Tootfinder

Who would've thought that philosophical, lyrical #motorcycle video essays are a thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz3ceOIjSdU

The Thalos Principle 2 estš em uma ótima promoção na #Steam. Eu adorei o primeiro jogo, foi o mais próximo de uma experiência literšria que eu jš tive jogando. Eu só fico com um pé atršs porque, ao contršrio do primeiro, este segundo jogo não tem versão nativa pra #linux. E, mesmo que rode bem via…

A Logic of Stability: Formalizing Similarity in Counterfactual Reasoning
Marta Esteves
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.12502 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.12502

A Logic of Stability: Formalizing Similarity in Counterfactual Reasoning
Counterfactual reasoning is a foundational topic in both philosophical and logical studies \cite{Stalnaker1968-STAATO-5, Lewis1973-LEWC-2}. A pivotal component of counterfactual analysis is the concept of similarity between possible worlds \cite{CORR_A_2022, ESTEVA1997235, Lewis1979-LEWCDA, Makinson94, Pollock1976-POLTPW}. In this paper, we propose the introdutcion of a metric to quantify the degree of similarity between possible worlds, where two worlds are the more similar the longer they sha…

Cognitive scientist Margaret Boden, whose books helped shape the philosophical conversation about human intelligence and AI, passed away on July 18 at age 88 (Michael S. Rosenwald/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/science…

Margaret Boden, Philosopher of Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88
A cognitive scientist, she used the language of computers to explore the nature of human thought and creativity, offering prescient insights about A.I.

There’s no doubting the seriousness with which Braxton approaches his art – this is a major composer, who with his Tri-Axium writings, has developed a musico-philosophical system of cosmic complexity – but the sense of adventure and fun he brings to these enterprises is undeniable. Braxton describes himself as "a professional student of music" and his enthusiasm for new ideas and possibilities is inspiring.

How Benchmark's investment in Chinese startup Manus has highlighted a philosophical divide in Silicon Valley over China, patriotism, and the pursuit of profit (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-1…

La \'Ultima Frontera de La Filosof\'ia: Hacia una S\'intesis de La \'Etica del Futuro a Largo Plazo, el Riesgo Existencial y la Ontolog\'ia Posthumana
Santos E. Moreta Reyes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11568

La Última Frontera de La Filosofía: Hacia una Síntesis de La Ética del Futuro a Largo Plazo, el Riesgo Existencial y la Ontología Posthumana
Humanity's unprecedented technological capacity and concurrent existential risks reveal a critical lacuna in the philosophical tradition: the absence of a systematic framework for the long-term future. This article argues that formulating such a framework is the central ethical imperative of our era. To defend this thesis, it synthesizes the normative ethics of Hans Jonas and Derek Parfit with the analytical framework of Nick Bostrom's work on existential risk and longtermism. The analysis furt…

Really enjoyed @…’s thoughtful and entertaining talk at #smashingconf today! Amazing to see how philosophical ideas influenced the design of iA’s apps and what designers can and could learn from philosophy – and vice versa. A lot of food for thought!…

There are some deep philosophical questions such as "Could god create a stone so heavy that god could not lift it?"
So I wonder, could Space X create a rocket so powerful that it could send trump, miller, noem, and rfk-jr to Mars?
It is certainly worth a try.

Uncertainty Awareness and Trust in Explainable AI- On Trust Calibration using Local and Global Explanations
Carina Newen, Daniel Bodemer, Sonja Glantz, Emmanuel M\"uller, Magdalena Wischnewski, Lenka Schnaubert
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08989

Uncertainty Awareness and Trust in Explainable AI- On Trust Calibration using Local and Global Explanations
Explainable AI has become a common term in the literature, scrutinized by computer scientists and statisticians and highlighted by psychological or philosophical researchers. One major effort many researchers tackle is constructing general guidelines for XAI schemes, which we derived from our study. While some areas of XAI are well studied, we focus on uncertainty explanations and consider global explanations, which are often left out. We chose an algorithm that covers various concepts simultan…

