Can computers carry content ‘inexplicitly’?

I examine whether it is possible for content relevant to a computer's behavior to be carried without an explicit internal representation. I consider three approaches. First, an example of a chess playing computer carrying emergent content is offered from Dennett. Next I examine Cummins response to this example. Cummins says Dennett's computer executes a rule which is inexplicitly represented. Cummins describes a process wherein a computer interprets explicit rules in its program, implements them to form a chess-playing device, then this device executes the rules in a way that exhibits them inexplicitly. Though this approach is intriguing, I argue that the chess-playing device cannot exist as imagined. The processes of interpretation and implementation produce explicit representations of the content claimed to be inexplicit. Finally, the Chinese Room argument is examined and shown not to save the notion of inexplicit information. This means the strategy of attributing inexplicit content to a computer which is executing a rule, fails.I wish to thank Fred Dretske, JOhn Perry, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions. Earlier versions of this paper were read at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting in San Francisco in March, 1993, and at the 7th International Conference on Computing and Philosophy in Orlando in August, 1992.     

A changing society and problems of method: a politically committed research type

This essay examines a politically engaged research genre, which follows the biography of the author who founded two journals: one on mathematical models published in English (Quality and Quantity) and one on politically committed social and economic research published in Italian (Inchiesta). The research considered focuses on Italy in the 1950s, the research by Lazarsfeld in Vienna in the 1920s and in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, and post-1968 politically committed research in Italy. The analysis of such politically committed types of research (all very different from one another in terms of the interpretative model of reality, the methods used and the relations with the tendering party and the people observed) allows one to understand how this kind of research can be performed with very different methods—all of which do, however, seek to modify reality on the grounds of the research results. The metaphor of the crystal and the flame presented by Italo Calvino in order to classify facts and ideas and styles and feelings can also be used to visualise the polarity (and the difficulty/impossibility of contact) that has always been present in sociology between two different tendencies: towards a discipline that offers the most abstract and objective interpretative model of reality possible with the use of mathematical models (the crystal), and, instead, towards a discipline in which an interpretative model of reality is central, one that produces a social change and in which the qualitative and quantitative methods utilised are at the service of this change (the flame). This polarity thus allows us to separate first and foremost all the politically committed research performed by others for different purposes (market research, research to verify some theoretical hypotheses, etc.) but the same polarity also lies within the politically committed research. We can, indeed, identify a type of politically committed research in an area that has, at one extreme, research tending towards the utmost objectivity and scientific quality of the results and where the co-ordinators try to have all the information on the subjects maintaining the greatest possible distance (the subjects must not know they are being observed); at the other extreme, there is a type of research in which the coordinator completely involves the subjects in the gathering of information that will serve to realise a piece of research whose political aims are explicitly shared. For the identification of a sufficiently articulated typology it has been important to consider five dimensions of politically committed research: (a) the characteristics of the research coordinator (his/her belonging to the type and the academic/non-academic professional status) and his/her interpretative model of reality (b) some general characteristics of the research (the tender and funding, the topic choice, the aims, the contributions to the sociological theory, the duration); (c) the research coordinators relations with the political actors (the intensity of the relations, the political use of the research); (d) the relations of the research co-ordinator with the research subjects; (e) the methodological choices (the basic strategies, the methods used, the use of mathematical procedures). The research that exemplifies this typology is all politically committed to the left and was realised in different times and contexts. I start by considering a kind of politically engaged research (co-research) that appeared in Italy in the 1950s; I then analyse two types of politically engaged research realised in Austria at the end of the 1920s and one in the United States in the 1950s; there then follow two kinds of research realised in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States and a further two kinds realised in Italy in the 1970s and early 1980s. In order to have other kinds of research please refer to the two Journals of which I am the editor: one is an English language journal of mathematical models (Quality and Quantity, International Journal of Methodology, founded in 1966 and published today by Kluwer of Amsterdam), and a politically engaged review (Inchiesta, founded in 1971 and still published today by Dedalo of Bari).     

