Durante años se ha venido demostrando que es necesario fomentar espacios de intercambio intergeneracional para la construcción de sociedades más solidarias e inclusivas. Partiendo de este marco, en el presente artículo se evalúa una experiencia intergeneracional llevada cabo en el entorno universitario donde estudiantes y personas mayores comparten sus miradas sobre la soledad a través de cartas. Para el análisis del material recopilado (18 cartas y 82 narrativas) se ha utilizado el software Iramuteq. Los resultados remarcan la propia metodología como (...) una nueva manera de relacionarse que posibilita el intercambio y el conocimiento mutuo necesario en una sociedad segregada. (shrink)

This paper examines folk theories of algorithmic recommendations on Spotify in order to make visible the cultural specificities of data assemblages in the global South. The study was conducted in Costa Rica and draws on triangulated data from 30 interviews, 4 focus groups with 22 users, and the study of “rich pictures” made by individuals to graphically represent their understanding of algorithmic recommendations. We found two main folk theories: one that personifies Spotify and another one that envisions it as a (...) system full of resources. Whereas the first theory emphasizes local conceptions of social relations to make sense of algorithms, the second one stresses the role of algorithms in providing a global experience of music and technology. We analyze why people espouse either one of these theories and how these theories provide users with resources to enact different modalities of power and resistance in relation to recommendation algorithms. We argue that folk theories thus offer a productive way to broaden understanding of what agency means in relation to algorithms. (shrink)

Fred Sanger, the inventor of the first protein, RNA and DNA sequencing methods, has traditionally been seen as a technical scientist, engaged in laboratory bench work and not interested at all in intellectual debates in biology. In his autobiography and commentaries by fellow researchers, he is portrayed as having a trajectory exclusively dependent on technological progress. The scarce historical scholarship on Sanger partially challenges these accounts by highlighting the importance of professional contacts, institutional and disciplinary moves in his career, spanning (...) from 1940 to 1983. This paper will complement such literature by focusing, for the first time, on the transition of Sanger’s sequencing strategies from degrading to copying the target molecule, which occurred in the late 1960s as he was shifting from protein and RNA to DNA sequencing, shortly after his move from the Department of Biochemistry to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, both based in Cambridge (UK). Through a reinterpretation of Sanger’s papers and retrospective accounts and a pioneering investigation of his laboratory notebooks, I will claim that sequencing shifted from the working procedures of organic chemistry to those of the emergent molecular biology. I will also argue that sequencing deserves a history in its own right as a practice and not as a technique subordinated to the development of molecular biology or genomics. My proposed history of sequencing leads to a reappraisal of current STS debates on bioinformatics, biotechnology and biomedicine. (shrink)

On 26 June 2000, during the presentation of the Human Genome Project's first draft, Bill Clinton, then President of the United States, claimed that "today we are learning the language in which God created life".1 Behind his remarks lay a story of more than half a century involving the understanding of DNA as information. This paper analyses that story, discussing the origins of the informational view of our genes during the early 1950s, how such a view affected the research on (...) the genetic code (1950s and '60s) and the transformation of the information idea in the context of DNA sequencing and bioinformatics ('80s and '90s). I suggest that the concept of DNA as information reached a climax with the proposal of the Human Genome Project (HGP), but is currently facing a crisis coinciding with the questioning of the information society. Finally, I discuss the emergence of systems biology as an alternative paradigm. (shrink)

This paper addresses the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep, locating it within a long-standing tradition of animal breeding research in Edinburgh. Far from being an end in itself, the cell-nuclear transfer experiment from which Dolly was born should be seen as a step in an investigative pathway that sought the production of medically relevant transgenic animals. By historicising Dolly, I illustrate how the birth of this sheep captures a dramatic redefinition of the life sciences, when in the 1970s and (...) 1980s the rise of neo-liberal governments and the emergence of the biotechnology market pushed research institutions to show tangible applications of their work. Through this broader interpretative framework, the Dolly story emerges as a case study of the deep transformations of agricultural experimentation during the last third of the twentieth century. The reorganisation of laboratory practice, human resources and institutional settings required by the production of transgenic animals had unanticipated consequences. One of these unanticipated effects was that the boundaries between animal and human health became blurred. As a result of this, new professional spaces emerged and the identity of Dolly the sheep was reconfigured, from an instrument for livestock improvement in the farm to a more universal symbol of the new cloning age. -/- . (shrink)

