From an ecological perspective, scientific investigation of the “Earth system” reveals its complexity, evidenced by interaction geophysical processes –which occur in “global atmospheric system”; “world ocean” –both favoring climate”; "the interior globe"; and, between each these parts and outer space. Environmental risks (geophysical) exist due to configuration extreme circumstances (CAPRA, 198...

Few instances of a computational problem are sui generis; most instead belong to some distribution of related instances, and information gained from solving past instances from the distribution may be leveraged to solve future instances more efficiently. Algorithm portfolio methods and algorithm synthesis systems are two examples of this idea. This paper proposes and demonstrates a third approa...

Mexican immigration figures have reached its lowest point since 2000. Yet, even if as a whole the US is receiving less Mexican migrants, the opposite is true for cities at the border. In this paper, I present evidence to show that this sui generis migration pattern cannot be understood only using traditional explanations of migration dynamics. Instead, Mexicans are migrating because of security...

Counterfactual reasoning is just as commonplace in scientific theory and practice as it is in our ordinary lives. Understanding the significance of such inferences requires paying close attention to the nature and foundations of conditionals, an important—albeit thorny—endeavor that philosophers of science typically (and happily) delegate to metaphysicians, philosophers of language, and linguis...

<p>Christopher Alexander was often characterized—and sometimes seemed to characterize himself—as “sui generis,” a radical and perhaps even eccentric thinker on architecture, technology, culture, nature. That perception in turn has led many dismiss Alexander’s work as too idiosyncratic be operationalized the pragmatic world of planning building. Here we show, however, that core ideas have ...

The aim of this article is to reflect on the relationship between art and science so far as it concerns a symposium on neurosciences. We undertake a historical overview of that relationship, paying particular attention to the sui generis case of Leonardo da Vinci, who very often is regarded as the man who worked on art and science with equal ease. We then explain why his idea of merging these t...