Tag: science

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Deus DEI

In Latin the declination of deus = god starts with the genitive form “dei”. In the world of universities and labor markets the abbreviation “DEI” stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. These 3 topics have ensured for years that a university campus looks a bit more like society at large, even if biased towards younger generations. The MAGA saga of the USA in 2025 starts to turn the clock back on hard to accomplish advances in DEI-hiring and promotion. This likely to reduce the number of international students on US campuses and will make campuses look WEIRD again. Moreover, lots of talented students will seek DEI campuses in other countries to avoid discriminatory hiring practices and arbitrary risk of visa denial.  Europe is likely to benefit from this kind of brain drain and skill shortages might be substantially reduced due to such unprecedented shifts in US policies. The cuts of billions of grants to renowned universities for political reasons will leave a yawning gap of talent in the US in a few years time, the latest. Early movers will move very quickly to anticipate the exodus of talent.  It is puzzling to watch how quickly years of DEI policies might be undone with thousands of people and projects at a loss. Scholars of American history are reminded of the McCarthy era of political prosecution or the dismal period for science under the Nazi-rule in Germany. Americans seem to get much worse and extreme policies than they thought they voted for. “Deus Dei” also means “god of god” and in the current American political context the judgement of a god by another god has maybe a historical meaning. In the table of the Estonian town hall in Tallinn the inscription alerts rulers to beware of being judged as well. Sounds like a timely reminder to overly ambitious politicians.

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Journalists Scientists

In the theories of democracy journalism has entered the stage mainly in form of a controlling mechanism that is part of an extended checks and balances system of democracy. Independent journalists serve as effective multipliers and critical commentators which are an essential element of a well functioning democratic society. Social media’s ability to reach large audiences without adherence to independent journalists’ principles pose challenges to the way journalists are perceived by the public. The border between journalism and influencer marketing of products and opinions is continuously under pressure. Voices not heard,  underrepresented or those with few resources for large scale communication face difficulties to communicate their views in a market flooded with information and marketing. 

Another challenge to journalists is the fast evolution of scientific research and knowledge which at times derives from complicated theoretical and/or empirical methods. Hence, the relationship between journalistic reporting and scientific rigor and need for details in reporting are hard to reconcile. This necessitates a continuous dialogue between scientists and journalists to be aware of potentials and limitations to the co-evolution of the two disciplines. In order to avoid a self-referential subset in each discipline, the demonstration of successful cooperation between the two disciplines reveals the complementary role in many real-world instances. Investigative journalists often rely on additional scientific expertise and scientists who uncover manipulations of any sort in their work have to cooperate to inform society about the topics. As with global warming or PFAS risks scientists get drawn more and more into the checks and balances role within democracies. Therefore in addition to the separation of powers claimed in the political literature of the enlightenment (executive, parliamentary and judicial) we added already the 4th one of journalism and should include (5th) independent scientific research and reporting into the essential principles of well functioning democracies. The conference at the BNF in Paris on the 28th of March has raised these timely questions in the best tradition of the ongoing process of enlightenment.

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Augmented Cognition

With everybody talking about artificial intelligence we tend to overlook recent advances in augmented cognition. Just 2 examples of studies presenting new findings published in 2025 suffice to make that point. Automated versus manual driving have different effects on our brains. Automation makes us sleepy and inattentive with potentially dangerous consequences. Using EEG measures of neuromarkers the drop in attention shows up earlier than through measures of keeping one’s lane while driving. For jobs or duties that involve extended hours of attention the wearing of a mobile EEG-device could avoid lots of accidents. Drugs, alcohol or medication abuse would also show up before it is too late, I suppose (Scanion et al. 2025).
The 2nd study involved a robotic assistance to piano playing which achieved surprising training effects for learners of the music instrument. Objective measurement of speed and finger coordination might even allow overall accuracy to improve significantly. The technology around us and the one in direct contact with us, our behavior and performances shall have an impact on all of us sooner or later. We have to pose the question of how far we want to go along with these evolutions. Augmented cognition will not only be of interest for civil purposes, but military applications or dual use is evidently another option.

