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Post-postal
What did we lose when we stopped writing letters?
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Benjamin Breen
2
LLM-based educational games will be a big deal
For the first time, digital games can make qualitative assessments of learning. Here's what that might look like.
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Benjamin Breen
2
"He spoke of computers with some awe"
Margaret Mead, John von Neumann, and the prehistory of AI
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Benjamin Breen
6
Role-playing with AI will be a powerful tool for writers and educators
Or, how well can GPT-4 simulate an acid trip in 1963?
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Benjamin Breen
3
Simulating an LSD trip in 1963 with GPT-4
The question: how well can GPT-4 simulate a trip on LSD, specifically one in early 1960s Los Angeles? The answer… pretty damn well. Read on for the…
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Benjamin Breen
When technology follows art
From optics to machine learning, artists have played an important, if underrated, role in the history of technology
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Benjamin Breen
10
Margaret Mead, Technocracy, and the origins of AI's ideological divide
The anthropologist helped popularize both techno-optimism and the concept of existential risk
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Benjamin Breen
3
How to use generative AI for historical research
Four real-world case studies, and some thoughts on what not to do
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Benjamin Breen
9
Simulating History with Multimodal AI: an Update
Generative AI offers a new, more engaging (and, hopefully, more empathetic) way of teaching history. But how to use it?
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Benjamin Breen
7
Before psychedelic therapy for wartime trauma, there was narcosynthesis
Notes on using AI to analyze three World War II-era films about drugs and PTSD
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Benjamin Breen
6
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
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