| 1. |
- Wickberg, Adam, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Computation, data and AI in Anthropocene history
- 2023
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Ingår i: History & Technology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0734-1512 .- 1477-2620. ; 39:3-4, s. 328-346
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This essay engages with recent scholarship on the epistemology of AI, data and automation, to assert how these practices are becoming increasingly central both to the projects of monitoring and of managing a global environment. We also review Jurgen Renn's recent contribution The Evolution of Knowledge (2020) in relation to the history of environmental data. Using Renn as point of departure, we stake out a way for understanding the Anthropocene through the interaction between data and environment, taking into account the deeper political implications of datafication. We conclude with discussions about how historians of technology and environment could play an important role in assessing the opportunities and risks of AI for global environmental justice before their full-scale implementation is a fait accompli. In face of the Anthropocene, there is a general need today for integrative efforts of bridging knowledge from natural, technical, social and humanistic domains, and therefore a strong imperative for humanistic studies to transposetools, methodologies, and insights into the realms of policymaking, and legislation. Thus, assessments of AI and environment must account for these historical processes in the present as well as offer critical analysis of the full ontological spectrum from object to epistemology via data and mediation.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Gärdebo, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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The Travelling Scientist : Reflections on Aviated Knowledge Production in the Anthropocene
- 2017
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Ingår i: Resilience. - : University of Nebraska Press. - 2330-8117. ; 5:1, s. 71-99
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Who can and should travel? When has travelling gone wrong? What makes travelling right?What are your doubts and dilemmas about travelling? We asked these and similar questions to scientists and researchers through our blog The Travelling Scientist, November 2014 until June 2015. Underpinning this discussion is the increased emphasis on international collaboration by which researchers are incentivized to contribute to climate change through increased flying. In this paper we analyse recurring themes in how researchers reflect on travelling, based on the researchers’ blog entries and the critique by commentators. The ‘travellers’, as we call our contributors, wrote about the practice of travelling, the rationales for doing so both as individuals and as members of an academic community, as well as themorality and emotional means of coping with this complicity in the making of the Anthropocene. We relate these themes to the history of mobility in academia where wesuggest that the researcher has always been a traveller. What is important in the development of travelling are the routes and habits of travelling that have co-evolved overtime with an airborne lifestyle complete with conference venues and the formation of scientific networks as attractions. We conclude that all academics must start talking about their unsustainable travelling practice in the light of the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions. We argue that for an effective decoupling of fossil input from research output to take place, academia needs to seriously examine and reshape the conditions for research through a more reflexive approach. We believe that social media can provide the research community with an important space for a reflexive conversation around knowledge production in the Anthropocene, because of its ability to transcend the professional and into the personal.
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| 5. |
- Emanuel, Martin, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Politiken kring svensk rymdverksamhet : Transkript av ett vittnesseminarium på Tekniska museet i Stockholm den 17 januari 2018
- 2018
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The witness seminar “Politiken kring svensk rymdverksam-het” (Politics relating to Swedish space activities) was held at Tekniska museet on January 17, 2018, and was led by Lennart Nordh, assisted by Johan Gärdebo. The seminar focused on the relationship between Swedish space activities and various forms of politics, from the 1960s until the 2000s. The discus-sants presented various definitions of politics, recurrently re-turning to the question whether or not Sweden ever had a comprehensive space policy or not. According to the partici-pants, Swedish space activities have been linked to their real or perceived contributions to other policy areas—research, technology, foreign policy, regional policy, and European in-tegration—but without a clear overriding political vision per-taining to space specifically. Initiatives were characterized as “management by opportunities,” which implies making full use of opportunities arising in- or outside of the space activi-ties. In addition to this, policy-makers, whether within the Swedish National Space Board, the Swedish Space Corpora-tion, or the Swedish space industry, have called upon allies in other European governments, organizations and industries, as well as individuals within the Swedish establishment to exert pressure on the Swedish Government at critical moments. On other occasions foreign pressure was exerted without any proposals from Swedish actors. It was noted that regional support for Kiruna has been important since Swedish space activities began in the 1960s, and the Esrange space range was established. The seminar identified several examples of how policy-makers within the Swedish space sector negotiated with governmental officials to gain support for projects and to expand the scope of space activities into other policy areas. Telecommunication, remote sensing and meteorology were discussed as the main areas in which space technology found operational use—although research and geographic surveying was also mentioned. Since the 1990s, the main changes have been driven by the Swedish integration into the European Union, the reduced Swedish ownership in major industrial companies, and the increased commercialization of space ac-tivities. The previously dominant state funding was comple-mented by increasing private financing, and new start-ups be-gan to compete with previously established companies. Meanwhile, the ability of Swedish state actors to influence the future of Swedish space enterprises has diminished.
