Several periods in classical (Greco-Roman) antiquity provide an intriguing mix of being ‘in the grip of the past’ and profoundly innovative in all societal domains at the same time. A new research agenda of the Dutch classicists investigates this combination, under the hypothesis that the two are connected. Successful innovations must somehow be ‘anchored’ for the relevant social group(s). This paper explores the new concept of ‘anchoring’, and some of the ways in which ‘the new’ and ‘the old’ are evaluated and used in classical antiquity and our own times. Its examples range from a piece of ancient theatrical equipment to the history of the revolving door, from an ornamental feature of Greek temples to the design of electric cars, and from the Delphic oracle to the role of the American constitution.

Virtual 3D reconstructions of destroyed or disappeared cultural heritage enable viewers to effectively travel back through time and visualize monuments whose fragments they can see in museums or archaeological sites. A powerful way to convey information through three-dimensional geometry is to add interactive digital storytelling to virtual models. In this paper we present our work on interactive virtual cultural heritage applications with storytelling and show how users appreciate this presentation form, considering it as breathing life into 3D geometry. We describe the Tašlihan project, which consists of a documentary, interactive digital story and serious game about this valuable cultural monument from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which only one wall remains as a memento to its existence.

After an outline of present-day ‘glocalization problems’ of the European Community this article analyses the problem of whether the centralizing policy of the Spanish Bourbon government after the War of Spanish Succession provides historical evidence on the origins of contemporary Catalan nationalism, as often argued, or not. Referring briefly to the medieval and early modern imperial traditions of both the Aragonese kingdoms, especially of Catalonia and its predominant city of Barcelona, and the Castilian kingdoms, the article argues that during the 18th century the Crown made strong efforts to integrate Catalans into the imperial government and trade and spent large quantities of fiscal income in the modernization of Catalonia as a central base of its Mediterranean policy. Therefore, the historical origins of present-day nationalism have to be explained in the context of more recent historical phenomena in the context of the so-called ‘uncompleted Spanish national project’.

The town of Barcelona in Venezuela, with a present population of nearly half a million inhabitants, is – by far – the most important New World settlement bearing the name of Catalonia’s capital. It owes its name to its founder, Joan Orpí i del Pou, also known as Juan de Orpín or Urpín (Piera, 1593 – Barcelona, Venezuela, 1645), who managed to distinguish himself as one of the last conquistadors within the territory of present-day Venezuela. This was no easy task since a Catalan was, technically, not allowed to reside or even to travel to lands under the exclusive control of the Crown of Castille and León. However, since its foundation in 1638, Nueva Barcelona del Cerro Santo was soon to become a sort of Catalan enclave in eastern Venezuela, particularly due to the influence of the Catalan Capuchin missionaries who, since the end of the 17th century on, used it as a base for inland penetration. Similarly, Venezuela’s Barcelona was one of the important trading posts for the Compañía de Comercio de Barcelona, following the latter’s foundation in 1755. A sizeable community of Catalan merchants ensured the town’s growth and prosperity at the turn of the 19th century. This community also fuelled a strong resistance against the independence movement from 1810 onwards, as Barcelona was to become a savagely disputed prey between royalist and patriot armies: the episode of the Casa Fuerte massacre in 1817 is still today remembered as a landmark of royalist cruelty, even though the revenge later exerted by the patriot troops in no way fell behind in terms of mercilessness. The Catalans were particularly singled out and, with few exceptions, were all either killed or forced to leave.

One frequent observation about the contemporary world is that the pace of change appears to be accelerating. Turkey is a case in point, and the same is true of Turkey’s relationships with the Middle East, the European Union, and the wider world. All have continued to evolve at such an astonishing rate that almost the only constant has been change itself. Early in the millennium Turkey appeared to have managed the difficult transition from a long era of military control to a relatively stable elected government and liberal democratic values. That expectation eroded in subsequent years under the rule of Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), with an unmistakable drift towards a decidedly illiberal democracy – if not outright authoritarianism – and increased violence at home and abroad. At the time of writing (late-July 2016), Turkey has recently experienced a major military coup, a formal state of emergency has been declared, and a sweeping crackdown is occurring that affects virtually every sector of society.

