthropocene. I begin by presenting the environmental crisis and declare a need to protect and safeguard nature. In the first part, I offer an explanation of a dream of an airliner and link it to the Bachelardian theory of aerial imagination and oneiric flight. I show how, today, technology has entered our lives profoundly and how it has become closely intertwined with us human beings. Based on this, the second part is dedicated to Martin Heidegger and his question concerning technology. By analyzing Heidegger’s seminal essay on technology, I argue for an alternative possibility of thinking about human artefacts (such as various tools or even an airliner) beyond them being merely a standing-reserve and thus rather as a mode of unconcealement. The third and last part of this essay is dedicated to Ilia Delio’s Teilhardian cosmic vision of the future of technological progress. Technology, for Delio, is a part of this cosmic narrative and human beings represent the thinking portion of the universe. I conclude with a thought on a new elemental consciousness and imagination, in which nature, its life force, and the most advanced technology, including AI, would become a part of a new panentheistic whole.

Ravishing Transports

Influence is an important notion in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thinking. However, the event of influence is related to contamination, corruption, and alteration in Rousseau’s philosophical system. At the very beginning, the first Discourse (1750) presents the critique of culture and social taste. The author points out the damaging influence of ‘public opinion’, ‘riches’, and ‘powerful actors’ on the morals of a society. These entities corrupt the social morals and set a depraved example to follow. On the other hand, there is a clean and progressive way of influence between individuals without moral abuse. This is the case of the Genius, who comes to the world exclusively under influence of another Genius. There is no Genius – whatever this notion is supposed to mean – in itself. His birth is the result of a strong influence: it came to the world in a ‘ravishing transport’ as the entry “Genius” describes its genesis in A Complete Dictionary of Music. Purely positive influence is a ‘stimulus’ as Rousseau names it in Dialogues. My paper describes what the ‘stimulus’ means and how the uncorrupted ‘inhabitants of the other sphere’ are disposed by this stimulus. The example of the Genius demonstrates more eloquently the process of the positive influence, which is also a possibility to a sourceless beginning. To illustrate this idea and make it more concrete I will reference Julie’s paradise in Rousseau’s masterwork, Julie, or the New Heloise. In Julie’s garden, called Elysée, we have the topology of a perfect wilderness, a landscape at first sight uncontaminated by human artefact. The structure of the vegetation testifies of a beginning without beginning. The décor looks like a setup with no human intervention. This idea of creation is close to the idea of insemination, and more precisely to the ‘dissemination’ key word of Derrida’s work, Dissemination. My article is a lecture regarding the entry “Genius” in A Complete Dictionary of Music and a thought-experiment about how this entry can be interpreted in a deconstructive context.

Nature, Artifice, and Discovery in Descartes’ Mechanical Philosophy

It is often assumed that in the collapse of the Aristotelian distinction between art and nature that results from the rise of mechanical philosophies in the early modern period, the collapse falls on the side of art. That is, all of the diversity among natures that was explained previously as differences among substantial forms came to be seen simply as differences in arrangements of matter according to laws instituted by the “divine artificer”, God. This paper argues that, for René Descartes, the collapse occurs on both sides. Natures are artefacts of God, and human artefacts, under some conditions, can be classified as natures or, at least, continuous within nature. Drawing on developments across both horticulture and engineering in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as Descartes’ mechanical philosophy, this paper explores challenges to the Aristotelian nature/art distinction. The question then is what, in the advent of this collapse, are human artificers doing when they construct artefacts? Are they replicating God’s powers by creating new natures, or are they doing something else, and if so, what might that be? It is argued that we should view human invention for Descartes not as creating new natures so much as discovering them. These findings have consequences for how we interpret Descartes’ use of the term “nature” in relation to automata and other artefacts produced by human hands.

Spatial distribution analysis and driving factors of traditional villages in Henan province: a comprehensive approach via geospatial techniques and statistical models

Traditional villages are repositories for preserving human artifacts and cultural heritage. An investigation of the spatial distribution characteristics and factors influencing traditional villages in provincial administrative regions can provide new insights regarding the protection of traditional villages and rural development. This study focused on 275 traditional villages in Henan Province. Using ArcGIS and GeoDa software, we analysed the spatial autocorrelation and heterogeneity of the nearest neighbour index, Gini coefficient, Moran’s I, and kernel density of the villages. Additionally, in conjunction with the Python sklearn library and GeoDetector, 15 indicators were selected to construct a decision tree model, spatial lag regression model, and geographic detector. Then the influence and interaction mechanisms of each indicator were analysed. The results revealed that (1) the spatial distribution of traditional villages in Henan Province was clustered and uneven, with a spatial layout comprising “3 high-density areas + 1 medium-density belt”; (2) overall, the number of traditional villages was negatively correlated with altitude, slope, rainfall, population density, proportion of the minority population, and historical-cultural intensity; and (3) the decision tree model results demonstrated that the selected 15 indicators had good predictive ability and that population density was particularly important. The spatial lag regression model results showed that the spatial distribution of traditional villages was positively correlated with distance from rivers, urbanization rate, and tourism resources, and negatively correlated with population density, per capita GRP, historical-cultural intensity, and NDVI. (4) The GeoDetector results indicated that historical-cultural intensity and population density were the two factors with the most significant explanatory power for the spatial differentiation of traditional villages in Henan Province. In terms of interactive factors, population density cap population was the strongest interactive driving force, followed by population cap historical-cultural intensity.