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Aufklärung Enlightenment

The period of the enlightenment is a historically defined time period of the late 17th and the whole 18th century. Although often associated only with Europe as its origin, the American contributions and influences have been far-reaching as well, just thinking of the “Declaration of Independence“. This historical period is, however, most interesting through the unrivalled contribution and pivotal point to the history of ideas. The exhibition and catalogue on the “Aufklärung – Enlightenment” by the German Historical Museum in Berlin exposes many of the historical editions of books that “made the enlightenment”. Philosophical writings and readings (Immanuel Kant: Kritik der …) of the period (especially in German) are tough even for native speakers of German, unlike reading of French (e.g. Jean-Jacques Rousseau) or English (e.g. John Locke) contributions to the enlightenment. Maybe this is already one of the reasons why in France the revolutionary ideas were put into practice through population-wide political movements.
The historical period of the enlightenment came to a close in the early 19th century (1806 another pivotal year). The English or French terms of enlightenment or lumière maybe be interpreted in a way that other historical periods like the medieval ages were periods of darkness, even later periods again did not live up to the idealist prerogatives of the evolution of humanity. The German term “Aufkärung” has its etymological roots more in the action associated with “to enlighten”. This hints at the continuing process of the ideas of the enlightenment in modern terms the process of individualisation, tolerance and autonomy.
There many valuable short interviews shown in the exhibition and Jürgen Habermas contributed a short closing statement to the catalogue of the exhibition on the unfinished project of the “Aufklärung” inviting us to continue also with the “Kritik der Aufklärung”. After all the enlightenment did not save us from repeated events like “Apokalyses“.
(Image: Émilie du Châtelet, below book on Newton Physics in DHM Enlightenment exhibition 2025).

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Beyond ART

Is there anything beyond art? Well, maybe there is. ART in German language is an abbreviation of “Allgemeine RelativitätsTheorie”. In other words the General theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein is in its shortest form a one line mathematical expression, but with lots of equations included in the general statement, which grew out of his much earlier special theory of relativity. The textbook by Michael Ruhrländer provides a step by step approach to get to grips with the mathematics involved to reach a better understanding of what “ART” is about. Take your time to digest it and brush up a lot of maths beyond your A-level maths.
The abbreviation ART suggests a lint to art in popular understanding. Indeed, it needs able artists to show insights of ART to more people than the restricted scientific circles. An understanding of a 4-dimensional system of time-space has some more accessible features than waves of gravitation and the many puzzles that can be solved through ART.
Decades later quantification has build upon ART and takes us further into fabulous world of mathematical and physical imagination as well as real world applications.

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Suicide Prevention

The annual mortality statistics and special reports on suicidal tendencies are a tough reading. OECD Statistics give a at least an approximate, comparative perspective. Reporting routines and medical confirmation of a suicide or suicidal behavior still vary quite a bit between countries. Nevertheless, the usually reported incidents per 100.000 persons remain rather abstract.
Absolute numbers speak a clear language. For example in Germany there were about 10.300 recorded suicides in 2023, France had to mourn about 9200 in 2022. To put the size of the problem in perspective it is helpful to know that in Germany all other not aging related causes of death like traffic accidents, drugs or murder make up for around 7.000 deaths per year. The targeting of resources and prevention efforts on these vulnerable people seems inevitable. However, we see only limited additional efforts to curb the problem.
A more detailed analysis of the frequencies reveals the gender and age differences. More men commit suicides and older (very old) people have higher risks. The oldest age group of men is most at risk.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic young women show rising trends in many countries again of suicidal attempts and self-inflicted wounds. Despite a continuing effort of research (Links) there is no single cause to explain the occurrences.
As a working hypothesis, which awaits empirical tests, I would look into societal factors that stigmatize persons who are made to believe or feel like they are beyond the normal spectrum of society. The lack of acceptance of diversity concerning gender, age, ethnicity, body shapes or mental states like anxiety. Poverty might cause immense distress and suffering. Large shifts in wealth in both directions cause additional risks.
It seems as if our minds and society are constantly in a kind of „regression towards the mean“ posing challenges to those furthest away from the average or perceived norms. Percentile ranks or percentile scores are commonly used to express a person’s position in a frequency distribution. For example you are better/lower than 90% of persons of your age group. Such statements might cause further distress for persons. However, summarising across several (psychological) measurements, they may yield encouraging indications as well. Actual and perceived positions in such percentile ranks add another “social risk” as perceived positions may govern behavior.

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Wave and Particle

The history of ideas in physics has been evolving or revolving a lot around the wave-particle-duality. Even if the basic debate by now is about a century old, we still need to come to grips with this challenging notion that light is not just a beam and nice colors through a prism yielding a spectrum of frequencies, but it can emit material matter called photons that have a non-zero value(s) of energy.
Max Planck came up with the formula E = h × f, where h is the Planck constant, E the energy and f the frequency of the photon. The synthesis of Einstein’s light quanta and De Broglie’s matter waves became the foundation of quantum mechanics.
The exciting evolution of physical ideas results in the state of the “art” view that, for example, light can take both forms, wave and particle, at the same time. Quantum mechanics has become a thriving field in physics and is currently transforming the world of computing in the 21st century. The amounts of funds invested in the race of applications of quantum computing across the globe are “astronomic” and have become part of dual-use spending of research funding. Encryption of information or access codes are of growing importance for civil (banking, mobility, health info) or military purposes. The speed of quantum processors will allow cracking of codes much faster and therefore new dangers are looming in many fields. It is a rather competitive field, which has evolved a lot from the original wave and/or particle vision of the world (of physics).
For social scientists there are several examples of applications of the concepts of quantum mechanics to social and behavioral sciences (Link 1, Link 2). Hard to predict, whether the wave and/or particle view will dominate the social applications of elements of the history of ideas in physics. New concepts in science challenge our traditional science-based thinking about time, space and space-time with implications even for our understanding of causality and covariance.
(Image of Dice icoshahedron (animated 3D image) from Egypt, dated to 2nd century before our time, BNF, Paris)