The objective of this study was to create and validate an instrument to measure the wellbeing of children in lockdown. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the interest of maintaining social distancing, millions of people have been confined to their homes, including children, who have been withdrawn from school and barely able to leave their homes. Thus, it would be useful to evaluate, from a holistic perspective, the well-being of children under these challenging circumstances. The participants were (...) 1046 children 48.7% of which were boys and 50.7% girls, recruited in the Basque Country (Northern Spain). The survey, entitled, 'Well-being of Children in Lockdown" (WCL) is composed of six sub-scales: Emotions, Playful and creative activities, Education, Addictions, Routine, and Physical Activity. Exploratory factor analyses indicate that all the reliability indices were acceptable. The survey demonstrated adequate reliability (alpha=.804). We were thus able to confirm the validity of this simple instrument for evaluating the well-being of children aged between 4 and 12 years in lockdown situations.2. (shrink)

Nicole Cadène a découvert Marie-Edmée par hasard, en lisant des fragments de ses écrits dans l’ouvrage justement encensé de Philippe Lejeune, Le moi des demoiselles. Chercheure associée à l’université d’Aix-Marseille, elle a soutenu une thèse sur l’image de Marie Stuart et cherche depuis une dizaine d’années à retracer l’étonnant parcours de Marie-Edmée Pau, une jeune fille qui se rêvait garçon et dont la courte existence est ponctuée de luttes entre des aspirations professionnelles, artistiq...

Este trabajo muesta la necesidad de ampliar la noción de la racionalidad práctica, a partir de la nueva perspectiva de las neurociencias y destacar el trasfondo valorativo de la racionalidad en cualquiera de sus versiones contando con las aportaciones del enfoque neurológico. Una racionalidad plural, radicada en el cuerpo y cuyo carácter vital está impregnado de valores, emociones y sentimientos.

Uno de los principales retos del transhumanismo lo encontramos en su antropología. Nos encontramos ante un reduccionismo en el que el cuerpo aparece despojado de su dignidad y el espíritu no existe. El ejemplo que más me llama la atención de esto es el de la endogénesis: no se valora el hecho de que el ser humano sea gestado dentro del vientre de otro ser humano; para ellos sería preferible tener una máquina que pudiese hacer la misma misión, en lugar (...) de que el embarazo sea un acto de amor que tiene impacto en toda la vida de la persona. Creo que este es el mayor obstáculo en el que nos encontraremos al valorar el transhumanismo, y es especialmente importante: la persona es un edificio de múltiples dimensiones inextricablemente ligadas. Es necesario reconocer la dignidad de nuestro cuerpo, que va más allá de ser sustrato material de nuestra consciencia. El cuerpo forma parte de nuestra naturaleza, en la que cuerpo, emoción, pensamiento y espíritu son dimensiones que están íntimamente ligadas. No podemos renunciar a nuestro cuerpo. Además, me gustaría proponer que dentro del cuerpo existen portales ante la trascendencia. no es lo mismo ser que parecer. Muchos defienden que pronto tendremos robots que estarán dotados de consciencia. Que podrán pasar el test de Turing. Además, la Inteligencia Artificial permite generar mensajes de manera sintética. En algunos casos, estos mensajes son relativamente simples, pero en otros casos, como los chatbots, resultan muy interesantes. Algunos autores estiman que, dentro de poco, estos chatbots podrían llegar a pasar el test de Turing. Una vez tengamos máquinas que pasen el test de Turing, ¿podremos decir que son conscientes? ¿Es lo mismo una máquina que pase el Test de Turing que una máquina consciente? Para algunos, la respuesta es «es indiferente». Yo digo que no, que no es lo mismo. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar quais os fundamentos ético-filosóficos estruturam o instituto do patrimônio cultural imaterial, a fim de se buscar maior eficácia dos meios de proteção e reconhecimento de uma diversidade cultural, tendo em vista a dificuldade de resguardar a cultura do outro, bem como de se afirmar uma inclusão cultural. Para tanto, a pesquisa pauta-se no método qualitativo e indutivo, analisando tanto o instituto do patrimônio cultural, como as teorias de Francisco de Vitória, que permitem estabelecer (...) a igualdade e alteridade como fundamentos ético-filosóficos daquele, concluindo, portanto, pela necessidade de se observar ambos os princípios no momento de se estabelecer mecanismos de proteção ao patrimônio cultural, como também na disseminação de políticas públicas voltadas à educação cultural, proporcionando, assim, maior diversidade e inclusão cultural. (shrink)

