Blockchain Papers

O. González López

No abstract is available for this record.

Adrián Estañol

No abstract is available for this record.

Manuel Navarro

Ante un hecho noticioso, el periodista destaca lo mas relevante para llamar la atencion del lector. Las subidas y bajadas de Bitcoin, la criptomoneda de moda basada en la tecnologia Blockchain, ha hecho que la prensa generalista hable de ella sin saber muy bien en que consiste. Intentaremos, desde este reportaje, aportar un poco de luz.

Carlos Dolader Retamal, Joan Bel Roig, José L. Muñoz

espanolLa blockchain es una tecnologia proveniente del ambito de las cripto-monedas que proporciona una base de datos distribuida, publica e inmutable basada en una secuencia creciente de bloques. Estos bloques, al ser publicos, conforman un sistema abierto sin entidades centrales que potencia la confianza en base a la transparencia y la solidez del modelo. La blockchainse vislumbra como una de las tecnologias con mas potencial disruptivo de los ultimos anos. En este articulo se exponen los principios basicos de su funcionamiento, se presentan algunas de sus posibles aplicaciones y se describen tambien posibles relaciones con otras tecnologias emergentes tales como la Internet de las Cosas o IoT(Internet of Things) o Big Data EnglishBlockchain is a technology arriving from the world of crypto-currencies that provides a distributed, public and immutable database based on a growing sequence of blocks. These blocks are public and form an open and decentralized system that builds trust based on transparency and on the technically sound blockchain model. Blockchain is seen as one of the technologies with the most disruptive potential of the last years. In this article, we present the basic principles of blockchain operation, some of its possible applications and also possible relationships between blockchain and other emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data

Marta Villaencina

La moneda virtual puede ayudar a un experto a hacerse rico o a perderlo todo en cuestion de horas. Un autentico riesgo para los inexpertos

Preston Miller

No abstract is available for this record.

