In Between Us: On the Transparency and Opacity of Technological Mediation

In recent years several approaches??philosophical, sociological, psychological??have been developed to come to grips with our profoundly technologically mediated world. However, notwithstanding the vast merit of each, they illuminate only certain aspects of technological mediation. This paper is a preliminary attempt at a philosophical reflection on technological mediation as such??deploying the concepts of ??transparency?? and ??opacity?? as heuristic instruments. Hence, we locate a ??theory of transparency?? within several theoretical frameworks??respectively classic phenomenology, media theory, Actor Network Theory, postphenomenology, several ethnographical, psychological, and sociological perspectives, and finally, the ??Critical Theory of Technology.?? Subsequently, we render a general, systematic overview of these theories, thereby conjecturing what a broad analysis of technological mediation in and of itself might look like??finding, at last, an essential contradiction between transparency of ??use?? and transparency of social origins and effects.     

Mathematical,Philosophical and Semantic Considerations on Infinity (I): General Concepts

In the Reality we know, we cannot say if something is infinite whether we are doing Physics, Biology, Sociology or Economics. This means we have to be careful using this concept. Infinite structures do not exist in the physical world as far as we know. So what do mathematicians mean when they assert the existence of ω (the mathematical symbol for the set of all integers)? There is no universally accepted philosophy of mathematics but the most common belief is that mathematics touches on another worldly absolute truth. Many mathematicians believe that mathematics involves a special perception of an idealized world of absolute truth. This comes in part from the recognition that our knowledge of the physical world is imperfect and falls short of what we can apprehend with mathematical thinking. The objective of this paper is to present an epistemological rather than an historical vision of the mathematical concept of infinity that examines the dialectic between the actual and potential infinity.     

国外“虚拟现实技术发展及演化趋势”研究综述

虚拟现实技术应用领域广泛,应用综合价值高,掌握其核心技术发展方向非常关键。从20世纪30年代至今,虚拟现实技术历经概念萌芽、技术探索、突破发展和产业应用这4个发展阶段。以关键技术为基础,搭载软件和硬件,根据需求可构造不同沉浸度虚拟现实系统,并应用于国防军事、教育培训、医疗保健、工业制造、娱乐文化等领域。尽管虚拟现实发展可能会面临安全及技术等问题,但它竞争潜力大,未来应用领域会不断拓展。     

增强现实(AR)技术环境下真实与虚拟关系的实在性分析

增强现实(AR)技术具有虚实结合、实时交互、虚实配准的特性,可以消解经典实在论下真实与虚拟关系面对的挑战.沟通技术与现实的科技连续统不能直观贴切地表现实在世界中真实和虚拟的关系.基于三重实在理论,可以重新规范真实与虚拟的含义.借助对真实世界和虚拟世界三种形态的实在成分分析,三个世界的关系由一维线图转变为二维面图.借此可...     

From Doing to Performing Phenomenology: Implications and Possibilities

This commentary on Kurt Vanhoutte and Nele Wynants’s of ‘Performing phenomenology: negotiating presence in intermedial theatre’ focuses on the implications of staging phenomenological research. In my opinion the authors missed an opportunity to stress more what W (Double U), a performance of CREW has to offer postphenomenology and what it actually means to ‘perform’ phenomenology. I will not only argue that W (Double U) because of its performative nature offers a reflection on postphenomenology, but also that the performance must be understood as a specific kind of research, conducted simultaneously from a theoretical and aesthetic orientation, leading to a complex interaction between perception and reflection, and offering a valuable, different perspective on postphenomenological research issues. W (Double U) in this respect functions as a ‘theoretical object’, producing a specific kind of embodied knowledge. Finally I will emphasize the possible radical potential in W (Double U), because I do believe that the performance, although it might not lead explicitly to social change, does have an important social and political relevance that the authors do not really delve into.     