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Negative time

In 2025 an experimental setting has come up with a demonstration of negative time. This is a mind-blowing mental exercise to imagine the science fiction like framework to allow time to be negative as well.
This invites several epistemological questions as well. Can we imagine or live with a reversible concept of time? Maybe music has given us clues. In composition of music, we can easily play the notes of a basic theme just in reverse or mirrored order. Modern rhythms like in beat music as accompaniment by a drum use for example a rhythm like (use your hands or drum sticks!)
“left left right left /
right right left right”, (redo faster if you internalized the rhythm).
A reversal of the beat (its inversion) like replays of rhythms in reverse order seem to return the energy. This beat pattern is perceived as forward moving and is advancing in chronological time. It has fascinated a whole generation and spurred crazy movements to accompany the rhythm.
A simple tune might be played in reverse order as well. Just take a piano scale and play 1 2 3 1 fingers, and then 1 3 2 1 in a mirrored fashion (1231 1321). Even 1 2 3 1 as 3 2 1 3 gives an impression of inversion.  Through this composition technique you get a bit of a feeling for the potential of a reversal of time or what negative time might feel like.
The innovation through quantification challenges our concepts of time more and more. The direction of time is subject of a fundamental revision. Theoretical concepts have predicted this for a long time.
(Image: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris)

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Quantification

The most obvious association with quantification is the attempt to quantify in the sense of measurement of situations, locations or social phenomena. This has taken considerable steps with the availability of smartphones that measure and thereby quantify all sorts of wanted and unwanted information about us. The distances walked are among the easiest to quantify. There have been many accounts and discussions about this kind of quantification. The results have been a further push towards self-optimization assisted by a quantification of almost all aspects of life. That is daily business of social sciences.
Quantification has another well-defined meaning to it, which is in physics. The revolution of the early 20th century has been to deviate from classical physics which assumed continuous processes in time and continuous measurements to the new world of quantum physics, another kind of quantification. This allusion is due to the Alain Aspect’s inspiring book “Si Einstein avait su” (2025) and his efforts to make quantum physics understood to a broader public. For me one of the merits of the book is the reminder that experimental physics can contribute and resolve many epistemological questions.
(Image: my popularized approximation of Schrödinger’s cat in Berlin Zoo)

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Time Concepts

Tell me about your concept of time. How do you define time? Answers to this question are likely to depend on your upbringing, affinity to a specific scientific discipline or epistemological belief(s). Aristotle defines time to be subordinate to the more basic principle of change. To understand change we need the concept of time. Two points in time define time, intermediate points are possible, which might be interpreted as a precursor of infinitesimally short spells of time. To explain change, Aristotle refers to his concept of time. Other concepts of time build on the notion of succession of events or sequences of events.
Clocks going round in circles have been used to show the progression of time independent of events. Beams of atoms later allowed for more precision of time keeping. The prevalent concept of time still is dominated by the idea of time as an arrow, usually depicted in some diagram resemblance based on the Cartesian coordinate system, but usually starting at 0 or a particular point in time as diagrams in economics.
Following on from the old concept of change and time, we still claim for causality in most day-to-day experiences or for social processes the link to a chronological progression of time. In statistical analyses building on time-stamped occurrences we may use event history analyses or stochastic differential equations to analyze (social) change depending on one or several (earlier) factors. Even the theory of deterministic chaos, which is applied in weather forecasts for example, arises from the sequence of point of measurements.
Mainly since Isaac Newton we cherish the notion of a universal time, which helps us to coordinate different locations on our planet with reference to the Greenwich mean time. Other concepts of time make use of infinity of time and how to deal with this. Life before, or life after death, are human constructs trying to make time understandable or at least manageable for us beyond our own living time. Depictions of time in the arts, paintings or music opens up yet another vast space of thinking about, as well as, experiencing time. We did have and still do have a great time thinking about time.