Érika Pani

Erika Pani is Research Professor at El Colegio de México’s Centro de Estudios Históricos, where she has taught since 2009. She is the author of Para mexicanizar el Segundo Imperio: El imaginario politico de los imperialistas (El Colegio de México, 2001) and Para pertenecer a la gran familia mexicana: Procesos de naturalización en el siglo XIX (El Colegio de México, 2015), and co-editor, with Ariel Rodríguez Kuri, of Centenarios: Conmemoraciones e historia oficial (El Colegio de México, 2012). In today’s world … the market is king, and it demands technicians, not humanists. “Can you figure out the price of a call option by using the Black-Scholes formula? You can’t, but you have read all of the University of Chicago’s Great Books? Congratulations. Please leave your résumé with the secretary, and we will call you if there is an opening in another department that calls for knowledge of Plato or Spinoza.” Leo Zuckermann1 To the pessimist, Mexico seems to embody the dire consequences of the “worldwide crisis in education” that Martha Nussbaum, among others, has decried. Despite its proud tradition in literature and the arts—Juana Inés de la Cruz and Octavio Paz, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo—numbers suggest that Mexico has become a cultural wasteland. Studies assessing student performance show consistently poor results: the country ranked 107th out of 108 in UNESCO’s reading index, with a per capita average of 2.8 books read a year, and reading is a “life-long habit” for no more than 2 percent of the population.2 Those dismayed by this “silent catastrophe” see it as a scourge of the times, a product of the decline of education, of a growing “Internet culture,” and of neoliberalism’s “massive” disdain for the humanities and its myopic obsession with efficiency, usefulness, and public spending cuts.3 In a country in which the last ten years have been marred by unimpressive economic performance, drug-related violence, and political gridlock, some argue that non-scientific, non- professionalizing disciplines such as literature, philosophy, history, and the arts are frivolous luxuries of yesterday’s spendthrift state. Others see the “crisis” of the humanities, despite its transnational nature, as another symptom of the nation’s declining health. The polemic surrounding the humanities needs to be placed in historical perspective. This cursory survey of the situation in Mexico is woven around the words and perceptions of those who, for almost two hundred years, have thought about and fought over the humanities as academic disciplines, cultural expressions, and symbolic battlegrounds. In clarifying what is at stake today, it is less important to put out the alarmists’ fires than to understand the part that the humanities have played in the densely intertwined, contentious debates over education and culture, the role of the state, and the future of the nation that have punctuated Mexican history. For more than three centuries, the humanities were the foundation of higher education in New Spain. Courses of secondary education built around Latin grammar as a model for good writing, clear thinking, and elegance of expression formed the core preparation, under the purview of ecclesiastical institutions, for all men of letters and science: clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and artists. When, in the eighteenth century, enlightened Europe wrote about the barbarism and degeneration of the New World, the creole letrados of New Spain could point to the vigor and sophistication of their humanist tradition as proof that the Americas enjoyed a degree of civilization equal, if not superior, to that of the Old World.4 At the end of the colonial period, conceptions of the humanities’ importance began to shift under the pressure caused by the fear of imperial decline and the struggle for modernity.5 Half a century later, they would fall victim to fierce political strife. After the break with Spain in 1821, Mexico’s politicians hailed education as the key to a more modern, civilized, prosperous nation. Projects for universal basic education inevitably fell short in the face of chronic instability and insufficient funds, but the modernizers fared better in the realm of higher education. The new constitutional governments—which needed well-trained young men who would be responsive to local interests, not the ambitions of the former viceregal capital—founded and funded “literary institutes” or “institutes of arts and sciences” in various state capitals. It was, nonetheless, control rather than content that distinguished the colonial system from the new approach. The institutos’ programs differed little from those of their predecessors; they continued to include Latin grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, Church history, civil and canon law, and theology, even as new subjects such as mathematics, experimental sciences, and modern languages were introduced. Religious education, on the other hand, did not remain entrenched in the old ways, and seminaries were eager to buy the latest textbooks and scientific apparatus.6 Nevertheless, as the striving for “material progress” and a lack of funds and qualified teaching personnel bolstered the growing conviction that other types of knowledge were more practical and useful than the old humanist core, the more traditional—and more religious—elements progressively fell away. Theology gave way to secular history, if cast in a providential mold and “universal” rather than national in scope, with authors such as Thucydides and Herodotus being unavoidable references. Latin and Greek were replaced by the “cultivated languages of Europe.”7 The institutos also provided ambitious and talented young men unconnected with traditional elites—such as future president Benito Juárez and the noted journalist, politician, and novelist Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, who were both born poor in remote Indian communities—with an alternative to the seminary as a vehicle for social mobility, giving them the social capital and credentials that enabled them to enter the political fray, usually as liberals intent on shaking up the old order.8 On the other hand, history, geography, literature, and the arts came out of academic cloisters and the tertulias of wise men, finding their way into newspapers, literary associations, and private homes. Those yearning for an efficient modern state also sought to fashion the emotional underpinnings of a national community, united by love of country and elevated by “culture.” With the commitment and sense of urgency of those who hoped their periphery would be seen as part of the center, they held up “the public’s” knowledge and good taste in literature, music, and painting as the most convincing proof that Mexico was a “civilized” nation.9 Prominent public figures published literary reviews with the hope of instilling in Mexico’s youth— particularly its young