The latest links…
- A philosophy-themed Wordle game — “Cogitordle” was created by philosopher Ian Schnee
- “The debates from the 60s to the 90s might have gone quite differently if we had known the results of these experiments” — David Strohmaier on how new technologies can inform our understanding of learning and language
- Heavenly, the band of retired OUP philosophy editor Peter Momtchiloff, has just released their first new single in 29 years — check out “Portland Town” (via Eric Wiland)
- “What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror I hope to experience in this lifetime” — enough of the time, the details must not matter—until they do
- “The philosophy of physics is continuous with physics, insofar as it seeks to understand the structure of our best scientific theories of the world” — a primer for nonspecialists on the question, “why *philosophy of* physics?”, from James Read
- “I… [sued] the scientists who kept me envatted, performing experiment after experiment without my consent… The defense rests its case on—what else?—a philosophy argument…” — a short story by Barbara Montero
- “If anyone accuses you of hypocrisy, ask them to stop socially incentivizing dogmatism” — Richard Yetter Chappell on reasoning and acting in light of moral uncertainty
- How much longer can most universities survive? And as what? — a discussion of the variety of ills threatening the future of the university, at Hotel Bar Sessions
- The key to increasing computing efficiency may be in having lots of slow “reversible” computers — recent advances in “uncomputation”
- “I saw the students / then blow the dust / off the series of distinctions / witness them newly glow /eyes wide with glee /dumbstruck with wonder.” — a poem from philosopher Philip Bold about teaching Aristotle
- “The original academic freedom is founded on [a] right for scholars to travel to and from their place of study” — Eric Schliesser on the political roots of academic freedom
Mini-Heap posts usually appear when several 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
That AI/Black Mirror essay is one that people keen on AI should read. The only thing I’d add is that of course the LLM isn’t lying, because it’s not the sort of thing that can lie. That’s part of the problem, though, and the fact that it’s set up to talk as if it could do so is a manipulative choice by the programers that should bother us.