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Mindmap Me

Tools like artificial intelligence allow all sorts of transformations and depictions. The photo editing tools are widespread and particularly popular among the young users. My own transformative exercises, latest with www.bairbe.me, have yielded interesting insights, well worth an intergenerational playmate. For the guys there is the www.yobrick.com version for brick gamers.
The App “Canvas” allowed me to delve deeper into my own mind by giving instructions of how to create an image of the structure of the blog entries on this webpage. Of course, it is not (yet) a real AI-generated content map, but it is only a matter of time until such tools will exist. After all, this would be just an arranged and rearranged list of contents using the hyperlink structure of the texts as well.
For the time being, I derive my own structure of the blog entries by topics, categories and tags including the hyperlinks or internal referrals. Interlinkages are mostly stated explicitly. However, there are many implicit links, which are obvious to some, but not others. AI-systems could use occurrences of words,  synonyms and antonyms . Colors in addition to bubble sizes and (in)direct lines may complement such mindmaps. This can help to reveal another, additional layer to connections between categories or tags. The Ai-generated image shown below was created with the APP Canvas as a first approximation and AI-augmented test version in form of abstract images).
Next steps on the way to understand human intelligence and, maybe, augment it with a next generation AI-system would use a colored-3D version of such a mindmap and use the chronological evolution of the blog posts in a kind of evolutionary animation. This should allow us to go beyond the usual psychological classification of fluid and crystallized intelligence. We might come to grips what it means to be “in a Paris state of mind” or when hallucinations become overwhelming.

Screenshot
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Hallucinations

In the 21st century hallucinations have become a daily experience. The origins of the word can be followed back at least to the Latin verb “alucinor”, best translated with “to hallucinate”. As a verb to can conjugate it, meaning that I can do it, you can do it, s/he can do it, and we may do it in groups. Roman emperors did it, American presidents do it and, of course, AI does it. Hence, it is a great subject to study.
In “Nature” 2025 we find ways to limit hallucinations of AI systems. The strategy consists mainly in repeated queries of the same type, but from different angles. It is a bit like cubism applied to informatics. On “github.com” we can follow the rankings of AI-models using LLMs based on the “hallucination-leaderboard” developed by Vectara. On “huggingface.com” you can test the Hughes Hallucination Evaluation Model. For example it is possible to run a test of your own small text documents (just like any blog entry on this webpage) and what the AI systems will do them in an attempt to summarize your ideas. According to the “hallucination-leaderboard” we are confronted with a 1.3%-4% hallucination rate of the top 25 LLMs as AI-systems. In text based systems the quantity of “errors” is a first indicator only. The seriousness of the omission, addition of wrong information or an erroneous judgment will be left to the reader or analyst to uncover.
There is now a lot to do to test various AI-systems on their “trustworthiness” in summarizing my own work. My very own daily hallucinations have become a large data base as a test case for the capacity of LLMs to make sense of them.
Based on the series of passed blog entries I shall test the capacity of AI to predict the n+1 blog entry. It would be great to know today what I am going to write about tomorrow etc. Thanks to AI I shall have (finally) a sort of intellectual life after death (not sure whether I should want this). Enough of hallucinations and on hallucinations for now, back to serious readings or fictionalized science. (Image: extract from Delphine Diallo, Kush, 2024 at Hangar Gallery Brussels).

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Corridorisation Connectivity

In some cities, “I love Paris” (Jazz Song), we admire the “breath-taking” large corridors, right in the centre of the city. This has been the outcome of the urban planning in the 18th century. Haussmann designed large parts of Paris with huge corridors despite the medieval narrow streets in some of the arrondisements”. Ease of traffic, fewer riots and representative housing became the new mantra of urban planning and superb boulevards.
In the 21st century it is about time to question the notion and social process of corridorisation. This has been accomplished in a paper by Fatima Tassadq et al. (2025). Modern infrastructure like fibre-optic cables, energy or water networks are easiest to deploy in urban spaces with large corridors than the complex narrow inner cities with supposition of different kinds of network layers. The grand ideas of the 18th century should be questioned from time to time and some districts that have escaped the corridorisation might well have a particular charm about them, maybe just because they seem to escape the rational approach of making and structuring space by means of large corridors. Large corridors separate city districts and they are a major driving force of gentrification.
The rationality of corridors has some roots in maths or physics of complexity. A recent paper by Shanshan Wang et al. (2024) reports the surprising finding that the transport corridors in several cities across the globe allow for a 1.3 times the distance of transport networks compared to the so-called direct linear “bird’s flight line”. Hence, corridorisation is (has been) a rather pervasively applied model of urban planning.
Alternative approaches advocate in favor of the 15-minutes walking distance city. All amenities like shops, schools, maybe work and services should be reachable within a 15 minutes walk. This does include “walking corridors” that facilitate (social) connectivity in inner cities. Cyclists also claim their corridors or fast lanes across cities, which underlines the pertinence to take corridorisation seriously and apply the concept with care.
In any case, social connectivity is key. The big social media platforms operate similar to the traffic infrastructure in the 21st century and provide huge corridors to knowledge and people. We only realize this once a service (for example tiktok) or the internet altogether gets disconnected. We have moved from (social) categorisation to (social) corridorisation as technology and rationalisation have taken the upper hand to structure our (social) lives.