women—knowledge of the country’s territory, history, architecture, resources, and population, through “picturesque, curious, and instructive amenidades [amenities].”10 The music scene was equally vibrant. In 1854, in the midst of the rebellion that would eventually bring an end to Antonio López de Santa Anna’s seventh and final term as president, opera buffs in Mexico City attended eighty performances.11 “Although the Mexican people’s degree of civilization could not be described as perfect,” the influential liberal ideologue José María Luis Mora wrote with great optimism in 1836, there had been tremendous improvement. With the proliferation of newspapers and theater groups, and a piano in every middle-class parlor, “the elemental principles of the sciences, arts, and trades have become all too common … Understanding, imagination, sentiment, and language have all been enriched.”12 The great conflagration that split the country in two at mid-century (1855–1867) confirmed the de-centering and opening up of the humanities. In 1855, at the fall of Santa Anna’s dictatorship, the young liberals who moved to center stage in national politics embarked on the task of destroying the country’s colonial legacy. They wanted to get rid of corporate privileges, outdated forms of taxation, and cumbersome forms of property. They also sought to break the Church’s hold over Mexicans’ hearts, minds, and destinies through education. The Royal and Pontifical University, founded in 1551, was closed; the 1857 constitution proclaimed freedom of education and established that the conditions and prerequisites of professional degrees were a matter of federal law. This radical project was condemned by the Church, and triggered the fierce opposition of conservatives, militant Catholics, some regional strongmen, and most officers in the standing army. The country sank into civil war. The coalition that rose up in arms against the constitution was defeated on the battlefield at the end of 1860. The monarchical experiment on which conservatives had pinned their last hope disappeared with the exceptional circumstances that had engendered it—the U.S. Civil War and Napoleon III’s project for a French protectorate in North America. In many ways, Mexico’s Second Empire showed that, at least on some fronts, the conservatives’ battle had already been lost. The imperial government, impelled both by the hopes of the Mexican imperialistas and by the inclinations of the emperor, Maximilian von Hapsburg, envisioned a vigorous system of national public education, conceived in opposition to the old “Spanish” humanist model. It would train fewer priests and lawyers and more engineers.13 Also, considering, perhaps, that “national culture” was too important to be left solely in the hands of civil society, the imperial government undertook wide-ranging projects for artistic and scientific development. It put up statues to insurgent leaders, designed museums, commissioned historical paintings, founded an Imperial Academy of Sciences and Literature, and enacted a conciliatory version of Mexican history in public celebrations.14 Most of these projects remained on the drawing board at the time, but would be taken up later, recast in decidedly liberal tones, by the governments of the last third of the nineteenth century. After 1867, triumphant to education as an for and The of the would to read and the of liberal and This of through education remained despite three of and economic and a in government spending on education the last of government, over percent of to and two out of every ten could The less more for higher education was more With the in Mexico City and some state professional degrees in architecture, and In the nation’s the federal government founded the which the nation’s future political a secondary education on a of and scientific In a country that had been by a civil and with it sought to a common a common and a sense of in the words of and literary and was little for the humanities, the country’s old of in this conceived in the for all higher they were seen as the of and as such were almost history, and to a in the of languages were as Church disciplines were into as of was for that which was a “the social of to more literary and subjects into the the last of the In the words of the and a and good sense at the of by a and Nevertheless, literature, the arts, and history in the mold less as of and than as for the of the nation’s and in its and Mexican and who had the of Mexico to the of the in with a In textbooks and public the national historical could the of triumphant which a from struggle against the through the of and José María the War of to to French conservatives up as the of their alternative of what was good and could usually be The basic and of the liberal version would the that the that had engendered and literature in for higher education, they public by giving to a nation that was into its In as part of its the government founded a its for the did little more than the of Mexico professional and It was to Mexico’s as a modern and could perhaps, be read as a that had moved the that had the liberals to its Nevertheless, a the the and civil on for more than ten In the midst of the education and were as on which a new would be The of the humanities in Mexico’s would be by the and of their Antonio José Luis and At the of the century, this of young men had the and of the of these of the sought to literature, philosophy, and the to higher education, and to them with “the For the of the humanities in both the and the of their content and in the and they in their In a and from over for the humanists. the of “the of could “the universal of from in the from the of the the of the or the Despite their and good the years of the did not for the and to the they had most were the middle-class by which out its more and in had a of education, intent on the and knowledge that would the young to the of the humanities had a in this it was they were in philosophy, history, and literature could be continued at little In politics came to the of the government, and of the University, and of education. the for a little over a year, in and the of from to the national language and literature up by at the for Studies in the and built a for the of culture, on and as a for the to more than as a of the nation’s future leaders, its was with about the future of than with the of In the the of and With at the the of undertook a of The federal government in and an of authors to be published in and The of public in over to that their could and the was held up as proof of Mexicans’ and the government of the of music, and of and literature were seen as of for a as in a by and at the the humanities were seen as and were a for ambitious The that to the and over the the of higher education and the of “national culture” not as a of the state, but also as a of and political Despite and the to and higher education it came to funds, in the the federal government