Social Sciences and Law

Abstract

Oceans and marine resources represent an invaluable source of life and well-being for humanity. Despite their contribution, oceans are constantly affected by human activities such as overfishing, shipping, and resource extraction, thus jeopardizing the viability of marine ecosystems. Periodically, a series of global initiatives led by the United Nations have sought to reverse these negative effects and safeguard sustainable ocean use. The United Nation's Law of the Sea (1982, UNCLOS) is a prominent undertaking in this direction, as it has created the legal framework for sustainable ocean governance. Norway, an ocean nation, has been a strong supporter of this international treaty, but also of the recent sustainable development goals (SDGs), which have typically complemented UNCLOS in the global quest for ocean sustainability. In this context, this paper delves into and posits the synergies and interactions between UNCLOS and SDGs and describes the related shifts in Norway's ocean governance regime.

Abstract

This paper highlights the concept of constructivism that underpins the theory and practice of foreign language teaching. The dominance of this pedagogical movement in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century has been particularly important for the study and understanding of digitally supported forms of learning. Constructivism can provide a response to the analysis and practice of new forms of learning: it is based on the premise that knowledge transfer and the role of the teacher are undergoing intense change. Its implications in the classroom define and influence the pedagogical models and traditions of our time. The paper traces the emergence and dimensions of constructivism in today's digitally infused education, providing a theoretical and literature overview.

Összefoglalás. A jelen írás alapja a témában tartott előadásom. Először általános kérdésekkel foglalkozom, majd a tervezett „EU AI Act”-ről lesz szó, utána egy VW projektet ismertetek röviden, majd a „megmagyarázható MI”-ről fogok beszélni, aztán egy saját, hazai kezdeményezésről, az Alfi projektről teszek említést. Végezetül egy kitekintés zárja le az írást.

Summary. This writing is based on a lecture on the topic. In my other (German) affiliation I am manager of a large-scale EU project called “HumanE AI Net” (funded with 12m Euro) comprising 53 leading EU institutions, including large universities (UCL London, LMU Munich, Sorbonne, Sussex or ELTE), networks of research institutes (Fraunhofer, Max Planck Gesellschaft, INRIA, CNR Italy), large international companies (ING Bank, SAP, Philips, Airbus), etc. In the writing I discuss general issues related to Humane AI, the planned EU AI Act, social credit systems, explainable AI, and the Alphie project, respectively.

In April 2021, the European Commission proposed a regulation on artificial intelligence, known as the AI Act. The regulation aims at human-faced AI in a European dimension. Although it is still only a draft, the stakes are high. The planned law has, however, faults (I maintain here), to be corrected before the text passes as law.

Another subject to discuss is the study – and prohibition (at least in Europe) – of social credit systems. The original “Social Credit System” is a national credit rating and blacklist developed by the Government of the People’s Republic of China. Proponents of the system claim that it helps regulate social behaviour, improves citizens’ ‘trustworthiness’ (which includes paying taxes and bills on time) and promotes the spread of traditional moral values. Critics of the system, however, argue that it goes far beyond the rule of law and violates the legitimate rights of people – in particular, the right to reputation, privacy and personal dignity – and that it can be a tool for extensive government surveillance and suppression of dissent.

“Explainable AI” (XAI) has become a hot topic in recent years. AI applications are mostly “opaque”: this is especially true for learning systems and by definition for neural networks (NN). The current fashion, “deep learning”, usually means the application of a particularly opaque NN anyway. It is natural not to know what the system is doing and why. So, let’s change that! With this tenet, XAI was born. I review some solutions to the problem.

In the writing I also mention an application, Alphie, the first version of which was done in the OTKA project “Good Mobile” and is now supported by the MI National Laboratory. Alphie is a science-based playful application for children that helps them to use digital tools more consciously and within limits, while developing a variety of skills. It performs the functions of a ‘grandmother’ who shows emotions towards the child: can be e.g. angry, loving, etc. The application makes the corresponding sounds (!) and facilitates real social interactions (e.g. sends the child to play football (!).

Összefoglalás. Jelen dolgozatban áttekintjük a víz körforgásának legfontosabb összetevőit, áramlási irányait. Bemutatjuk a párolgás és kondenzáció jelentőségét a légkör dinamikai folyamataiban. A jelenkori éghajlatváltozás hatásai meghatározó módon befolyásolják a globális vízkörforgalom valamennyi elemét: emelkedik a tengerek szintje, a légkörben tárolható vízgőz mennyisége, szélsőségesebbé válik a csapadék és az aszály területi és időbeli eloszlása. A csapadékintenzitásra vonatkozóan a hazai megfigyelések és számítások eredményeit is bemutatjuk. Felhívjuk a figyelmet a globális hidrometeorológiai monitoring rendszerek fontosságára, valamint a vízrajzi és meteorológiai közszolgáltatások összehangolt szemléletű kezelésének szükségességére. Ez vonatkozik az egyes fizikai változók megfigyelésére, ezek várható tér- és időbeli változásainak előrejelzésére, a klímapolitikák kialakítására – beleértve a kármérséklés és az alkalmazkodás problémaköreit.