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Modular books

Online publishing offers much more flexible forms of publishing. Even traditional book formats can be organized in new ways. Instead of a fixed sequence of chapters, paragraphs or blog entries, the sequence becomes a matter of choice. Either in the author’s hand or in the hands of readers, the cruising through content allows very individual experiences of what still is the same content. Just as learning, which is ultimately an individualized process, the reading or scrolling through content creates singular experiences with the content. Several choices of more in depth reading should keep the reader interesting to dig further along the personal knowledge trajectory according to own prior interests.
The motivation of a person to read depends on the reader’s own interests and current situation or context. The “state of mind” constitutes the willingness to stop at certain pages or entries. The search function, keywords or tags allow to deviate from an author’s intended sequence of chapters. An online textbook has easy entry and exit points. They are not predetermined. The risk, however, is that the reader stops at a point without loose ends, somehow in expectation of a conclusion of a succinct summary. That’s probably the easiest job for any AI system, based on a series of entries.
However, the joy of the journey through knowledge gets lost through the use of AI as a short cut. Just like physical exercise rewards you with additional strength, mental exercise keeps us healthy.
Traditional predefined sequences – like books, e-books or flip-books are also available on this webpage either through the post archive or the continuously growing books, e-books or flip-books page.

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Health Tech

Health technology assessment (HTA) is an interesting scientific field. The new digital opportunities allow people to participate in medical and medication trials in their homes or even in bed. Their health data and the administration of medication is also encouraged and sometimes supported through digital devices. The pharma and health industries have many devices ready to go. The differences to the traditional forms of medical trials, however, is an issue as we want to compare the results from both kinds of trials. Participants of trials, might prefer or struggle with these novel kinds of study designs. In any case the results will be impacted in several forms (Study Link). In the best of all worlds for the researcher the effects will cancel out each other, but is rather unlikely. Some participants will reach more positive effects with the use of digital tools, whereas others are challenged and might even abandon during the trial. Monitoring during the study (for example through digital inhalors) is another advantage of such distributed trials. Rather than taking adherence to a trial medication for granted, digital tools allow a more precise monitoring of subgroups as well. Data and effort invested in the trial is preserved through the easier access to person’s information, assuming continuous readiness to stay on in the trial.
Our own smartphones are still underexploited in terms of health monitoring and use in research designs. The possibilities to link data to other external data sources shall further advance the research potentials in many interesting ways. Data protection and data security become even more important with the ever smarter phones and connected devices.

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Health data

2025 will be a crucial year for health data across the EU. Germany introduced the electronic patient card, which can store basic information to then access data in the health insurance cloud for medical doctors, hospitals and other related health services. Potentially this is a great step ahead as some tests do not have to be repeated if they had been completed recently before already.

In pseudomised form, research may draw samples from such databases to enhance our science based understanding of disease. The evaluation of public health interventions becomes easier and medium and long term efficiency of measures can be assessed in many instances.
The Belgian research using health data has met to discuss the potential and limitations to link health data to other data sources to allow more complete and more complex analyses of health and disease processes. Another extensive data source sits on our smartphone. Collection of steps walked, sleep patterns or heart beats give valuable insights into a person’s own contribution and care about personal health. Although data are frequently incomplete, researchers are used to estimate missing data on the basis of existing or comparable person’s data. The basis for improving health for all are quite promising, data handling and linking them will be a challenge to the competence of all stakeholders and everyone involved in better health. It will be stressful before it becomes a routine.

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Sociolegal Circularity

At times legal systems feel like going round in circles. Legal procedures move from one stage to the next and they may get referred back to the previous instance to resolve a particular issue or restart the procedure. This has good reasons with the aim of “doing justice”. Sociolegal circularity, however, begins before the, right at the beginning and negotiation of legislation on which all legal systems are based in democracies, that is. Hence, the legal definition of waste, recycling as part of the circular economy and society is rather crucial.
Circularity is a complex sociolegal issue as the example of PFAS in plastics demonstrate. In economic theory the existence of externalities invites profit seeking of the kind like: “the sea in large part is owned by us all and there is no price attached to the (ab)use of it. Dumb PFAS into the sea, because the costs of cleaning up will be shared by all of us”. In order to limit the extent of this economic logic, we have to rely on sociolegal processes. The precise definition of property rights and liabilities beyond the PFAS issue have to be well-defined. It is an intergenerational topic as well, not only in view of deferred payments.
Parliaments have to be rather competent to look through all the complex issues of producing and recycling of materials to make sound provisions in law including future generations. Going round in circles in parliament is yet another element of necessary condition of circularity in a rather broad sense.
The air we breathe and the water we drink have become part of this “economic externality”, which is a very internal, inside of our body kind of sociolegal affair. Who is responsible for the bad air we breathe and the contaminated water we drink? Air and water have for a long time become marketable products. The more your local water is polluted, the more we are forced to buy water. The more the air in inner cities is filled with fine dust particles, the more medical doctors, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities we need to construct.
For GDP calculations these are win-win-win situations, although they make us all worse off. Society and politics are in charge to define and redefine (yes, circles again) the legal basis with a lot of precision and scientific detail. Sociolegal circularity is key. You just have to turn it in the right direction.
(Image, Palais de Justice, Brussels view from Forest district).

