The impact of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms in the age of big data and platform capitalism has not spared scientific research in academia. In this work, we will analyse the use of ML in fundamental physics and its relationship to other cases that directly affect society. We will deal with different aspects of the issue, from a bibliometric analysis of the publications, to a detailed discussion of the literature, to an overview on the productive and working context inside and outside academia. The analysis will be conducted on the basis of three key elements: the non-neutrality of science, understood as its intrinsic relationship with history and society; the non-neutrality of the algorithms, in the sense of the presence of elements that depend on the choices of the programmer, which cannot be eliminated whatever the technological progress is; the problematic nature of a paradigm shift in favour of a data-driven science (and society). The deconstruction of the presumed universality of scientific thought from the inside becomes in this perspective a necessary first step also for any social and political discussion. This is the subject of this work in the case study of ML.
Various models of the information society have been developed so far and they are so different from country to country that it would be rather unwise to look for a single, allencompassing definition. In our time a number of profound socioeconomic changes are underway. The application of these theories and schools on ICT is problematic in many respects. First, as we stated above, there is not a single, widely used paradigm which has synthesised the various schools and theories dealing with technology and society. Second, these fragmented approaches do not have a fully fledged mode of application to the relationship of ICT and (information) society. Third, SCOT, ANT, the evolutionary or the systems approach to the history of technology when dealing with information society does not take into account the results of approaches studying the very essence of the information age: information, communication and knowledge. The list of unnoticed or partially incorporated sciences, which focuses on the role of ICT in human information processing and other cognitive activities, is much longer.
Within the framework of the ViSE (Voting in a Stochastic Environment) model, we examine the dynamics in a society, part of which can be considered an elite. The model allows us to analyze the influence of social attitudes, such as collectivism, individualism, altruism on the well-being of agents. The dynamics is determined by collective decisions and changes in the structure of society, in particular, by the formation of groups of cooperating agents. It is found that the presence of a "responsible elite", combining the support of other agents with limited concern for their own benefit, stabilizes society and eliminates the "pit of losses" paradox. The benefit to society from having a responsible elite is comparable to that from having a prosocial group of the same size. If the elite radically increases the weight of the group component in its combined voting strategy, then its incomes rise sharply, while society's incomes decline. If, in response to the selfish transformation of the elite, a new responsible elite emerges, proportionally larger than the previous one, then society will stabilize again, and the old elite will lose its dominant position. This process can be repeated as
This paper, the second in a series of two, provides a set of recommendations that the American Astronomical Society (AAS) can take to create a more diverse and inclusive professional society for astronomers, with a focus on women astronomers. As noted in Paper I, now is the time for the AAS to take decisive action to transform astronomy into a diverse and inclusive profession. By combining the results of our 2019 survey, which is described in Paper I, peer-reviewed academic literature, and findings from many of the white papers submitted to Astro2020, the CSWA has developed 26 specific actions the AAS can take to help end harassment and bullying in astronomy; advance career development for astronomers who are women, members of other underrepresented groups, and intersections of these populations; and improve the climate and culture of AAS meetings. Actions to reduce rates of harassment and bullying include improvements to the AAS's anti-harassment policies and procedures and the development of astronomy-specific anti-harassment training resources. Actions to advance career development include creating a compensation database, improving how jobs are posted in the AAS Job Register, a
Open data are characterized by a number of economic, technological, innovative and social benefits. They are seen as a significant contributor to the city's transformation into Smart City. This is all the more so when the society is on the border of Society 5.0, i.e., shift from the information society to a super smart society or society of imagination takes place. However, the question constantly asked by open data experts is, what are the key factors to be met and satisfied in order to achieve promised benefits? The current trend of openness suggests that the principle of openness should be followed not only by data but also research, education, software, standard, hardware etc., it should become a philosophy to be followed at different levels, in different domains. This should ensure greater transparency, eliminating inequalities, promoting, and achieving sustainable development goals. Therefore, many agendas now have openness as a prerequisite. This chapter deals with concepts of open (government) data and Society 5.0 pointing to their common objectives, providing some success stories of open data use in smart cities or transformation of cities towards smart cities, mapping the
