Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR)
The Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen, Germany was founded in 2022. PAIR’s goal is to become one of the leading-edge research centers for the study of the philosophy and ethics of AI. PAIR is located within a new university department of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The director of the centre is Alexander von Humboldt Professor Vincent C. Müller. Müller is past professor in the Philosophy and Ethics Group at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands and past full professor at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, Greece. He was also the 2018 Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London, United Kingdom. Müller is author and editor of a large number of books on the philosophy and ethics of artificial intelligence, including Risks of Artificial Intelligence (2016).
Sensorium
Sensorium is a word referring to all of the faculties of perception as a whole. A person’s sensorium includes their sense of sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste, as well as such stimuli as pain or temperature. The etymology of the term extends back to the 1640s and its use in referring to the “seat of sensation in the brain of humans and higher animals.” The word sensorium is frequently used in media studies to explain how print, television, films, video games, music, and the internet impinge on the normal functioning of sense organs. The techno-sensorium is a term used to describe the artificial environment created by a combination of media, the urban landscape, wearable and embedded devices, and cultural influences. Some common examples of techno-sensoria or technologies of sensation are smart cities, virtual reality, augmented reality, virtual worlds, and online platforms. The sensorium was popularized by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, who frequently wrote about how different kinds of media are able to train and distort our sensory experiences and understanding.
Research into the senses as a totality has led to some startling conclusions about cultural or anthropological differences in perception. For example, some cultures appear to privilege sight over other sense organs. Others privilege touch as the primary or most important organ. Even the number of senses is a matter of some debate. A number of research centers have been established to pursue knowledge of the senses and perception. These centers include the Amsterdam Center for Cross-Disciplinary Emotion and Sensory Studies, CenSes (University of London), the Center for Imaginative Ethnography, Centre for Sensory Studies, the Centre for the Study of the Senses, the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (University of Oxford), Cultures Sensibles (FNRS/Université de Liège), Display Cult, the Sensory Stories Project (University of York), the Sensory Ethnography Lab (Harvard University), the Sound Studies Lab (University of Copenhagen), The Sense Lab (Concordia University Montreal), and Sensory Orchestration.
Vacuum Tubes
Vacuum tubes are devices that regulate or amplify the flow of electricity. Vacuum tubes were widely used in early and mid-twentieth-century telephones, radios, televisions, and computers. They have since been replaced in most electronic products by solid-state semiconductor devices, such as transistors, which are smaller, more durable, and more efficient. Invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming, ordinary vacuum tubes exploit a phenomenon called thermionic emission, or the “Edison effect.” Thermionic emission is a property of light bulbs that causes a hot filament to throw off electrons. Vacuum tubes consist of sealed glass tubes with electrodes or filaments at either end. At one end of the tube is the cathode. The other end is called the anode (or “plate”). When a voltage is applied to the cathode and anode of a vacuum tube, the cathode becomes negatively charged and the anode becomes positively charged. This creates an electrical field between the cathode and anode, which causes the electrons emitted by the cathode to be attracted towards the anode. As the electrons move towards the anode, they pass through a vacuum, which means there are no other particles present to collide with them or absorb their energy. This allows the electrons to maintain their energy and speed as they travel through the tube. When the electrons reach the anode, they are collected, which causes the anode to become more negatively charged.
The presence and absence of electricity turns the tube “on” and “off.” When the voltage is high enough, the electrons that are emitted turn the device “on.” When voltage declines it turns “off.” Digital computing depends on the power of such binary functioning. Vacuum tube switching is much faster that mechanical or electromechanical switching. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), successfully tested in 1942, is the first electronic digital computer to use vacuum tubes. The ABC contained about 300 vacuum tubes. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) is the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer to utilize vacuum tube technology. ENIAC, which was completed in 1945, contained more than 18,000 vacuum tubes. Other early computers that relied on vacuum tubes include the National Bureau of Standards’ SWAC (1950), the Soviet MESM (1951), and the AN/FSQ-7 built for NORAD’s Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system (1958). The AN/FSQ-7, with 49,000 vacuum tubes, was the largest vacuum-tube computer ever built.
My Computer
“My Computer” is a song written and recorded by the musician Prince. The song appears on the third disc of the Emancipation album, which was released in November 1996. The song features the background vocals of British singer Kate Bush. “My Computer” may be a callback to Bush’s 1989 song “Deeper Understanding.” The theme of both songs is the search for companionship using computer communication. On “My Computer” Prince also expresses feelings of loneliness, isolation, and escapism. For the track, Prince sampled voice actor Elwood Edward’s “You’ve Got Mail” and “Goodbye” messages from internet service provider America Online’s email service. Prince’s interest in computers is explored on other songs, notably “Computer Blue” from the 1984 album Purple Rain, and “Emale” also from the Emancipation album.
Francine
Francine is an automaton supposedly created by French philosopher René Descartes. Descartes was interested in the possibility that living things were machines, and he wrote about this topic in his work Discourse on Method (1637). The legend of Francine is possibly inspired by the story of Descartes’ real-life daughter Francine Descartes, who died of scarlet fever at age five. And so, legend has it, Descartes in grief chose to construct a mechanical doppelganger of his lost daughter. The fable of the mechanical Francine may be traced to a 1699 work Mélanges d’histoire et de littérature by the Carthusian monk Recueillis Par M. de Vigneul-Marville. According to the story, the Francine automaton accompanied Descartes in his travels inside a coffin-like box. In 1646, while on a boat trip to visit Christina, Queen of Sweden, the crew of the sailing vessel became frightened of a vicious storm. Hearing Descartes speaking to the robot girl in his cabin, the crew became convinced that it was witchcraft, broke the complex machine, and threw her into the sea. Descartes was so heartbroken by the loss of his automaton daughter he died soon thereafter.