The study aimed to identify the reality of re-engineering administrative processes in relief organizations operating in the southern governorates - Palestine. The study used the descriptive analytical method, and the questionnaire was used to collect information that contributes to achieving the objectives of the study, and the study population consisted of workers in relief organizations. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers used a stratified random sample to collect data from 60 relief institutions. The (...) study showed that the relative weight of the administrative process re-engineering was 78.2%, and the results showed close ratios and values for the different study axes. The relative weight of the leadership style axis was 81.5%, the management support axis was 75.5%, the strategic planning axis was 76.3%, and the information technology axis was 79.5. %, and the axis of labor regulations and regulations 83.7%, The study recommended the need to provide a budget for training and development, with the need to build clear foundations to motivate and encourage workers in organizations. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the impact of the internal factors of process re-engineering in achieving organizational justice on relief organizations operating in the southern governorates - Palestine. Analytical, and a questionnaire was used to collect information that contributes to achieving the objectives of the study, and the study population consisted of employees in relief organizations, and a stratified random sample was used to collect data from 60 relief institutions. The study showed that the general (...) estimate of the internal factors for process re-engineering amounted to 76.44%, and the results showed close ratios and values for the various study axes, and the relative weight of the strategic planning axis was 76.3%, the information technology axis 79.5%, and the work regulations and regulations axis 83.7%, and between the study The relative weight of organizational justice reached 82.2%. The results also showed that training and empowering employees in organizations contributes to achieving organizational justice. The study recommended the need to provide a budget for training and development, with the need to build clear foundations to motivate and encourage employees in organizations, and define clear criteria for distributing Services for the promotion of distributive justice procedures in organizations. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the digital transformation in Non-Governmental Organizations in Palestine, and the study used the descriptive analytical approach, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect data that contribute to achieving the objectives of the study, and the study population consists of employees in Non-Governmental Organizations in the southern Palestinian governorates, and a random sample was used to collect Data where (183) applicable questionnaires were retrieved. The results of the study showed that the general assessment of (...) digital transformation reached (83.92%), and that the arrangement of areas of digital transformation is as follows: (infrastructure, organizational culture, human resources, leadership and administrative support, plans and strategies, material resources). The study presented a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the necessity of providing a budget for training and development, attracting expertise and specialists in digital transformation to work in organizations, and providing the necessary software tools to build and manage the digital transformation process. (shrink)

The paper reviewed financial resources which is a critical factor and component of Business Process Re-engineering in achieving academic performance of higher education institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The objective of the study is to examine whether financial resources can contribute to improving and achieving academic performance of higher education institutions in general and students in particular. The study used a systematic literature review and content analysis was to establish the relationship between financial resources and academic performance. (...) The key findings are grouped in three dimensions: 1) financial resources; 2) budget and funding/financial model; 3) tuitions fees, scholarship and loans provision. The study found consistent evidence to show that there is a significant and positive relationship between financial resources and performance of higher education institutions. The study concluded that higher education sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo needs a radical change and fundamental rethinking in improving educational budget processes to meet the needs of the institutions, provision of scholarship and loans processes to students mainly those from poor background and designing innovative financial/funding model to sustain educational institutions. The study is based on academic capitalism theory. The recommendations were made based on the findings of the study. -/- . (shrink)

“Moral imagination” is the capacity to register that one’s perspective on a decision-making situation is limited, and to imagine alternative perspectives that reveal new considerations or approaches. We have developed a Moral Imagination approach that aims to drive a culture of responsible innovation, ethical awareness, deliberation, decision-making, and commitment in organizations developing new technologies. We here present a case study that illustrates one key aspect of our approach – the technomoral scenario – as we have applied it in our work (...) with product and engineering teams. Technomoral scenarios are fictional narratives that raise ethical issues surrounding the interaction between emerging technologies and society. Through facilitated role-playing and discussion, participants are prompted to examine their own intentions, articulate justifications for actions, and consider the impact of decisions on various stakeholders. This process helps developers to re-envision their choices and responsibilities, ultimately contributing to a culture of responsible innovation. (shrink)

This study aimed to identify the availability of business process re-engineering requirements in Palestinian industrial companies, and to identify the nature of relationship and direction between business process re-engineering requirements and product quality in these companies, in addition to determine whether the market orientation plays a mediating role in the relationship between business process re-engineering requirements and product quality. To achieve study objectives, the researcher designed a questionnaire as a study tool, was distributed on sample of (231) (...) employee selected from the senior management in Palestinian industrial companies. The results shows: business process re-engineering requirements (Organizational, Technological, Human) are available in Palestinian industrial companies with a large degree. There is a positive impact with a statistical significance the availability of business process re-engineering requirements on market orientation and achieving product quality in Palestinian industrial companies. There is a positive impact with a statistical significance the market orientation adoption and achieving product quality in Palestinian industrial companies. Results revealed that market orientation mediating the relationship between business process re-engineering requirements and achieving product quality. The Main recommendations: Needing of senior management to make attention about modern management methods, as well as relying on scientific and field approach to solve and tackle problems. Senior management should be recognize the importance of market orientation, and works on linking it with information systems, and it's basic center should be concentrates on meeting customer needs. Key words: strategic orientation, modern management methods, operational performance, product quality, marketing . (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the level of organizational justice in relief organizations operating in the southern governorates - Palestine. The study used the descriptive analytical method، and the questionnaire was used to collect information that contributes to achieving the objectives of the study، and the study population consisted of workers in relief organizations، and a stratified random sample was used to collect data from 60 relief institutions. The study showed that the relative weight of organizational (...) justice was 82.2%. Where the dimension of distributive fairness reached 85.94% and after procedures fairness 78.02، and the study recommended the need to build clear foundations to motivate and encourage workers in organizations، and define clear criteria for distributing services in order to enhance distributive justice procedures in organizations. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the impact of leadership style in achieving organizational justice on relief organizations operating in the southern governorates - Palestine, and the most important hypotheses of the study were: that there is a positive correlation between leadership style and achieving organizational justice. Which contribute to achieving the objectives of the study, and the study population consisted of Employees in relief organizations, and a stratified random sample was used to collect data from 60 (...) class='Hi'>relief institutions. The study showed that the relative weight of the leadership axis was 78.65%, and the study showed that the relative weight of organizational justice was 82.2%. The results also showed a correlation between leadership style and organizational justice, in addition to the prevailing leadership style, which contributes to training and empowering Employees. The study recommended the need to provide effective leadership, with the need to build clear foundations to motivate and encourage Employees in organizations, and to define clear criteria for the distribution of services in order to enhance the procedures of distributive justice in organizations, as well as work to integrate sub-tasks into one task, and give the institutions management full freedom for Employees to make decisions. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the decision support systems and re-engineering in the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip. A descriptive approach was used where a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a stratified random Sample. (500) questionnaires were distributed and (449) were returned, response rate (89.8%). The study reached many results such as: There is A statistically significant relationship at a significant level (α ≤ 0.04) between the decision support systems and re-engineering in the (...) universities under investigation. There are differences in the answers of the respondents concerning the relationship between decision support systems and re-engineering due to the gender of the respondents in favor of the males. There are differences in the answers of the respondents for the dimension (managerial support for the decision support systems) in favor of those in the age group between (45-55) years and more than (55) years, and due to the educational level in favor of those holding master degrees, and due to the name of the university in favor of the Islamic university, Al azhar university, Al aqsa university, respectively and due to the years of experience in favor of those who have (15-20) years of experience and (21) years and more. The study reached many Conclusions such as: In order to be able to cope with globalization and its technical aspects, the Palestinian universities in Gaza should focus on the process of re-engineering. The importance of this tendency should be clarified to the top management of these universities specially those who are not willing to do so. The universities should be encouraged to start implementing it’s re-engineering programs while developing the infrastructure for their information technology as a whole, and the decision support systems in particular. The top management in the universities should increase their dependence, support and use of the decision support systems in the decision-making process. The top management should also diagnose the problems and encourage the employees to use the decision support systems and overcome the obstacles that may hinder the development of the decision support systems. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the level of business intelligence in its dimensions (data reliability, information technology, competitive intelligence, analytical ability, business management performance, immediate analytical processing) in NGOs in the southern Palestinian governorates. The study used the analytical descriptive approach, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Which contribute to the development of the objectives of the study, and the study population consists of employees in Non-Governmental Organizations in the southern Palestinian governorates, and a random sample was (...) used to collect data from the study community, as the sample reached (184) individuals, and the results of the study showed that the general estimate of business intelligence came with a high level and weight Relative (90.49%), and the arrangement of business intelligence dimensions was as follows: (data reliability, information technology, competitive intelligence, analytical ability, business management performance, and instant analytical processing). The study presented a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the need for the organization to use modern technological systems to analyze and make its own reports, to work on employing the use of business intelligence techniques in detecting new competitors, and predicting their strategies. (shrink)

