title: Can we be friends with AI? What risks would arise from the proliferation of such friendships?

authors: Munn, Nicholas

abstract: There is no good in-principle reason to oppose the development of human-AI friendships or to hold a moral responsibility to discourage such relationships.

text: Can we be friends with AI? What risks would arise from the proliferation of such friendships? There is no good in-principle reason to oppose the development of human-AI friendships or to hold a moral responsibility to discourage such relationships.

year: 2023-05-25

title: The Weibull distribution as an extreme value model for transformed annual maxima

authors: Bardsley, W. Earl

subjects: Weibull distribution

abstract: There is no mathematical difference between theoretical extreme value models of maxima and minima because they link to each other by a simple sign reversal transformation. However, other transformations that change sample maxima to sample minima raise the possibility of alternatives to the generalised extreme value (GEV) distribution for annual maxima, while still maintaining extreme value justification. A general class of transformation is proposed that converts positive annual maxima to lower-bounded minima, then amenable to Weibull extreme value analysis for sufficiently large sample sizes. That is, the Weibull distribution of smallest extremes provides a theoretical extreme value model for the transformed maxima, which holds irrespective of any GEV form of the original maxima. This would apply, for example, to the analysis of reciprocals of discharge or rainfall annual maxima.
A useful feature of the transformation approach is that alternative prediction expressions with extreme value justification can arise for defining event magnitude as a function of return period. These expressions may result in different hydrological conclusions than from a GEV analysis of maxima. A double exponential transformation is introduced and its prediction function for maxima is noted to have capability to mimic equivalent Type 3 extreme value (EV3) distribution expressions, but without having to introduce an upper bound parameter. The new function gives a good fit to apparent EV3 annual flood maxima recorded from two very different catchments: the Yangtze River in China and the upper Whanganui River in New Zealand.

text: The Weibull distribution as an extreme value model for transformed annual maxima There is no mathematical difference between theoretical extreme value models of maxima and minima because they link to each other by a simple sign reversal transformation. However, other transformations that change sample maxima to sample minima raise the possibility of alternatives to the generalised extreme value (GEV) distribution for annual maxima, while still maintaining extreme value justification. A general class of transformation is proposed that converts positive annual maxima to lower-bounded minima, then amenable to Weibull extreme value analysis for sufficiently large sample sizes. That is, the Weibull distribution of smallest extremes provides a theoretical extreme value model for the transformed maxima, which holds irrespective of any GEV form of the original maxima. This would apply, for example, to the analysis of reciprocals of discharge or rainfall annual maxima.
A useful feature of the transformation approach is that alternative prediction expressions with extreme value justification can arise for defining event magnitude as a function of return period. These expressions may result in different hydrological conclusions than from a GEV analysis of maxima. A double exponential transformation is introduced and its prediction function for maxima is noted to have capability to mimic equivalent Type 3 extreme value (EV3) distribution expressions, but without having to introduce an upper bound parameter. The new function gives a good fit to apparent EV3 annual flood maxima recorded from two very different catchments: the Yangtze River in China and the upper Whanganui River in New Zealand.

year: 2019

title: A case study of Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku

authors: Tamoko-o-te-rangi, Ormsby

subjects: environmental initiatives

abstract: This thesis is an examination and analysis of the environmental initiative Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku, co-founded by Waimirirangi Ormsby (née Koopu-Stone) and myself, Tamoko Ormsby. The primary aim of this research was to achieve an understanding of the PKP initiative at the individual level and to inform future collective action at the community level. As such, my primary research question is:

How can Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku inform community-scale action that contributes to our more-than-human relationship with Papatūānuku within our current capitalist settler-colonial context?

The study is part-autoethnographic in that it is informed by my personal reflections and experiences as a co-founder, operator, and participant of the initiative. In addition, the study explores the number of participants who signed up yearly for each action and employs a brief descriptive analysis of the initiative.

The literature review explores how common Western notions of environmentalism are devoid of the spiritual, cultural, and relational aspects present within indigenous and Māori knowledge systems. It touches on the histories of capitalism and colonialism and how these have led to the consumptogenic society we are in. It aims to illustrate the nexus between the Māori and Western Eurocentric worlds.

He Whatu is the framework that has emerged from this case study as the means to respond to the primary research question. The framework was developed by analyzing the key themes of PKP over the years 2017 to 2021. He Whatu has five key elements: Identity, Language, Distance, Practicality, and Influence; each with three subcategories. It is activated through provoking key conversations to inform future community action.

text: A case study of Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku This thesis is an examination and analysis of the environmental initiative Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku, co-founded by Waimirirangi Ormsby (née Koopu-Stone) and myself, Tamoko Ormsby. The primary aim of this research was to achieve an understanding of the PKP initiative at the individual level and to inform future collective action at the community level. As such, my primary research question is:

How can Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku inform community-scale action that contributes to our more-than-human relationship with Papatūānuku within our current capitalist settler-colonial context?

The study is part-autoethnographic in that it is informed by my personal reflections and experiences as a co-founder, operator, and participant of the initiative. In addition, the study explores the number of participants who signed up yearly for each action and employs a brief descriptive analysis of the initiative.

The literature review explores how common Western notions of environmentalism are devoid of the spiritual, cultural, and relational aspects present within indigenous and Māori knowledge systems. It touches on the histories of capitalism and colonialism and how these have led to the consumptogenic society we are in. It aims to illustrate the nexus between the Māori and Western Eurocentric worlds.

He Whatu is the framework that has emerged from this case study as the means to respond to the primary research question. The framework was developed by analyzing the key themes of PKP over the years 2017 to 2021. He Whatu has five key elements: Identity, Language, Distance, Practicality, and Influence; each with three subcategories. It is activated through provoking key conversations to inform future community action.

year: 2023