Res Obscura

Res Obscura

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The leading AI models are now good historians
... in specific domains. Three case studies with GPT-4o, o1, and Claude Sonnet 3.5, and what they mean
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Benjamin Breen
33
Why Early Modern Books Are So Beautiful
Three theories
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Benjamin Breen
15
On 17th century "cocaine"
A new analysis of mummified brains pushes back the timeline for the globalization of coca
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Benjamin Breen
10
Simulating History with ChatGPT
The Case for LLMs as Hallucination Engines
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Benjamin Breen
22
AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder
Historians are finally having their AI debate
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Benjamin Breen
13
Centuries of Childhood
The history of childhood is one of multiplicity — so why do we tell parents such simplistic stories about it?
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Benjamin Breen
5
A very deep history of Halloween
Or, how far back can historical analysis take us?
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Benjamin Breen
4
2,000-year-old wine and the uncanny immediacy of the past
Why artifacts like the Carmona Wine Urn, the Pazyryk Rug, and the Sword of Goujian are so important
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Benjamin Breen
When Jorge Luis Borges met one of the founders of AI
One reason I became a historian is the joy of encountering moments in the past that are foreign, yet also oddly familiar.
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Benjamin Breen
Why did clothing become boring?
An investigation into when, how, and why everyone started dressing the same — and what it was like when they didn't
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Benjamin Breen
Historical maps probably helped cause World War I
On cartography as historical argument
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Benjamin Breen
2
Translating Latin demonology manuals with GPT-4 and Claude
At long last, a real-world use case for AI!
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Benjamin Breen
9
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