continent. 1.1 : 3-13. / 0/ – Introduction I want to propose, as a trajectory into the philosophically weird, an absurd theoretical claim and pursue it, or perhaps more accurately, construct it as I point to it, collecting the ground work behind me like the Perpetual Train from China Mieville's Iron Council which puts down track as it moves reclaiming it along the way. The strange trajectory is the following: Kant's critical philosophy and much of continental philosophy which has followed, (...) has been a defense against horror and madness. Kant's prohibition on speculative metaphysics such as dogmatic metaphysics and transcendental realism, on thinking beyond the imposition of transcendental and moral constraints, has been challenged by numerous figures proceeding him. One of the more interesting critiques of Kant comes from the mad black Deleuzianism of Nick Land stating, “Kant’s critical philosophy is the most elaborate fit of panic in the history of the Earth.” And while Alain Badiou would certainly be opposed to the libidinal investments of Land's Deleuzo-Guattarian thought, he is likewise critical of Kant's normative thought-bureaucracies: Kant is the one author for whom I cannot feel any kinship. Everything in him exasperates me, above all his legalism—always asking Quid Juris? Or ‘Haven’t you crossed the limit?’—combined, as in today’s United States, with a religiosity that is all the more dismal in that it is both omnipresent and vague. The critical machinery he set up has enduringly poisoned philosophy, while giving great succour to the academy, which loves nothing more than to rap the knuckles of the overambitious [….] That is how I understand the truth of Monique David-Menard’s reflections on the properly psychotic origins of Kantianism. I am persuaded that the whole of the critical enterprise is set up to to shield against the tempting symptom represented by the seer Swedenborg, or against ‘diseases of the head’, as Kant puts it. An entire nexus of the limits of reason and philosophy are set up here, namely that the critical philosophy not only defends thought from madness, philosophy from madness, and philosophy from itself, but that philosophy following the advent of the critical enterprise philosophy becomes auto-vampiric; feeding on itself to support the academy. Following Francois Laruelle's non-philosophical indictment of philosophy, we could go one step further and say that philosophy operates on the material of what is philosophizable and not the material of the external world. [1] Beyond this, the Kantian scheme of nestling human thinking between our limited empirical powers and transcendental guarantees of categorical coherence, forms of thinking which stretch beyond either appear illegitimate, thereby liquefying both pre-critical metaphysics and the ravings of the mad in the same critical acid. In rejecting the Kantian apparatus we are left with two entities – an unsure relation of thought to reality where thought is susceptible to internal and external breakdown and a reality with an uncertain sense of stability. These two strands will be pursued, against the sane-seal of post-Kantian philosophy by engaging the work of weird fiction authors H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti. The absolute inhumanism of the formers universe will be used to describe a Shoggothic Materialism while the dream worlds of the latter will articulate the mad speculation of a Ventriloquil Idealism. But first we must address the relation of philosophy to madness as well as philosophy to weird fiction. /1/ – Philosophy and Madness There is nothing that the madness of men invents which is not either nature made manifest or nature restored. Michel Foucault. Madness and Civilization. The moment I doubt whether an event that I recall actually took place, I bring the suspicion of madness upon myself: unless I am uncertain as to whether it was not a mere dream. Arthur Schopenhauer. The World as Will and Idea, Vol. 3. Madness is commonly thought of as moving through several well known cultural-historical shifts from madness as a demonic or otherwise theological force, to rationalization, to medicalization psychiatric and otherwise. Foucault's Madness and Civilization is well known for orientating madness as a form of exclusionary social control which operated by demarcating madness from reason. Yet Foucault points to the possibility of madness as the necessity of nature at least prior to the crushing weight of the church. Kant’s philosophy as a response to madness is grounded by his humanizing of madness itself. As Adrian Johnston points out in the early pages of Time Driven pre-Kantian madness meant humans were seized by demonic or angelic forces whereas Kantian madness became one of being too human. Madness becomes internalized, the external demonic forces become flaws of the individual mind. Foucault argues that, while madness is de-demonized it is also dehumanized during the Renaissance, as madmen become creatures neither diabolic nor totally human reduced to the zero degree of humanity. It is immediately clear why for Kant, speculative metaphysics must be curbed – with the problem of internal madness and without the external safeguards of transcendental conditions, there is nothing to formally separate the speculative capacities for metaphysical diagnosis from the mad ramblings of the insane mind – both equally fall outside the realm of practicality and quotidian experience. David-Menard's work is particularly useful in diagnosing the relation of thought and madness in Kant's texts. David-Menard argues that in Kant's relatively unknown “An Essay on the Maladies of the Mind” as well as his later discussion of the Seer of Swedenborg, that Kant formulates madness primarily in terms of sensory upheaval or other hallucinatory theaters. She writes: “madness is an organization of thought. It is made possible by the ambiguity of the normal relation between the imaginary and the perceived, whether this pertains to the order of sensation or to the relations between our ideas” Kant's fascination with the Seer forces Kant between the pincers of “aesthetic reconciliation” – namely melancholic withdrawal – and “a philosophical invention” – namely the critical project. Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis is a combination and reversal of Kant's split, where an aesthetic over engagement with the world entails prolific conceptual invention. Their embrace of madness, however, is of course itself conceptual despite all their rhizomatic maneuvers. Though they move with the energy of madness, Deleuze and Guattari save the capacity of thought from the fangs of insanity by imbuing materiality itself with the capacity for thought. Or, as Ray Brassier puts it, “Deleuze insists, it is necessary to absolutize the immanence of this world in such a way as to dissolve the transcendent disjunction between things as we know them and as they are in themselves”. That is, whereas Kant relied on the faculty of judgment to divide representation from objectivity Deleuze attempts to flatten the whole economy beneath the juggernaut of ontological univocity. Speculation, as a particularly useful form of madness, might fall close to Deleuze and Guattari’s shaping of philosophy into a concept producing machine but is different in that it is potentially self destructive – less reliant on the stability of its own concepts and more adherent to exposing a particular horrifying swath of reality. Speculative madness is always a potential disaster in that it acknowledges little more than its own speculative power with the hope that the gibbering of at least a handful of hysterical brains will be useful. Pre-critical metaphysics amounts to madness, though this may be because the world itself is mad while new attempts at speculative metaphysics, at post-Kantian pre-critical metaphysics, are well aware of our own madness. Without the sobriety of the principle of sufficient reason we have a world of neon madness: “we would have to conceive what our life would be if all the movements of the earth, all the noises of the earth, all the smells, the tastes, all the light – of the earth and elsewhere, came to us in a moment, in an instant – like an atrocious screaming tumult of things”. Speculative thought may be participatory in the screaming tumult of the world or, worse yet, may produce its spectral double. Against theology or reason or simply commonsense, the speculative becomes heretical. Speculation, as the cognitive extension of the horrorific sublime should be met with melancholic detachment. Whereas Kant's theoretical invention, or productivity of thought, is self -sabotaging, since the advent of the critical project is a productivity of thought which then delimits the engine of thought at large either in dogmatic gestures or non-systematizable empirical wondrousness. The former is celebrated by the fiction of Thomas Ligotti whereas the latter is espoused by the tales of H.P. Lovecraft. /2/ – Weird Fiction and Philosophy. Supernatural horror, in all its eerie constructions, enables a reader to taste treats inconsistent with his personal welfare. Thomas Ligotti Songs of a Dead Dreamer. I choose weird stories because they suit my inclination best—one of my strongest and most persistent wishes being to achieve,momentarily, the illusion of some strange suspension or violation of the galling limitations of time, space, and natural law which forever imprison us and frustrate our curiosity about the infinite cosmic spaces beyond the radius of our sight and analysis H.P. Lovecraft. “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction” Lovecraft states that his creation of a story is to suspend natural law yet, at the same time, he indexes the tenuousness of such laws, suggesting the vast possibilities of the cosmic. The tension that Lovecraft sets up between his own fictions and the universe or nature is reproduced within his fictions in the common theme of the unreliable narrator; unreliable precisely because they are either mad or what they have witnessed questions the bounds of material reality. In “The Call of Cthulhu” Lovecraft writes: The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. Despite Lovecraft's invocations of illusion, he is not claiming that his fantastic creations such as the Old Ones are supernatural but, following Joshi, are only ever supernormal. One can immediately see that instead of nullifying realism Lovecraft in fact opens up the real to an unbearable degree. In various letters and non-fictional statements Lovecraft espoused strictly materialist tenets, ones which he borrowed from Hugh Elliot namely the uniformity of law, the denial of teleology and the denial of non-material existence. Lovecraft seeks to explore the possibilities of such a universe by piling horror upon horror until the fragile brain which attempts to grasp it fractures. This may be why philosophy has largely ignored weird fiction – while Deleuze and Guattari mark the turn towards weird fiction and Lovecraft in particular, with the precursors to speculative realism as well as contemporary related thinkers have begun to view Lovecraft as making philosophical contributions. Lovecraft's own relation to philosophy is largely critical while celebrating Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. This relationship of Lovecraft to philosophy and philosophy to Lovecraft is coupled with Lovecraft's habit of mercilessly destroying the philosopher and the figure of the academic more generally in his work, a destruction which is both an epistemological destruction and an ontological destruction. Thomas Ligotti's weird fiction which he has designated as a kind of “confrontational escapism” might be best described in the following quote from one of his shortstories, “The human phenomenon is but the sum of densely coiled layers of illusion each of which winds itself on the supreme insanity. That there are persons of any kind when all there can be is mindless mirrors laughing and screaming as they parade about in an endless dream”. Whereas Lovecraft's weirdness draws predominantly from the abyssal depths of the uncharted universe, Ligotti's existential horror focuses on the awful proliferation of meaningless surfaces that is, the banal and every day function of representation. In an interview, Ligotti states: We don't even know what the world is like except through our sense organs, which are provably inadequate. It's no less the case with our brains. Our whole lives are motored along by forces we cannot know and perceptions that are faulty. We sometimes hear people say that they're not feeling themselves. Well, who or what do they feel like then? This is not to say that Ligotti sees nothing beneath the surface but that there is only darkness or blackness behind it, whether that surface is on the cosmological level or the personal. By addressing the implicit and explicit philosophical issues in Ligotti's work we will see that his nightmarish take on reality is a form of malevolent idealism, an idealism which is grounded in a real, albeit dark and obscure materiality. If Ligotti's horrors ultimately circle around mad perceptions which degrade the subject, it takes aim at the vast majority of the focus of continental philosophy. While Lovecraft's acidic materialism clearly assaults any romantic concept of being from the outside, Ligotti attacks consciousness from the inside: Just a little doubt slipped into the mind, a little trickle of suspicion in the bloodstream, and all those eyes of ours, one by one, open up to the world and see its horror [...] Not even the solar brilliance of a summer day will harbor you from horror. For horror eats the light and digests it into darkness. Clearly, the weird fiction of Lovecraft and Ligotti amount to a anti-anthrocentric onslaught against the ramparts of correlationist continental philosophy. /3/ – Shoggothic Materialism or the Formless Formless protoplasm able to mock and reflect all forms and organs and processes—viscous agglutinations of bubbling cells—rubbery fifteen-foot spheroids infinitely plastic and ductile—slaves of suggestion, builders of cities—more and more sullen, more and more intelligent, more and more amphibious, more and more imitative—Great God! What madness made even those blasphemous Old Ones willing to use and to carve such things? H.P. Lovecraft. “At the Mountains of Madness” On the other hand, affirming that the universe resembles nothing and is only formless amounts to saying that the universe is something like a spider or spit. Georges Bataille. “Formless”. The Shoggoths feature most prominently in H.P. Lovecraft's shortstory “At the Mountains of Madness” where they are described in the following manner: It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train – a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self -luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. The term is a litmus test for materialism itself as the Shoggoth is an amorphous creature. The Shoggoths were living digging machines bio engineered by the Elder Things, and their protoplasmic bodies being formed into various tools by their hypnotic powers. The Shoggoths eventually became self aware and rose up against their masters in an ultimately failed rebellion. After the Elder Ones retreated into the oceans leaving the Shoggoths to roam the frozen wastes of the Antarctic. The onto-genesis of the Shoggoths and their gross materiality, index the horrifyingly deep time of the earth a concept near and dear to Lovecraft's formulation of horror as well as the fear of intelligences far beyond, and far before, the ascent of humankind on earth and elsewhere. The sickly amorphous nature of the Shoggoths invade materialism at large, where while materiality is unmistakably real ie not discursive, psychological, or otherwise overly subjectivist, it questions the relation of materialism to life. As Eugene Thacker writes: The Shoggoths or Elder Things do not even share the same reality with the human beings who encounter them—and yet this encounter takes place, though in a strange no-place that is neither quite that of the phenomenal world of the human subject or the noumenal world of an external reality. Amorphous yet definitively material beings are a constant in Lovecraft's tales. In his tale “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadatth” Lovecraft describes Azathoth as, “that shocking final peril which gibbers unmentionably outside the ordered universe,” that, “last amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blashphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity,” who, “gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time”. Azathoth's name may have multiple origins but the most striking is the alchemy term azoth which is both a cohesive agent and a acidic creation pointing back to the generative and the decayed. The indistinction of generation and degradation materially mirrors the blur between the natural and the unnatural as well as life and non-life. Lovecraft speaks of the tension between the natural and the unnatural is his short story “The Unnameable.” He writes, “if the psychic emanations of human creatures be grotesque distortions, what coherent representation could express or portray so gibbous and infamous a nebulousity as the spectre of a malign, chaotic perversion, itself a morbid blasphemy against Nature?”