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Cupid at Work

The last 11 entries in this blog focus on  conceptual thoughts as a contribution to the history of ideas with an extension to modern concepts. Our societies, management of companies and personal  development are conceived under the conceptual framework of these concepts. Take the 1st letter of each term and it reads like “cupid at work“, easy to remember and enumerate.
Take each term as  a prism through which you frame your life course, an enterprise or a society. The 3 levels by 11 concepts matrix is a starting point to scan empirical examples for substance.
Complexity, Uncertainty, Plurality, Intersectionality, Dosage.

Ambiguity, Temporality,

Woke-ability, Organics, Resilience, Keys,
(Image: Peter van Lint, Jupiter embraces Cupid, 1636, MRBAB 2024)

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On Keys

Keys may open multiple doors. Even a single key can open many locks, if constructed in the appropriate way. The obverse of key is also key, at least in the function of keys to lock doors. Hence the trick of the key is its dialectic function (open/close) of access. We practice the functioning of this binary thinking (1= open, 0= closed) several times a day. Even binary thinking can become very complex in case you consider a bunch of keys or organized as a ring of keys. With a plurality of locations or rooms (home, work, leisure) the uncertainty to have the fitting key to the lock in question at your disposable becomes a bit of a puzzle. Here we are, trial and error enter the stage for most of us. Don’t worry, there are digital tools to solve the problem for you, but then the whole issue of trust comes into play more forcefully. Sharing is not only caring, but also daring. Transponders replace keys and passwords have become the new “passe partout”. This leads to the brave new world of encryption as the keyfactor for security. Encryption is key. Are you already encrypting or still turning keys?
Keys are key to understanding as well. Artists in Berlin-Schöneberg combined the portraits of persons and their bundles of keys next to each other. Keys seem to reveal key personality traits of a person. Life course researchers may investigate the “first ownership” of a key to a room, an apartment or the family home as a factor of independence, even freedom to move. Handing over the keys of a car or your home to a significant other may mark looming restrictions due to health issues.
Anyway, what is your favourite key in music? More a fan of serial music or 12-tone music?

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On Resilience

There are at least 2 definitions of resilience: (1) a material definition points at the “ability to return to an original form or position after being compressed, extended or curved, and (2) a immaterial or psychological definition. The latter one describes the ability to recover, be happy or successful anew having overcome a bad or challenging experience. The American psychological literature defines resilience in the shortest form as “positive adaptation despite adversity”. The psychological construct is linked to a positive life span perspective of personal development. Other areas of application range from “resilient investments”, “resilient industries” to single resilient societies or intergovernmental organizations like the European Union or NATO.
The challenges to resilience increase with complexity of societies and social as well as technical systems. As supply chains have become longer in time and travelling longer distances as well, the improvement of resilience has become a steep challenge for globalization. Reorganizing supply chains with “own sourcing” as in countries which are cut-off from international trade will have huge consequences on sending and receiving countries.
Last, but not least, countries like Ukraine demonstrate the fact and virtue of resilience after more than 1000 days of the massive Russian invasion of its country, which threatened its survival. Resilience works best in networks of organizations and countries. Solidarity is a fundamental building block of resilience as well. Donations and funds support activities that foster resilience.

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On Organics

Organics are the new hype. Organics are everywhere. It is true in organic chemistry, biochemistry or pharmaceutical biochemistry we start from organic compounds as the basis for various forms of classification systems, structures and reaction chains. A search for organics brings you to Organic Farming and to lots of other applications of organic production as well as organic design.
The extended definitions highlight the foundation in biology and chemistry to then include any processes which integrate cyclical reproduction or resources and conservation of biodiversity. Based on the plurality of forms and connectivity of organic compounds this leads to a vast and diversified basis of carbon- and hydrogen-based life on earth. The ensuing complexity (variety of species) has been the basis for mankind to come into being. It is likely to determine also our survival in the long run. Organics is based on open as well as closed forms and therefore has an encompassing nature. Depending on time and space constellations (temporality) evolution has taken one or the other path. We are certainly not at the end of this evolution, although we through the loss of biodiversity we narrow down new potentials in an unprecedented way. Rethinking life on earth from a cell-based perspective of plastics and chloroplasts is a challenge, but it will lead us on towards the “organic turn” in the 21st century.

