To Örebro University

Kan en intelligent maskin tänka? Hur kommer robotar att se ut i framtiden? Vad betyder ”djup maskininlärning”? Har det uppstått en klyfta mellan de människor som förstår sig på ny teknik och de som är rädda för den? Är det möjligt att människor och intelligenta maskiner kommer att förenas till en ny art? I AI och robotar på 30 sekunder hittar du svaren på dessa frågor och mycket mer. De 50 mest betydelsefulla upptäckterna inom utvecklingen av intelligenta maskiner presenteras i korta, lättillgängliga texter. Är du det minsta nyfiken på den teknologiska revolution som håller på att omskapa hela vår tillvaro har du hittat rätt bok. Den är en mångsidig vägvisaresom hjälper dig att navigera i den nya automatiserade verkligheten med ständigt närvarande datorer, smarta hem och städer och robotkolleger. Bokens redaktör Luis de Miranda är filosof och idéhistoriker och forskar om samspelet mellan människor och robotar, digital kultur och teknikens allt viktigare roll i vårt dagliga liv. För närvarande arbetar han med AI och digital humaniora vid Örebro universitet.

A cultural and philosophical history of neon, from Paris in the twentieth century to the perpetually switched-on present day.

For most of us, the word neon conjures images of lights, colors, nightlife, and streets. It evokes the poetry of city nights. For Luis de Miranda, neon is a subject of philosophical curiosity. Being and Neonness is a cultural and philosophical history of neon, from early twentieth-century Paris to the electric, perpetually switched-on present day Manhattan. It is an inspired journey through a century of night, deciphering the halos of the past and the reflections of the present to shed light on the future.

Invented in Paris in 1912, neon first appeared on a modest but arresting sign outside a small barbershop; the sign lit up number 14, Boulevard Montmartre, attracting so many passersby that the barber's revenues soon doubled. A century later, neon is no longer just a sign; it is a mythic object—a metonymy of contemporary identity and a metaphor for the present, signifying the ubiquity of commerce and the tautology of hypermodernity. But perhaps the noble gas of neon whispers something more, something deeper? In ten short, poetic yet precise chapters, de Miranda explores the neon lights of the twentieth century. He considers, among other historical curiosities, the neon compulsions of the Italian Futurists; the Soviet program of “neonization”; the Nazi's deployment of neon for propaganda purposes; Baudelaire's “halo” and Benjamin's “aura”; neon as a gas and crystallized chaos; neon and power; neon and capitalism—all of this backlit by an original reading of Sartre's Being and Nothingness. This English edition has been thoroughly revised and adapted from the French edition, L'être et le neon.

 The witness seminar ”Datacentralerna för högre utbildning och forskning” [The Data Processing Centres for Higher Education and Research] was held at Tekniska museet [The National Museum of Science and Technology] in Stockholm on 27 March 2008 and was led by professor Sture Allén. The main questions dealt with the introduction of the data processing centres, its development and influence on higher education and research, as well as the closure and transformation of the centres. The centres came into existence because of the great expenses that were connected to the acquisition of computers. In the witness seminar different views were represented, such as the one of The Swedish Agency for Public Management which was responsible for the acquisition, the managers of the centres as well as the users of the centres. The centres have had a great influence on both education and research and have affected the mode of working with computers. Among other things, the creation and use of different programs emerged at the centres.

 The witness seminar ”Högre dataubildningar i Sverige i ett historiskt perspektiv” [Higher Education in the Computers Sciences in Sweden from a Historic Perspective] was held at Tekniska museet [The National Museum of Science and Technology] in Stockholm on 24 January 2008 and was led by Ingemar Dahlstrand. Different aspects of the development of higher education within the computer area were discussed and debated. The witness seminar focused on the expansion of the subject area that grew from Numerical Analysis, Administrative Data Processing and the area that in the end became Computer Science. The experiences from the different universities were compared and debated. The development of the subject area of computers took various paths at the universities. The experiences of working within a newly established subject area were discussed. These included, among other aspects, the relation to the industry. Also the experiences of having to rely on a centralised system with Data Processing Centres in order to use computers were mentioned.