Most scholars, politicians, and activists are following individualistic theories of privacy and data protection. In contrast, some of the pioneers of the data protection legislation in Germany like Adalbert Podlech, Paul J. Müller, and Ulrich Dammann used a systems theory approach. Following Niklas Luhmann, the aim of data protection is (1) maintaining the functional differentiation of society against the threats posed by the possibilities of modern information processing, and (2) countering undue information power by organized social players. It could be, therefore, no surprise that the first data protection law in the German state of Hesse contained rules to protect the individual as well as the balance of power between the legislative and the executive body of the state. Social networks like Facebook or Google+ do not only endanger their users by exposing them to other users or the public. They constitute, first and foremost, a threat to society as a whole by collecting information about individuals, groups, and organizations from different social systems and combining them in a centralized data bank. They transgress the boundaries between social systems that act as a shield aga
Central America and the Caribbean (CAC) need science development efforts through ambitious projects that require strong regional collaboration. Inspiration can be drawn from initiatives in regions with similar problems. The bottleneck is the scarcity of public research centers and little or no research in private universities. An interesting proposal is the creation of a Dominican "Silicon Beach". The "Central American Science and Technology Fund" should focus on objectives capable of attracting the attention of the non-academic sector, first and foremost policy makers, but also civil society in general. The successful experience of SESAME (" Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in Middle East ") offers an interesting basis for reflection, as it allows scientific research and short-term practical and social applications. Only two of the more than 60 existing synchrotrons are in Latin America, both in Brazil. Together with other similar projects in the South, such as the African Light Source (AFLS), and with the support of SESAME, LNLS and other synchrotrons in the South, it could lead to interesting South-South cooperation, which could be supported by the Eur
A previous study of symmetric collisions of massive nuclei has shown that current models of multi-nucleon transfer (MNT) reactions do not adequately describe the transfer product yields. To gain further insight into this problem, we have measured the yields of MNT products in the interaction of 977 (E/A = 4.79 MeV) and 1143 MeV (E/A = 5.60 MeV) $^{204}$Hg with $^{208}$Pb. We find that the yield of multi-nucleon transfer products are similar in these two reactions and are substantially lower than those observed in the reaction of 1257 MeV (E/A = 6.16 MeV) $^{204}$Hg + $^{198}$Pt. We compare our measurements with the predictions of the GRAZING-F, di-nuclear systems (DNS) and improved quantum molecular dynamics (ImQMD) models. For the observed isotopes of the elements Au, Hg, Tl, Pb and Bi, the measured values of the MNT cross sections are orders of magnitude larger than the predicted values. Furthermore, the various models predict the formation of nuclides near the N=126 shell, which are not observed.
Phosphorus (P) is considered to be one of the key elements for life, making it an important element to look for in the abundance analysis of spectra of stellar systems. Yet, there exists only a handful of spectroscopic studies to estimate the P abundances and investigate its trend across a range of metallicities. We have observed full HK band spectra at a spectral resolving power of R=45,000 with IGRINS instrument. Abundances are determined using SME in combination with 1D MARCS stellar atmosphere models. The investigated sample of stars have reliable stellar parameters estimated using optical FIES spectra (GILD; Jönsson et al. in prep.). In order to determine the P abundances from the 16482.92 Angstrom P line, we take special care of the CO($ν=7-4$) blend. We determine the C, N, O abundances from atomic carbon and a range of non-blended molecular lines (CO, CN, OH) which are aplenty in the H band region of K giant stars, assuring an appropriate modelling of the blending CO($ν=7-4$) line. We present [P/Fe] vs [Fe/H] trend for 38 K giant stars in the metallicity range of -1.2 dex $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ 0.4 dex. We find that our trend matches well with the compiled literature sample of
Can a human society be constrained in such a way that self-organization will thereafter tend to produce outcomes that advance the goals of the society? Such a society would be self-organizing in the sense that individuals who pursue only their own interests would none-the-less act in the interests of the society as a whole, irrespective of any intention to do so. This paper identifies the conditions that must be met if such a self-organizing society is to emerge. It demonstrates that the key enabling requirement for a self-organizing society is consequence-capture. Broadly this means that all agents in the society must capture sufficient of the benefits (and harms) that are produced by their actions on the goals of the society. Consequence-capture can be organized in a society by appropriate management (systems of evolvable constraints) that suppresses free riders and supports pro-social actions. In human societies these constraints include institutions such as systems of governance and social norms. The paper identifies ways of organizing societies so that effective governance will also self-organize. This will produce a fully self-organizing society in which the interests of all