Ghost in the Machine: Examining the Philosophical Implications of Recursive Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence Systems
Llewellin RG Jegels
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01967

Ghost in the Machine: Examining the Philosophical Implications of Recursive Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence Systems
This paper investigates whether contemporary AI architectures employing deep recursion, meta-learning, and self-referential mechanisms provide evidence of machine consciousness. Integrating philosophical history, cognitive science, and AI engineering, it situates recursive algorithms within a lineage spanning Cartesian dualism, Husserlian intentionality, Integrated Information Theory, the Global Workspace model, and enactivist perspectives. The argument proceeds through textual analysis, compar…

HumanAgencyBench: Scalable Evaluation of Human Agency Support in AI Assistants
Benjamin Sturgeon, Daniel Samuelson, Jacob Haimes, Jacy Reese Anthis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08494

HumanAgencyBench: Scalable Evaluation of Human Agency Support in AI Assistants
As humans delegate more tasks and decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), we risk losing control of our individual and collective futures. Relatively simple algorithmic systems already steer human decision-making, such as social media feed algorithms that lead people to unintentionally and absent-mindedly scroll through engagement-optimized content. In this paper, we develop the idea of human agency by integrating philosophical and scientific theories of agency with AI-assisted evaluation me…

Say it together with me now: Indigenous people WERE (and ARE) using the land.
https://nebula.tv/videos/philosophytube-how-colonisers-lied-about-indian-land-use/

Philosophy Tube — How Colonisers Lied About American Indian Land Use
A bonus video about American Indian land use and the philosophical arguments colonists used to deny that they were "really" using it

# Philosophical test fails ChatGPT: AI coherence isn’t enough to prove human mind
The research reveals that #ChatGPT does exhibit proficiency in basic coherence building. It maintains consistent dictional and intentional lines by reusing phrases and aligning responses with contextual topics. It also demonstrates some ability to construct rational coherence by offering logically consistent replies…

The most influential philosophers in Wikipedia: a multicultural analysis
Guillaume Rollin, Jos\'e Lages
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06034 https://

The most influential philosophers in Wikipedia: a multicultural analysis
We explore the influence and interconnectivity of philosophical thinkers within the Wikipedia knowledge network. Using a dataset of 237 articles dedicated to philosophers across nine different language editions (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish), we apply the PageRank and CheiRank algorithms to analyze their relative ranking and influence in each linguistic context. Furthermore, we compare our results with entries from the Stanford Encyclopedi…

Futurity as Infrastructure: A Techno-Philosophical Interpretation of the AI Lifecycle
Mark Cote, Susana Aires
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15680 https://arxi…

Futurity as Infrastructure: A Techno-Philosophical Interpretation of the AI Lifecycle
This paper argues that a techno-philosophical reading of the EU AI Act provides insight into the long-term dynamics of data in AI systems, specifically, how the lifecycle from ingestion to deployment generates recursive value chains that challenge existing frameworks for Responsible AI. We introduce a conceptual tool to frame the AI pipeline, spanning data, training regimes, architectures, feature stores, and transfer learning. Using cross-disciplinary methods, we develop a technically grounded…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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Using Large Language Models to Study Mathematical Practice
William D'Alessandro
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02873 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.02873

Using Large Language Models to Study Mathematical Practice
The philosophy of mathematical practice (PMP) looks to evidence from working mathematics to help settle philosophical questions. One prominent program under the PMP banner is the study of explanation in mathematics, which aims to understand what sorts of proofs mathematicians consider explanatory and what role the pursuit of explanation plays in mathematical practice. In an effort to address worries about cherry-picked examples and file-drawer problems in PMP, a handful of authors have recently…