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| 6. |
- Emanuel, Martin, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Saabs omborddatorer och TT&C för rymdverksamhet : Transkript av ett vittnesseminarium vid RUAG Space i Göteborg den 2 maj 2017
- 2018
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The witness seminar “Saabs omborddatorer och TT&C för rymdverksamhet” (Saab’s on board computers and TT&C for space activities) was held at RUAG Space in Gothenburg on May 2, 2017, and was led by Lennart Lübeck, assisted by Mar-tin Emanuel. The seminar focused on how Saab’s (or, more correctly, until 1983, Saab-Scania’s, and from then on Saab Space’s) Gothenburg office embarked on European space-related projects, in particular relating to communication sys-tems, Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C), as well as onboard computers (OBC) for spacecraft. After having failed to win bids on ESRO satellites in the 1960s, Saab joined the MESH consortium in 1967. In the seminar, MESH’s success-ful bid for OTS (Orbital Test Satellite) stands out as an im-portant turning point for the company’s future contracts with ESRO and later ESA. With respect to Saab’s development of onboard computers, it initially relied substantially on collabo-ration with the American company TRW. Building on the learning process from the ESRO-funded development pro-gram for an Engineering Model, Saab, and later RUAG Space, would deliver onboard computers for several genera-tions of the Ariane launching rockets, SPOT-satellites, and many more. Beginning with the Hipparcos satellite, TT&C and the onboard computer were merged into a data handling system. In the process, what had previously been two sepa-rate groups of the company merged into one. With respect to Saab’s motives to engage in space technology in the first place, the main motive appears to have been to maintain and promote the company’s technical expertise, more so than any hopes to be able to set up large-scale manufacturing. The seminar also treated the relationship between Saab’s two branches engaged in space-related activities. Although their organizational belonging shifted over the years, Linköping remained the location of management and formal interna-tional contacts—and also nationally-oriented projects—while the Gothenburg office was home to the projects for the in-ternational market. The OBC group in Gothenburg tried to maintain as much independence as possible vis-à-vis Linkö-ping, although it relied on upper management for negotiating and winning international contracts. Also important to secure European contracts for Saab was the support, at critical mo-ments, of the Swedish delegation to ESRO and ESA, as well as excellent Swedish contacts with CNES.
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| 7. |
- Gärdebo, Johan
(författare)
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Anders Boberg, intervju från 2017 av Johan Gärdebo, KTH
- 2017
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Annan publikationabstract
- In this interview, Anders Boberg describes his work for theSwedish Land Survey to develop aerial photography from the 1970s until mid-1980s. It was primarily the Swedish ResearchInstitute (FOA) that developed methodologies for remote sensing that became relevant for Anders Boberg and his colleagues whenworking with aerial photography. Anders Boberg’s first major collaboration with the Swedish Space Corporation was during the project MSS-75 that gathered a large group of researchers butwhose uses were not as useful as first expected. Collaborations existed through FOA’s infrastructure for image interpretation, but which later was challenged by the Swedish Space Corporation who secured support from the Swedish Board for Space Activities to develop its own receiving and processing capacity of satellite remote sensing data. While the technology continued to advance in terms of resolution, receiving- and storage capacity,the methods underwent little change until the late 1980s. Between1980-1985, Anders Boberg var responsible for all of the LandSurvey’s aerial photography. During this time, the National Land Survey developed super high-altitude photography that could simulate overviews and resolution later found in the SPOT satellite.He also supported Swedsurvey, a subsidiary of the Land Survey, to conduct aerial photography as part of development projects internationally, which corresponded to the winter periodin Sweden when these planes were in less demand. By mid 1980s, Anders Boberg’s aerial photography unit was subject to rationalisations, after which it lost some of its previous expertise, including Anders Boberg who left to teach at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. During the late 1980s- and in the 1990s, Anders Boberg participated in various courses and projects for the development of digital aerial and space photogrammetry, remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS).Research areas at KTH were then automation of satellite remote sensing methods, based on digital image matching algorithms.This was not a concerted effort of research groups or organisations working on remote sensing, but people did exchange ideas and were influenced by each other.
