Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive Modeling to Social Simulation
Author: Ron Sun File Type: pdf This book explores the intersection between cognitive sciences and social sciences. In particular, it explores the intersection between individual cognitive modeling and modeling of multi-agent interaction (social stimulation). The two contributing fields--individual cognitive modeling (especially cognitive architectures) and modeling of multi-agent interaction (including social simulation and, to some extent, multi-agent systems)--have seen phenomenal growth in recent years. However, the interaction of these two fields has not been sufficiently developed. We believe that the interaction of the two may be more significant than either alone.
Author: John Barton
File Type: epub
A uniquely ambitious study of the Bibles creation how it came to be written, how its contents were selected - and how it really relates to the religions that endorse it The Bible is the central book of Western culture. For the two faiths which hold it sacred, it is the bedrock of their religion, a singular authority on what to believe and how to live. For non-believers too, it has a commanding status it is one of the great works of world literature, woven to an unparalleled degree into our language and thought.This book tells the story of the Bible, explaining how it came to be constructed and how it has been understood, from its remote beginnings down to the present. John Barton describes how the narratives, laws, proverbs, prophecies, poems and letters which comprise the Bible were written and when, what we know - and what we cannot know - about their authors and what they might have meant, as well as how these extraordinarily disparate writings relate to each other. His incisive readings shed new light on even the most familiar passages, exposing not only the sources and traditions behind them, but also the busy hands of the scribes and editors who assembled and reshaped them. Untangling the process by which some texts which were regarded as holy, became canonical and were included, and others didnt, Barton demonstrates that the Bible is not the fixed text it is often perceived to be, but the result of a long and intriguing evolution.Tracing its dissemination, translation and interpretation in Judaism and Christianity from Antiquity to the rise of modern biblical scholarship, Barton elucidates how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and imposed upon it. Part of the books originality is to illuminate the gap between religion and scripture, the ways in which neither maps exactly onto the other, and how religious thinkers from Augustine to Luther and Spinoza have reckoned with this. Barton shows that if we are to regard the Bible as authoritative, it cannot be as believers have so often done in the past.
Author: Bernon Lee
File Type: pdf
This book follows a readers logic of association through a series of overlapping constructs in biblical prescription of things prized and loftyholy hair, unblemished beasts, sacred edibles, wholesome wombs, pristine precincts, esteemed ethnicities and, as unlikely as it seems, dismembered members. Thoroughly intersectional in disposition, Bernon Lee uncovers not just the precariousness of the contrived dichotomies through the identity-building sacred texts, but also the complexities and contentions of a would-be decolonizing hermeneutic bristling with its own tensions and temptations. This volume is an intertextual odyssey through law and ritual from impassioned positions fraught with ambivalence, reticence, and anxiety.
Author: James Huffman
File Type: pdf
This book details the relationship between private property and government. As private property is important to both individual welfare and the public interest, the book provides an intellectual framework for the analysis and resolution of contemporary property rights disputes. **
Author: E. Paul Durrenberger
File Type: epub
In this first-ever collection of labor anthropology from around the world, the contributors toUncertain Timesassert that traditional labor unions have been co-opted by neoliberal policies of corporate capital and have become service organizations rather than drivers of social movements. The current structure of labor unions facilitates corporations need for a stable labor force while reducing their power to prevent outsourcing, subcontracting, and other methods of undercutting worker security and union power. Through case studies from Switzerland, Israel, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Greece, Sweden,Turkey, Brazil and Spain, the authors demonstrate that this process of neutering unions has been uneven across time and space. They also show that the potential exists for renewed union power based on more vociferous and creative collective action. These firsthand accountsfrom activist anthropologists in the trenches as union members and staff, as well as academics analyzing policy, law, worker organizing, and community impactillustrate the many approaches that workers around the world are taking to reclaim their rights in this ever-shifting labor landscape. Uncertain Timesis the first book to use this crucial comparative, ethnographic approach for understanding the new rules of the global labor struggle and the power workers have to change those rules. The volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of anthropology, sociology of work, and labor studies labor union leadership and others interested in developing innovative methods for organizing working people, fomenting class consciousness, and expanding social movements. Contributors Alpkan Birelma, Emma Braden, Maria Eugenia de la O, Christopher Kelley, Staffan Lofving, Gadi Nissim, Darcy Pan, Steven Payne, Alicia Reigada, Julia Soul, Manos Spyridakis, Christian Zlolniski **
Author: Ben Reynolds
File Type: epub
A technological revolution is driving capitalism toward crisis and collapse. Can our society evolve in time to rescue the future? Radical advances in automation, robotics, and computer technology have thrown millions out of work and will only continue to do so in the years to come. At the same time, cheap, individually-accessible machines will wrestle for primacy with both gleaming highly-automated factories and sweatshops alike, ultimately eroding the dominance of industrial production. Economic growth is slowing down, and it is not going to speed up again. The pressures fueling todays global unrest will not go away and are only going to get worse as wages stagnate in many countries, solid employment becomes harder to find, and cuts to social benefits continue. Competing radical and reactionary ideologies will clash as political consensus crumbles and the worlds peoples search for answers to these challenges. In its opening decades, the 21st will be a century of war and revolution. By the end of the 21st century, capitalism will be consigned to the history books. Despite the seeming darkness of our era, our future is filled with incredible possibility. If working people join together, we can create a world of freedom, beauty, and abundance, where poverty and tyranny are merely distant memories for our grandchildren. This is the story of The Coming Revolution.**About the Author Ben Reynolds is an American author and activist, based in NYC and London. His essays focus on politics, economics, international relations, philosophy, and aesthetics and have featured in ROAR Magazine, CounterPunch, Center for a Stateless Society, China-US Focus, and The Diplomat.