Mini-Heap

Recent links…

1. “The usage of LLMs could actually harm learning, especially for younger users” — a new study on brain activity and the use of LLMs like ChatGPT
2. “At the microscopic scale, where particles act like billiard balls, time is reversible… But at the mesoscopic and macroscopic levels, there is no going back in time” — the mathematics of gas and “a rigorous mathematical resolution of an old paradox”
3. “I have Hume to thank for all the bacon I’ve eaten” — Michael Frazer takes a break from lecturing students about the Scottish Enlightenment to perform five minutes of stand-up about it
4. “Correlation does imply causation” — Naftali Weinberger has launched a series of brief videos introducing ideas about causal inference
5. “My hope is that there are folks who either have been swayed by anti-trans sentiment or have remained confused by the whole affair who are willing to take this journey with me” — Talia Mae Bettcher begins a series of posts “to address the anti-trans arguments and positions in a systematic way”
6. “The media’s complete erasure of the large group of American Jews… critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, has allowed the Trump regime to conduct its dismantling of the US higher education system under the pretext of fighting antisemitism” — Jason Stanley on how the media is helping Trump attack universities
7. “Analytic philosophy does not guide its individual practitioners to the truth… Rather, if there is any rightness or truth that is produced by this otherwise odd practice of… squatting in bits of logical space, it is at the level of the collective practice” — Eric Schliesser begins a series of posts on Christoph Schuringa’s Social History of Analytic Philosophy
8. Smart phones are great examples of extended cognition, right? — No, argue Rachael L. Brown & Robert C. Brooks: “by design, modern smartphones frequently thwart the ability of their users to achieve the goals and desires cannot be considered part of users’ cognitive systems”

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.
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