title: Technology and consumer well-being

authors: Weijers, Dan M.

subjects: artificial intelligence

abstract: This chapter reviews consumers’ interactions with technology and its influence on their well-being and especially psychological well-being. Focus areas discussed in the chapter include smartphones, games, social media, health information technology, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality. Some of the specific technologies considered include chatbots, service robots, the use of virtual and augmented reality in the consumer realm, continuous engagement with digital and mobile technologies, mobile health technologies, and activity-promoting gaming. For the most part, the research shows that technology is not generally detrimental to well-being. Rather, the way technology is used tends to predict whether there are benefits or risks to well-being. The chapter also discusses some extra dangers for the less-tech-savvy and policy recommendations for minimizing and mitigating the risks technology poses without unnecessarily limiting the potentially life-changing benefits. It is recommended that children are educated about the difference between beneficial and problematic smartphone use, that schools should decide when or whether smartphones can be used in classrooms, that cryptocurrencies should be regulated to protect the environment and consumers, and that industry standards are adopted to protect consumers of artificially intelligent friends.

text: Technology and consumer well-being This chapter reviews consumers’ interactions with technology and its influence on their well-being and especially psychological well-being. Focus areas discussed in the chapter include smartphones, games, social media, health information technology, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality. Some of the specific technologies considered include chatbots, service robots, the use of virtual and augmented reality in the consumer realm, continuous engagement with digital and mobile technologies, mobile health technologies, and activity-promoting gaming. For the most part, the research shows that technology is not generally detrimental to well-being. Rather, the way technology is used tends to predict whether there are benefits or risks to well-being. The chapter also discusses some extra dangers for the less-tech-savvy and policy recommendations for minimizing and mitigating the risks technology poses without unnecessarily limiting the potentially life-changing benefits. It is recommended that children are educated about the difference between beneficial and problematic smartphone use, that schools should decide when or whether smartphones can be used in classrooms, that cryptocurrencies should be regulated to protect the environment and consumers, and that industry standards are adopted to protect consumers of artificially intelligent friends.

year: 2024

title: John Watson Walker: a leading mine manager

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: After successfully mining in Victoria, in 1869 John Watson Walker was invited to report on Thames mines, and subsequently was asked to stay on as a mine manager. Despite his high reputation as both a manager and company director, in 1881 some shareholders in one company  sought his dismissal because he had failed to find rich gold (!). From the 1880s onwards, he envisaged obtaining English capital to enable the development of much larger areas than those traditionally worked. 
Involved in most Hauraki fields (and beyond) as an investor if not a miner, in the 1880s he was for a time a publican at Te Aroha, and in the following decade acquired a farm nearby. He struggled financially in both decades, and moved from goldfield to goldfield trying to develop his ‘gigantic’ schemes, making several trips to London over more than 20 years in usually fruitless attempts to raise capital. As the first supervisor for the Waihi Company, he investigated new treatment processes, but resigned his position shortly before cyanide was proved to the ideal one. At Thames, his ‘gigantic’ scheme was to work the low levels, and at Te Aroha he attempted to develop a large area of unpayable ground. All his schemes depended not only on attracting overseas capital but on obtaining concessions from both government and union. His last efforts to develop mining on a massive scale were at Waihi, in the early twentieth century.
Walker was seen as being a skilled and practical miner, whose opinions were taken seriously. On behalf of investors, he investigated some new areas, and achieved fame for exposing an attempted fraud near Wellington. He attempted to assist the interests of the industry, and urged the need for capital and labour to work together harmoniously. He was outspokenly critical of the Liberal Government’s mining legislation, which he claimed scared capital away. 
He could be arrogant, as illustrated on several occasions, notably when participating in shooting matches in the early 1870s. And a question must be raised about his treatment of his first wife. But as a mine manager, he excelled, even if his schemes to work large areas were over-sanguine and lacked credibility both because he did not understand the geology and because he over-estimated his ability to raise capital and to get his way with both government and the union.

text: John Watson Walker: a leading mine manager After successfully mining in Victoria, in 1869 John Watson Walker was invited to report on Thames mines, and subsequently was asked to stay on as a mine manager. Despite his high reputation as both a manager and company director, in 1881 some shareholders in one company  sought his dismissal because he had failed to find rich gold (!). From the 1880s onwards, he envisaged obtaining English capital to enable the development of much larger areas than those traditionally worked. 
Involved in most Hauraki fields (and beyond) as an investor if not a miner, in the 1880s he was for a time a publican at Te Aroha, and in the following decade acquired a farm nearby. He struggled financially in both decades, and moved from goldfield to goldfield trying to develop his ‘gigantic’ schemes, making several trips to London over more than 20 years in usually fruitless attempts to raise capital. As the first supervisor for the Waihi Company, he investigated new treatment processes, but resigned his position shortly before cyanide was proved to the ideal one. At Thames, his ‘gigantic’ scheme was to work the low levels, and at Te Aroha he attempted to develop a large area of unpayable ground. All his schemes depended not only on attracting overseas capital but on obtaining concessions from both government and union. His last efforts to develop mining on a massive scale were at Waihi, in the early twentieth century.
Walker was seen as being a skilled and practical miner, whose opinions were taken seriously. On behalf of investors, he investigated some new areas, and achieved fame for exposing an attempted fraud near Wellington. He attempted to assist the interests of the industry, and urged the need for capital and labour to work together harmoniously. He was outspokenly critical of the Liberal Government’s mining legislation, which he claimed scared capital away. 
He could be arrogant, as illustrated on several occasions, notably when participating in shooting matches in the early 1870s. And a question must be raised about his treatment of his first wife. But as a mine manager, he excelled, even if his schemes to work large areas were over-sanguine and lacked credibility both because he did not understand the geology and because he over-estimated his ability to raise capital and to get his way with both government and the union.

year: 2016

title: Worlded object and its presentation: A Māori philosophy of language

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

abstract: In an era concerned with the survival of Indigenous languages, language as a general phenomenon needs to be thought of as thoroughly connected to one’s worldview. In this article, I propose a different conception of language that sides more with what I call ‘the worlding of things’ than linguistics. To foreshadow my speculations on language, I consider the possibility that, within the representation of one entity in perception, there exist all other entities. An entity is hence ‘worlded’—a key aspect of the term ‘whakapapa’. I then turn to think about language as a general phenomenon for Mäori, and its complex ability to world an entity even as it adumbrates that thing’s backdrop. I consider the verb ‘to be’ in that light, arguing that Mäori identify language as a sort of gathering of entities rather than an instrument for singling out one thing as thoroughly and separably evident. This article is therefore as much about the full participation of the world as it is about language; it also aims to counter the belief that language is merely a conveyor of ideas.

text: Worlded object and its presentation: A Māori philosophy of language In an era concerned with the survival of Indigenous languages, language as a general phenomenon needs to be thought of as thoroughly connected to one’s worldview. In this article, I propose a different conception of language that sides more with what I call ‘the worlding of things’ than linguistics. To foreshadow my speculations on language, I consider the possibility that, within the representation of one entity in perception, there exist all other entities. An entity is hence ‘worlded’—a key aspect of the term ‘whakapapa’. I then turn to think about language as a general phenomenon for Mäori, and its complex ability to world an entity even as it adumbrates that thing’s backdrop. I consider the verb ‘to be’ in that light, arguing that Mäori identify language as a sort of gathering of entities rather than an instrument for singling out one thing as thoroughly and separably evident. This article is therefore as much about the full participation of the world as it is about language; it also aims to counter the belief that language is merely a conveyor of ideas.

year: 2016