technology
CategoryWhy Philosophers of Science (and others) Should Use Twitter
Janet Stemwedel, professor of philosophy at San Jose State University, created a poster for the recent meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) laying out reasons philosophers of science might want to use Twitter, along with some basics for getting started. (more…)
An Automated Modal Reasoner
Brian Tackett, a computer science student at the University of Buffalo who previously studied philosophy, has created an “automated modal reasoner.” (more…)
Philosophers Lead Academics’ Effort To Restrict Facial Recognition Technology
If you’re like most people, you probably haven’t been thinking much about facial recognition technology. Philosopher Evan Selinger (Rochester Institute of Technology), has, and he thinks we all should be, too, for it poses a serious threat to human welfare. Now he, Peter Asaro (a philosopher at The New School), and others have written an open letter to Amazon CEO Je..
PhilPeople Launches (guest post by David Bourget & David Chalmers)
The following is a guest post* by David Bourget (Western) and David Chalmers (NYU), the co-directors of the PhilPapers Foundation, which has brought you the bibliographic database PhilPapers, the online philosophical archive PhilArchive, the philosophy events calendar PhilEvents, and now, the professional networking tool PhilPeople (previously).
A Game for Gaining Logical Fluency
Matthias Jenny, who recently received his PhD in philosophy from MIT, has started working in the tech industry. He wrote to share with Daily Nous readers a game he created to help people develop basic logical fluency. (more…)
Experiments in Virtual Philosophy (guest post by Erick Ramirez)
The following is a guest post* by Erick Ramirez, assistant professor of philosophy at Santa Clara University. Among other things, Professor Ramirez has been working on philosophical issues related to the limits of our capacities for empathy and taking the perspective of others, and he has been developing exciting new tools to help us somewhat overcome these limits i..
Robot Takes Philosophy of Love Course
William Barry, associate professor of philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University and director of its “Virtual Learning Lab,” taught a new kind of student in his philosophy of love course this past term: a robot.
Patent Pending for Philosopher and Astrophysicist-Designed Artificial Consciousness Test
Susan Schneider, professor of philosophy and cognitive science at the University of Connecticut, and Edwin L. Turner, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, have developed “a behavior-based artificial consciousness test (ACT), and related tests for AI safety.” (more…)
Philosophy In A World Of Mass Deception
Our current political situation is so horribly distressing that it is easy to lose sight of even more horrible things that may be on the horizon. (more…)
Visualizing The Logical Structure of Arguments: A New Platform (guest post by Simon Cullen)
The following is a guest post* by Simon Cullen (Princeton), which continues an earlier discussion of his work teaching with argument mapping techniques and software.
Data About Your Own Writing
Are you curious about your use of words and phrases in your writing? If so, you can play around with the text analysis tools at Voyant Tools. You can paste in the text of a paper, or upload or link to it, and Voyant will produce data about the frequency and location of words and phrases, presenting it in text and graph forms. (more…)
A Visualization of Influence in the History of Philosophy
“I don’t know a lot about philosophy,” says Grant Louis Oliveira, a data analyst and quantitative social sciences researcher with an undergraduate degree in political science. He continues:
I’d like to change that and more rigorously explore my ideas, but I find the world of philosophy a bit impenetrable, and I don’t think I’m the only one. I know most the big na..
The Philosophy Twitterverse
What, if anything, should philosophers do on Twitter? The Blog of the APA has an interesting interview with longtime Twitterphile Kelly Truelove (@TrueSciPhi), who, among other things, keeps statistics on philosophers and their followers on Twitter, and he addresses this question. (more…)
AI, Go, and Philosophical Argument
After more than four hours of tight play and a rapid-fire endgame, Google’s artificially intelligent Go-playing computer system has won a second contest against grandmaster Lee Sedol, taking a two-games-to-none lead in their historic best-of-five match in downtown Seoul. The surprisingly skillful Google machine, known as AlphaGo, now needs only one more win to claim..