The Remaking of Erotic and Intimate Life

We are living in the midst of an unprecedented transformation of erotic and intimate life. Although this has been the subject of much controversy, most people have taken for granted the results of the changes, with little awareness of how things have changed, and how significant the changes have been. The article explores three traps that commentators fall into. The first is a mindless progressivism that assumes that all is for the best in all possible worlds. The second is a declinist approach, which assumes that all change is for the worst and that the quality of our morality – for which we can read sexual behaviour and values – is in hopeless decline. The third approach assumes continuity: yes, superficial things have changed, but in essence power structures have remained resilient. Subforms of the continuist approach are described, derived from feminist, queer, and anti neo-liberal critiques. Against these broad analytical approaches, the article affirms the importance of a historical approach. This would recognise that change has been uneven, but transforming nevertheless, and for the better. What makes them so significant is that they have largely been grass roots led: a true remaking of everyday life under the pressure of globalisation, detraditionalisation and heightened individualisation. In drawing up a balance sheet of the great transition we must conclude that a new world is emerging, a world we have won.Vivimos en medio de una transformación sin precedentes de la vida erótica e intima. A pesar de que este asunto ha sido objeto de una amplia controversia, han sido muchos los que han dado por supuestos los resultados de los cambios, con escaso conocimiento de cómo han cambiado las cosas y hasta qué punto los cambios han sido significativos. Este artículo examina tres trampas en las que caen quienes se han ocupado de este fenómeno. La primera es un progresismo estúpido que asume que todo cuanto ocurre contribuye a la realización de un futuro óptimo en el mejor de los mundos posibles. La segunda es una visión “decadentista” que asume que todo cambio es a peor y que la calidad de nuestra moralidad –léase, de nuestra conducta y valores sexuales– vive una decadencia irremediable. El tercer enfoque asume la continuidad: sí, ciertas cosas superficiales han cambiado, pero en esencia las estructuras de poder se han mantenido incólumes. El artículo describe algunas sub-formas del enfoque continuista, derivadas de las corrientes de pensamiento crítico feminista, homosexual y anti-neo liberal. Frente a estas amplias aproximaciones analíticas, el artículo reivindica la importancia de un enfoque histórico. Ésta perspectiva constataría que el cambio ha sido desigual, aunque en cualquier caso transformador, y que ha significado una mejora. Lo que hace que ese cambio sea tan significativo es que en gran medida ha sido liderado por una movilización realmente popular, desde abajo: una verdadera reconfiguración de la vida diaria bajo la presión de la globalización, la des-tradicionalización y una individualización acentuada. Al hacer balance de la gran transición debemos concluir que está surgiendo un nuevo mundo, un mundo que hemos conquistado

A Robust Algorithm to Determine the Topology of Space from the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Satellite measurements of the cosmic microwave back-ground radiation will soon provide an opportunity to test whether the universe is multiply connected. This paper presents a new algorithm for deducing the topology of the universe from the microwave background data. Unlike an older algorithm, the new algorithm gives the curvature of space and the radius of the last scattering surface as outputs, rather than requiring them as inputs. The new algorithm is also more tolerant of errors in the observational data

Cosmic microwave background constraints on multi-connected spherical spaces

This article describes the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies expected in a closed universe with the topology of a lens space L(p,q) and with density parameter Omega_0 close to 1. It provides the first simulated maps for such spaces along with their corresponding power spectra. In spite of our initial expectations that increasing p (and thus decreasing the size of the fundamental domain) should suppress the quadrupole, we found just the opposite: increasing p elevates the relative power of the low multipoles, for reasons that have since become clear. For Omega_0 = 1.02, an informal ``by eye'' examination of the simulated power spectra suggests that $p$ must be less than 15 for consistency with WMAP's data, while geometric considerations imply that matching circles will exist (potentially revealing the multi-connected topology) only if p > 7. These bounds become less stringent for values of Omega_0 closer to 1.Comment: 4 pages, 9 figures, to appear in PR