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The effects of biometrics on the understanding of who we are

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Starting from the German idealism perspective of subjectivity formation, and advancing to the post-Hegelian tradition, in this paper I defend the necessity of praising our bodies as the primary source defining who we are. That means that any technology dealing directly with the materiality of our bodies should be looked at with attention, and the leading technology doing so is biometrics, for instance when we use face recognition to unlock our cellphones or a fingerprint reader to access our computers. Karen Spisso I am a philosopher-to-be living and studying in Vienna. I started my career in Brazil studying German Philosophy and pedagogy applied to Philosophy. My main academic interests are the early writings of Karl Marx, Critical Theory, and History and Methodology of Economics. The effects of biometrics on the understanding of who we are When my finger presses the biometric reader, and my body is encoded, the device reduces a part of me to a set of skin ridges and valleys, 1’s and

How to 'deepfake' you way to military victory

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  How to ‘deepfake’ your way to military victory A short overview over ‘deepfakes’ and their implications for modern societies in times of rising international tension ‘Deepfakes’ heavily rely on complex neural networks that need quite a bit of training data in order to create a realistic image, sound or video. This essentially led to a ‘deepfake’ economy in which we are seemingly willingly, but still unknowingly participating. Yet, this ignorance does not mean ‘deepfakes’ cannot be used against us, especially in times of rising international tension.  Jessica Fazekas Jessica Fazekas has a Bachelor of Education in Psychology & Philosophy as well as History from the University of Vienna and is currently in the Master's teachers program. Additionally, she works part-time for the Austrian Ministry of Education. ‘Deepfakes’ and war During the last few months, even the most politically adverse people have become familiar with the Ukrainian comedian who portrayed a president only to

The Last Supper?

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  The Last Supper? – Why new technologies are essential for feeding a growing world population Post image (taken from Pixabay , no attribution required) Disclaimer: This text was written in July 2022, and the links were then checked for the last time. I am not responsible for the accuracy, legality or content of the provided links or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content. The world population is growing, and at the same time the challenges to feed the people are increasing. One possibility to improve the yields of farmers is CRISPR-Cas9, a gene editing tool. But many people express concerns about the use of such means. In this essay, advantages and disadvantages of CRISPR-Cas9 are considered from an ethical point of view. The author: Cornelius-C. Thywissen, born in a farmer’s household in Germany, achieved a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2021.