How Linguistic Data Can Inform Archaeological Investigations: An Australian Pilot Study Around Combustion Features

Abstract We present an interdisciplinary collaboration whereby linguistic data are explored with the aim of gaining new insights on archaeological features to enrich investigations of the past. Archaeology on its own relies on a very discontinuous record and here we argue that a fuller use of linguistic resources can offer more nuanced insights of the cultural context, and thus a more comprehensive reconstruction of both archaeological histories in general and archaeological features specifically. Languages, as complex human artefacts, often develop vocabularies that reflect speakers’ need to communicate about everyday objects and actions. Therefore, it makes sense to turn to lexicographic and semantic data as sources of additional clues about various aspects of the past. To date, this kind of collaboration has either focused on aspects of culture that leave little trace in the archaeological record or on aspects of material culture that informs wider histories of migrations and contacts. Collaboration has also, more often than not, had the goal of answering linguistic rather than archaeological questions. The novel approach we propose here is a focus on a domain which does leave a substantial trace in the archaeological record and that falls in the realm of mundane aspects of the universal human experience – i.e. domestic fire use – with the aim of gaining a more nuanced and culturally grounded understanding of archaeological features and their investigation. This article is a demonstration in principle for the potential of this approach, illustrated here with a pilot study of combustion features on the Australian continent. Having collected fire-related words in a sample of dictionaries of Australian Indigenous languages, we explain how and why the information they encapsulate can support archaeological studies.

Measurement matters

Abstract Researchers studying metaphor, as a human artifact, as a thing we use in communicating and expression, as an ability we acquire, as a seemingly fundamental process in human embodied cognition, and in other guises, face many methodological hurdles. This article considers several categories of such challenges, and with reference to and in partnership with the other articles in this special issue, seeks to suggest some means of overcoming or at least minimizing the obstacles.

Blood flow characterization in nailfold capillary using optical flow-assisted two-stream network and spatial-temporal image

The blood flow velocity in the nailfold capillary is an important indicator of the status of microcirculation. The conventional manual processing method is both laborious and prone to human artifacts. A feasible way to solve this problem is to use machine learning to assist in image processing and diagnosis. Inspired by the Two-Stream Convolutional Networks, this study proposes an optical flow-assisted two-stream network to segment nailfold blood vessels. Firstly, we use U-Net as the spatial flow network and the dense optical flow as the temporal stream. The results show that the optical flow information can effectively improve the integrity of the segmentation of blood vessels. The overall accuracy is 94.01 %, the Dice score is 0.8099, the IoU score is 0.6806, and the VOE score is 0.3194. Secondly, The flow velocity of the segmented blood vessel is determined by constructing the spatial-temporal (ST) image. The blood flow velocity evaluated is consistent with the typical blood flow speed reported. This study proposes a novel two-stream network for blood vessel segmentation of nailfold capillary images. Combined with ST image and line detection method, it provides an effective workflow for measuring the blood flow velocity of nailfold capillaries.

The Relevance of the Phenomenological Method of Epoché and Reduction for Psychology

Abstract Husserl’s (2023) “Paradox of the Psychological Reduction,” with support and elucidation from Husserl’s published writings, shows the necessity of employing the phenomenological epoché and reduction in order to perform valid psychological research. The relationship between the transcendental and psychological reductions, including their closeness, differences, and peculiar identity are explored. Although necessary, the phenomenological method does not guarantee true psychological knowledge but rather requires a reflexive, self-critical, self-corrective historical process that confronts and overcomes naturalistic prejudice and other misguiding assumptions and dogma as well as superficial and flawed research performances. Phenomenological psychology and philosophy are inseparable, in a bidirectional relationship that informs the socio-cultural sciences including empirical psychology and all disciplines that study persons, communities, human artifacts, and humanity. The implications and relevance of phenomenological method are spelled out in light of the history and contemporary challenges of psychology.