. Lovecraft explores exactly the tension outlined at the beginning of this chapter, between life and thought. At the end of his short tale Lovecraft compounds the problem as the unnameable is described as “a gelatin—a slime—yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory”. Deleuze suggests that becoming-animal is operative throughout Lovecraft's work, where narrators feel themselves reeling at their becoming non-human or of being the anomalous or of becoming atomized. Following Eugene Thacker however, it may be far more accurate to say that Lovecraft's tales exhibit not a becoming-animal but a becoming-creature. Where the monstrous breaks the purportedly fixed laws of nature, the creature is far more ontologically ambiguous. The nameless thing is an altogether different horizon for thought. The creature is either less than animal or more than animal – its becoming is too strange for animal categories and indexes the slow march of thought towards the bizarre. This strangeness is, as aways, some indefinite swirling in the category of immanence and becoming. Bataille begins “The Labyrinth” with the assertion that being, to continue to be, is becoming. More becoming means more being hence the assertion that Bataille's barking dog is more than the sponge. This would mean that the Shoggotth is altogether too much being, too much material in the materialism. Bataille suggests that there is an immanence between the eater and the eaten, across the species and never within them. That is, despite the chaotic storm of immanence there must remain some capacity to distinguish the gradients of becoming without reliance upon, or at least total dependence upon, the powers of intellection to parse the universe into recognizable bits, properly digestible factoids. That is, if we undo Deleuze's aforementioned valorization of sense which, for his variation of materialism, performed the work of the transcendental, but refuse to reinstate Kant's transcendental disjunction between thing and appearance, then it must be a quality of becoming-as-being itself which can account for the discernible nature of things by sense. In an interview with Peter Gratton, Jane Bennett formulates the problem thusly: What is this strange systematicity proper to a world of Becoming? What, for example, initiates this congealing that will undo itself? Is it possible to identify phases within this formativity, plateaus of differentiation? If so, do the phases/plateaus follow a temporal sequence? Or, does the process of formation inside Becoming require us to theorize a non-chronological kind of time? I think that your student’s question: “How can we account for something like iterable structures in an assemblage theory?” is exactly the right question. Philosophy has erred too far on the side of the subject in the subject-object relation and has furthermore, lost the very weirdness of the non-human. Beyond this, the madness of thought need not override. /4/ - Ventriloquial Idealism or the Externality of Thought My aim is the opposite of Lovecraft's. He had an appreciation for natural scenery on earth and wanted to reach beyond the visible in the universe. I have no appreciation for natural scenery and want the objective universe to be a reflection of a character. Thomas Ligotti. “Devotees of Decay and Desolation.” Unless life is a dream, nothing makes sense. For as a reality, it is a rank failure [….] Horror is more real than we are. Thomas Ligotti. “Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror”. Thomas Ligotti's tales are rife with mannequins, puppets, and other brainless entities which of replace the valorized subject of philosophy – that of the free thinking human being. His tales such as “The Dream of the Manikin” aim to destroy the rootedness of consciousness. James Trafford has connected the anti-egoism of Ligotti to Thomas Metzinger – where the self is at best an illusion and we plead desperately for someone else to acknowledge that we are real. Trafford has stated it thus, “Life is played out as an inescapable puppet show, an endless dream in which the puppets are generally unaware that they are trapped within a mesmeric dance of whose mechanisms they know nothing and over which they have no control”. An absolute materialism, for Ligotti, implies an alienation of the idea which leads to a ventriloquil idealism. As Ligotti notes in an interview, “the fiasco and nightmare of existence, the particular fiasco and nightmare of human existence, the sense that people are puppets of powers they cannot comprehend, etc.” And then further elaborates that,“[a]ssuming that anything has to exist, my perfect world would be one in which everyone has experienced the annulment of his or her ego. That is, our consciousness of ourselves as unique individuals would entirely disappear”. The externality of the idea leads to the unfortunate consequence of consciousness eating at itself through horror which, for Ligotti, is more real than reality and goes beyond horror-as-affect. Beyond this, taking together with the unreality of life and the ventriloquizing of subjectivity, Ligotti's thought becomes an idealism in which thought itself is alien and ultimately horrifying. The role of human thought and the relation of non-relation of horror to thought is not completely clear in Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Ligotti argues in his The Conspiracy Against the Human Race,that the advent of thought is a mistake of nature and that horror is being in the sense that horror results from knowing too much. Yet, at the same time, Ligotti seems to suggest that thought separates us from nature whereas, for Lovecraft, thought is far less privileged – mind is just another manifestation of the vital principal, it is just another materialization of energy. In his brilliant “Prospects for Post-Copernican Dogmatism” Iain Grant rallies against the negative definition of dogmatism and the transcendental, and suggests that negatively defining both over-focuses on conditions of access and subjectivism at the expense of the real or nature. With Schelling, who is Grant's champion against the subjectivist bastions of both Fichte and Kant, Ligotti's idealism could be taken as a transcendental realism following from an ontological realism. Yet the transcendental status of Ligotti's thought move towards a treatment of the transcendental which may threaten to leave beyond its realist ground. Ligotti states: Belief in the supernatural is only superstition. That said, a sense of the supernatural, as Conrad evidenced in Heart of Darkness, must be admitted if one's inclination is to go to the limits of horror. It is the sense of what should not be- the sense of being ravaged by the impossible. Phenomenally speaking, the super-natural may be regarded as the metaphysical counterpart of insanity, a transcendental correlative of a mind that has been driven mad. Again, Ligotti equates madness with thought, qualifying both as supernatural while remaining less emphatic about the metaphysical dimensions of horror. The question becomes one of how exactly the hallucinatory realm of the ideal relates to the black churning matter of Lovecraft's chaos of elementary particles. In his tale “I Have a Special Plan for This World” Ligotti formulates thus: A: There is no grand scheme of things. B: If there were a grand scheme of things, the fact – the fact – that we are not equipped to perceive it, either by natural or supernatural means, is a nightmarish obscenity. C: The very notion of a grand scheme of things is a nightmarish obscenity. Here Ligotti is not discounting metaphysics but implying that if it does exist the fact that we are phenomenologically ill-equipped to perceive that it is nightmarish. For Ligotti, nightmare and horror occur within the circuit of consciousness whereas for Lovecraft the relation between reality and mind is less productive on the side of mind. It is easier to ascertain how the Kantian philosophy is a defense against the diseases of the head as Kant armors his critical enterprise from too much of the world and too much of the mind. The weird fiction of both Lovecraft and Ligotti demonstrates that there is too much of both feeding into one another in a way that corrodes the Kantian schema throughly, breaking it down into a dead but still ontologically potentiated nigredo. The haunting, terrifying fact of Ligotti's idealism is that the transcendental motion which brought thought to matter, while throughly material and naturalized, brings with it the horror that thought cannot be undone without ending the material that bears it either locally or completely. Thought comes from an elsewhere and an elsewhen being-in-thought. The unthinkable outside thought is as maddening as the unthought engine of thought itself within thought which doesn't exist except for the mind, the rotting décor of the brain. /5/ - Hyperstitional Transcendental Paranoia or Self -Expelled Thought Weird fiction has been given some direct treatment in philosophy in the mad black Deleuzianism of Nick Land. Nick Land along with others in the 1990s created the Cyber Culture Research Unit as well as the research group Hyperstition. The now defunct hyperstitional website, an outgrowth of the Cyber Culture Research Unit, defined hyperstition in the following fourfold: 1-Element of effective culture that makes itself real. 2-Fictional quantity functional as a time-traveling device. 3-Coincidence intensifier. 4-Call to the Old Ones. The distinctively Lovecraftian character of hyperstition is hard to miss as is its Deleuzo-Guattarian roots. In the opening pages of A Thousand Plateaus Deleuze and Guattari write, “We have been criticized for over-quoting literary authors. But when one writes, the only question is which other machine the literary machine can be plugged into”. The indisinction of literature and philosophy mirrors the mess of being and knowing as post-correlationist philosophy, where philosophy tries to make itself real where literature, especially the weird, aims itself at the brain-circuit of horror. The texts of both Lovecraft and Ligotti work through horror as epistemological plasticity meeting with proximity as well as the deep time of Lovecraft and the glacially slow time of paranoia in Ligotti. Against Deleuze, and following Brassier, we cannot allow the time of consciousness, the Bergsonian time of the duree, to override natural time, but instead acknowledge that it is an unfortunate fact of existence as a thinking being. Horror-time, the time of consciousness, with all its punctuated moments and drawn out terrors, cannot compare to the deep time of non-existence both in the unreachable past and the unknown future. The crystalline cogs of Kant's account of experience as the leading light for the possibility of metaphysics must be throughly obliterated. His gloss of experience in Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics could not be more sterile: Experience consists of intuitions, which belong to the sensibility, and of judgments, which are entirely a work of the understanding. But the judgments which the understanding makes entirely out of sensuous intuitions are far from being judgments of experience. For in the one case the judgment connects only the perceptions as they are given in sensuous intuition [....] Experience consists in the synthetic connection of appearances in consciousness, so far as this connection is necessary. Here it is difficult to dismiss the queasiness that Kant's legalism induces upon sight for both Badiou and David-Menard. Kant's thought becomes, as Foucault says when reflecting on Sade's text in relation to nature, “the savage abolition of itself”. For Badiou, Kant's philosophy simply closes off too much of the outside, freezing the world of thought in an all too limited formalism. Critical philosophy is simply the systematized quarantine on future thinking, on thinking which would threaten the formalism which artificially grants thought its own coherency in the face of madness. Even the becoming-mad of Deleuze, while escaping the rumbling ground, makes grounds for itself, mad grounds but grounds which are thinkable in their affect. The field of effects allows for Deleuze's aesthetic and radical empiricism, in which effects and/or occasions make up the material of the world to be thought as a chaosmosis of simulacra. Given a critique of an empiricism of aesthetics, of the image, it may be difficult to justify an attack on Kantian formalism with the madness of literature, which does not aim to make itself real but which we may attempt to make real. That is, how do Lovecraft's and Ligotti's materials, as materials for philosophy to work on, differ from either the operative formalisms of Kant or the implicitly formalized images of Deleuzian empiricism? It is simply that such texts do not aim to make themselves real, and make claims to the real which are more alien to us than familiar, which is why their horror is immediately more trustworthy. This is the madness which Blanchot discusses in The Infinite Conversation through Cervantes and his knight – the madness of book-life, of the perverse unity of literature and life a discussion which culminates in the discussion of one of the weird's masters, that of Kafka. The text is the knowing of madness, since madness, in its moment of becoming-more-mad, cannot be frozen in place but by the solidifications of externalizing production. This is why Foucault ends his famous study with works of art. Furthermore extilligence, the ability to export the products of our maligned brains, is the companion of the attempts to export, or discover the possibility of intelligences outside of our heads, in order for philosophy to survive the solar catastrophe. To borrow again from Deleuze, writing is inseparable from becoming. The mistake is to believe that madness is reabsorbed by extilligence, by great works, or that it could be exorcised by the expelling of thought into the inorganic or differently organic. Going out of our heads does not guarantee we will no longer mean we cannot still go out of our minds. This is simply because of the outside, of matter, or force, or energy, or thing-in-itself, or Schopenhauerian Will. In Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zahn” an “impoverished student of metaphysics” becomes intrigued by strange viol music coming from above his room. After meeting the musician the student discovers that each night he plays frantic music at a window in order to keep some horridness at bay, some “impenetrable darkness with chaos and pandemonium”. The aesthetic defenses provided by the well trained brain can bear the hex of matter for so long, the specter of unalterability within it which too many minds obliterate, collapsing everything before the thought of thought as thinkable or at least noetically mutable on our own terms. Transcendental paranoia is the concurrent nightmare and promise of Paul Humphrey's work, of being literally out of our minds. It is the gothic counterpart of thinking non-conceptually but also of thinking never belonging to any instance of purportedly solid being. As Bataille stated, “At the boundary of that which escapes cohesion, he who reflects within cohesion realizes there is no longer any room for him” Thought is immaterial only to the degree that it is inhuman, it is a power that tries, always with failure, to ascertain its own genesis. Philosophy, if it can truly return to the great outdoors, if it can leave behind the dead loop of the human skull, must recognize not only the non-priority of human thought, but that thought never belongs to the brain that thinks it, thought comes from somewhere else. To return to the train image from the beginning “a locomotive rolling on the surface of the earth is the image of continuous metamorphosis” this is the problem of thought, and of thinking thought, of being no longer able to isolate thought, with only a thought-formed structure. [1] One of the central tenets of Francois Laruelle's non-philosophy is that philosophy has traditionally operated on material already presupposed as thinkable instead of trying to think the real in itself. Philosophy, according to Laruelle, remains fixated on transcendental synthesis which shatters immanence into an empirical datum and an a prori factum which are then fused by a third thing such as the ego. For a critical account of Laruelle's non-philosophy see Ray Brassier's Nihil Unbound. (shrink)