Since its early beginnings, mankind has put to test many different society forms, and this fact raises a complex of interesting questions. The objective of this paper is to present a general population model which takes essential features of any society into account and which gives interesting answers on the basis of only two natural hypotheses. One is that societies want to survive, the second, that individuals in a society would, in general, like to increase their standard of living. We start by presenting a mathematical model, which may be seen as a particular type of a controlled branching process. All conditions of the model are justified and interpreted. After several preliminary results about societies in general we can show that two society forms should attract particular attention, both from a qualitative and a quantitative point of view. These are the so-called weakest-first society and the strongest-first society. In particular we prove then that these two societies stand out since they form an envelope of all possible societies in a sense we will make precise. This result (the envelopment theorem) is seen as significant because it is paralleled with precise survival cri
We have investigated the toroidal analog of ellipsoidal shells of matter, which are of great significance in Astrophysics. The exact formula for the gravitational potential $Ψ(R,Z)$ of a shell with a circular section at the pole of toroidal coordinates is first established. It depends on the mass of the shell, its main radius and axis-ratio $e$ (i.e. core-to-main radius ratio), and involves the product of the complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kinds. Next, we show that successive partial derivatives $\partial^{n +m} Ψ/\partial_{R^n} \partial_{Z^m}$ are also accessible by analytical means at that singular point, thereby enabling the expansion of the interior potential as a bivariate series. Then, we have generated approximations at orders $0$, $1$, $2$ and $3$, corresponding to increasing accuracy. Numerical experiments confirm the great reliability of the approach, in particular for small-to-moderate axis ratios ($e^2 \lesssim 0.1$ typically). In contrast with the ellipsoidal case (Newton's theorem), the potential is not uniform inside the shell cavity as a consequence of the curvature. We explain how to construct the interior potential of toroidal shells with a th
We model the dynamics of social structure by a simple interacting particle system. The social standing of an individual agent is represented by an integer-valued fitness that changes via two offsetting processes. When two agents interact one advances: the fitter with probability p and the less fit with probability 1-p. The fitness of an agent may also decline with rate r. From a scaling analysis of the underlying master equations for the fitness distribution of the population, we find four distinct social structures as a function of the governing parameters p and r. These include: (i) a static lower-class society where all agents have finite fitness; (ii) an upwardly-mobile middle-class society; (iii) a hierarchical society where a finite fraction of the population belongs to a middle class and a complementary fraction to the lower class; (iv) an egalitarian society where all agents are upwardly mobile and have nearly the same fitness. We determine the basic features of the fitness distributions in these four phases.
This collection comprises the abstracts presented during poster, power pitch and oral sessions at the Inaugural Conference of the International Society for Tractography (IST Conference 2025), held in Bordeaux, France, from October 13-16, 2025. The conference was designed to foster meaningful exchange and collaboration between disparate fields. The overall focus was on advancing research, innovation, and community in the common fields of interest: neuroanatomy, tractography methods and scientific/clinical applications of tractography. The included abstracts cover the latest advancements in tractography, Diffusion MRI, and related fields including new work on; neurological and psychiatric disorders, deep brain stimulation targeting, and brain development. This landmark event brought together world-leading experts to discuss critical challenges and chart the future direction of the field.
In a society, a proportion of the individuals can benefit from creativity without being creative themselves by copying the creators. This paper uses an agent-based model of cultural evolution to investigate how society is affected by different levels of individual creativity. We performed a time series analysis of the mean fitness of ideas across the artificial society varying both the percentage of creators, C, and how creative they are, p using two discounting methods. Both analyses revealed a valley in the adaptive landscape, indicating a tradeoff between C and p. The results suggest that excess creativity at the individual level can be detrimental at the level of the society because creators invest in unproven ideas at the expense of propagating proven ideas.