Se plantea la necesidad de un nuevo pensar experiencial como respuesta al logicismo y metodologismo imperantes, que de modo creciente han secuestrado los usos de la razón. Por eso se propone como tarea filosófica ineludible desarrollar análisis hermenéuticos, genealógicos y noológicos de la experiencia, y desde ahí reconstruir una nueva concepción de la razón experiencial (histórica, corporal y sentiente). Con tal fin se pasa revista a diversas concepciones de la experiencia, desde la aristotélica, pasando por la kantiana y hegeliana, hasta (...) la nietzscheana y otras filosofías contemporáneas proclives a un pensar experiencial. (shrink)

En los últimos años se está intensificando la demanda de propuestas educativas que fomenten la adquisición de competencias. Teniendo en cuenta esta demanda, el uso habitual de videojuegos por parte de la juventud y la necesidad de un modelo que permita trabajar los contenidos de ciencias sociales que marca el curriculum escolar, se ha diseñado la siguiente propuesta didáctica. Esta combina el uso del videojuego Assassin's Creed: Origins con una metodología de aula invertida para el estudio del Antiguo Egipto en (...) el primer curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. El resultado, además de constatar que Assassin's Creed: Origins es una herramienta válida para el aprendizaje de la historia del Antiguo Egipto, ha permitido motivar al alumnado, convirtiéndole en protagonista de su propio aprendizaje. (shrink)

Este artículo expone la crítica de Ortega y Gasset al naturalismo y el fracaso de la razón naturalista, y muestra su nueva concepción de la razón vital, histórica y narrativa, como un paradigma alternativo, basándose en la dialéctica de las experiencias, la imaginación creativa del «animal fantástico» y en una nueva visión de la vida que proviene de Nietzsche, Dilthey y Goethe, que puede contribuir a afrontar el reto de los nuevos naturalismos en el contexto del pensamiento actual.

Among the passages which are suggestive of a philosophy of language in Kant’s writings are his remarks and arguments on appropriate terminology for philosophical concepts. I ask what it is for Kant that makes some words more suitable than others. I reconstruct the arguments from the Inquiry concerning the distinctness of the principles of natural theology and morality (1764) and the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787) that defend that there is no such thing as a proper, real definition for philosophical (...) concepts (only nominal definition and exposition); in addition, philosophical concepts are only represented by terms in abstracto, not in concreto. On these grounds, in the Inquiry, Kant sustains that the reference of a term to a philosophical concept is ultimately sanctioned by the term’s ‘linguistic usage’ (Redegebrauch). I argue that this is the basis for Kant’s criterion in the Critique of Pure Reason of employing traditional terminology, words from ordinary language, or even words from extinct languages, to refer to philosophical concepts, and for his rejection of coining new terms – even for distinctly new philosophical thoughts. (shrink)

En el tema de los «Nuevos horizontes de economía ética en tiempo de neurociencia» se entremezclan lo que hoy se suele entender como ciencias naturales, ciencias sociales y humanidades. Situados ya en este contexto de nuestro tiempo, sentimos de modo especial el predominio de lo económico, que se ha encarnado en los procesos de globalización y mundialización. Pero asimismo en nuestro horizonte histórico no es fácil sentir que vayan unidas la economía y la ética. Lo más normal es que se (...) susciten recelos y sospechas, tanto por parte de los profesionales como de los ciudadanos. (shrink)