Dwelling In-Between Walls: The Architectural Surround

The title of this paper might evoke claustrophobic associations. In other words, architecture in a very immediate sense can affect our behavior and feelings. In more mediated ways, architecture is also capable of influencing humans and putting their environment into perspective. Consider, for example, how a penthouse apartment can literally elevate people??s emotions and unfold a new perspective on city life, which some people are willing to pay millions of dollars to attain. In this paper I will explore how architecture frames human experience from a philosophical point of view. My aim is to offer key elements of a new typology of architecture. For that purpose I am going to reflect and expand on key insights into technology of one of the funding fathers of contemporary philosophy of technology, Don Ihde. Through a life time, Ihde has been probing and investigating the relation between humans and their world as it is mediated through technology. In doing so he has concentrated on examining and understanding the role of scientific instruments. This paper is dedicated to showing how Ihde??s significant postphenomenological concepts not only can be translated to another domain and serve a better understanding of architecture, but also how his work can help us to relate to architecture in multiple constructive ways. The succeeding experimental translations of Ihde??s understanding of technology to architecture are also meant as a guide to design more adequate and fascinating built environments. I will begin with a broad overview of Ihde??s postphenomenological project; subsequently I shall endeavor to translate this work onto architecture through a number of case-studies, some of which are detailed and others less so.     

Living in Conceivable Worlds

Certain cognitive and philosophical aspects of the concept of conceivability with intended or established diversion from (putative) reality are discussed. The “coherence gap problem” arises when certain fragments of the real world are replaced with imaginary situations while most details are (intentionally or not) ignored. Another issue, “the spectator problem”, concerns the participation of the conceiver himself in the world conceived. Three different examples of conceivability are used to illustrate our points, namely thought experiments in physics, a hypothetical world devoid of consciousness (zombie world), and virtual reality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

扩增现实与人类的认识

扩增现实作为真实世界物体与虚拟物体所组合而成的技术,其由"真实"和"虚拟"两部分混合而成的特性正是人类认识过程中普遍存在的特性.从人类的基本感知到高级认知都存在着与人相关的"虚拟"附加信息,附加信息存在的根本原因是它能有效地决定人的行为.     

哲学视野中的虚拟现实(VP)--兼评戈登·格雷厄姆VP技术哲学思想

文章首先简介了虚拟现实技术的概念、发展历史、特点及应用领域 ,分析了虚拟现实技术与网络虚拟性的关系。在此基础上 ,评述了戈登·格雷厄姆对虚拟现实的本体论分析。之后 ,以本体论为前提 ,评述了格雷厄姆对虚拟现实在认识论、实践论层面的理论贡献     

The Art of Living with ICTs: The Ethics–Aesthetics of Vulnerability Coping and Its Implications for Understanding and Evaluating ICT Cultures

This essay shows that a sharp distinction between ethics and aesthetics is unfruitful for thinking about how to live well with technologies, and in particular for understanding and evaluating how we cope with human existential vulnerability, which is crucially mediated by the development and use of technologies such as electronic ICTs. It is argued that vulnerability coping is a matter of ethics and art: it requires developing a kind of art and techne in the sense that it always involves technologies and specific styles of experiencing and dealing with vulnerability, which depend on social and cultural context. It is suggested that we try to find better, perhaps less modern styles of coping with our vulnerability, recognize limits to our attempts to “design” our new forms, and explore what kinds of technologies we need for this project.     

经验生成的感知基础研究——从梅洛-庞蒂的身体现象学视角分析

梅洛-庞蒂的经验生成观是对经验主义和理智主义的客观经验观的反叛,强调经验生成的感知基础.本文通过详细分析梅洛-庞蒂思想中的身体感知观和经验观,探讨身体感知在经验的产生和发展中的基础性作用,指出身体感知是自我与世界及他人联通的基本方式,经验是在身体感知加工过程中的产物,因此经验生成的方式与身体的基本感知方式密切相关,这表...     

