Immutable object

Abstract: This article details how patent law works to create discrete, immutable biological ‘objects’. This socio-legal maneuver is necessary to distinguish these artifacts from the unwieldy (and thus unpatentable) realm of the natural world. The creation of ‘objects’ also serves the interests of capital, where a stable, unchanging, immutable object goes hand in hand with commodification. Yet this stabilization is incomplete. Pointing to a variety of different examples, this article illustrates how biotech patents do not speak to specific, immutable things. Biotech patents, rather, are better understood as ontologically fluid (though, as discussed, this fluidity can only occur within limits), which is to say their identity cannot be ‘fixed’ — or, at least, not without undermining the very existence of today’s biotechnology regime. The article concludes by speaking briefly about how this mutability is perpetuating certain inequalities, particularly between holders of various property forms.

Abstract: A data storage system having mutable objects incorporating time is described herein. According to the systems and methods described herein, a data item may be partitioned into parts (data objects) and stored as an index object. As the object storage system provides immutable objects, when a new version of a data item needs to be stored, only those parts (data objects) of the data item that changed need be saved rather than the entire data item. The systems and methods described herein allow for efficient storage, access and manipulation of mutable data items using an underlying immutable object system.

Abstract: A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for copy-on-write optimization of immutable objects. An immutable object is marked as read-only to form a read-only object. The read-only object is formed to delay copying of the immutable object until a runtime determination is made that a write to the immutable object will be made. In response to an attempt to write to the read-only object, an internal value of the read-only object is copied to read-and-write storage using runtime information to form a writable copy of the read-only object. A set of references for the read-only object is updated to point to the writable copy of the read-only object. Delaying copying of the immutable object optimizes a copy-on-write of the immutable object.

Abstract: Publisher Summary Late 13th and early 14th century logic may be characterized by its interest for grammatical and metalogical problems. Grammar and logic were two of the traditional seven liberal arts, but the works of the logicians and grammarians in this period reflect an interest in grammar and logic as sciences, rather than as arts. There was a common opinion that every science has to have an immutable object, but the texts show a considerable disagreement about the origin, status and ontological foundation of this object in the science of logic. Beside signification the key notion was “imposition.” The basic function of language is to signify things, and imposition is the way words acquire their meanings. This is supposed to work as follows: a first impositor investigates things and their properties and then decides which sound should be used to signify that object.