Res Obscura

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Historical maps probably helped cause World War I
On cartography as historical argument
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Benjamin Breen
2
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Simulating History with ChatGPT
The Case for LLMs as Hallucination Engines
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Benjamin Breen
20
Experiencing scientific revolutions: the 1660s and the 2020s
Lessons from Boyle's scientific desiderata and the Midgley Effect
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Benjamin Breen
16
Why Early Modern Books Are So Beautiful
Three theories
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Benjamin Breen
13
Why did it take psychedelics so long to become popular?
Some lessons from history and archaeology
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Benjamin Breen
2
Wilfrid Voynich: Bookseller, Revolutionary, Amateur Cryptologist... Suspected Spy?
The first in a series on the extraordinary lives of the Voyniches
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Benjamin Breen
Do painters subconsciously paint themselves into their work?
The Renaissance history of automimesis, and a proposal for research
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Benjamin Breen
3
Res Obscura is now on Substack
Three years late, but historians are always late
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Benjamin Breen
Res Obscura
Res Obscura
Notes on the history of technology, medicine, science, art, drugs, and empire from UC Santa Cruz history professor Benjamin Breen. Also: using AI in research and teaching.
Recommendations
View all 25
Age of Invention, by Anton Howes
Age of Invention, by Anton Howes
Anton Howes
Atlas of Wonders and Monsters
Atlas of Wonders and Monsters
Étienne Fortier-Dubois
Noted
Noted
Jillian Hess
Read Max
Read Max
Max Read
Snack Stack
Snack Stack
Doug Mack / Snack Stack
Books
Pre-order "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science"
Coming January, 2024, from Grand Central. I'd be very grateful if you considered pre-ordering it!
Order "The Age of Intoxication"
My first book, on the early modern global drug trade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019)
Articles
Open-access PDFs of my academic publications
© 2023 Benjamin Breen
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