The witness seminar ”Lysator” was held at Linköpings universitet [University of Linköping] on 21 February 2008 and was led by PhD Lennart Sturesson. Lysator is a student-led society with a focus on computers which was established at the University of Linköping in the early 1970’s. The witness seminar focused on the founding of the society and the driving forces behind this as well as the first activities that took place within the organisation. Besides experimentations with a D21-computer, that was donated by Datasaab, one of the major projects during the 1970s was the construction of the minicomputer LYS 16. The members of Lysator even started selling the computer. Besides the construction of the LYS 16, the membership in a technological orientated organisation that focused on new advancements in technology, was discussed. Some of the later projects of the society carried out in the 1980s were also mentioned, such as RydNet and Projekt Runeberg.

 The modern Swedish state administration is tax administration sector. In the beginning this development today in the frontline when it comes to carry on an effective activity both in a national and an international perspective. One very important factor has been the ability to implement modern information technology. This development started already in the sixties especially in the was very much depending on pioneers and driving spirits. The witness seminar ”ADB i folkbokföring och beskattning” [Computerization Within Civic Registration and Taxation] was held at Tekniska museet [The National Museum of Science and Technology] in Stockholm on 17 January 2008 and was led by the Administrative Services Manager of the Swedish Tax Agency, Alf Nilsson. This seminar illustrates, through persons who were active during the early period, when the tax administration started its work to modernize and simplify its processes both in the tax area but also in civic registration.

 The witness seminar” ADB-tekniken och den Allmänna försäkringen” was held at Tekniska museet [The National Museum of Science and Technology] in Stockholm on 12 February 2008 was led by Olli Aronsson. The ambition to discuss the factors that had the greatest impact on the use of IT in the Swedish Social Security administration during 1960–1990, what was achieved and which were the results of the use of IT. The panel consisted of former senior managers from the Swedish Social Security Agency and from the Swedish Agency for Public Management. These two agencies were very much involved during these three decades in the IT development process. Several new on-line applications were introduced from 1973 i.e. old age pensions, health insurance, child allowance, etc. The large business volumes forced the social security administration to develop its own software for database management, transactions processing and network management that were in the frontline of what the IT industry could develop in these years. The risks involved in such parallel development were underestimated but luckily enough, systems were delivered on time. During the 1980s a lot of investigations were made concerning how to decentralize the system structure. None of those ideas were realized. The effects of the use of IT in the social insurance were that IT proved to be an enabler for fast decided social insurance reforms made by the politicians in the 1970s. In cases like the child allowance the centralized systems proved to reduce false double payments. Staff could also be reduced significantly when applications for the allowances were avoided by new effective data routines between the national registrations system and the social security systems. Since the structure of the systems created in the 1970s were more or less the same over 20 years the economics of the systems were profitable. Due to the organizational structure in the social insurance during this period with a central governmental social security agency and independent regional social security organizations, the full potential of the rationalization was hard to achieve.

The witness seminar “Statskontoret” [The Swedish Agency for Public Management] was held at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm on 5 February 2008 and was led by Lars Dahlberg. Statskontoret, which came under the Ministry of Finance, played an important role in the computerization of the state sector in the 1960s and 1970s. In the beginning of 1963 Statskontoret was given a central and strategic role and parts of its earlier functions were transferred to a state-owned consultancy firm and special organizations (i.e. DAFA). These were set up to run many of the newly developed systems under the control of Statskontoret. Statskontoret’s three different roles in this context were in focus during the seminar. The first was “the system-developer”. The Ministry of Finance insisted that Statskontoret should play an important role –  adding competence but also exerting a certain amount of control – side by side with the agencies which were to use the new computer systems. The second role concerned giving priority to the needs of the different agencies and the financing and purchasing of the computers the agencies needed. Statskontoret was the biggest computer-purchaser in Europe and all the international computer vendors were eager to push their interests. The third role was setting technical standards for the government computer systems. The cooperation between Statskontoret and the different agencies rested on a sort of “power-balance” and worked on the whole quite well. The relationship between Statskontoret and vendors was businesslike. On a few occasions decisions were taken favouring the Swedish computerindustry. Towards the end of 1980s many of the functions that Statskontoret had were delegated to the agencies, which were described in the seminar. Statskontoret kept its role as purchaser and as coordinator and builder of an ITinfrastructure for the public sector and setting standards.