This research paper explores the dynamic integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance Business Rules Management Systems (BRMS) for the facilitation of agile business strategies. In the evolving landscape of digital enterprises, the demand for adaptive and responsive decision-making processes is paramount. The abstract investigates the symbiotic relationship between AI, ML, and BRMS, elucidating their combined potential to empower organizations in crafting agile and resilient business strategies. The study delves into the mechanisms by which AI and (...) ML augment traditional BRMS, offering predictive insights, optimizing decision rules, and fostering real-time adaptability. Through a comprehensive analysis, the research aims to provide valuable insights into the transformative capabilities of this integrated approach, shedding light on its implications for business agility, competitiveness, and strategic innovation. (shrink)

Karl Polanyi in The Great Transformation diagnosed what had happened in the Nineteenth Century that led to poverty, increasingly wild economic fluctuations, increasingly severe depressions, and social dislocation and oppression on a massive scale – the market had been disembedded from communities which were then subjected to the imperatives of a supposedly autonomous market. In fact, such disembedding and imposition of these imperatives was a deliberate strategy developed as a means to impose exploitative relations on people, in opposition to ideas (...) of republican democracy. Recognizing this, after such disembedding had engendered a major global depression in the 1890s and an even more severe depression in the 1930s, along with two world wars, reformers largely succeeded in re-embedding markets. This achievement was fought by neoliberals, and their triumph in the 1970s was a really a project of reversion to the Nineteenth Century economic and political order, now upheld by much more powerful forces, including immensely powerful transnational corporations and financial institutions, corrupt politicians, and much more effective mind control industries. As in the Nineteenth Century, it has concentrated wealth and income, destabilized economies, and threatens a new Great Depression and, as a by-product of the tensions generated by global ecological destruction, possibly a new world war. As opposed to Marxist analyses, Polanyi’s analysis provided a much clearer goal to aim at that has not been discredited by the failures of supposedly communist countries. However, there are still huge problems to be overcome if we are to re-embed the market in communities, including the problem of grappling with the immense power of transnational corporations and financial institutions and those who serve them and the success they have had in corrupting the institutions and culture of democracy. This includes not only undermining the power of nations to control their economies and their subversion of democratic processes, but also in promoting passivity in the population to render them inert and powerless. In this paper I will examine proposals, such as those promoted by Arild Vatn in his book Institutions and the Environment, to develop institutions able to achieve this re-embedding. (shrink)

Conceptual modeling of a portion of the world is a necessary prerequisite to set the stage and define software system boundaries. In this context, one of the challenges is to provide a unified framework to create a comprehensive representation of the targeted domain. According to many researchers, conceptual model (CM) development is a hard task, and system requirements are difficult to collect, causing many miscommunication problems. Accordingly, CMs require more than modeling ability alone: they first require an understanding of the (...) targeted domain that the model attempts to represent. Accordingly, a preconceptual modeling (pre-CM) stage is intended to address ontological issues before typical CM development is initiated. It involves defining a portion of reality when entities and processes are differentiated and integrated as unified wholes. This pre-CM phase forms the focus of research in this paper. The purpose is not show how to model; rather, it is to demonstrate how to establish a metaphysical basis of the involved portion of reality. To demonstrate such a venture, we employ the so-called thinging machine (TM) modeling that has been proposed as a high-level CM. A TM model integrates staticity and dynamism grounded in a fundamental construct called a thimac (things/machine). It involves two modes of reality, existence (events) and subsistence (regions: roughly, specifications of things and processes). Currently, the dominant approach in CM has evolved to limit its scope of application to develop ontological categorization (types of things). In contrast, advocates of TM modeling have pursued a broader metaphysical study of the nature of the domain’s things and processes beyond categorization. In the TM approach, pre-CM metaphysics is viewed as a part and parcel of CM itself. The general research problem is how to map TM constructs to what is out there in the targeted domain. Discussions involve the nature of thimacs (things and processes) and subsistence and existence as they are superimposed over each other in reality. Specifically, we make two claims, (i) the perceptibility of regions as a phenomenon and (ii) the distinctiveness of existence as a construct for events. The results contribute to further the understanding of TM modeling in addition to introducing some metaphysical insights. (shrink)

The premise of biological modularity is an ontological claim that appears to come out of practice. We understand that the biological world is modular because we can manipulate different parts of organisms in ways that would only work if there were discrete parts that were interchangeable. This is the foundation of the BioBrick assembly method widely used in synthetic biology. It is one of a number of methods that allows practitioners to construct and reconstruct biological pathways and devices using DNA (...) libraries of standardized parts with known functions. In this paper, we investigate how the practice of synthetic biology reconfigures biological understanding of the key concepts of modularity and evolvability. We illustrate how this practice approach takes engineering knowledge and uses it to try to understand biological organization by showing how the construction of functional parts and processes can be used in synthetic experimental evolution. We introduce a new approach within synthetic biology that uses the premise of a parts-based ontology together with that of organismal self-organization to optimize orthogonal metabolic pathways in E. coli. We then use this and other examples to help characterize semisynthetic categories of modularity, parthood, and evolvability within the discipline. (shrink)

The integration of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) into Human Resources (HR) functions represents a significant advancement in organizational efficiency and effectiveness. RPA technology automates repetitive and rule-based tasks, allowing HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives that add value to the organization. This paper provides a comprehensive introduction to RPA within HR, detailing its applications, benefits, implementation strategies, and how its principles can be transferred to other domains such as finance. By examining the transformative potential of RPA, organizations can (...) better prepare for the future of work, where automation and human ingenuity coexist to drive success. (shrink)

The proposition that digital innovations can put people in charge of their health has been accompanied by prolific talk of empowerment. In this paper we consider ethical challenges and opportunities of trying to achieve justice and empowerment using digital health initiatives. The language of empowerment can misleadingly suggest that by using technology, people can control their health and take responsibility for health outcomes to a greater degree than is realistic or fair. Also, digital health empowerment often primarily reaches people who (...) already have high technological and health literacy, leaving others behind. We critically investigate whether the concept of health empowerment could be re-engineered to mean something different, namely the process of improving the health literacy and access of those who least possess it, in line with recent proposals for conceptual engineering in the service of justice. We settle on the weaker conclusion that underlying ethical values including justice should be used to interpret the existing concept of empowerment. To conclude, we take a high-level view of various strategies for achieving the ethical value associated with digital health empowerment. (shrink)

Conventional methods of genetic engineering and more recent genome editing techniques focus on identifying genetic target sequences for manipulation. This is a result of historical concept of the gene which was also the main assumption of the ENCODE project designed to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. However, the theoretical core concept changed dramatically. The old concept of genetic sequences which can be assembled and manipulated like molecular bricks has problems in explaining the natural genome-editing competences of (...) viruses and RNA consortia that are able to insert or delete, combine and recombine genetic sequences more precisely than random-like into cellular host organisms according to adaptational needs or even generate sequences de novo. Increasing knowledge about natural genome editing questions the traditional narrative of mutations (error replications) as essential for generating genetic diversity and genetic content arrangements in biological systems. This may have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of artificial genome editing. (shrink)

Synthetic biology is a field of research that concentrates on the design, construction, and modification of new biomolecular parts and metabolic pathways using engineering techniques and computational models. By employing knowledge of operational pathways from engineering and mathematics such as circuits, oscillators, and digital logic gates, it uses these to understand, model, rewire, and reprogram biological networks and modules. Standard biological parts with known functions are catalogued in a number of registries (e.g. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Registry of Standard Biological (...) Parts). Biological parts can then be selected from the catalogue and assembled in a variety of combinations to construct a system or pathway in a microbe. Through the innovative re-engineering of biological circuits and the optimization of certain metabolic pathways, biological modules can be designed to reprogram organisms to produce products or behaviors. Synthetic biology is what is known as a “platform technology”. That is, it generates highly transferrable theoretical models, engineering principles, and know-how that can be applied to create potential products in a wide variety of industries. Proponents suggest that applications of synthetic biology may be able to provide scientific and engineered solutions to a multitude of worldwide problems from health to energy. Synthetic biology research has already been successful in constructing microbial products which promise to offer cheaper pharmaceuticals such as the antimalarial synthetic drug artemisinin, engineered microbes capable of cleaning up oil spills, and the engineering of biosensors that can detect the presence of high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water. One of the potential benefits of synthetic biology research is in its application to biofuel production. It is this application which is the focus of this entry. The term “biofuel” has referred generally to all liquid fuels that are sourced from plant or plant byproducts and are used for energy necessary for transportation vehicles (Thompson 2012). Biofuels that are produced using synthetic biological techniques re-engineer microbes into biofuel factories are a subset of these. (shrink)

Social scientists, political scientists and philosophers debate key concepts such as democracy, power and autonomy. Contested concepts like these pose questions: Are terms such as “democracy” hopelessly ambiguous? How can two theorists defend alternative accounts of democracy without talking past each other? How can we understand debates in which theorists disagree about what democracy is? This paper first discusses the popular strategy to answer these questions by appealing to Rawls’s distinction between concepts and conceptions. According to this approach, defenders of (...) rival conceptions of, e.g. justice can disagree without talking past each other because they share the concept of justice. It is argued that this idea is attractive but limited in application and that it fails to do justice to the dynamic and normative aspects of concept formation. Reflective equilibrium is then suggested as an alternative approach. It replaces the static contrast between a conceptual ‘core’ and competing conceptions by a dynamic perspective of concept formation as a partly normative undertaking: pre-theoretic language use and commitments can provide a shared starting point for developing alternative accounts which yield different concepts of, e.g. justice. This perspective provides a new understanding of how it is possible that different theorists defend rival accounts of, e.g. justice, without talking past each other. (shrink)

Transhumanism is a means of advocating a re-engineering of conditions that surround human existence at both ends. The problem set before us in this chapter is to inquire into what determined its appearance, in particular in the humanism it seeks to overcome. We look at the spirit of overcoming itself, and the impatience with the Self, in order to try to understand why it seeks a saving power in technology. We then consider how the evolutionary account of the production of (...) organisms does not set them against a perfect standard, but rather injects in them a contingency that seems to be near to the heart of the problem. We then try to assess the objective basis for improvements and manipulation of nature, and although we do not find it forbidden on all occasions, it seems that the criteria for such alterations are impossible to detach from a form of eugenics. We finally open a window toward a theological account of the problem, and find that the desire of autonomy and independence is inevitably going to be challenged by the Christian dogma of creation. (shrink)

The management of Higher Education Systems has continued to suffer from plethora of concerns and issues, cardinal amongst them, is the application of conventional administrative strategies and leadership patterns, sometimes without appropriate modifications so much so, that the management effectiveness of higher education systems is gradually being eroded. This is evident in the increasing distasteful gamut of multidimensional outcomes arising from the used of dogmatic and stereotype variants of managerial principles or nothing at all, in the circumstance. Given this premise, (...) there is an urgent desire to rejig and re-engineer learning experiences that will culminate into dynamic, goal oriented and robust management packages for higher education systems with results for global acclamations, thereby, chatting new directions to fill this existing gap in the management of higher education systems in Nigeria. With humility, I introduce to you this book titled: Management of Higher Education Systems, a collection of well-researched essays. The essays in this book promises to deliver on the deliverables of its raison d’tre of job specifications and management dynamics of higher education landscape, reflecting on the global realities. This is because scholarly evidences abound, to proof that looking into the National Universities Commission’s Bench Mark Minimum Academic Standard (BMAS) of the curriculum for Educational Management as a discipline, it is obvious, that the BMAS has fallen short of global expectations and appears to be revolving within neo-colonial conventional administrative theorizing, with little or no emphasis on the practical demonstration of acquired skills, competences and capabilities for trained educational administrators, to deal with peculiarities of the moment, especially in the developing world. This felt need pushes for a paradigm shift in our curricula endeavours. It is even worse off, when experiences have continued to show, that there are deficiencies noticeable in the understanding of job requirements of educational managers of higher education systems in Nigeria. -/- It is this gap therefore, that the current effort is geared towards building this literature which seeks to address this lacuna by re-chiseling and retooling educational management practices through equipping this sophisticated discipline with up-to-date information and knowledge that will enhance the full optimaization of the job specifications, of higher educational managers, to bring into a perfect nexus of the man, job and social milieu. It is also in public domain, that managers of higher educational systems with such limitations are very often left with no option than to resort to on -the- job training by bureaucrats, who are in themselves their acolytes ab-initio and who sometimes take over leadership of the organization, owing to the existing gaps that manifest in the knowledge of educational managers, thereby reducing substantive higher education executive head to a titular head or at best ceremonial heads. -/- This book brings together articles and chapters to be published in these directions by researchers, policy makers and practitioners to re-inform, reeducate and reorient higher educational managers on their job expectations. The volume also offers a rich and relevant literature of the dynamic state of higher education in global perspective. While this publication will be freely available online, the essays in this volume are carefully selected and they will provide a basis for thematic and analytical perspectives on the concerns of management of contemporary higher education systems. -/- The book is divided into twelve thematic sections with each addressing the demands of its Kernel, as it is reflected in Historical development of higher education systems and its organs, Gloabilization of higher education, Internationalization and the labour market, Funding of higher education systems, Proliferations of higher education systems, Corruption in higher education systems and the deterioration of its estate, Internationalization and massification, Politics and leadership in higher educational systems, Academic freedom and access to higher education, Academic planning and affiliation relationship of higher education systems, Conflict management in higher education systems, Research and training in higher education systems and Inclusivity in higher education. -/- Another striking feature of this book is in its efforts at globalizing the curriculum of management of higher education and providing opportunity for scholars with different shades of opinion even on same issues but from different perspectives with the hope that it will guarantee overall effectiveness in the management of higher education systems. I recommemd this book to all with passion for the management of diferentiated higher education systems, and invite you to this intellectual feast prepared so deliciously like a meal for the gods. -/- Finally, let me reflect on what may appears to be an aberration in this context, by appreciating all authors who had found time to respond to this academic calling by their various chapter contributions. This singular act is in itself enough justification as show of interest and further demonstration of your continuous determination to address gaps in Nigerian educational landscape. Similarly, my gratitude is equally extended to all members of my editorial team for their thoughtfulness and very constructive criticisms which have shaped these scholarly presentations thereof. May the Almighty God continue to enrich the contents of your cerebrum most intellectually, for the benefit of man but to His glory. -/- The PDF contains just the preliminary pages of the book. You can order the full copy of the book by contacting the editor-in-chief, Professor John A. Undie, FNAEAP, KSM. (shrink)