高速轧机润滑油品含水率实时检测系统的设计与应用

本文简要介绍了高速轧机润滑油品含水率实时检测系统的设计内容与应用情况,本系统使用效果明显,在国内本专业领域处于领先地位。     

SWD型溶液水分测定仪在工作电解液水分测定中的应用

叙述了ＳＷＤ型溶液水分测定仪的设计思想、工作原理等，该仪器可在各种溶液中直接测定含水量，通过实例说明该仪器也可广泛用于电解电容器厂家生产工作电解液中的水分测定；又采用特殊结构和温度补偿器可获得过去没有的性能优良、价格低廉的水分测定仪，可望扩大其用途。     

ALPUR除气装置在25 t熔铸生产线中的应用

25 t燃油熔铝炉熔炼的铝合金熔体中氢含量较高,配备ALPUR除气净化装置,通过合理使用,达到了满意的除氢效果,保证了铸锭的内部质量。     

构树韧皮的化学成分定量分析

对同一品种构树韧皮的化学成分进行了定量分析,结果表明构皮与其他韧皮类纤维原料的化学成分基本相同,但含量差别较大,纤维素含量为43.13%。     

磷酸酯化淀粉的高效湿法合成研究

本研究选用磷酸盐组合物,进行在低温下的淀粉高效磷酸酯化反应。结果表明,在湿法的低温条件下,采用适当的复合磷酸盐及反应促进体系,体系中淀粉浓度在40%～42%,磷酸氢二钠和磷酸二氢钠的比例为0.5,复合盐用量15%,pH保持在5～6之间,50℃反应5 h,Gx16在1%～5%的用量,可以显著提高淀粉的磷酸酯化程度(以结合磷含量表示),同时由于反应效率的提高,使湿法的反应均匀性,残留磷酸盐含量可控性,流程简洁、方便等优势得以突出,对比现实的生产工艺,该方法在稳定质量、节能降耗、减少污染排放等方面都极具优势,有重要的推广价值。     

一种新的TOC含量拟合方法研究与应用

由于取样的限制,通常在烃源岩评价中往往只能获得十分有限的实测烃源岩的TOC含量数据。但随着我国多数盆地精细勘探的深入,需要更加精细的烃源岩评价,因此,人们对测井数据拟合烃源岩的TOC含量变化越来越重视。目前该技术最先进的是人工神经网络拟合方法,但多种神经网络在拟合高成熟度碳酸盐岩烃源岩地层的TOC含量时相关性均不够高。针对研究区内烃源岩的特点,尝试了一种用图版分类-模糊排队-BP神经网络联合拟合TOC含量的新方法。利用该方法对鄂尔多斯盆地马家沟组的测井资料和实测总有机碳资料进行数据处理,将结果与ΔlogR方法、模糊神经网络方法的结果相比较,证实该方法的结果与实测值有更好的相关性,为系统了解鄂尔多斯盆地下古生界烃源岩发育提供了一定的科学依据。     

油气“四定”测井评价方法探讨

测井解释成果是储层参数计算和油气评价的基础,为油田地质及开发研究提供重要数据依据。随着油气勘探及开发逐步转向"深、低、非、老",测井解释面临"低信噪比、低对比度、多因素",其解释方法不一、涉及的数学方法和计算步骤不同,在实际应用中存在优劣差异。基于此,提出"定性评价油气层位、定量评价油气含量、定域评价油气分布、定向评价油气通道",并从目标、手段、分析方法、输出结果等进行内涵阐述,梳理出"四定"的具体研究方法,该方法的深入应用,能够进一步拓展测井在油田全生命周期的作用,将为测井评价技术及其发展提供借鉴。     

Martensitic transformation of Ti50Ni30Cu20 alloy prepared by powder metallurgy

Phase transformation behavior of Ti50Ni30Cu20 shape memory alloys prepared by powder metallurgy is analyzed with respect to the duration of mechanical alloying. The processed blends were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and room temperature X-ray diffraction. The martensitic transformations evidenced by thermal scans are discussed in correlation with the relative phase content obtained from the refinement of the X-ray diffraction patterns.