Are there any Good Arguments Against Goal-Line Technology?

Despite frequent calls by players, managers and fans, FIFA's resistance to the implementation of goal-line technology (GLT) has been well documented in national print and online media as well as FIFA's own website. In 2010, FIFA president Sepp Blatter outlined eight reasons why GLT should not be used in football. The reasons given by FIFA can be broadly separated into three categories; those dealing with the nature and value of the game of football, those related to issues of justice, and those concerned with the practical implementation of GLT. This paper intends to evaluate these eight reasons in order to assess whether there are, indeed, any good arguments against GLT in football.     

What is the Philosophy of Information?

Computational and information-theoretic research in philosophy has become increasingly fertile and pervasive, giving rise to a wealth of interesting results. In consequence, a new and vitally important field has emerged, the philosophy of information (PI). This essay is the first attempt to analyse the nature of PI systematically. PI is defined as the philosophical field concerned with the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. I argue that PI is a mature discipline for three reasons: it represents an autonomous field of research; it provides an innovative approach to both traditional and new philosophical topics; and it can stand beside other branches of philosophy, offering a systematic treatment of the conceptual foundations of the world of information and the information society.     

Protecting God from Science and Technology: How Religious Criticisms of Biotechnologies Backfire

Many religious critics argue that biotechnology (such as cloning and genetic engineering) intrudes on God's domain, or plays God, or revolts against God. While some of these criticisms are standard complaints about human hubris, I argue that some of the recent criticism represents a "Promethean" concern, in which believers unreflectively seem to fear that science and technology are actually replicating or stealing God's special deity–defining powers. These criticisms backfire theologically, because they diminish God, portraying God as an anthropomorphic superbeing whose relevance and special nature are increasingly rivaled by human power.     

基因工程药物发展的历史及启示

基因工程诞生20余年,运用于医药行业,研制和开发工程药物,已取得长足进展,迄今为止,已有近100个基因工程新药上市,并有数百种正在研制和开发中,可以预计,基因工程药物的发展具有无比强大的生命力。就基因工程药物发展史进行概述,会从中得到许多启示。     

PERSONHOOD AND CREATION IN AN AGE OF ROBOTS AND AI: CAN WE SAY “YOU” TO ARTIFACTS?

This article explores the extent to which the I-You relation should be applied to domains other than the human and the divine focusing particularly on artifacts and technology. Drawing first on the work of Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, and Martin Heidegger, I contend that the I-You tradition has maintained I-You relations with objects are possible even when these same figures level strong critiques of the I-It relation. I extend these discussions and argue that some kind of You-speaking for artifacts is needed to combat rampant consumption and reduction of the world to pure utility. But, I equally suggest that there are limitations to applying the I-You relation to artifacts precisely when doing so keeps us from having genuine relationships with other people as outlined by psychologist Sherry Turkle. Finally, I outline how this proposal impacts the doctrine of creation. In sum, it expands our intuitions of what is included in that doctrine creation.     

Noise,Economy, and the Emergence of Information Structure in a Laboratory Language

The acceptability of sentences in natural language is constrained not only grammaticality, but also by the relationship between what is being conveyed and such factors as context and the beliefs of interlocutors. In many languages the critical element in a sentence (its focus) must be given grammatical prominence. There are different accounts of the nature of focus marking. Some researchers treat it as the grammatical realization of a potentially arbitrary feature of universal grammar and do not provide an explicit account of its origins; others have argued, however, that focus marking is a (grammaticalized) functional solution to the problem of efficiently transmitting information via a noisy channel. By adding redundancy to highlight critical elements in particular, focus protects key parts of the message from noise. If this information‐theoretic account is true, then we should expect focus‐like behavior to emerge even in non‐linguistic communication systems given sufficient noise and pressures for efficiency. We tested this in an experiment in which participants played a simple communication game in which they had to click cells on a grid to communicate one of two line figures drawn across the grid. We manipulated the noise, available time, and required effort, and measured patterns of redundancy. Because the lines in many cases overlapped, meaning that only some parts of each line could be used to distinguish it from the other, we were able to compare the extent to which effort was expended on adding redundancy to critical (non‐overlapping) and non‐critical (overlapping) parts of the message. The results supported the information‐theoretic account of focus and shed light on the emergence of information structure in language.     

SERGIUS BULGAKOV'S CRITIQUE OF N. F. FEDOROV'S TECHNOLOGIZED RESURRECTION (AND WHY IT STILL MATTERS FOR THE CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE WITH TRANSHUMANISM)

Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944) was one of the centrally important Russian Orthodox theologians of the past century. His theological system (Sophiology) is among the most detailed and comprehensive attempts at a novel, Orthodox systematic theology developed in engagement with western philosophical and theological movements. His first major work of theology, Unfading Light (1917), incorporates an early Orthodox critique of the radical Christian transhumanism propounded by Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov (1829–1903). Fedorov had developed an account of humanity's prospects for a technologically facilitated eschatology. The goals of this article are: (1) to provide a concise summary Fedorov's ideas on technologized resurrection; (2) to provide an overview of Bulgakov's sympathetic critique of Fedorov's model; and (3) to discuss the ongoing relevance of that critique vis-à-vis current and future Christian dialogue with the transhumanist movement.     

Emotional intelligence,cognitive ability and information search in tactical decision-making

Emotional intelligence (EI) may promote more effective decision-making under stress. In the present study, 167 participants completed a situation judgment test for EI, and performed a decision-making task based on an Antarctic rescue scenario. Participants were assigned to either a negative or neutral feedback group. Negative feedback significantly increased distress and impaired decision-making. EI failed to moderate the impacts of negative feedback, but higher EI was associated with greater information-search activity irrespective of feedback condition. It is concluded that ability EI may have a motivational component that may support more exhaustive analysis of both social and non-social stimuli.     

总体分析在医学研究中的应用及其思考

总体分析（ｍｅｔａ－ａｎａｌｙｓｉｓ）是“综合信息”（ｃｏｍｂｉｎｉｎｇｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎ）在医学领域中的发展。总体分析不是一种新的统计学方法。它的具体操作仍以基本的统计学方法为基础。它的特殊性在于是一种横跨研究室、研究者之间的更大范围的综合研究和统计性描述,这种研究结果更全面、更科学。国外正式应用总体分析作为工具于医学研究已有十余年的历史。近年来,以总体分析为手段的文献在国内医学期刊中相继出现,预期不久的将来,会有更多有关总体分析的文章问世。本文对总体分析及其在医学中的应用作一简介,并对其在医学研究中应用问题作几点思考。     

运动视觉中计时行为的控制操作理论

运动视觉中的计时行为分为两类 :拦截行为和制动行为。“环境—活动者系统”(EAS)中的信息决定着计量行为的控制操作。本文阐明了信息和EAS的特性 ,通过对 tau-margin在拦截行为中的作用以及视觉变量τ对于制动操作重要性的分析 ,论述了运动视觉中计时行为的控制操作理论。