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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Link Between Local Phenology And Climate Change, Blake Steiner, Tatyana Lobova
Link Between Local Phenology And Climate Change, Blake Steiner, Tatyana Lobova
Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference
The SouthEast Virginia Phenology Project was initiated as collaboration between Norfolk Botanical Garden and Old Dominion University in 2010 to document phenology of seven native plants and potential effects of the climate change on their life cycle. The air temperature in Norfolk has increased on average by 0.02ºC per year since 1980. Four out of seven of taxonomically diverse plant species (Mayapple, Flowering Dogwood, Highbush Blueberry, and Common ButtonBush) exhibited significant sensitivity to warming temperatures. Of these four, only Common Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) had shown significant phenophases shift. Specifically, first flowering and first fruiting dates had shifted 2.7 …
Granting Personhood For Sentient Non-Human Animals And Sentient Artificial Intelligences: A Demonstrative Argument, Jeremiah Meadows
Granting Personhood For Sentient Non-Human Animals And Sentient Artificial Intelligences: A Demonstrative Argument, Jeremiah Meadows
Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference
While the subject of personhood has been exhaustively debated regarding the unborn, personhood for sentient animals and artificial intelligences is a concept that is rarely deliberated. Humanity has learned that there are multiple animal species which are very similar to humans in their self-awareness, emotional capacity, and free will. These traits have been partially developed for artificial intelligences as well, and those characteristics will evolve alongside human and technological development. As stratified societies emerged, there have been multiple occurrences where individuals were deemed lesser but then later acquired equal standing. Dr. Daniel Wilson, roboticist, wrote in his novel Robopocalypse, “It …