Nearing a century since its inception, quantum mechanics is as lively as ever. Its signature manifestations, such as superposition, wave-particle duality, uncertainty principle, entanglement and nonlocality, were long confronted as weird predictions of an incomplete theory, paradoxes only suitable for philosophical discussions, or mere mathematical artifacts with no counterpart in the physical reality. Nevertheless, decades of progress in the experimental verification and control of quantum systems have routinely proven detractors wrong. While fundamental questions still remain wide open on the foundations and interpretations of quantum mechanics, its modern technological applications have captured the fascination of the general public and are having a transformative impact on society. This brief article acts as Introduction to a Special Issue in the Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society A, following from a dedicated Scientific Discussion Meeting where these fascinating topics were explored, giving rise to stimulating debates among speakers and audience. The present issue thus aims at conveying the spirit of those discussions.
Excess individual creativity can be detrimental to society because creators invest in unproven ideas at the expense of propagating proven ones. Moreover, a proportion of individuals can benefit from creativity without being creative themselves by copying creators. We hypothesized that (1) societies increase their rate of cultural evolution by tempering the novelty-generating effects of creativity with the novelty-preserving effects of imitation, and (2) this is carried out by selectively rewarding and punishing creativity according to the value of the individuals' creative outputs. We tested this using an agent-based model of cultural evolution in which each agent self-regulated its invention-to-imitation ratio as a function of the fitness of its cultural outputs. In self-regulating societies, agents segregated into creators and imitators. The mean fitness of cultural outputs was higher than in non-self-regulating societies, and changes in diversity were rapider and more pronounced. We discuss limitations and possible social implications of our findings.
Eccentric planets may spend a significant portion of their orbits at large distances from their host stars, where low temperatures can cause atmospheric CO2 to condense out onto the surface, similar to the polar ice caps on Mars. The radiative effects on the climates of these planets throughout their orbits would depend on the wavelength-dependent albedo of surface CO2 ice that may accumulate at or near apoastron and vary according to the spectral energy distribution of the host star. To explore these possible effects, we incorporated a CO2 ice-albedo parameterization into a one-dimensional energy balance climate model. With the inclusion of this parameterization, our simulations demonstrated that F-dwarf planets require 29% more orbit-averaged flux to thaw out of global water ice cover compared with simulations that solely use a traditional pure water ice-albedo parameterization. When no eccentricity is assumed, and host stars are varied, F-dwarf planets with higher bond albedos relative to their M-dwarf planet counterparts require 30% more orbit-averaged flux to exit a water snowball state. Additionally, the intense heat experienced at periastron aids eccentric planets in exiting
While an integration by parts formula for the bilinear form of the hypersingular boundary integral operator for the transient heat equation in three spatial dimensions is available in the literature, a proof of this formula seems to be missing. Moreover, the available formula contains an integral term including the time derivative of the fundamental solution of the heat equation, whose interpretation is difficult at second glance. To fill these gaps we provide a rigorous proof of a general version of the integration by parts formula and an alternative representation of the mentioned integral term, which is valid for a certain class of functions including the typical tensor-product discretization spaces.
The label `public interest technology' (PIT) is growing in popularity among those seeking to use `tech for good' - especially among technical practitioners working in civil society and nonprofit organizations. PIT encompasses a broad range of sociotechnical work across professional domains and sectors; however, the trend remains understudied within sociotechnical research. This paper describes a mixed-methods study, designed and conducted by PIT practitioners at the Center for Democracy and Technology, that characterizes technologists within the specific context of civil society, civil rights, and advocacy organizations in North America and Western Europe. We conducted interviews with civil society leaders to investigate how PIT practitioners position the field and themselves, and we held a roundtable discussion bringing diverse voices together to make meaning of this growing phenomenon. Ultimately, we find that PIT remains both defined and plagued by its expansiveness, and that today's civil society public interest technologists see a need for both (a) more robust professionalization infrastructures, including philanthropic attention, and (b) more engaged, coherent community. This