—Cultural studies remains one of the fields of research in the humanities that contributes to the development of the society by aiding the formulation of cultural policies towards the re-engineering of a nation’s social behavior. A functioning state benefits a lot from cultural products of cultural studies. Thus for any state, like Nigeria, to reap from cultural studies and policies, its basic democratic institutions should be strong and effective. The theoretical framework for this research is symbolic interactionism proposed by Stryker (...) and Denzin. This is because it enables the understanding of how cultural products are translated into policies that shape the society. In this paper, we demonstrated that Cultural Studies is instrumental to the development cultural policies that take seriously national identity and social integration of the Nigeria society. (shrink)

Religion-based AI chatbots serve religious practitioners by bringing them godly wisdom through technology. These bots reply to spiritual and worldly questions by drawing insights or citing verses from the Quran, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, or other holy books. They answer religious and theological queries by claiming to offer historical contexts and providing guidance and counseling to their users. A criticism of these bots is that they may give inaccurate answers and proliferate bias by propagating homogenized versions of (...) the religions they represent. These “embodied spiritual machines” may likewise bear bias against women, their gender, and their societal roles. This paper crafts a concept intended to address this GPT issue by reimagining, modifying, and implementing a feminist approach to these chatbots. It examines the concepts and designs of these bots and how they address women-related questions. Along with the challenge of bringing gender and diversity-sensitive religious wisdom closer to the people through technology, the paper proposes a re-engineered model of a fair religion-based AI chatbot. (shrink)

The construction of complex ontologies can be facilitated by adapting existing vocabularies. There is little clarity and in fact little consensus as to what modifications of vocabularies are necessary in order to re-engineer them into ontologies. In this paper we present a method that provides clear steps to follow when re-engineering a thesaurus. The method makes use of top-level ontologies and was derived from the structural differences between thesauri and ontologies as well as from best practices in modeling, some of (...) which have been advocated in the biomedical domain. We illustrate each step of our method with examples from a re-engineering case study about agricultural fertilizers based on the AGROVOC thesaurus. Our method makes clear that re-engineering thesauri requires far more than just a syntactic conversion into a formal language or other easily automatable steps. The method can not only be used for re-engineering thesauri, but does also summarize steps for building ontologies in general, and can hence be adapted for the re-engineering of other types of vocabularies or terminologies. (shrink)

Most philosophers have largely downplayed any relevance of multiple meanings of the folk concept of truth in the empirical domain. However, confusions about what truth is have surged in political and everyday discourse. In order to resolve these confusions, we argue that we need a more accurate picture of how the term ‘true’ is in fact used. Our experimental studies reveal that the use of ‘true’ shows substantial variance within the empirical domain, indicating that ‘true’ is ambiguous between a correspondence (...) and a coherence reading. We then explore the consequences of these results for the project of re-engineering truth. (shrink)

This research aims to identify the use of decision support systems as an entry point for operations of re-engineering in the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip. The researchers used the method of questionnaire to collect data, and the researchers used a sample stratified random way, were (350) questionnaire distributed on the research sample and (312) questionnaire were collected back (89.1%). The study results showed that the most important ones are: there exists statistically significant impact at the level of significance (α (...) ≤ 0.05) for physical requirements, human requirements. technical requirements and regulatory requirements. The results showed also, the presence of statistically significant differences between the averages of the study sample estimates on the use of decision support systems as an entry point for operations of re-engineering in the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip due to the variable sex in favor of males requirements. Furthermore, the results showed the existence of differences to the variable name of the university and each area of study for the benefit of the Islamic University then Al-Azhar University and then Al-Aqsa University. The study also concluded a series of recommendations including: encourage Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip, which are planning to re-engine Information Systems to start implementing the programs in the radical change as soon as possible. The need for the Palestinian universities in Gaza Strip, to develop the infrastructure for information technology in general, and decision support systems, in particular, when doing re-engineering operations. And the need for a separate unit of decision support systems and organizational structure to allow information to flow seamlessly between colleges and various departments and divisions. And investment of available information in building the capacities of integration techniques, in order to enable them to continue with the re-engineering of Information Systems. (shrink)

There is a general impression among Kant scholars that he has no robust theory of work. Most of his references to the topic appear in his historical and anthropological writings, where he tells us that work is burdensome, and valuable only for the sake of whatever we produce. In this paper, I argue that Kant has an under-explored theory of work in the third Critique. This theory bears little resemblance to his depiction of work in the historical and anthropological writings. (...) The third Critique will depict work as self-expressive, creative, and free, features Kant will go on to associate with art. Kant’s contention is that when work resembles art, it is both agreeable and something we enjoy for its own sake. However, when work fails to resemble art — when it is, in Kant’s words, natural, scientific, and mercenary — it is both disagreeable and constrained, and begins to sound like his description of work from the historical and anthropological writings. Kant’s theory of work in the third Critique has a number of important implications. The first is that it provides a new foundation for a contemporary philosophy of work that places freedom and creativity at the center of the labor process. My analysis also engages a part of Kant scholarship that has, until recently, been largely neglected. It is only in the last decade that the English-language Kant literature has taken up the question of how to make sense of Kant’s remarks about work. However the focus is rarely on Kant’s aesthetic theory of work, but rather on the place of work in his moral and political philosophy. I discuss the implications of Kant’s third Critique theory of work for these other debates, as well as for our understanding of the third Critique as a whole. (shrink)

No two individuals with the autism diagnosis are ever the same—yet many practitioners and parents can recognize signs of ASD very rapidly with the naked eye. What, then, is this phenotype of autism that shows itself across such distinct clinical presentations and heterogeneous developments? The “signs” seem notoriously slippery and resistant to the behavioral threshold categories that make up current assessment tools. Part of the problem is that cognitive and behavioral “abilities” typically are theorized as high-level disembodied and modular functions—that (...) are assessed discretely (impaired, normal, enhanced) to define a spectral syndrome. Even as biology reminds us that organic developing bodies are not made up of independent switches, we remain often seduced by the simplicity of mechanistic and cognitive models. Developmental disorders such as autism have accordingly been theorized as due to different modular dysfunctions—typically of cortical origin, i.e., failures of “theory of mind” (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985), of the “mirror neuron system” (Ramachandran and Oberman, 2006), of “weak central coherence” (Happe and Frith, 2006) or of the balance of “empathizing” and “systemizing” (Baron-Cohen, 2009), just to list a few. -/- The broad array of autonomic (Ming et al., 2005; Cheshire, 2012) and sensorimotor (Damasio and Maurer, 1978; Maurer and Damasio, 1982; Donnellan and Leary, 1995; Leary and Hill, 1996; Donnellan and Leary, 2012; Donnellan et al., 2012) differences experienced and reported by people with autism have by such theories typically been sidelined as “co-morbidities,” possibly sharing genetic causes, but rendered as incidental and decisively behaviorally irrelevant symptoms—surely disconnected from cognition. But what if the development of cortically based mental processes and autonomous control relies on the complexities and proper function of the peripheral nervous systems? Through such an “embodied” lens the heterogeneous symptoms of autism invites new interpretations. We propose here that many behavioral-level findings can be re-defined as downstream effects of how developing nervous systems attempt to cope and adapt to the challenges of having various noisy, unpredictable, and unreliable peripheral inputs. (shrink)

This article critically examines one of the most prevalent metaphors in modern biology, namely the machine conception of the organism (MCO). Although the fundamental differences between organisms and machines make the MCO an inadequate metaphor for conceptualizing living systems, many biologists and philosophers continue to draw upon the MCO or tacitly accept it as the standard model of the organism. This paper analyses the specific difficulties that arise when the MCO is invoked in the study of development and evolution. In (...) developmental biology the MCO underlies a logically incoherent model of ontogeny, the genetic program, which serves to legitimate three problematic theses about development: genetic animism, neo-preformationism, and developmental computability. In evolutionary biology the MCO is responsible for grounding unwarranted theoretical appeals to the concept of design as well as to the interpretation of natural selection as an engineer, which promote a distorted understanding of the process and products of evolutionary change. Overall, it is argued that, despite its heuristic value, the MCO today is impeding rather than enabling further progress in our comprehension of living systems. (shrink)

When you type the word “serendipity” in a word-processor application such as Microsoft Word, the autocorrection engine suggests you choose other words like “luck” or “fate”. This correcting act turns out to be incorrect. However, it points to the reality that serendipity is not a familiar English word and can be misunderstood easily. Serendipity is a very much scientific concept as it has been found useful in numerous scientific discoveries, pharmaceutical innovations, and numerous humankind’s technical and technological advances. Therefore, there (...) have been many books written around the concept. So why do we need this additional book? This is not just another book about serendipity. It has evolved from the Editor’s question lingering for a decade after finishing his widely cited article (coauthored with Prof. Nancy K. Napier of Boise State University, ID, USA) “Serendipity as a strategic advantage?” in T. Wilkinson’s edited volume Strategic Management in the 21st Century, published by Praeger. The Editor and contributing authors have tried to achieve the following in this title. Demystifying the Serendipity Myth The phenomenon of serendipity has always been thought of as a “miracle”. It is the mystery of human innovation and one of the ultimate secrets of our society. But serendipity is not just a lucky coincidence nor any hidden conspiracy. This book explores the science of the information process behind this seemingly miraculous phenomenon. It connects human society with nature, going back to the root of our existence and looking at the flame of survival to discover the harmony in making creativity. Presenting the nuts and bolts of being an adventurer of science The authors present their conceptual investigations into serendipity’s nature and its mechanism by examining interesting real events and stories. The content is thought-provoking, and readers are led to question and explore their own life stories and problems along the journey of reading this book. Catching an elusive high-value target requires great strategies and efforts. But there are no dark secrets here because this is the “way of nature” – how we humans have always strived for innovation without realizing the blueprints behind such processes. Unlike other books on serendipity, this book will show you that a powerful “secret” is closer than you think. Delivering practical uses for different audiences By understanding the conditionality and survival drivers of serendipity, individuals or organizations can make better decisions on creating the right environment to facilitate the encounter and attainment of this valuable phenomenon. For scientists: With clear explanations of the information processes underlying serendipity, flexible theoretical frameworks of mindsponge and the 3D principle of creativity, researchers are provided with the tools they need to dig deeper into their own fields of study and find practical applications, be it psychology, economics, sociology, or anything that involves innovation (which is, in fact, every scientific discipline). For curious casual readers: Everybody needs innovation to make breakthroughs or spice up one’s life. If you think great ideas come to people randomly from an unknown fairy place, this book will convince you otherwise without taking away that awe and wonder. But above all, you will know how to become more creative, scientifically and straightforwardly, with no snake oil and no weird tricks. For ambitious business people: The flame that brought about great successes throughout human history is within you. But you can only use it if you understand it. While others wait for serendipity to come, you will be able to actively hunt for those precious moments. As it has always been: the best hunters triumph, not the passive wanderers. And in this age of information chaos, finding the golden fruits is not easy. Those from information technology know this problem well, and this book is the treasure map that they have been seeking to navigate that stormy ocean looking for jewels. Like a kingfisher tracking its prey through the water, waiting to gracefully strike, with serendipity, a person seizes the prize of creativity amid the chaos of life. ¤ ¤ ¤ Official introduction: The book explores the nature, underlying causes, and the information processing mechanism of serendipity. It proposes that natural or social survival demands drive serendipity, and serendipity is conditional on the environment and the mindset, on both individual and collective levels. From Darwin's evolution theory to Sun Tzu's war tactics, major innovations throughout human history are unified by this key concept. In the rapidly changing world, information is abundant but rather chaotic. The adaptive power of serendipity allows people to notice treasures within this wild sea, but only for those who understand how it works. To increase the probability of encountering and attaining serendipity, one should employ the mindsponge mechanism and the 3D process of creativity, for without these frameworks, serendipity is truly an elusive target. The book also discusses methods to build environments and cultures rich in navigational and useful information to maximize the chance of finding and capitalizing on serendipity. As a skill, serendipity has a resemblance to how kingfishers observe and hunt their prey. (shrink)