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On Temporality

Time is passing, or is it? We tend to confound time, with passing of time or an occurrence at a specific point in time. Time has a static use, which refers to a date of birth or date of death. Time refers to durations like the lifetime or time in office of a person or a political leader. In most such cases time is considered as a continuous and linear process. The concept of temporality questions these common perspectives on time to allow additional time perspectives in the description and understanding of time.
Temporality is linked to a more flexible view on the periodization of history. The time before and after the 12 years of Nazi-terror will then be part of the extended periodization of the Nazi-Regime in Germany and Europe. Similarly, temporality widens the perspective on social phenomena by linking historical events to the time before and maybe even to what follows, seen as a consequence of the temporal and spacial co-evolution.
A deviation from the static view of time and a rigid periodization of fascism allows to study the Russian male dominated political authoritarianism as a new wave of fascism in Europe, which negates the right of existence of the state of Ukraine in its neighborhood.
Temporality expresses the need to go beyond a simplel periodization to include a spacial dimension  in the defintion of time, much like modern physics does in relativity theory. Temporality, therefore, opens up a “thought space” beyond just the timing of events, which may challenge many of our day-to-day experiences. Cultures with a different understanding of time or the pace of time become a “sound board” for our way of considering and being captured in a time space. Probably many artists are forerunners in playing with time and the way time is “treating” them. Most of them face(d) hardship during their lifetime, but have an extended “after life” in terms of reputation. Some contribute to the perodization in the arts and of their time. They all shape(d) temporality.
(Image: extract from Hans Bol, 1593 Ring Jousing in front of a pond inan  imaginary city, MRBAB, Brussels)

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On ambiguity

Ambiguity is defines as something which can have more than precisely defined meaning. In legal affairs or other domains this may cause confusion and invites discussions or clarification. It has become even a personality trait and a competence to endure ambiguity. If a manager distributes tasks, ambiguity creates a potential for misunderstanding. However, ambiguity may also leave room for self-organization that people might like or be afraid of. Hence. handling of ambiguity is something of a skill that you are able to operate in less well or even undefined situations or circumstances. In such cases you have make decisions yourself and take responsibility later on for your decision. Creating ambiguity or ambiguous situations is a technique in art as well. To throw into doubt what previously was the received wisdom challenges people and institutions. The ways to handle ambiguity become a challenge to the performance of individuals or institutions. In dialectic thinking you think of something as well as the opposite. The result is an ambiguity which you might want to resolve. Quantum physics created a similar challenge to classical physics as more than one kind of behavior of particles is possible. Ambiguity might be more the rule than the exception despite our continuous efforts to disentangle ambiguity.

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On Dosage

  1. Dosage is key. We all know it from everyday expériences. Certainly from drinking alcohol we know the tricks that dosage can have on us. Consumption in small doses is fine and enjoyable, but larger amounts cause all sorts of trouble. In pharmacology the effect of dosage is applied with particular virtue. Small doses even of a poison can have beneficial effects. More of rhe same might well kill you. The same rationale applies to other fields as well. Physiological training effects depend a lot on the right amount of training and the timings or intervals between training sessions. In managerial, economic or social applications the question is not only about what is the right remedy, but also how much of it. The interest rate decisions of central bankers are mostly concerned with dosage rather than « whatever it takes ». A minimum wage increase is equally about dosage and we all have additional examples.
    Even in art, take painting or music, dose and pose, that is the question. It is quite surprising that such an overarching issue has received rather little attention, comparatively or only among specialists in each field.
    It appears strange, but it is possible to have only a little bit of war, as opposed to comprehensive conflict. The applications of dosage are manifold.
    Learning about dosage might prevent binge learning at first and binge viewing later on. In the age of tiktok and social media, dosage has become a key competence. (Image Extract of Gustave Courbet Die Welle 1870, Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin).
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On Intersectionality

Society deals with individualization or individualism in various forms. One way is to take each social group as a specific singular case. This is reasonable and justified in many instances. There are cases where this form of dealing with specific social groups comes to limits. Following the rationale of plurality and individualism it has become common practice to address each target group in a specific manner. Intersectionality, however, acknowledges the overlapping of target groups, which necessitates a more specialized approach to intersecting (social) phenomena. Gender might not be the single most important factor to describe a person, just as age is a concept of various intersections. Chronological age versus age defined through biomarkers demonstrate the variety and potential for intersectionality. The Paralympics 2024 in Paris gave another positive example of intersectionality as extraordinary persons achieved previously unimaginable world records in specicialized disciplines. Individualization and classification is only a first step in the scientific endeavour, the analysis of intersectionality is an additional step to consider in a broad range of fields beyond the social sciences.
(Image: Exposition Isa Genzken 75/75 in Neue Nationalgalerie 2023)