Automated decision-making takes up an increasingly significant place in the administrative state. This article presents a conception of discretion that is helpful for evaluating the proper place of algorithms in public decision-making. I argue that the algorithm itself is not a site of discretion. The threat is that automated decision-making alters the relationships between traditional actors in a way that can cut down discretion and human commitment. Algorithmic decision-makers can serve to fetter the discretion that the legislature and the populace (...) expect to be exercised. We must strive to maintain discretion, moral agency, deliberative ideals, and human commitment through the system that surrounds the use of an algorithm and to develop a new expertise that can retain and exercise the expected discretion. Backing this argument are traditional legal constraints, public expectations, and administrative law principles, tied together through the organizing principle of discretion. (shrink)

Recensión: Solanes Corella, Ángeles; Derechos y culturas. Los retos de la diversidad en el espacio público y privado. Tirant lo Blanch. Alternativa, Valencia, 2018, 488pp.

Schools in Spain were closed in March 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In September 2020 most schools and universities in Spain reopened and teachers felt great uncertainty due to this unprecedented situation. Teachers have accumulated psychological symptoms since the beginning of the pandemic. During the lockdown they had to introduce online teaching and in view of the reopening of schools they have shown great concern for the new unprecedented teaching situation. The present study aims to measure the symptomatology (...) shown by teaching staff in the Basque Autonomous Community at the time when schools were reopened. To do this, we recruited a sample of 1,633 teachers who were given an online questionnaire which, in addition to collecting socio-demographic data, measured stress, anxiety and depression using the DASS-21scale. The results revealed that a high percentage of teachers showed anxiety, depression and stress symptoms. Furthermore, variables such as gender, age, job stability, the level of education at which they teach and parental status also influence this symptomatology. We argue for the need to safeguard the mental health of teachers in order to improve both the quality of teaching and the mental health of students. (shrink)

This article proposes a new bi-directional way of understanding the convergence of biology and computing. It argues for a reciprocal interaction in which biology and computing have shaped and are currently reshaping each other. In so doing, we qualify both the view of a natural marriage and of a digital shaping of biology, which are common in the literature written by scientists, STS, and communication scholars. The DNA database is at the center of this interaction. We argue that DNA databases (...) are spaces of convergence for computing and biology that change in form, meaning, and function from the 1960s to the 2000s. The first part of the article shows how, in the 1980s, DNA sequencing shifted from passively incorporating computers to be increasingly modeled in digital coding and decoding. Information retrieval algorithms, reciprocally, were altered according to the peculiarities of DNA in the first sequence-storage databases. The second part of the article investigates the impact of these reciprocal interactions and globalization on the organization of research centers, ways of conducting big science, and scientific values. Through convergence and new technologies such as data mining, biology and computing were transformed technologically, institutionally, and culturally into a new bio-data enterprise called genomics. (shrink)

El trabajo pretende mostrar, en primer lugar, que el raciovitalismo de José Ortega y Gasset constituye una de las líneas posibles del proceso de transformación hermenéutica del pensamiento contemporáneo. La impronta nietzscheana de carácter hermenéutico en el desarrollo del pensamiento orteguiano se manifiesta en aspectos muy relevantes, como la importancia del cuerpo y la innovadora noción de vida, que son asuntos decisivos para comprender el deporte.En segundo lugar, hay que aprovechar las ricas reflexiones de Ortega y Gasset sobre el deporte, (...) que tienen un alcance muy relevante para la entera vida humana, a partir de la reivindicación de una noción de cuerpo viviente y de una nueva noción de la vida. El deporte forma parte de un horizonte vital no reducido por la estrecha perspectiva utilitaria, sino que anuncia la forma superior de la existencia humana, la apertura a un sentido festival y creativo de la vida. Ésta exige una disciplina, que no se conforma con el mero cumplimiento correcto de unas normas, sino que incita a perfeccionarse indefinidamente. La cualidad de lo deportivo es la vitalidad creativa, una nueva forma de entender la vida. Porque desde esta nueva perspectiva vital, ya no sirve como modelo el homo oeconomicus, sino que el fenómeno vital entendido de modo deportivo es festival, alegre, creativo, agonal y olímpico, libérrimamente esforzado, fuente de energía con sentido. La vida es en principio creación, experimento creador, como en la concepción nietzscheana. (shrink)

