Ramón Alvarado
@ramonalvarado.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Philosophy. Editor-in-Chief of Global Philosophy. President of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) and the Association for Philosophy and Computing (APC). Philosopher of computational methods.
IACAP (the international association for computing and philosophy) is where cutting edge #philosophy/epistemology/ethics of computation and #AI happens. This year was no exception. The keynote line up alone was amazing: Gualtiero Piccinini Karina Vold Tom Sterkenburg #philsci #philtech
This is incredibly interesting. #philtech #AIethics
The Verge@theverge.com · 3mo agoThe Midjourney Scanner is an ultrasound-based full-body scanner that uses a ring of sensors to capture vertical slices of the inside of your body, looking at the composition of your muscle, fat, bone, and organs. CEO David Holz says it “aims for image quality comparable to MRI in many ways.”
PSA 🚨This is actually a sound argumentative strategy and common sense: you don’t need to know what the truth is to know something is false, you don’t need to know what would solve a problem to know what won’t, etc. this applies to mathematics, science, problem solving, etc.
A lacking perspective in #AIethics, and something that discussions about the #Pope on #AI miss is that humans are a technological species. The use/refuse dichotomy is a limited understanding of meaningful artistic and intellectual creation. Machines are part of our epistemological efforts. #philtech
I was invited to Mexico City to talk about #AI and the University. I focused on ethical considerations for the 22nd century. Beyond harm mitigation, #AIethics needs to start asking civilizational questions. Beyond what students lose, we must also ask abt loss to knowledge-creation #philtech #philsci
I recently discovered that I’m the only one in the #birder community both taking a flâneur approach to the whole thing, and, importantly, using pataphysics as both a method of inquiry and as a taxonomy. #philsci #philosophy #philosophie
I use to buy this and counter that artifacts shouldn’t be as opaque as we are. Later I realized its false premise: we actually don’t trust opaque humans. We provide education in best practices, licenses, and transparent methodology that we can rely on or inspect for scientist, doctors, judges, etc.
Kevin Zollman@kevinzollman.com · 5mo agoI have never been convinced by Paul's argument. Humans are also epistemically opaque, but we seem happy to use them to do science
Some of us in philosophy of science have been concerned abt this wrt computational methods for almost three decades (before AI) without anyone really listening. The Epistemic opacity in scientific computer simulations literature started bc of this concern. Glad people are catching up. #philsci
Kevin Zollman@kevinzollman.com · 5mo agoThis worries me most about AI in science. It's what happened with the advent of Stata and SPSS. They enabled incredibly rapid advances in the sciences and also set the stage for the replication crisis. Sadly, so many scientists simply don't understand the stats they are using.
And even quicker… I guess someone got tired of winning the AI race? #aiethics
Ramón Alvarado@ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 7mo agoWell that escalated quickly… #AIethics
Our deadline for abstracts for the international association for computing and philosophy is tomorrow! If you are writing on philosophy and algorithms, AI, computers, models, etc., I hope you submit your abstracts! #philtech #philsci #ai #aiethics #philsky
Ramón Alvarado@ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 7mo ago🚨A reminder that IACAP’s conference call for abstracts extended deadline is on Feb.28th. If you are writing about AI, algorithms, models, simulations, and philosophy don’t hesitate to apply and engage with our great community! #philsci #philtech #philsky
"The 45-second film, made around 1897, was the first appearance on film of what might be called a robot" HELL. YES.
Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless
Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's
blogs.loc.gov
Please share. The International Association for Computing and Philosophy is one of the best communities to engage with if you are doing any philosophy (epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, etc.) related to computational technologies. Submit your abstract! #philsci #philsky #philtech #AIethics
Ramón Alvarado@ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 7mo ago🚨A reminder that IACAP’s conference call for abstracts extended deadline is on Feb.28th. If you are writing about AI, algorithms, models, simulations, and philosophy don’t hesitate to apply and engage with our great community! #philsci #philtech #philsky
🚨A reminder that IACAP’s conference call for abstracts extended deadline is on Feb.28th. If you are writing about AI, algorithms, models, simulations, and philosophy don’t hesitate to apply and engage with our great community! #philsci #philtech #philsky
IACAP — Kansas 2026
The Conference site for the IACAP Conferences
iacapconf.org
Although this was strongly written from the #philsci perspective, I hope it’ll be useful for #philtech, #sts, or #philsky in general. The ubiquity of simulations in natural/social science, medicine, policy/politics, should make them of at least some interest to anyone doing 21st century philosophy.
Ramón Alvarado@ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 7mo ago🚨 Our Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Computer Simulations in Science is now live. It was a lot of work but I’m proud of this substantial update. I hope it helps those in #philsci interested in the philosophical implications of computational methods. plato.stanford.edu/entries/simu...
🚨 Our Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Computer Simulations in Science is now live. It was a lot of work but I’m proud of this substantial update. I hope it helps those in #philsci interested in the philosophical implications of computational methods. plato.stanford.edu/entries/simu...
Computer Simulations in Science (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
plato.stanford.edu
I understand the concerns about peer review, but I have to say that what I’ve seen as an editor in the last year is both heartwarming and fills me with hope. The level of thoughtfulness, care, and practicality is amazing. A community of scholars striving for both rigor and inclusivity.
New #philsci #philsky paper on #ML and #scientificmodelling! link.springer.com/article/10.1... “Machine learning and theory-ladenness: a phenomenological account” We revisit a widespread assumption in #philsci that modelling practices are inevitably shaped by domain-theoretical knowledge 1/4
Machine learning and theory-ladenness: a phenomenological account - Synthese
Synthese - We provide an analysis of theory-ladenness in machine learning (ML) in science, where ‘theory’ (that we call ‘domain-theory’) refers to the domain knowledge of...
link.springer.com
