The golem is a creature animated by the words in its head. Emerging from Jewish traditions, the words that did the animation had connections with divinity, but the golems themselves despite this spark of the divine toiled at mundane chores. But sometimes, the golems would get out of control, and become figures of terror. My none-too-subtle analogy is this: animated by the ‘words in their heads’, the anthropomorphized neural networks of contemporary ‘ai’ (and ‘agi’: artificial general intelligence) are similar figures, with similar connections to the divine (we are told: ‘agi’ will transcend us; ‘agi’ will bring about the singularity; ‘agi’ will make us all posthuman). In this talk, I will explore some of my experiments trying to teach these technologies ethically and critically. I will explore some of the ways I have been trying to raise my own digital golems for my mundane archaeological needs. This is a talk filled with failure and experimentation. But maybe, also, something useful.
„Shawn Graham: Do It Yourself Digital Golems. Experiments with various AI, neural networks, and other technologies for archaeology“ weiterlesenFolgert Karsdorp & Mike Kestemont: The application of unseen species models in history: correcting registration bias in nineteenth-century police reports from Brussels
Researchers of the past – whether historians, literary scholars or archaeologists – depend on the sources that have stood the test of time. That sample of history is usually far from complete, however. There are numerous reasons for this, such as natural causes (e.g., fires or floods), decisions at the level of archival policy (what do we preserve and what do we not?), and biases in the formation of the archives themselves. Data representing lower classes were long considered less relevant, for example, and thus socioeconomic factors likewise play a role in the survival of sources. In a series of recent experiments, we have explored how statistical methods from ecology can help us identify such gaps and biases in our knowledge. Those methods all find their basis in “Unseen Species Models,” which were originally developed to estimate the number of unique species in an environment. Just as ecologists try to estimate biodiversity from an incomplete sample, we apply the models to incomplete historical archives to measure the actual cultural diversity.
„Folgert Karsdorp & Mike Kestemont: The application of unseen species models in history: correcting registration bias in nineteenth-century police reports from Brussels“ weiterlesenAmanda Regan: Mapping the Gay Guides: Using Digital History to Explore LGBTQ Travel Guides, 1965 – 2005
Mapping the Gay Guides (MGG) relies on the Damron Guides, an early but longstanding travel guide aimed at gay men since the early 1960s. An LGBTQ equivalent to the African American “green books,” the Damron Guides contained lists of bars, bathhouses, cinemas, businesses, hotels, and cruising sites in every U.S. state, where gay men could find friends, companions, and sex. The online mapping project explores different dimensions of American gay life through time, from bars and nightlife, bookstores, cinemas, and churches. Users to the site are able to navigate and investigate the dynamic and sometimes disappearing nature of LGBT spaces over time.
„Amanda Regan: Mapping the Gay Guides: Using Digital History to Explore LGBTQ Travel Guides, 1965 – 2005“ weiterlesenMoritz Feichtinger: Just a Little Bit? Historicizing Born-Digital Objects
The information age is intrinsically digital. Knowledge, culture, and communication are increasingly created, transmitted, processed, and stored in digital formats. Consequently, historical inquiry, particularly when engaging with the latter half of the 20th century and beyond, must grapple with digital artifacts. These artifacts, often termed “born-digital” objects, are created by and within digital environments. Their scale, diversity, and inherent technical and cultural characteristics present distinct challenges for historical research, requiring historians to adapt established methodologies, particularly source criticism, to address these nuances.
„Moritz Feichtinger: Just a Little Bit? Historicizing Born-Digital Objects“ weiterlesen