Summary. In this paper, we review the most important components and flow directions of the water cycle. Water is one of the special compounds of the Earth system: it can exist in solid, liquid and gaseous states under the prevailing temperature and pressure conditions on Earth, so it can be found in all terrestrial spheres. It plays a fundamental role in maintaining life, thermodynamic processes on a global scale, and regulating the climate. In the Earth’s atmosphere, on average, only every ten-thousandth molecule is water, yet it plays a decisive role in shaping atmospheric energetic and dynamic processes and, in regulating the climate. Through evaporation, condensation, cloud and precipitation formation, and air movements, the atmosphere plays the most important role in the continuous cycle of water between natural water reservoirs. It is typical of the dynamics of atmospheric processes that the average residence time of water molecules in the atmosphere is approx. 10 days, compared to the durations estimated for the ice sheet (12 thousand years) and the oceans and seas (3 thousand years). Water vapor is the most important greenhouse compound in the atmosphere, responsible for approximately 60% of the total atmospheric greenhouse effect. The movement of water vapor is mainly determined by atmospheric circulation processes. The effects of present climate change have a decisive influence on all elements of the global water cycle: the sea level rises, the amount of water vapor that can be stored in the atmosphere increases, the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation becomes more extreme. The global environmental changes attributable to natural and anthropogenic causes are largely linked to water and the variability of the global water cycle. Natural phenomena on a regional and local scale, which can also be associated with global changes, pose a serious risk to life and property protection in certain situations, can adversely affect the conditions of agricultural management and damage natural ecosystems. Results of relevant Hungarian measurements are also presented. Floods, droughts and atmospheric storms, which are often accompanied by intense rainfall events, are collectively responsible for a very significant part of natural damage events. We draw attention to the importance of global hydrometeorological monitoring systems, as well as the need for coordinated management of hydrographic and meteorological public services. This applies to the observation of individual physical variables, the prediction of their expected changes in space and time, the development of climate policies - including the issues of mitigation and adaptation.

Összefoglalás. Jelen cikk célja a létfontosságú rendszerek védelmére vonatkozó szabályozás fejlesztési folyamatának és az elért eredmények vizsgálata. A szerzők feldolgozták a kritikus infrastruktúrák nemzetközi és hazai szabályozására jellemző, az elmúlt mintegy tízéves időszak változásait. Az elemzés a hazai eredmények áttekintését követően a reziliencia, az ellenálló képesség fejlesztésére irányuló nemzetközi és hazai intézkedéseket, a közeljövőben várható fordulatokat, jogalkotási lépéseket ismerteti.

Summary. This article’s goal is to overview the development and the results of the critical infrastructure protection regulation. The authors have analyzed the legal circumstances of the past 10 years both on an international and a national level.

After looking back at the initial regulations of the national critical infrastructure and its enforcement the authors present the challenges of Covid-19, the possible responses and the basic elements of the revised legal framework.

The authors touch upon the changes that are important for the operators, such as risk analysis and the operator security plan, emphasizing the exercises of the latter.

The final part of this publication details the last decade’s change of approach via the NATO’s seven baseline requirements for civil preparedness and the preparation of the new EU directive. It will also exhibit the measures, that were taken to improve resilience, and checks that were made to upgrade the level of critical infrastructure protection.

Összefoglalás. A cikk az emberi intelligencia és az ember által létrehozott mesterséges intelligencia párhuzamaival, összefonódásaival foglalkozik, áttekintve a mesterséges intelligencia kialakulását a Turing és Neumann által fémjelzett kezdetektől a megismerésben és a cselekvésben az ember versenytársaként fellépő autonóm „Robot sapiens” megjelenéséig. A digitalizáció és a datafikáció által teremtett techno-ökölógiai környezetben az erős mesterségesintelligencia-programok behatolása a társadalomba a rendszerszintű és életvilágszintű működések átalakulását eredményezik. A veszély a machináció létrejöttével a társadalom totális ellenőrzésére alkalmas adatalapú megfigyelő rendszer megjelenésében van, mely a hagyományos diktatúrákkal ellentétben a megfigyeltek aktív közreműködésére épít. A machináció ellenszere a „merj élni!” nietzschei parancsa, mely a létfelejtés által értékek és értelmek keresésére int.