Microsoft Fabric represents a significant leap forward in analytics services, combining data management, analytics, and machine learning into a unified platform. This paper offers a detailed examination of Microsoft Fabric, covering its architecture, prominent features, advantages, and potential applications. Engineered to streamline data processes and foster collaboration among data experts, Microsoft Fabric supports real-time analytics, scalable data storage, advanced machine learning capabilities, and robust security protocols. Future developments for the platform include deeper AI integration, expanded data connectivity, enhanced user experience, (...) fortified security measures, sustainability initiatives, and collaborative tools. By harnessing Microsoft Fabric, organizations can gain comprehensive data insights and drive innovation effectively. (shrink)

Academics do not only teach but they also research. Research cannot be up-taken unless there is a means of dissemination. One of the ways of research report dissemination is the conference. The academic conference is an opportunity for scholars to assemble and engage in conversations that aim at improving the practice of teaching and learning. It provides a forum for the sharing of ideas and experiences that enhance education and, by extension, human life. One of the challenges that academics face (...) is rarely what to present at conferences, but how to present for impact. This paper justifies conference attendance and proposes strategies for the reengineering of conference presentations for national development. (shrink)

In the modern enterprise environment, where cybersecurity threats continue to evolve in complexity and sophistication, network segmentation and micro-segmentation have emerged as critical strategies for mitigating risks and reducing attack surfaces. This research paper explores the principles, implementation, and benefits of network segmentation and micro-segmentation as essential components of a comprehensive cybersecurity framework. By dividing networks into smaller, isolated segments, these methodologies aim to limit unauthorized access, minimize lateral movement, and contain potential breaches, ensuring a more secure network infrastructure. Network (...) segmentation focuses on dividing large networks into smaller, more manageable subnetworks. This process enforces boundaries between different areas of a network, reducing exposure and protecting sensitive data. Meanwhile, microsegmentation extends this concept to the individual workload level, offering granular security controls that adapt to dynamic and cloud-based environments. These approaches are particularly relevant in today's context, where hybrid infrastructures and multi-cloud deployments are becoming the norm, posing significant security challenges. The paper examines the technical underpinnings of segmentation techniques, highlighting tools and frameworks that facilitate their deployment. It also addresses key challenges, such as the complexity of configuration, potential performance bottlenecks, and the necessity for alignment with broader organizational policies. Case studies from industries such as healthcare, finance, and government are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of segmentation in reducing the scope and impact of cyberattacks. Additionally, this study delves into the evolving landscape of cyber threats, emphasizing the role of segmentation in countering advanced persistent threats (APTs), ransomware attacks, and insider threats. By adopting a zero-trust architecture that integrates micro-segmentation, organizations can ensure that every access request is verified and confined to the least privileged level necessary. This proactive approach to network defense aligns with industry best practices and regulatory standards, enhancing an organization's security posture. Furthermore, the research highlights the importance of continuous monitoring and automation in maintaining segmented networks. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are explored for their potential to optimize and simplify segmentation processes. These advancements enable organizations to dynamically adapt to evolving threats while maintaining operational efficiency. The findings emphasize that while network segmentation and micro-segmentation are not silver bullets, they represent indispensable layers of defense within a multi-faceted cybersecurity strategy. Organizations that successfully implement these strategies can significantly reduce the likelihood and impact of breaches, protect critical assets, and build resilience against future threats. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive guide for cybersecurity professionals, IT administrators, and policymakers to understand and adopt network segmentation and micro-segmentation. By integrating these strategies into their security frameworks, enterprises can fortify their defenses in the face of a constantly shifting threat landscape, safeguarding their infrastructure, data, and operations. (shrink)

Peter Singer argues that we’re obligated to donate our entire expendable income to aid organizations. One premiss of his argument is "If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so." Singer defends this by noting that commonsense morality requires us to save a child we find drowning in a shallow pond. I argue that Singer’s Drowning Child thought experiment doesn’t justify this premiss. I offer (...) my own Drowning Children thought experiment, which should reveal that commonsense morality entails that premiss two is actually false. (shrink)

UNRWA’s Mediation Process is a key element in the organization’s efforts to strengthen its internal justice system. The research aims to study the reality of mediator competencies, emotional intelligence and case characteristics variables, (UNRWA) Gaza. The research also aims at identifying the differences between respondents as attributed to their professional and personal traits of age, gender, educational level, distribution of department, dispute resolution experience and representation party. The researchers adopted mixed data collection methods; quantitative and qualitative. For qualitative, a (...) semi-structured interview was conducted with (9) officials including management, staff unions and expert external mediators. (63) Questionnaires were distributed to a systematic random sample population; (56) were received, with a response rate 88.9%. The results proved that there are no significant differences among respondents attributed to personal and professional traits of age, academic background, gender, department, years’ of experience, educational degree and representation party. The research has presented some recommendations concerning the factors affecting the mediation outcomes of workplace disputes resolution. The recommendations include: UNRWA should adopt mediation as a method to resolve disputes at workplace instead of following litigation before the courts, as many organizations today increasingly started to adopt mediation as a method to resolve disputes at workplace. This will help decreasing the high cost, non-flexibility, and threatening features of disputes and conflicts resolution before courts, as well as enhance the relationship between disputant parties. Mediators are essentially recommended to attend regular training such as guiding negotiation processes, employing group sessions properly, overcoming obstacles, summarizing & analytical skills and selecting emotional words and phrases, it is also important to encourage the mediation experts' training workshops and meetings. Regular training sessions will not only improve skills and abilities, but will also imply variety and flexibility. This leads to having competent qualified mediators who are able to resolve organization’s workplace disputes in a way, which satisfies the need of disputants. (shrink)

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) poses a significant challenge to an individual’s mental well-being. The obsessive preoccupation with perceived defects in one’s appearance affects individuals’ daily functioning and can result in serious risks, including suicidal ideation and self-surgery. While treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy and serotonin reuptake inhibitors can provide relief, they do not achieve complete remission. It has been suggested that therapy should not only interrupt the harmful behaviour, but should also address their sense of self, and that (...) after addressing their internalised values, individuals with BDD will be able to incorporate their perceived defect in a manner similar to how individuals with real deformities often do. Phenomenology of psychopathology analyses subjectivity in cases of pathology, and analyses of BDD show that the perceived defect has become a locus of shame. This implies that individuals with BDD have permanently incorporated the gaze of the Other and constantly experience their body as a body-for-others. This paper further explores the sense of self in individuals with BDD through Jenny Slatman’s interpretation of bodily integrity: bodily integrity as a never-ending process of identification. By comparing the experiences of individuals with BDD to those with real deformities and to those who have undergone cosmetic surgery, I will show that re-identification does not occur in individuals with BDD. This suggests that their bodily integrity is fundamentally disturbed and that addressing their internalised values alone will probably not be sufficient for the disorder to go into remission. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering projects are sometimes criticized for ‘changing the subject’. In this paper, I first discuss three strategies that have been proposed to address the change of subject objection. I notice that these strategies fail in similar ways: they all deploy a ‘loose’ notion of subject matter, while the objector can always reply deploying a ‘strict’ notion. Based on this, I then argue that at least current formulations of the change of subject objection (together with the response strategies just mentioned), (...) create an overall defective dialectic, whereby no progress can be made on either side. After considering how such defective dialectic could be (at least partly) fixed, it is concluded that current formulations of the change of subject objection may be dismissed on dialectical grounds, even though some practical lessons may still be retained from the objection. (shrink)

According to contemporary ‘process ontology’, organisms are best conceptualised as spatio-temporally extended entities whose mereological composition is fundamentally contingent and whose essence consists in changeability. In contrast to the Aristotelian precepts of classical ‘substance ontology’, from the four-dimensional perspective of this framework, the identity of an organism is grounded not in certain collections of privileged properties, or features which it could not fail to possess, but in the succession of diachronic relations by which it persists, or ‘perdures’ as one (...) entity over time. In this paper, I offer a novel defence of substance ontology by arguing that the coherency and plausibility of the radical reconceptualisation of organisms proffered by process ontology ultimately depends upon its making use of the ‘substantial’ principles it purports to replace. (shrink)

This article provides a brief introduction to some contemporary challenges found in the intersection of bioethics and international criminal law involving genetic privacy, organ trafficking, genetic engineering, and cloning. These challenges push us to re-evaluate the question of whether the international criminal law should hold corporations criminally liable. I argue that a minimalist and Strawsonian conception of corporate responsibility could be useful for deterring the wrongs outlined in first few sections and in answering compelling objections to corporate criminal liability.

Building on existing forms of critical, cultural, biopolitical, and sociopolitical posthumanism, in this text a new framework is developed for understanding and guiding the forces of technologization and posthumanization that are reshaping contemporary organizations. This ‘organizational posthumanism’ is an approach to analyzing, creating, and managing organizations that employs a post-dualistic and post-anthropocentric perspective and which recognizes that emerging technologies will increasingly transform the kinds of members, structures, systems, processes, physical and virtual spaces, and external ecosystems that are available for organizations (...) to utilize. It is argued that this posthumanizing technologization of organizations will especially be driven by developments in three areas: 1) technologies for human augmentation and enhancement, including many forms of neuroprosthetics and genetic engineering; 2) technologies for synthetic agency, including robotics, artificial intelligence, and artificial life; and 3) technologies for digital-physical ecosystems and networks that create the environments within which and infrastructure through which human and artificial agents will interact. -/- Drawing on a typology of contemporary posthumanism, organizational posthumanism is shown to be a hybrid form of posthumanism that combines both analytic, synthetic, theoretical, and practical elements. Like analytic forms of posthumanism, organizational posthumanism recognizes the extent to which posthumanization has already transformed businesses and other organizations; it thus occupies itself with understanding organizations as they exist today and developing strategies and best practices for responding to the forces of posthumanization. On the other hand, like synthetic forms of posthumanism, organizational posthumanism anticipates the fact that intensifying and accelerating processes of posthumanization will create future realities quite different from those seen today; it thus attempts to develop conceptual schemas to account for such potential developments, both as a means of expanding our theoretical knowledge of organizations and of enhancing the ability of contemporary organizational stakeholders to conduct strategic planning for a radically posthumanized long-term future. (shrink)

