This paper details a software architecture for discourse processing in spoken dialogue systems, where the three component tasks of discourse processing are (1) Dialogue Management, (2) Context Tracking, and (3) Pragmatic Adaptation. We define these three component tasks and describe their roles in a complex, near-future scenario in which multiple humans interact with each other and with compute...

We undertook a case study in order to explore deliberative dialogue as a system-level knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategy and to describe the design features and intended effects of this dialogue. Our data included observations made during the dialogue, evaluations completed by dialogue participants and interviews. We placed these data in the context of our broader experience. We ...

Cosmetics is as old as the history of human being. It has been present in human life since the times of the most ancient civilizations. Perfumery is one of the oldest branches of cosmetics. Valerian perfumes found from the Pharaohs’ pyramids, had maintained their aroma. Coriander, Mace oil, cardamom, cinnamon, and juniper were also the favorite materials used for perfumery in ancient Egyptian c...

From the early days of mankind, the problem of collective decision making in a society where information is dispersed among the members of the society has been a challenging one. Many civilizations have perished, or more recently, governments have taken a downturn due to bad, uninformed policies. Numerous other social, political and economical decisions ranging from voting for political represe...

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has so far been unsuccessful and needs additional methods. We introduce a two-dimensional metric for civilization development, using the Kardashev scale of energy increase and the Barrow scale of inward manipulation. To support Barrow's scale limit, we contend with energetic, societal, scientific, computational, and philosophical arguments th...