Summary. The paper discusses the parallels and confluences between human intelligence and artificial intelligence created by human intelligence. The paper reviews the development of artificial intelligence from the beginnings by the works of Turing and Neumann till the emergence of the autonomous robot sapiens that will likely be in cognition and action challenger of the human being. Artificial intelligence programmes initially were able to solve simple tasks defined by men. Well known examples of the early successes of the artificial intelligence programmes had demonstrated in chess, go and Jeopardy the dominance of these programmes over human intelligence. Programmed by natural language strong artificial intelligence programs able to learn and deal with uncertainty had emerged later. These programmes were successfully connected to the internet based network of people and things. Without strong artificial intelligence programmes no autonomous operation of robots can be expected in cognition and action. In the new techno-ecological environment created by the digitalisation and datafication the intrusion of weak and strong artificial intelligence programmes into the society has resulted profound transformations in the system and in the life-world. Artificial intelligence will likely transform the areas of economy, commerce, transport, politics, culture an education, internal and external security, media and finances. The intelligent autonomous communication bots and action robots change the social life of people including the social and sexual life, enhance the level of services such as health care, and entertainment. All programmes set for the system and life world pass easily the Turing test that raises the problem of the boundaries between human and artificial intelligence. Machines seem as humans and humans seem as machines. The real danger of the digital transformation of society is the emergence of a total surveillance system that in contrast with the dictatorial regimes installs control and repression with the consent of the people using the services of the the digitalised system and life world operations. The threats of the total surveillance system or “machination”, however, can be fended off by fulfilling the command of “Dare to live!” suggested by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Összefoglalás. Az egyes országok államigazgatásában sajátos funkcióval rendelkező nemzetbiztonsági szolgálatok fontos szerepet töltenek be a biztonság fenntartásában, a politikai színtéren megszülető döntések információkkal történő támogatásában. Mindez képzett, a biztonságpolitikai és technológiai környezet dinamikus változásait értelmezni és értékelni tudó, a nemzetbiztonsági területen is korszerű ismeretekkel és megfelelő kompetenciákkal rendelkező állományt igényel, amely képzési folyamatában egyre fontosabb szerep hárul a felsőoktatási környezetre. Jelen tanulmány, nemzetközi példák alapján, modelleket felállítva, az egyre inkább felértékelődő nemzetbiztonsági képzési kapcsolatok felsőoktatásban való sajátosságait vizsgálja. Módszerként a témakörben elérhető egyes nemzetközi intézményi és képzési rangsorok, valamint az intézményekről elérhető szakirodalmi források vizsgálata jelent meg.

Summary. National security services, which have a specific role in the administration of the countries, play important role in providing security and supporting decisions in the political arena by information. This requires trained personnel with up-to-date knowledge and competencies in the field of national security, capable of understanding and assessing the dynamic changes in the security and technological environment. In this process, the higher education environment has increasingly important role. Concerning the security-oriented higher education courses, it is difficult to determine whether these can be considered as a form of “national security” higher education or merely as an educational field of defense sphere. Apart from the sectoral specificities, the main difficulty in making a comparison are the extreme diversity in the interpretation of security and its interdisciplinary links. In addition to trainings in the fields of intelligence studies and national security studies, international security, security policy, the military elements of security, and even the technical and cyberspace-related elements of intelligence training, all provide valuable knowledge for the sector. However, the international institutional examples of higher education in the field of national security may be worth examining, as they essentially create a link between the innovative knowledge of the academic world, which is the center of knowledge, and the closed security sector, which is open to relevant knowledge. In line with these ideas, the present paper explores the specificities of the increasingly valorized national security training links in higher education by setting up models based on selected international examples. The used methodology is the examination of the international rankings of training programs available on the subject, as well as of the literature available on institutions.

Összefoglalás. Az ezredforduló időszakának egyik jelentős felismerése, hogy nemcsak az ember-ember kölcsönhatást befolyásoló környezetet és a környezet emberre gyakorolt hatását szükséges vizsgálni, de az ember környezetre gyakorolt hatását is, amely végül visszahat ránk. Írásomban a biztonság kérdését ezért egy tágabb kontextusban világítom meg: túl a közbiztonság témáján, az ember és környezet kölcsönhatásának tükrében elemzem a kérdést. A különböző környezetbiztonsági szempontokat témakörökbe rendszerezve írom le. A hangsúlyt a környezeti kérdések, szempontok áttekintésére helyezem, tudva, hogy az egyes tényezők összefüggenek, és a kölcsönhatások ismerete javítja a beavatkozások hatékonyságát. A zöldinfrastruktúra fogalma ma még kevéssé ismert, ezért szükséges a bevezetésben a fogalom ismertetése is.