Normal redefined: Exploring decontextualization of lorises (Nycticebus & Xanthonycticebus spp.) on social media platforms

IntroductionDecontextualization is a concept from psychology whereby new words are learned outside of the context of the here-and-now. Decontextualized language is used for discussing abstract concepts and is crucial to the development of academic language. When it comes to images, a dearth of context can lead to a lack of clarity, such as the use of ambiguous decontextualized images in environmental communication, leading to the promotion of greenwashing. Here we refer to decontextualization as the removal of wildlife from their wild ecological context. Images and videos of globally threatened species are increasingly popular on social media. Showing such taxa alongside humans may impact public perceptions of their abundance and need for conservation and can increase illegal trade. One group of animals that are particularly popular on social media platforms are the slow and pygmy lorises (Nycticebus spp., Xanthonycticebus spp.).MethodsHere, we examined 100 videos from three popular social media platforms (YouTube, TikTok, and Giphy) to calculate how often and in which ways these videos remove slow lorises from their natural ecological and behavioural context. We also examined views and likes to determine viewer engagement trends. We used relevant content from each site to assess the presence of decontextualization using five conditions.ResultsIn all but two videos, conditions of decontextualization were present and 77% of all videos had four to five conditions of decontextualization. Using Spearman correlation, we found a significant effect of decontextualization scores on the number of views and likes for YouTube and TikTok videos. Views were significantly higher when videos presented animals in anthropogenic settings (i.e., in human-made structures or in proximity of human artefacts). Additionally, views on TikTok and YouTube were significantly higher when animals displayed signs of stress or ill health and when they were in unnatural conditions.DiscussionOur case study of lorises provides an example of the danger of decontextualizing wild animals on social media. Public preference for imagery where animals are neglected is indicative that better guidelines need to be put in place and policed by social media platforms. Additionally, conservationists need to develop strategies to promote wild imagery and further explore decontextualization if we are to understand and address the drivers of the rampant illegal wildlife trade online.

1/f laws found in non-human music

A compelling question at the intersection of physics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology concerns the extent to which the brains of various species evolved to encode regularities of the physical world. It would be parsimonious and adaptive, for example, for brains to evolve an innate understanding of gravity and the laws of motion, and to be able to detect, auditorily, those patterns of noises that ambulatory creatures make when moving about the world. One such physical regularity of the world is fractal structure, generally characterized by power-law correlations or 1/f β spectral distributions. Such laws are found broadly in nature and human artifacts, from noise in physical systems, to coastline topography (e.g., the Richardson effect), to neuronal spike patterns. These distributions have also been found to hold for the rhythm and power spectral density of a wide array of human music, suggesting that human music incorporates regularities of the physical world that our species evolved to recognize and produce. Here we show for the first time that 1/fβ laws also govern the spectral density of a wide range of animal vocalizations (music), from songbirds, to whales, to howling wolves. We discovered this 1/fβ power-law distribution in the vocalizations within all of the 17 diverse species examined. Our results demonstrate that such power laws are prevalent in the animal kingdom, evidence that their brains have evolved a sensitivity to them as an aid in processing sensory features of the natural world.

Conceptualizing New Materialism in Geographical Studies of the Rural Realm

Geographic analysis in rural areas has been dominated in recent decades by socio-economic and socio-political perspectives. The new materialism can constitute a way of progress in rural geographical studies that involve the material and the human in the form of hybrid experiences. Materiality can be expressed in three ways: (1) the surface matter that corresponds to the traditional elements of the material rural space, (2) the materiality that would be associated with a joint and undifferentiated vision of human artefacts in a village, mainly the set of rural houses and (3) the experimental materiality that has an individual dimension, the result of the multiple processes of destruction, revival and reconstruction that simultaneously happen in one place. The experimental materiality is of the most interest for geographic analysis since it is where the materiality of the rural house and the individual are hybridized in the process of recovery of the traditional rural house. In the process of recovery of materialities, binary oppositions built in the rigid framework of modernity can be dissolved and established fluid postmodern alternatives co-produced between people and materiality. The new materialism in rural geography can be an alternative path that allows analyzing heterogeneous realities in a hybrid way and contributing in a practical context to the development of new rural policies.

Toward a Non-Anthropocentric Italian Cinema

The 2015 film Lost and Beautiful, directed by Pietro Marcello, en­deavors in aesthetically compelling ways to decenter the human in the frame and engage viewers in what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari term becoming animals. Part documentary film, part fairytale, this film tells the story in the nonhuman first person, of the life and journey of a water buffalo calf in the south of Italy and his relationship with the shepherd who saved him from pre­mature death, and later, with Pulcinella, a mythological figure from Neapol­itan folklore, who accompanies him in a journey north. Adopting ecocritical and posthuman perspective and providing elements of environmental cultural history, this article analyses the aesthetic and narrative strategies the film em­ploys to grant subjectivity to a nonhuman protagonist and, in turn, address the viewers. Advocating for the conservation of human artifacts while also posing the question of animal rights and agency, Lost and Beautiful powerfully gestures toward a non-anthropocentric cinema.