Items of interest…

Discussion welcome.

1. Bentham had 26 “death rings” made, each with his silhouette and a lock of his hair. Since his death, the rings have been “scattered around the world, with people hunting to find them” — one of them has recently been found, and will be auctioned
2. Like ChatGPT, but instead of producing text in response to your prompts, it makes videos—scarily realistic videos — check out what, an OpenAI project, can do
3. “The answer ‘It has no meaning’ isn’t negative or disappointing. It’s celebratory. It’s the only answer that grasps the value of life and the nature of its value – apart from being true” — Galen Strawson (UT Austin) on “What is the meaning of life?”
4. Outdoorsman, prisoner of war, spy, and philosopher — the remarkable life of Winthrop Bell, who was a professor of philosophy at Harvard in the 1920s and 30s
5. “You defang hierarchies not by denying them but by multiplying them” — philosophers have asked, “equality of what?” An historian takes up the question, “equality of whom”?
6. “AI systems will enable a genre of generative agents that… bring new urgency to previously neglected philosophical questions” — excellent article by Seth Lazar (ANU) on the moral pitfalls and moral potential of AI, discussing issues you likely haven’t thought of before
7. A list of journals, across various disciplines, that have seen editors resign en masse since 2015 — from Retraction Watch

Mini-Heap posts usually appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, a collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers.

The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thank you.

Previous Edition