Summary. One of the significant recognitions of the turn of the millennium is that today it is not enough to analyse only the environment’s influences on human: also the impact of humans on the environment has to be examined. In my present paper, I shed light on the issue of security (and safety) in a broader context. My analysis covers not only public security issues, but also the interaction of man and his environment, focusing on the toolkit of urban green infrastructure (UGI). The concept of green infrastructure is still not well known today, so I considered it is necessary to define and state this concept as an introduction.

I briefly describe the individual subject areas, which relate to SGI, and I put them in a system. I sought only to review this system, knowing that the individual factors are related to each other and interact when applied together.

The first safety factor of the UGI is to ensure public safety. It plays an important role in crime prevention, in terms of physical protection (safeguarding), transparency of spaces and controllability. I classified the issues of accident safety and comfort safety also as public safety. In the former case, the biggest challenge is the contradictions of the spatial relationship between the grey infrastructures and the UGI. In the latter case, attachment to the place, clear spatial orientation, and perception of the owner of the space/area can provide adequate security.

A second factor is helping climate security, in which UGI must play a decisive role. The basis is a balanced settlement structure, the equipartition and functional placement of green systems. The appropriate ratio of plant and water surfaces balances the climatic extremes. The diverse application of land uses and species ensures long-term stability. A strong UGI can be created by giving rise to sufficient biological diversity, varied vegetation, and habitats. The security of the system is further strengthened by the variety of space use and the continuity of the green-blue network, the healthy growth and development of the individuals is thus better ensured.

The third factor is the issue of health security. The role of UGI in maintaining physical and mental well-being has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to individual access to clean air with adequate humidity, outdoor exercise, and a stimulating, harmonious environment, community activities in the green can also be an important healing tool. In addition, health risks (allergy, disease-spreading animals etc.) in green spaces, must be also controlled.

Összefoglalás. A tanulmány a világmodellezés 50 évéről ad áttekintést a legismertebb és módszertanilag újítást hozó világmodellek rövid ismertetésén keresztül. A világmodellezés fogalmának meghatározása után sorra veszi a Római Klub és az ENSZ szervezeteiben folyó világmodellezést és a jelentős modelleket, majd pedig az online világmodellezés néhány műhelyében folyó munkákat. A bemutatott világmodellek összehasonlító elemzésével rámutat azokra az új modellezési módszertanokra és fordulópontokra, amelyek új utakat nyitottak a világmodellek készítésében és hasznosításában. A folyamatos megújulás jellemzőit a világmodellezők felfogásában és képzettségében, a világmodellezés eljárásaiban, valamint a világmodelleket ismerők és használók körében bekövetkezett változások vonatkozásában fogalmazza meg.

Summary. The aim of paper is to introduce the last 50 years of world modelling through short presentation of world models that have got reputation of wide range in the world and have represented methodological innovation in the history of world modelling. For this purpose after giving definition of world modelling the paper takes one by one the world modelling activities carried out in the frame of the Club of Rome and of different organizations of UN and their most important products and the works running by some organizations of online and interactive world model building as well. Forrester-Meadows’s system dynamics model recognizing the natural resources and Ervin Laszlo’s verbal world model considering the inner human limits, and GEO models and IPCC reports that were initiated by the UN organizations and that define the sustainability and place it in the centre of world model building and the organizations of online world model building as Millennium project, JAVA Climate Model, Pardee Center for International Futures and Futures Platform are payed special attention. These world models have defined the characteristics of complex world problems rooting in both natural and human/social limits. They show how the world is running into the catastrophe in the future if the humanity does not reflect to these limits at both the individual and community levels and finally they have got to give definition of requirements concerning sustainability and tasks needed to materialize them, and to the necessity of shift in world views and social values.

The study draws attention to the methodological issues of world modelling came to the front of research topics at the beginning of 21st century especially to the fact why and in what ways the idea concerning the paradigm shift in the world modelling have become the main methodological problem. In what ways the online and interactive world modelling can stimulate that every person and community to be able to explore and/or construct their own world model and recognize that everybody has to do something and to change its behaviour for survival of the human civilization.

The paper emphasizes methodological solutions and turning points that has opened new ways in the process of world modelling and the application of their outcomes by the way of comparative analysis of world models and changing ideas focusing on paradigm shift. In the end the main characteristics of continuous renewal are shaped by the emphasis of the changes happened in the ideas of world views and qualification of world modellers, in the methodology of word model building and in the circle of users and participants and people who becomes acquainted with world models or world model building.