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| 8. |
- Gärdebo, Johan
(författare)
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Anders Gustavsson, Staffan Jonson, Anders Nelander och Hans Ottersten : En gruppintervju av Johan Gärdebo 12 maj 2017
- 2017
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Annan publikationabstract
- The group interview treats the experiences of AndersGustavsson, Staffan Jonsson, Anders Nelander, and Hans Ottersten working for the Swedish National Defence Research Institute (FOA) on satellite remote sensing technology. Hans Ottersten began working on remote sensing in 1961, and Staffan Jonsson joined in 1965 to work on high-resolution radar applications technology. Anders Nelander began working on coherent radar signal processing in 1975. Anders Gustavssonjoined FOA in 1982 to work on radar for the identification of small objects, e.g. growlers, in the Arctic. The interview focuses on FOA’s shifting uses, and platforms, for remote sensing. The interview makes reference to how the term “remote sensing”was first used and how pioneering decision-makers, like Torleiv Orhaug, sought to build up expertise at FOA. Through competition with the Swedish Space Corporation in the Remote Sensing Committee, FOA over time shifted its emphasis on remote sensing from optical to radar.
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| 9. |
- Gärdebo, Johan
(författare)
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Bildens behandling och utvecklingen av digital fjärranalys : Transkript av ett vittnesseminarium på Tekniska museet i Stockholm den 14 juni 2017
- 2018
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a transcript from the witness seminar “Bildens behan-dling och utvecklingen av digital fjärranalys” (Processing the im-age and the development of digital remote sensing), held at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology in Stock-holm, June 14, 2017, and was led by Håkan Olsson and Johan Gärdebo. The seminar participants, who were all pioneers from the early Swedish development of digital remote sensing, de-scribed their role in various initiatives and activities for devel-opment of remote sensing related image processing from the 1970s until the late 1990s. During this period, several university groups, government agencies and companies located all over Sweden took interest in remote sensing. The Swedish Defence Research Institute (FOA) developed the first digital image analy-sis system, Piccola, in the early 1970s. Piccola, hosted as a main frame computer at Stockholm’s computer centre QZ, became a central resource for the early development of digital remote sensing in Sweden. During this early period, Professor Gunnar Hoppe at Stockholm University took a leading role for technol-ogy- and method development by chairing the National Remote Sensing Committee, providing a forum for various initiatives to meet, grant funding, and build momentum for concerted efforts. In the end of the 1970s, the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) became the central force for development of the remote sensing infrastructure in Sweden. Piccola was replaced by a more mod-ern interactive image analysis system at SSC, the IAS system. This was part of SSC efforts to make satellite remote sensing operational. Additional parts in this effort included establish-ment of a satellite data receiving station at Esrange and later in the 1980s the establishment of the SSC’s subsidiary Satellitbild AB in Kiruna, which processed SPOT satellite data for the world market. SSC also developed the EBBA series of image analysis systems, attached to a PC, which were used by several Swedish research groups. From the late 1970s and onwards, there were a number of spin-off companies from FOA, most notably Con-text Vision and Teragon, that developed image processing hard-ware and software for uses also beyond that of geographical in-formation. These companies also sold systems to the Swedish Land Survey and SSC. Swedish organisations had a large pres-ence internationally, for example as part of development projects by consultancy firms, which also led to more operational uses of image processing. As computer capacity increased, in particular the introduction of colour graphics on standard computers, im-age processing development moved from special hardware to standard work stations and eventually personal computers and the applications that have become operational, for example in the forest sector, has been integrated with GIS applications in tailor made production-oriented systems.
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| 10. |
- Gärdebo, Johan
(författare)
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Claes-Göran Borg En intervju av Johan Gärdebo 28 november 2017
- 2017
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Annan publikationabstract
- The interview treats Claes-Göran Borg’s experiences fromworking with the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), primarily inhis capacity of developing various aspects of remote sensing andeventually his role in the management of its operations, and laterthat of the entire corporation. Claes-Göran Borg describe variouscollaborations that he and SSC contributed to that led to newforms of processing satellite remote sensing data, expanding theinfrastructure of receiving and processing such data bothnationally and internationally, and the commercialization of datathrough projects in developing countries. Claes-Göran Borg sharehis experiences of working with different people in leadershippositions and also his efforts to expand the expertise of SSC.
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