Human augmentation is discussed in three axes: the technological means, the ability being augmented, and the social systems that will be affected. The technological augmentations considered range from exocortical information and communication systems, to pharmaceuticals, tissue and genetic engineering, and prosthetic limbs and organs, to eventually nanomedical robotics, brain-computer interfaces and cognitive prostheses. These technologies are mapped onto the capabilities which we are in the process of enabling and augmenting, which include extending longevity and physical, sensory and cognitive abilities, (...) and enabling control over emotions, moral behavior, and spiritual experience. The impacts of augmentation on the family, education, economy, politics and religion are considered individually, but their aggregate effects will be non-linear and drive complex adaptations in the living machine that is our co-evolved techno-social civilization. (shrink)

Abstract: In this article I argue that the best way to understand the information turn is in terms of a fourth revolution in the long process of reassessing humanity's fundamental nature and role in the universe. We are not immobile, at the centre of the universe (Copernicus); we are not unnaturally distinct and different from the rest of the animal world (Darwin); and we are far from being entirely transparent to ourselves (Freud). We are now slowly accepting the idea (...) that we might be informational organisms among many agents (Turing), inforgs not so dramatically different from clever, engineered artefacts, but sharing with them a global environment that is ultimately made of information, the infosphere. (shrink)

Memetic Science is the name of a new field that deals with the quantitativeanalysis of cultural transfer.The units of cultural transfer are entities called "memes". In a nutshell, memes are to cultural and mental constructs as genesare to biological organisms. Examplesof memesare ideas,tunes, fashions, and virtuallyany culturaland behavioral unit that gets copiedwitha certaindegree of fidelity. It is arguedthat the under standing of memes is of similar importance and consequence as the understanding of processes involving DNA and RNA in molecular biology.Thispaperpresentsa (...) rigorousfoundation fordiscussion ofmemes and approaches to quantifying relevantaspects of memegenesis, inter action, mutation, growth,deathand spreadingprocesses. It is also argued inthispaper that recombinant memetics is possible incomplete analogy to recombinant DNA/ genetic engineering. Special attention is paid to memes in written modern English. (shrink)

Objective: This main aim of the study is to explore COVID-19 pandemic problems from the perspective of public health-clinical care ethics through online mediareports in Turkey. Method: This research was designed as a descriptive and qualitative study that assesses COVID-19 through online media reports on critics between the periods of March 11, 2020 and April 2 2020 as a quantitative as number of reports and qualitative study, across Turkey. Reports were from Turkish Medical Association websites which included newspaper reports. Study (...) data were presented as statistically and qualitative data case and headlines. No ethical or ofTicial permission was sought as the study was conducted through open access internet news sites. Results: This online reports analysis retrieved about 6723 articles about the COVID-19. According to study data, information about COVID-19 were themed as follows: general deTiciencies in taking action and isolation, lack of isolation, passengers and transport vehicles not quarantined ; insufTicient diagnostic tests, decision to test after healthcare professionals become infected, lack of equipment, lack of evaluation outbreak countries [Table 2]. Conclusion and Suggestions: COVID-19 is a pandemic and is a global public health problem that concerns every individual and needs to be handled carefully. This requires a multi-faceted preparation and education. In this context, healthcare professionals should be well trained in this aspect and have all the necessary equipment throughout the process. Additionally, it should work systematically with the cooperation of all health organizations, the Ministry of Health, local governments and of course the media, in order to inform society, fairly distribute the resources and to implement the safety measures effectively. BrieTly, lack of transparency, insufTicient information, limited resources, lack of public health protection measures such as partial quarantine decision, partial implementation of the scientiTic board's re c ommenda ti on s fo r e c on omi c rea s on s, and contradiction of the explanations are revealed as serious ethical problems. (shrink)

The paper develops some of the conclusions, reached in Floridi (2007), concerning the future developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on our lives. The two main theses supported in that article were that, as the information society develops, the threshold between online and offline is becoming increasingly blurred, and that once there won't be any significant difference, we shall gradually re-conceptualise ourselves not as cyborgs but rather as inforgs, i.e. socially connected, informational organisms. In this paper, (...) I look at the development of the so-called Semantic Web and Web 2.0 from this perspective and try to forecast their future. Regarding the Semantic Web, I argue that it is a clear and well-defined project, which, despite some authoritative views to the contrary, is not a promising reality and will probably fail in the same way AI has failed in the past. Regarding Web 2.0, I argue that, although it is a rather ill-defined project, which lacks a clear explanation of its nature and scope, it does have the potentiality of becoming a success (and indeed it is already, as part of the new phenomenon of Cloud Computing) because it leverages the only semantic engines available so far in nature, us. I conclude by suggesting what other changes might be expected in the future of our digital environment. (shrink)

The present paper is an attempt to discuss issues and challenges of Cyber Crime in India from an ethical perspective. Ethics is a branch of philosophy which deals with what is considered to be right or wrong. The ethics centers and program devoted to busin age for several re crime’. The advancement ess ethics, legal ethics, bioethics, medical ethics, engineering ethics, and computer ethics have sprung up. Cyber crime is emerging as a serious threat. Computer Technology is one of the (...) important general purpose Technologies in today’s asons. Today it is used in almost all the organizations, institutions, and people. Computer technology makes the life so speedy and fast, but hurled under the eclipse of threat from the deadliest type of criminality termed as 'Cyber of IT brings so many facilities to us; but also brings so many problems and challenges too and out of which Cyber Crime is a kind of offence which deals with the cyber world which includes computer security, information security, and mobile security too. The increasing number of crimes in the field of Information Technology brings a big attraction to Cyber Crime to everyone. (shrink)

Nature of Consciousness in relation to my Universal Formula -/- By : Angelito Enriquez Malicse -/- The functioning of consciousness is a complex and debated topic that spans neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. While there is no universally agreed-upon explanation, several frameworks attempt to describe how consciousness functions. Here are key aspects: -/- 1. Perception and Awareness -/- Consciousness allows us to be aware of our environment and ourselves. -/- Sensory Input: Consciousness integrates information from our senses (sight, sound, touch, etc.) (...) to create a unified experience. -/- Selective Attention: It filters out irrelevant stimuli, focusing on specific inputs while ignoring others. -/- 2. Integration of Information -/- Consciousness functions as an integrative system. -/- Global Workspace Theory: Information from different parts of the brain (e.g., memory, perception, emotion) is integrated into a “global workspace,” where it becomes accessible to different cognitive processes. -/- Binding: Consciousness combines sensory inputs, emotions, and thoughts into a coherent experience. -/- 3. Decision-Making and Intentionality -/- Consciousness enables deliberate action. -/- Executive Functions: It allows for planning, reasoning, and decision-making. -/- Free Will: Many argue that consciousness gives the perception of free will, though decisions may be influenced by subconscious processes. -/- 4. Self-Awareness -/- Consciousness involves recognizing oneself as distinct from the environment. -/- Theory of Mind: Understanding that others have thoughts, feelings, and intentions separate from our own. -/- Introspection: Reflecting on one’s own thoughts, emotions, and actions. -/- 5. Dynamic States -/- Consciousness operates in varying levels of alertness. -/- Wakefulness: Fully alert, capable of complex thought and sensory interaction. -/- Altered States: Dreaming, hypnosis, or meditation involve different patterns of brain activity. -/- Unconscious/Subconscious Processes: Much of brain activity occurs outside conscious awareness but influences behavior. -/- 6. Neurobiological Basis -/- Consciousness arises from complex interactions in the brain. -/- Neural Correlates: Specific brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex and thalamus, are essential for conscious thought. -/- Synchronization: Brain waves (e.g., gamma waves) synchronize neural activity to support awareness. -/- Feedback Loops: Consciousness involves ongoing feedback between the brain and the body (e.g., through the nervous system). -/- 7. Feedback Mechanism (Relating to Your Ideas) -/- Consciousness can be viewed as a feedback mechanism, continuously processing and adjusting based on internal and external inputs. -/- Decisions and behaviors create effects that, in turn, provide new inputs for further conscious processing, following natural laws of balance. -/- Let’s integrate the understanding of consciousness with your universal formula, emphasizing how it aligns with your principles, particularly the universal law of balance in nature, the law of karma (cause and effect), and the interconnectedness of systems. -/- 1. Consciousness and Perception: Awareness of Internal and External Realities -/- Consciousness processes sensory inputs and integrates them into a coherent experience, allowing individuals to interact with their surroundings. -/- Relation to the Law of Balance: Consciousness acts as a balancing system, constantly assessing internal (bodily needs, emotions) and external (environmental changes) realities to maintain equilibrium. For example: -/- Hunger (internal imbalance) leads to actions (seeking food) that restore balance. -/- Overexposure to external stress triggers adaptive behaviors (e.g., rest or problem-solving) to re-establish harmony. -/- Feedback Mechanisms: The mind processes inputs from both the organic (physical body) and inorganic (external environment) systems, which aligns with your principle that consciousness operates through feedback loops to maintain balance. -/- 2. Integration of Information: Coherence and Systems Thinking -/- Consciousness combines information from various sources—sensory data, memories, emotions—into a unified experience. This reflects the interconnectedness of systems you emphasize in the universal formula. -/- Relation to the Law of Karma (Cause and Effect): Just as systems must function without defects to produce correct outputs, consciousness must integrate accurate and balanced information for effective decision-making. -/- Example: False beliefs or distorted perceptions create internal imbalance, leading to flawed decisions, which result in external consequences. -/- Balance in Systems: Consciousness integrates diverse inputs while ensuring no single element dominates disproportionately, promoting functional harmony. -/- 3. Decision-Making: Consciousness as a Balancing Force -/- Consciousness evaluates options, predicts outcomes, and selects actions. It bridges the gap between external conditions and internal motivations. -/- Adherence to the Law of Balance: Decisions that align with natural laws of balance maintain harmony, while those that disrupt balance (e.g., overconsumption, neglecting emotional health) create systemic imbalances. -/- Example: Overexploitation of resources results in ecological imbalance, mirroring how neglecting feedback in decision-making causes disruption. -/- Law of Karma in Action: Decisions carry consequences, and the effects feedback into consciousness, influencing future decisions. This cyclic cause-and-effect process illustrates the operation of karma within the mind’s framework. -/- 4. Self-Awareness and Feedback Mechanism -/- Consciousness includes the ability to reflect on oneself, recognizing internal states and adjusting behavior accordingly. -/- Relation to Balance in Nature: Self-awareness allows individuals to evaluate whether their thoughts, emotions, and actions align with the universal law of balance. For instance: -/- Reflecting on stress levels and adapting behaviors (e.g., practicing mindfulness) helps restore mental equilibrium. -/- Feedback in Collective Systems: When conscious minds interact in social systems, they create feedback loops that shape group decisions. Leadership, for example, must remain self-aware to ensure decisions maintain societal balance. -/- 5. Dynamic States of Consciousness: Adaptability and Natural Balance -/- Consciousness operates in dynamic states, such as wakefulness, dreaming, and meditation. These states allow flexibility and adaptability to shifting conditions. -/- Law of Balance Applied to States: Dynamic shifts in consciousness maintain balance between activity and rest, or between rational thought and creative insight. Imbalance, such as chronic wakefulness or suppressed introspection, disrupts this harmony. -/- Altered States and Feedback: States like meditation enhance self-regulation, improving feedback between internal and external realities, aligning the individual with natural laws. -/- 6. Neurobiological Basis: Consciousness as a System -/- Consciousness emerges from neural interactions and feedback loops in the brain, reflecting your idea that all systems must operate free of defects to function effectively. -/- Defects and Imbalances: Defective brain processes (e.g., misinformation, trauma) disrupt the feedback mechanism, leading to imbalanced behaviors or decisions. Addressing these “defects” through education or corrective experiences restores balance. -/- Holistic Nature of Consciousness: The brain’s integration of information mirrors the universal principle of interconnectedness. Damage to one area affects the entire system, just as disrupting one part of a natural system creates widespread imbalance. -/- 7. Consciousness in Leadership and Education -/- Your universal formula aims to teach individuals how to make decisions that align with natural laws, ensuring societal balance. -/- Feedback in Collective Consciousness: Leaders’ decisions influence collective consciousness, creating societal feedback loops. Teaching leaders to align their decisions with the universal law of balance can minimize societal problems. -/- Holistic Education: Teaching students how consciousness functions—including its feedback mechanisms, its alignment with the law of balance, and the role of accurate inputs—enables critical thinking and informed decision-making. -/- 8. Consciousness as the Medium for Universal Formula Application -/- Ultimately, consciousness is the medium through which your universal formula operates. By understanding and aligning conscious processes with natural laws: -/- Individuals maintain personal balance. -/- Groups and societies achieve collective harmony. -/- Decision-making respects the interconnectedness of all systems, reducing errors and defects in outcomes. -/- . (shrink)