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On Complexity

The famous quote from Marc Bloch on complexity with reference to history states that history is always more complex than a single perspective or interpretation suggests. Therefore, it is advisable to consider several perspectives on the same subject and, maybe, add another one. In maths the term complexity is probably primarily understood in the sense of complex numbers that go well beyond the arithmetic of counting. Many dimensions of a complex problem might, first of all, necessitate a thick description of the problem to then identify (scientific) disciplines that might contribute to disentangle the intermingled lot. Most of the time it is assumed that a single discipline could resolve the issue, but as in the example from Marc Bloch on complexity in historical research, different perspectives like the cubist art movement practiced a complex approach to painting and depicting a figure. Accept complexity as the rule rather than the exception and here we are in the middle of today. Unfortunately, too many people want to escape from the complexity around us by pretending to have easy answers to complex issues. (Image: Le Penseur by Rodin, background paintings by Monet, Berlin Alte Nationalgalerie, 2024)

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Science Fraud

It is a big issue if publications in science in high reputation journals have managed to pass a rather lengthy and thorough peer review process and still contain evidence based on fraudulent data. The worst case scenario that based on this wrong evidence tests of useless drugs are performed on patients in hope of an honest concern for their health. In fact the financial rewards and even academic rewards have been achieved only through the successful publication of a bias introduced into the data and/or analyses of the data. The fraudulent researcher became subsequently Director of the institute of agingwhoch is part of the American National Institute of Health (NIH) and an academic reference in health sciences far beyond the USA. It is the merit of Charles Piller and his team to persist in challenging the treatment recommendations which were concerning Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases. The checks and balances in the academic research have failed and a serious reconsideration of the procedures should follow, not just business as usual. The reputation of scientific research is at stake beyond the natural sciences and medicine, although the normal way of proceeding is just to qualify such events as singularity and specific to a single discipline. Aging is also not just treated by one single discipline. Hence, there is a need to review the review process and publication practices. The Boeing airplane control failures were also indicating that reviews of technology are subject to high risks. Independent checks and control are hard to ensure in advanced subject matters, but sufficient time and resources have to be devoted to the process. (Image Repair Lab Deutsches Technikmuseum DTM2024).

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AI Nobel

Artificial Intelligence has made it into the ranks of Nobel prizes in 2024. As AI is been talked about everywhere by now the Nobel Committee has deemed it expedient to award Hopfield and Hinton the Nobel Prize not in informatics, this does not exist (yet), but in physics. Neural networks focus on the links between bits of information rather than just the sheer number of data points mimics the functioning of our brains. The most remarkable statement by Hinton is probably the one of the also dangerous potential of this invention. He has already issued a disclaimer on the potential of AI in warfare or other ways to impinge on our human idea of freedoms. The discovery of the applications, good and bad, of these AI-based systems has just begun. The comparison with Nobel‘s original discovery and mass production of explosives from which the prize draws its name has hardly been more adequate recently. (Image stockholm City Library)

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Happy Biology

At first glance happiness from a biological perspective is easy to understand. Its hormones, stupid, that regulates it all. Only problem, there are many of them that interact and, apparently, a lot depends on the right dosis and duration of exposure or deficiency. Oxytocin deficiency seems to be a corollary of anxiety and lack of pro-social behavior, potentially making people less happy – to put it bluntly. There are other complex interactions between hormones not only in the circadian circle of humans like for cortisol, but also related to differential reactions to stress. Genetics and epigenetics are involved as well stress regulation and early exposition to stress during the life course has longer lasting consequences later on. How much stress is good for you? Climbing Mountains induces physical stress, but most people report lasting happiness referring back to such singular events. Hormones seem to play tricks with us as well.
Some time after the novel “Klara and the Sun“, endocrinologists have documented the positive effect of a robot on oxytocin levels in humans. Improvements to mental health and well-being are apparently easy considering that oxytocin is a driver of feeling happy as well. Maybe we should take our depressors and drivers of oxytocin more seriously to be “biologically” happy.
(Image: Extrait Frans Hals 1660, Catharina Hooft and her nurse. Exhibition Gemäldegalerie Berlin 2024)

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Nature Spectrum

When it comes to colors, nature has shown us the way forward for a long time. Before mankind „invented“ bionics, nature had opened up the full spectrum of colors. It took us thousands of years to understand how to recreate the colors of something technically rather simple like the rainbow. The colors continue to impress us independent of our cultural background. More interesting than, maybe the Atomium in Brussels, is the almost daily reproduction of a rainbow in a park in Brussels (park Bois de la Cambre). All it needs is a sunny day, water fountains and the right angle of observation. It is magic, but still simple science. Enjoy.