began to and academic and cultural The on the would be by such as the and the In the state the academic of the In the it would the and funds for the of history, and The task of these modern was to be at and would the of the would the of its and would both bring to the the nation and the of Indian into In the a of percent of the federal on education, culture, and the of in to and and arts, and to them to “the public in and the and would be by the of the Second who were into the de a cultural founded in to the and humanists. In to them to the Mexican academic and the of the the of the and up a of at other academic that for almost The the of a young cultural de and en la gave of In the de El Colegio de México, an to teaching and it was to Mexico’s it was that it would on the humanities, “the for the social The for and the of this for a for and their of letters up as has their and for the of almost an for for the to a state that was and at the through and were to a and to for and were for in the of the of in both and and by the in young of the surrounding Mexican In the realm of philosophy, the of the José who had over the University of undertook to particularly to its and its as had the of public education and on “universal” had for for the in and and in the and young by They in their of that was an in a world with no over They wrote about the of being about the and that a of and had the national eventually its in the words of of its more the is a could be with a engendered of the most books in Mexican literature, Octavio El de la perhaps, this also about the of an old tradition that had been from for almost a century of its to the in Antonio and that had and a the of the Mexico’s even as and were hailed as the nation’s and the humanities remained on the of higher education. the of Paz, and it was a rather of For the most these had With the of philosophy, the of the world was not the of the The humanities in a country where those a education were already a percent of those at the University in were of the their had to percent by In they percent of in education in the the state that had also that Mexico’s future in of the humanities, future to be almost to education, were in a market that knowledge and rather than liberal both and the humanities to be rather than The humanities’ the was to their market and lack of among but perhaps, to the way they were conceived by In a in for the time, being a could be a it was for those who wanted to the humanities to their or the humanities imagination, good but no of scientific in the words of José Luis did for El de la the humanities’ them to the and the as in the way that a figure inevitably of the of the that could about of and To for their the humanities needed to be bolstered by the of “the most and and the of the century, and a professional academic but it has remained and Mexico’s public In to literature, philosophy, and history their confirmed their The that the humanities could become the core of a education that would with common of a of cultural as had in the U.S. War University, was envisioned in The about by the did to those The student which was by the government, the more of the This to a of higher education, in both of and of with to this of and but did not its basic The humanities, as disciplines in of and remained the purview of the even if their were and The but of higher education in Mexico the of the if that it was in the of a and its in the were by economic and political crisis in the For more than a federal government in higher education by an average of percent a the of the century, the of economic and in world and a to calls for the of public education. In with the of Latin a state that no to its sought to the and of higher to and the and efficiency, and to of To it sought to and of that were and was the of have been and their They have not been to the humanities. The and by disciplines are not even by or in percent of were in humanities in the of many have and for or are designed around the that Mexican they are to the core are taught by the and a The importance to has for the Nevertheless, the of the state with academic the for and founded in to the has to the of both with those in the its are on on and its on for by the of the sciences, and over over and over and over and over the and social percent of the of of in the they have had to the of their disciplines in an with a language that is not their It is that the men and who most the most and of language and thought have been in the of their At they have the of the those not the of that the of the but not particularly convincing that the humanities better who on the that them … and and and who, the midst of the crisis and of time, be a little At these have the on the humanities as the product of a by that against … on and to market and the of such as the In the over the of in secondary education, by a that did not include it as a in have their of the with the of corporate and other humanities be taught by of by the country’s and public of and the and José “the of all thought the humanities were and tradition the the humanities have many important to in In at the University of Luis for the in against those who thought of it as and outdated hoped to the that the education of as with the of the humanities, did not of or a but established an did not the of or but the to for their They provided for which that there was for every that was on In of the humanities, that, as has about the they are both and than academic disciplines, which their In two hundred years, the humanities in Mexico from the foundation for all higher education to its despite the of an artistic and literary tradition public importance has been since the nineteenth century. After Mexico’s Church and state to the and to the humanities’ being out as for higher they were replaced by the more and more useful After the in the of a state that Octavio described as a the humanities were seen as for the of the and as for its They the of a and culture, and from the and of academic even as their to their as The history of the humanities has been by their as as by academic and the for the humanities’ in debates about education, and also for their useful as an expression of the nation’s its its as a put the of the into perspective. The humanities are the key to they have both a practical and a to and and and elegance of the humanities to from a that is and the and of in an in which become they a to and to the humanities to and the and literary and will have a to this if they not on their and they to their as more than and what has described as the opposition the practical and the will be if they remain in yearning for a the state was less and more and to be as good but the to for and to Ariel Rodríguez Kuri, and the

Torres Macías, Esperanza Milena

No abstract is available for this record.

Pablo Sitjar

No abstract is available for this record.

Daniel Rodríguez Herrera

No abstract is available for this record.