-/- The Universe Explained Through the Three Universal Laws -/- The universe, with all its complexity, can be understood through a framework that harmonizes natural laws with the fundamental principles governing existence. The three universal laws outlined in Angelito Malicse’s universal formula provide a powerful lens through which to interpret the forces, energies, and systems of the universe. These laws—spanning the concepts of balance, interconnectedness, and the feedback loop mechanism—serve as the guiding principles that maintain the dynamic equilibrium of the (...) cosmos. By applying these three universal laws, we can comprehend the intricate workings of the universe at all scales, from the micro to the macro. -/- The First Universal Law: The Law of Karma and Systems -/- The first universal law, the Law of Karma, involves the principle of cause and effect, but it also incorporates the concept of systems. It states that any system—whether it is a natural system like the human body or an artificial one like an internal combustion engine—must be free of defects or errors to function properly and safely. The Law of Karma emphasizes that all interconnected systems must operate without defects or errors to function effectively. If a system experiences an imbalance or fault, it will not work as intended, leading to dysfunction or collapse. -/- In the context of the universe, the Law of Karma explains how the forces and energies governing the universe interact. The universe operates as a collection of interrelated systems that must be balanced to maintain stability. Every action within a system triggers a consequence, which influences the larger system. For example, the gravitational pull of a star impacts its surrounding planets, which in turn affect the entire solar system. Similarly, the interactions between particles at the quantum level have far-reaching effects on the larger systems they are part of. -/- In this way, the Law of Karma governs both the microcosmic and macrocosmic scales of the universe. It dictates that every system must work in harmony, with no defects or imbalances, for the universe to remain stable and coherent. Any disruption to this balance leads to consequences that ripple through the system, affecting all components and ensuring that the system either adapts or falls out of sync. -/- The Second Universal Law: The Law of Balance in Nature -/- The Law of Balance in Nature is the second principle of the universal formula. This law posits that all systems in the universe must maintain a state of equilibrium in order to function optimally. This balance is not rigid but flexible, allowing for dynamic adjustments based on the specific conditions within each system. The Law of Balance is responsible for regulating the flow of energy and forces in a way that preserves harmony and prevents chaos. -/- In the universe, this law governs the delicate balance of forces at every level. At the level of the physical universe, it dictates how gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear forces, and weak nuclear forces interact to maintain cosmic structures like galaxies, stars, and planetary systems. It is through this law that we see the perfect harmony in celestial bodies orbiting their stars, the balance of forces between particles within atoms, and the stable conditions that allow life to flourish on Earth. -/- The Law of Balance in Nature also governs biological systems, from ecosystems to the human body. In ecosystems, this law ensures that resources like water, food, and energy flow in a balanced manner, sustaining life while allowing for growth, decay, and renewal. In biological organisms, the body maintains homeostasis—a state of balance—through feedback loops that regulate temperature, pH levels, and metabolic processes. -/- This law applies universally, from the smallest scale of atomic interactions to the largest cosmic structures. It allows the universe to self-regulate and evolve without falling into disarray, ensuring that every force and energy operates within the optimal range for maintaining the system’s integrity. -/- The Third Universal Law: The Feedback Loop Mechanism -/- The third universal law—the Feedback Loop Mechanism—ties the other two laws together. It posits that all forces and energies in the universe are interconnected by a universal feedback loop. This mechanism ensures the dynamic balancing of every system in the universe. The feedback loop operates through a continuous exchange of energy and information, allowing systems to adapt, evolve, and maintain equilibrium over time. -/- In the universe, feedback loops govern how different systems influence and regulate each other. For example, in a star, nuclear fusion generates energy, which creates radiation pressure that counteracts gravity. This balance keeps the star stable. When a star runs out of fuel, the feedback loop mechanism adjusts the energy balance, causing the star to change, eventually leading to its transformation into a supernova or a black hole. These events, in turn, influence surrounding space, triggering new cycles of star formation and cosmic evolution. -/- Feedback loops also occur on the biological and ecological levels. In ecosystems, organisms interact with one another and with their environment through feedback loops. A predator-prey relationship is a prime example, where an increase in prey populations leads to a rise in predator numbers, which then controls the prey population and brings balance back to the system. Similarly, the human body relies on feedback mechanisms to regulate everything from hormone levels to temperature, ensuring that all processes remain within optimal ranges. -/- At the societal and technological levels, the feedback loop mechanism can be seen in the way human decisions and innovations create ripples that impact the environment, economy, and culture. Technological progress leads to environmental change, which in turn influences societal behavior and policy. Feedback loops in this context ensure that systems continuously adapt and evolve, influencing and shaping one another over time. -/- The Interconnectedness of Forces and Energies -/- When these three universal laws are combined, they provide a holistic understanding of how the universe operates. The Law of Karma ensures that all systems are interconnected and that any disturbance in one part of the system triggers an effect throughout. The Law of Balance in Nature governs the regulation of forces and energies, ensuring that equilibrium is maintained across all systems. Finally, the Feedback Loop Mechanism ties everything together, facilitating the dynamic adaptation and regulation of systems, ensuring that balance is not a static state but a constantly evolving process. -/- The universe, then, operates as a vast, interconnected web of systems that continuously adjust, adapt, and evolve according to these laws. Whether it’s the forces governing the cosmos, the biological systems on Earth, or the technological advancements of human societies, these three universal laws ensure that balance is maintained at every level. From the smallest particle to the largest galaxy, everything in the universe is connected by the intricate dance of cause and effect, balance, and feedback loops, which govern the harmony and evolution of the cosmos. -/- Conclusion -/- The universe, with all its complexity, can be understood through the lens of the three universal laws: the Law of Karma, the Law of Balance in Nature, and the Feedback Loop Mechanism. These principles explain how forces and energies interact across all levels of existence, maintaining the balance and harmony of the universe. By recognizing and understanding these laws, we gain deeper insight into the interconnectedness of all things, from the smallest particles to the largest cosmic structures, and the dynamic processes that ensure the universe continues to evolve in a state of equilibrium. This framework offers not only a deeper understanding of the universe but also a guiding principle for addressing the challenges we face on Earth, encouraging us to approach problems holistically, with an awareness of the interconnected feedback loops that shape our world. -/- . (shrink)

-/- Extending Human Lifespan: Scientific and Technological Possibilities -/- The quest for extending human lifespan has fascinated humanity for centuries. Advances in genetics, medicine, artificial intelligence, and bioengineering are bringing us closer to significantly prolonging life, potentially even achieving biological immortality. This essay explores various scientific and technological approaches to extending human life, from genetic modifications to mind uploading. -/- 1. Genetic Engineering & Cellular Reprogramming -/- One of the most promising fields in lifespan extension is genetic engineering. Our DNA (...) holds the key to aging, and modifying it could slow or even reverse the aging process. -/- Gene Therapy: Scientists are exploring ways to edit genes associated with aging and longevity, such as the FOXO3 and SIRT genes. CRISPR gene-editing technology allows precise modifications to enhance DNA repair mechanisms and eliminate age-related mutations. -/- Telomere Extension: Telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, shorten with age. Techniques like telomerase activation could extend telomeres, effectively delaying cellular aging. -/- Epigenetic Reprogramming: Aging is influenced by chemical changes in DNA called epigenetic markers. Scientists like Dr. David Sinclair are working on methods to reset these markers, restoring youthful function in cells. -/- 2. Anti-Aging Drugs & Therapies -/- Medical research is identifying compounds that slow aging and enhance longevity. Some of the most promising drugs and therapies include: -/- Senolytics: These drugs target and remove senescent cells, which accumulate with age and contribute to inflammation and tissue damage. Removing them has been shown to extend lifespan in mice. -/- Metformin & Rapamycin: Metformin, a common diabetes drug, has shown promise in reducing cellular stress and extending lifespan. Rapamycin, originally used for transplant patients, has been found to mimic calorie restriction, enhancing longevity in animals. -/- NAD+ Boosters: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a molecule essential for cellular energy production. As we age, NAD+ levels decline, leading to cellular dysfunction. Boosters like NMN and NR are being tested to restore energy metabolism and promote longer lifespans. -/- 3. Regenerative Medicine & Organ Replacement -/- Aging is often associated with organ failure, but regenerative medicine could help replace worn-out body parts. -/- Stem Cell Therapy: Stem cells have the potential to repair or replace damaged tissues, offering a biological rejuvenation strategy. Scientists are investigating methods to grow new skin, bones, and even organs using stem cells. -/- 3D Bioprinting & Artificial Organs: Advances in 3D printing allow researchers to create lab-grown organs, such as artificial hearts, kidneys, and livers, which could replace failing ones without the need for donors. -/- Cloning & Tissue Engineering: Personalized tissue regeneration using a patient’s own cells could eliminate transplant rejection risks. Scientists are also exploring ways to clone healthy organs for transplantation. -/- 4. Enhancing Brain & Cognitive Function -/- Longevity is meaningless without maintaining cognitive function. Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s pose a significant threat to longevity, but new technologies are emerging to counteract cognitive decline. -/- Neural Implants & Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs): Companies like Neuralink are developing brain implants that could enhance memory, prevent neurological diseases, and even allow direct communication with AI. -/- Cryopreservation: Some futurists believe in cryonics, the process of freezing the brain (or entire body) after death in the hope of future revival using advanced medical technology. -/- AI Integration: Artificial intelligence could assist in decision-making, memory enhancement, and mental health support, preserving cognitive abilities well into old age. -/- 5. Lifestyle & Environmental Optimization -/- While high-tech solutions are promising, natural lifestyle changes have been shown to promote longevity. -/- Diet & Caloric Restriction: Studies indicate that intermittent fasting and calorie restriction can extend lifespan by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. -/- Exercise & Hormesis: Regular physical activity helps maintain muscle mass, cardiovascular health, and brain function. Hormesis—exposing the body to mild stress, like cold showers or sauna therapy—has also been linked to longevity. -/- Microbiome Optimization: A healthy gut microbiome influences the immune system, metabolism, and overall health. Prebiotics, probiotics, and personalized microbiome therapies could extend lifespan by reducing chronic diseases. -/- 6. Nanotechnology & Molecular Repair -/- Future breakthroughs in nanotechnology may allow precise control over aging processes at the molecular level. -/- Nanomedicine: Tiny robots (nanobots) could patrol the bloodstream, repairing cellular damage, removing toxins, and targeting diseases at the microscopic level. -/- Artificial Blood Cells: Scientists are developing synthetic blood that can enhance oxygen delivery and immune function, potentially extending life. -/- Targeted Drug Delivery: Advanced drug delivery systems using nanoparticles can deliver medication exactly where needed, reducing side effects and increasing effectiveness. -/- 7. Mind Uploading & Post-Biological Life -/- The most radical vision for immortality involves leaving behind the biological body altogether. -/- Whole Brain Emulation: Researchers are exploring the idea of scanning and copying a human brain into a digital system. If successful, this would allow a person’s consciousness to continue in a virtual or robotic form. -/- Consciousness Transfer: Some futurists speculate that advanced AI or quantum computing might enable transferring human consciousness into an artificial body, bypassing biological aging altogether. -/- Conclusion: The Future of Human Longevity -/- While full immortality remains theoretical, science is making rapid progress in extending human life and improving quality of life. A combination of genetic engineering, regenerative medicine, AI integration, nanotechnology, and lifestyle optimization may push human lifespan beyond 120 years, potentially even eliminating aging as a cause of death. -/- However, ethical, social, and economic challenges must also be addressed. Who will have access to these life-extending technologies? How will society handle overpopulation and resource distribution? These are critical questions as humanity moves toward a longer and healthier future. -/- . 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