This paper explores the different identities adopted by connective tissue research at the University of Manchester during the second half of the 20th century. By looking at the long-term redefinition of a research programme, it sheds new light on the interactions between different and conflicting levels in the study of biomedicine, such as the local and the global, or the medical and the biological. It also addresses the gap in the literature between the first biomedical complexes after World War II (...) and the emergence of biotechnology. Connective tissue research in Manchester emerged as a field focused on new treatments for rheumatic diseases. During the 1950s and 60s, it absorbed a number of laboratory techniques from biology, namely cell culture and electron microscopy. The transformations in scientific policy during the late 70s and the migration of Manchester researchers to the US led them to adopt recombinant DNA methods, which were borrowed from human genetics. This resulted in the emergence of cell matrix biology, a new field which had one of its reference centres in Manchester. The Manchester story shows the potential of detailed and chronologically wide local studies of patterns of work to understand the mechanisms by which new biomedical tools and institutions interact with long-standing problems and existing affiliations. (shrink)

We study the correlations (and alignment as a particular case) existent between the fragments originated in a decaying process when the daughter particles interact. The interaction between the particles is modeled using the potential of coupled oscillators, which can be treated analytically. This approach can be considered as a first step towards the characterization of realistic interacting decaying systems, an archetypal process in physics. The results presented here also suggest the possibility of manipulating correlations using external fields, a technique that (...) could be useful to provide sources of entangled massive particles. (shrink)

El objetivo de este estudio consiste en identificar los vínculos y afectos que el alumnado establece con los bienes patrimoniales cercanos y explorar cómo tales relaciones pueden resultar útiles para ensayar una Educación Patrimonial para una ciudadanía crítica y democrática, a partir de la presencia de la memoria (histórica y democrática) en sus elecciones. En el contexto de una experiencia educativa en el Grado de Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Granada, se solicitó a un grupo de estudiantes que escogiera (...) un bien patrimonial personal y estableciera una breve narración autobiográfica. El trabajo adopta un enfoque cualitativo, de carácter exploratorio y descriptivo-interpretativo. Los resultados muestran que un conjunto significativo de narraciones se asocia al ámbito de los conflictos y los acontecimientos conflictivos de carácter histórico, es decir: introducen la memoria, los afectos y vínculos de la esfera familiar en el ámbito más amplio de la memoria histórica y democrática. (shrink)

La finalidad del presente ensayo consiste en partir de las nociones interrelacionadas de "capitalismo mundial integrado" (Guattari) y de "sociedad de control" (Deleuze) para intentar una deriva que cruce géneros, épocas y nombres propios: de la filosofía al cine y a la poesía (caminos de ida y vuelta), de Benjamin a Serres pasando por Homero, Kavafis, Cioran o Godard, del tardío imperio romano y sus incertidumbres a la imprecisión de nuestro propio tiempo. Posiblemente, pensar hoy la identidad humana sea como (...) nunca antes un asunto de mezcla, de viaje a través de territorios viejos que demandan una nueva cartografía. -/- The purpose of this essay is to depart from the interrelated notions of "whole global capitalism" (Guattari) and the "control society" (Deleuze) to attempt a drift across genders, epochs and proper names: from philosophy to cinema and poetry (roundtrip roads), from Benjamin to Serres, passing through Homer, Kavafis, Cioran or Godard, from the late Roman empire and its uncertainties to our own time. Possibly, thinking today about human identity is as never before, a matter of mixture, of travel through old territories that demand new maps. (shrink)