FROST (copy 2): From the John Holmes Library collection.

Professor Eckstein's book is a study of China's efforts to achieve rapid modernization of its economy within a socialist framework. Eckstein begins with an examination of economic development in pre-Communist China, specifically focusing on the resources and liabilities inherited by the new regime in 1949 and their effects on development policies. He then analyses the economic objectives of the Communist leadership - narrowing income disparities, maintaining full employment without inflation, and achieving rapid industrialization - and argues that the implementation of (...) these goals required a potent ideology capable of providing a strong faith and motivational force for the mass mobilization of resources. In discussing the methods used by the government to achieve its aims, Eckstein makes a thorough evaluation of China's general framework for economic planning, particularly in regard to the distribution and pricing of farm products and the allocation of resources in the industrial sector. The author also evaluates the radical institutional changes in property relations and in economic organization in the People's Republic of China. (shrink)

Revolutionary developments in economics are rare. The conservative bias of the field and its enshrined knowledge make it difficult to introduce new ideas not in line with received theory. Happiness research, however, has the potential to change economics substantially in the future. Its findings, which are gradually being taken into account in standard economics, can be considered revolutionary in three respects: the measurement of experienced utility using psychologists' tools for measuring subjective well-being; new insights into how human beings value goods (...) and services and social conditions that include consideration of such non-material values as autonomy and social relations; and policy consequences of these new insights that suggest different ways for government to affect individual well-being. In Happiness, emphasizing empirical evidence rather than theoretical conjectures, Bruno Frey substantiates these three revolutionary claims for happiness research. After tracing the major developments of happiness research in economics and demonstrating that we have gained important new insights into how income, unemployment, inflation, and income demonstration affect well-being, Frey examines such wide-ranging topics as democracy and federalism, self-employment and volunteer work, marriage, terrorism, and watching television from the new perspective of happiness research. Turning to policy implications, Frey describes how government can provide the conditions for people to achieve well-being, arguing that a crucial role is played by adequate political institutions and decentralized decision making. Happiness demonstrates the achievements of the economic happiness revolution and points the way to future research.Bruno S. Frey is Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich, Visiting Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Research Director of CREMA. He is co-editor of Economics and Psychology: A Promising New Cross-Disciplinary Field. (shrink)

The notion of moral exemplarity, though repeatedly alluded to in John Stuart Mill’s writings, is rarely treated as an essential element of his democratic theory. This article, however, highlights and explains the centrality of exemplarity in Mill’s project of fostering public-minded citizens for a successful democracy. In Representative Government, Mill conceives the exemplary influence of deliberative elites as a necessary condition for making local deliberative bodies the main site for the cultivation of a public spirit. Mill’s Romantic reading of Plato’s (...) Gorgias suggests that this move resulted from his radical skepticism about the power of reason to motivate virtuous behavior along with his corresponding faith in the moral exemplar’s aesthetic force of beauty to improve the spectator’s conduct. Mill’s emphasis on the necessity of exemplary influence for achieving a civic ideal based on a detailed account of its moral psychology reveals him to be a unique political thinker who continues to invite contemporary interest. (shrink)

Doubts are raised concerning Rickles' claim that ``an exact analog of the hole argument can be constructed in the loop representation of quantum gravity'' (Rickles, `A new spin on the hole argument', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36 (2005) 415–434).

Multiuser fair sharing of clusters is a classic problem in cluster construction. However, the cluster computing system for hybrid big data applications has the characteristics of heterogeneous requirements, which makes more and more cluster resource managers support fine-grained multidimensional learning resource management. In this context, it is oriented to multiusers of multidimensional learning resources. Shared clusters have become a new topic. A single consideration of a fair-shared cluster will result in a huge waste of resources in the context of discrete (...) and dynamic resource allocation. Fairness and efficiency of cluster resource sharing for multidimensional learning resources are equally important. This paper studies big data processing technology and representative systems and analyzes multidimensional analysis and performance optimization technology. This article discusses the importance of discrete multidimensional learning resource allocation optimization in dynamic scenarios. At the same time, in view of the fact that most of the resources of the big data application cluster system are supplied to large jobs that account for a small proportion of job submissions, while the small jobs that account for a large proportion only use the characteristics of a small part of the system’s resources, the expected residual multidimensionality of large-scale work is proposed. The server with the least learning resources is allocated first, and only fair strategies are considered for small assignments. The topic index is distributed and stored on the system to realize the parallel processing of search to improve the efficiency of search processing. The effectiveness of RDIBT is verified through experimental simulation. The results show that RDIBT has higher performance than LSII index technology in index creation speed and search response speed. In addition, RDIBT can also ensure the scalability of the index system. (shrink)

It is argued that contemporary civilization may be distinguished by the fact that its technology-based connectedness is fast displacing its culture-based connectedness. This article examines the ramifications of this phenomenon from the perspective of sustainability in general and its implications for our “energy systems” in particular. The diagnosis is followed by policy suggestions that would make energy use not only more sustainable but also bring it in line with human values and aspirations.

Change is an inborn trait of all organisms at every level of existence. This article proposes that the evolution of all life follows a course as if bound by a guiding principle or template. Overcoming disorder and entropy through diversity, this template has the properties of a spiral force, which acts to maintain continuity during change and transitions, and operates at all levels, from the simplest of forms to the most complex. Drawing from Chaos Theory, biology, depth psychology, and Buddhism, (...) the spiral template is presented as a new vision of reality guiding scientific and spiritual perspectives toward evolutionary wholeness. (shrink)

À propos de la « pensée 68 » selon Serge AudierComme tous les dix ans, l’anniversaire de Mai 68 a donné lieu à un déluge de publications ; et, comme tous les dix ans, il fallait qu’émerge de la masse une poignée de titres qui dispenseraient de regarder les autres. Celui de Serge Audier fit partie de ceux-là, avec son titre accrocheur et toutes les apparences d’une grosse étude sérieuse sur un pan de l’histoire intellectuelle récen..