Just read this post by @… on an optimistic AGI future, and while it had some interesting and worthwhile ideas, it's also in my opinion dangerously misguided, and plays into the current AGI hype in a harmful way.
https://social.coop/@eloquence/114940607434005478
My criticisms include:
- Current LLM technology has many layers, but the biggest most capable models are all tied to corporate datacenters and require inordinate amounts of every and water use to run. Trying to use these tools to bring about a post-scarcity economy will burn up the planet. We urgently need more-capable but also vastly more efficient AI technologies if we want to use AI for a post-scarcity economy, and we are *not* nearly on the verge of this despite what the big companies pushing LLMs want us to think.
- I can see that permacommons.org claims a small level of expenses on AI equates to low climate impact. However, given current deep subsidies on place by the big companies to attract users, that isn't a great assumption. The fact that their FAQ dodges the question about which AI systems they use isn't a great look.
- These systems are not free in the same way that Wikipedia or open-source software is. To run your own model you need a data harvesting & cleaning operation that costs millions of dollars minimum, and then you need millions of dollars worth of storage & compute to train & host the models. Right now, big corporations are trying to compete for market share by heavily subsidizing these things, but it you go along with that, you become dependent on them, and you'll be screwed when they jack up the price to a profitable level later. I'd love to see open dataset initiatives SBD the like, and there are some of these things, but not enough yet, and many of the initiatives focus on one problem while ignoring others (fine for research but not the basis for a society yet).
- Between the environmental impacts, the horrible labor conditions and undercompensation of data workers who filter the big datasets, and the impacts of both AI scrapers and AI commons pollution, the developers of the most popular & effective LLMs have a lot of answer for. This project only really mentions environmental impacts, which makes me think that they're not serious about ethics, which in turn makes me distrustful of the whole enterprise.
- Their language also ends up encouraging AI use broadly while totally ignoring several entire classes of harm, so they're effectively contributing to AI hype, especially with such casual talk of AGI and robotics as if embodied AGI were just around the corner. To be clear about this point: we are several breakthroughs away from AGI under the most optimistic assumptions, and giving the impression that those will happen soon plays directly into the hands of the Sam Altmans of the world who are trying to make money off the impression of impending huge advances in AI capabilities. Adding to the AI hype is irresponsible.
- I've got a more philosophical criticism that I'll post about separately.
I do think that the idea of using AI & other software tools, possibly along with robotics and funded by many local cooperatives, in order to make businesses obsolete before they can do the same to all workers, is a good one. Get your local library to buy a knitting machine alongside their 3D printer.
Lately I've felt too busy criticizing AI to really sit down and think about what I do want the future to look like, even though I'm a big proponent of positive visions for the future as a force multiplier for criticism, and this article is inspiring to me in that regard, even if the specific project doesn't seem like a good one.

Operating system drama is basically YouTube drama but with way more keyboard clacking and less ukuleles. Friends turn into rivals overnight just because of which OS you use. It is wild to see people treat software choices like reality TV show rivalries.
What makes me even sadder is how something that should come from understanding and research turns into a full-blown philosophical fight. Choosing an OS should be about what works for you, not a reason to start a digital soap opera.

We may see more of Micah Parsons as a standing free rusher in 2025 https://insidethestar.com/we-may-see-more-of-micah-parsons-as-a-standing-free-rusher-in-2025

Started reading Naomi Klein's "Doppelganger", a book about how she is often mixed up with Naomi Wolf (former feminist icon turned conspiracy nut/grifter). It's... tedious. I haven't gotten to the parts that are praised on the back cover yet. So far it has been 100 densely-printed pages of philosophical and historical treatise. Interesting for sure, but I would have preferred this as a much much shorter essay so far. Will continue to read, but it's work.