In health care, a trend may be noted to fundamentally question some of today’s assumptions about the traditional roles of medical disciplines, the doctor–patient relationship, the feasibility of medical studies, and about the role of computers as an aid or replacement of doctors. Diagnostics and therapy decision-making become more complex, and no end is in sight. Amounts of health-related data are being collected individually, and through the health care systems. On the example of breast cancer care, technological advances and societal changes can be observed as they take place concurrently, and patterns and hypotheses emerge that will be the focus of this article. In particular, three key changes are to be considered: (1) the growing appreciation of the uniqueness of diseases and the impact of this notion on the future of evidence-based medicine; (2) the acknowledgment of a ‘big data’ problem in today’s medical practice and science, and the role of computers; and (3) the societal demand for ‘P4 medicine’ (predictive, preventive, participatory, personalized), and its impact on the roles of doctors and patients.

Research on human embryonic stem cells, their exploitation and patenting is a highly controversial issue. This contribution provides for some basic understanding of technologies involved. It discusses ethical issues and legal rules dealing with the research and exploitation of stem cells in Europe. Moreover, it presents and analyses in some detail the statutory provisions of the EU in dealing with the patenting of human embryonic stem cells and the interpretation and application of those rules by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Finally, the resulting inconsistencies of the system as applied are critically analysed and a suggestion how to resolve them offered.

Research with human embryonic stem cells (HESC) is very much disputed from an ethical point of view as it requires the destruction of the embryo to derive the stem cells. The legal situation in Europe is heterogeneous. This article gives an overview of the current debate on this topic by outlining the international regulations and the national legislation in the European Union. It is shown that the different legal positions are like an in vivo experiment for contrasting solutions. Furthermore, the legal situation in Germany is examined in more detail and with it the effectiveness and the constitutionality of the requirements.

Imagining a future scenario where human beings have evolved in ways so that they are no longer human but post- or transhuman has been a recurrent trope in science fiction literature since the very inception of the genre. More recently, the possibility of a future including posthumans has received significant philosophical attention due to the emergence of activist ‘transhumanism’. This paper will analyse some of the philosophical problems in evaluating whether a posthuman future is a good future that we ought to pursue. It will first briefly describe the transhumanist conception of the posthuman, and the different routes envisaged from the current human condition to the future posthuman condition. The second part will then present and analyse some fundamental philosophical problems we encounter when we try to assess whether and to what extent the posthuman future is good and/or desirable; and it will be concluded that assessing the ethical desirability of the posthuman future is close to impossible.

Humans and technology are not in symbiosis. They are one species, not two. Humans, enveloped in artefacts of many kinds and ages (from writing, to airplanes), are evolving as one species, the ‘human & machine species’. This evolution is visible and recorded in our lifetime. Here, I illustrate the evolution of the human & machine species by focusing on commercial aircraft, the cooling of electronics, and modern athletics, which is a special laboratory for witnessing the evolution of animal locomotion. I show that these evolutionary forms of flow organization are in accord with, and can be predicted based on the law of physics that governs evolution in nature, bio and non-bio: the constructal law. Evolution, life and the human & machine species are physics.

The posthuman summons up a complex of both tangible challenges for humanity and a potential shift to a larger, more comprehensive historical perspective on humankind. In this article we will first examine the posthuman in relation to the macro-historical framework of the Anthropocene. Adopting key notions from complexity theory, we argue that the earlier counter-figures of environmental catastrophe (Anthropocene entropy) and corporeal enhancement (transhuman negentropy) should be juxtaposed and blended. Furthermore, we argue for the relevance of a comprehensive aesthetical perspective in a discussion of posthuman challenges. Whereas popular visual culture and many novels illustrate posthuman dilemmas (e.g. the superhero’s oscillation between superhuman and human) in a respect for humanist naturalist norms, avant-garde art performs a posthuman alienation of the earlier negentropic centres of art, a problematization of the human body and mind, that is structurally equivalent to the environmental modification of negentropic rise taking place in the Anthropocene. In a spatial sprawl from immaterial information to material immersion, the autonomous human body and mind, the double apex of organic negentropy, are thus undermined through a dialectics of entropy and order, from abstraction’s indeterminacy to Surrealism’s fragmentation of the body and its interlacing with inorganic things.