The Screen as an In-between

This article refutes the apparently innocent, common sense idea that the audiovisual screen is just a window to the world that displays an extra set of sensual data alongside and independent of our personal, unmediated experience of reality. On the contrary, the screen as an in-between is both a mediator and generator of reality that eventually compromises the distinction between us and our environment. Part 1 discusses three examples of mediation: eclipsing, interpassivity and audiovisual media as a truth-procedure. Part 2 discusses three examples of generation: the production of simulacra, hyperreality and the emergence of a mixed reality.     

“Who” is a “Topical Measuring” Postphenomenologist and How Does One Get That Way?

Gert Goeminne’s paper is primarily concerned with “the politics of sustainable technology,” but for good reasons he does not start with this topic. He knows that technology studies as he conceives it must clear a space for itself in a philosophical atmosphere that discourages its pursuit. He therefore begins with a critique of this objectivistic and technocratically defined atmosphere, before moving on to embrace a postphenomenology of technological multistabilities, and then further to introduce what he calls (in an adaptation of Rudolf Boehm) the “topical measure” of technoscientific life. The problem I raise is not about Goeminne’s aims, with which I mostly agree, but with his presentation of how to achieve them. I argue that if one were actually to follow his advice—that is, start with critique, move on to postphenomenology, and end with “political” evaluation of technoscientific life, the project would be doomed to failure. For in our world, no one Understands this pluralizing vision. According to the understanding we actually live through and speak from, some of postphenomenology’s multiple disclosures already arrive in our experience with significantly greater ontological power than others, and sincerity about topical measure notwithstanding, the very identification of something as an interest or “value,” especially if it allegedly comes from a “layperson,” already condemns it to secondary status.     

体认术语学视域下的中药转喻命名研究

中药名是中药的符号表征,是外界了解中药的认知起点,是外界了解中华民族优秀传统文化以及中国人民体验认知的心智入口.文章在体认术语学视域下对中药转喻命名的体验性和认知性进行了阐释.研究发现,中药转喻命名的体验性体现在命名需要仰仗命名者的经验体系;中药转喻命名的认知性体现为命名过程是一个主观化的认知加工过程.对具有显著中国特...     

心理空间:知觉符号理论的修正与扩展

关于信息的表征,知觉符号理论不仅体现了具身认知的特点,而且强调空间经验在表征中的作用。然而,知觉符号理论既没能解释空间经验,其基于相似性和图解式概念的核心解释也不完善。大量相关研究在证实知觉符号理论合理性的同时,也证实了心理空间的存在。若将知觉符号置入心理空间的认知语境中,则不仅使该理论的表征相似性转向空间语境同一性,解答了一系列疑惑,而且借用心理空间的拓扑性,知觉表征也更加符合心理现实性。     

浅谈虚拟现实

虚拟现实技术的发展和应用已影响到社会生活的各个领域,在虚拟已经成为人们的一种生活方式的今天,探讨虚拟现实的概念含义,有着非常重要的意义。文章主要从语义和技术的角度讨论虚拟现实的概念内涵,并对不同领域对虚拟现实的认知现状做出梳理和评析。     

浅谈虚拟现实

虚拟现实技术的发展和应用已影响到社会生活的各个领域,在虚拟已经成为人们的一种生活方式的今天,探讨虚拟现实的概念含义,有着非常重要的意义。文章主要从语义和技术的角度讨论虚拟现实的概念内涵,并对不同领域对虚拟现实的认知现状做出梳理和评析。     

科学何以必定有"必然"效用?

科学未必是真理，事实上却必定有“必然”效用。何以如此?对这一问题的解答，有赖于探明科学的本性，有助于深刻地认识科学。从科学的对象、目标、方法和结果看，科学具有经验和超验双重性格，且其超验始终以经验为基础并受着经验的严格约束；而作为科学成果的科学定律等的获取、运用及其效果的确定，都是在同一经验现实中进行的。科学的这种“基于经验而超越经验”的品性，或者说科学的“经验超验”的实质，正是未必是真理的科学必定有“必然”效用的根据和保证。