Basic scientists' disproportionate impact amid applied drift reveals structural asymmetry in science
Rikuei Kaku, Mikako Bito, Keita Nishimoto, Ichiro Sakata, Kimitaka Asatani
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01530

Basic scientists' disproportionate impact amid applied drift reveals structural asymmetry in science
Despite broad acclaim for basic research, science is undergoing an applied shift that marginalizes basic scientists. This gap reflects an incomplete understanding of their distinctive roles, which prevents translating philosophical appreciation into effective support. We introduce a scalable metric--the application score--to position research along the basic-applied spectrum and apply it to 62 million publications (1970-2023) to reveal the distinctive contributions of basic scientists. We find …

Abstraction, Explanation, and Effective Field Theories
Martin King
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03582 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.03582

Abstraction, Explanation, and Effective Field Theories
Effective field theories (EFTs) are widely considered by physicists to be explanatory and to be the appropriate frameworks for modelling various phenomena at different scales. At the same time, they are known to be approximate, restricted, and merely effective, and thus, examining them can provide a means of getting traction on philosophical issues such as idealisation, abstraction, and the veridicality of representations in explanation. This paper casts EFTs as \textit{abstract} models of a mo…

Can Machines Philosophize?
Michele Pizzochero, Giorgia Dellaferrera
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00675 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.00675…

Can Machines Philosophize?
Inspired by the Turing test, we present a novel methodological framework to assess the extent to which a population of machines mirrors the philosophical views of a population of humans. The framework consists of three steps: (i) instructing machines to impersonate each human in the population, reflecting their backgrounds and beliefs, (ii) administering a questionnaire covering various philosophical positions to both humans and machines, and (iii) statistically analyzing the resulting response…

Non-Robustness of the Zero-Temperature-Limit Gibbs Measures to Perturbations of the Potential
L\'eo Gayral, Mathieu Sablik
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18325 https://

Non-Robustness of the Zero-Temperature-Limit Gibbs Measures to Perturbations of the Potential
The robustness of properties of a statistical physics model to slight perturbations in the exact local interactions of the model is a very relevant philosophical question, considering real-life measurements on which we base some models can only ever reach a finite precision. In this article, we will discuss this topic in a formal mathematical setting, and notably exhibit a family of models for which the low-temperature behaviour is highly non-robust.

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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No Such Thing as Free Brain Time: For a Pigouvian Tax on Attention Capture
Hamza Belgroun (Sciences Po, UniCA, CNRS, WIMMICS, Laboratoire I3S - SPARKS), Franck Michel (Laboratoire I3S - SPARKS, WIMMICS), Fabien Gandon (WIMMICS, Laboratoire I3S - SPARKS)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.06453

No Such Thing as Free Brain Time: For a Pigouvian Tax on Attention Capture
In our age of digital platforms, human attention has become a scarce and highly valuable resource, rivalrous, tradable, and increasingly subject to market dynamics. This article explores the commodification of attention within the framework of the attention economy, arguing that attention should be understood as a common good threatened by over-exploitation. Drawing from philosophical, economic, and legal perspectives, we first conceptualize attention not only as an individual cognitive process…

The Application of Virtual Environments and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Experimental Findings in Philosophy Teaching
Adel Vehrer, Zsolt Palfalusi
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00110

The Application of Virtual Environments and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Experimental Findings in Philosophy Teaching
This study explores how virtual environments and artificial intelligence can enhance university students' learning experiences, with particular attention to the digital preferences of Generation Z. An experiment was conducted at the Faculty of Pedagogy, Humanities, and Social Sciences at University of Gyor, where Walter's Cube technology and a trained AI mediator were integrated into the instruction of ten philosophical topics. The curriculum was aligned with the official syllabus and enriched …

Towards a Large Physics Benchmark
Kristian G. Barman, Sascha Caron, Faegheh Hasibi, Eugene Shalugin, Yoris Marcet, Johannes Otte, Henk W. de Regt, Merijn Moody
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21695

Towards a Large Physics Benchmark
We introduce a benchmark framework developed by and for the scientific community to evaluate, monitor and steer large language model development in fundamental physics. Building on philosophical concepts of scientific understanding and creativity, we develop a scoring system in which each question is scored by an expert for its correctness, difficulty, and surprise. The questions are of three forms: (i) multiple-choice questions for conceptual understanding, (ii) analytical problems requiring m…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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The Philosophy and Physics of Duality
Sebastian De Haro, Jeremy Butterfield
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.01616 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.01616

The Philosophy and Physics of Duality
This monograph discusses dualities in physics: what dualities are, their main examples--from quantum mechanics and electrodynamics to statistical mechanics, quantum field theory and string theory--and the philosophical questions they raise. Part I first conceptualises dualities and discusses their main roles and themes, including how they are related to familiar notions like symmetry and interpretation. It also discusses the main simple examples of dualities: position-momentum, wave-particle, e…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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The Xeno Sutra: Can Meaning and Value be Ascribed to an AI-Generated "Sacred" Text?
Murray Shanahan, Tara Das, Robert Thurman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.20525 https://…

The Xeno Sutra: Can Meaning and Value be Ascribed to an AI-Generated "Sacred" Text?
This paper presents a case study in the use of a large language model to generate a fictional Buddhist "sutr"', and offers a detailed analysis of the resulting text from a philosophical and literary point of view. The conceptual subtlety, rich imagery, and density of allusion found in the text make it hard to causally dismiss on account of its mechanistic origin. This raises questions about how we, as a society, should come to terms with the potentially unsettling possibility of a technology th…

Epistemic Trade-Off: An Analysis of the Operational Breakdown and Ontological Limits of "Certainty-Scope" in AI
Generoso Immediato
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19304 htt…

Epistemic Trade-Off: An Analysis of the Operational Breakdown and Ontological Limits of "Certainty-Scope" in AI
Floridi's conjecture offers a compelling intuition about the fundamental trade-off between certainty and scope in artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This exploration remains crucial, not merely as a philosophical exercise, but as a potential compass for guiding AI investments, particularly in safety-critical industrial domains where the level of attention will surely be higher in the future. However, while intellectually coherent, its formalization ultimately freezes this insight into a susp…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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Antirealism in sheep's clothing: Wave function realism and scientific realism
Raoni Arroyo, Jonas R. Becker Arenhart
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21615 https://

Antirealism in sheep's clothing: Wave function realism and scientific realism
Scientific realism is the philosophical stance that science tracks truth, in particular in its depiction of the world's ontology. Ontologically, this involves a commitment to the existence of entities posited by our best scientific theories; metaontologically, it includes the claim that the theoretical framework itself is true. In this article, we examine wave function realism as a case study within this broader methodological debate. Wave function realism holds that the wave function, as descr…

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Thought
R\'enald Gesnot
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16628 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.16628

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Thought
This research paper examines, from a multidimensional perspective (cognitive, social, ethical, and philosophical), how AI is transforming human thought. It highlights a cognitive offloading effect: the externalization of mental functions to AI can reduce intellectual engagement and weaken critical thinking. On the social level, algorithmic personalization creates filter bubbles that limit the diversity of opinions and can lead to the homogenization of thought and polarization. This research als…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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Making AI Inevitable: Historical Perspective and the Problems of Predicting Long-Term Technological Change
Mark Fisher, John Severini
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16692 https://…

Making AI Inevitable: Historical Perspective and the Problems of Predicting Long-Term Technological Change
This study demonstrates the extent to which prominent debates about the future of AI are best understood as subjective, philosophical disagreements over the history and future of technological change rather than as objective, material disagreements over the technologies themselves. It focuses on the deep disagreements over whether artificial general intelligence (AGI) will prove transformative for human society; a question that is analytically prior to that of whether this transformative effect…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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Hagley History Hangout/New Episode Artists bring a unique perspective to historical…
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Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy
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Shadow in the Galactic Center: Theoretical Concept -- Prediction -- Realization
Alexander F. Zakharov
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16927 https://

Shadow in the Galactic Center: Theoretical Concept -- Prediction -- Realization
General Relativity (GR) was created in November 1915 and since its creation and up to now this theory has undergone many tests. The first realistic cosmological models were proposed in the works of Friedman, written in the 1920s. For a long time Friedman's cosmological works were actually banned in Soviet Union due to philosophical reasons, since the models where the birth and evolution of the Universe occurs were considered ideologically unacceptable. Due to great achievements in relativity an…

Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20072183/discursive-and-non-discursive-reasoning-chinese-philosophy