Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
nice, will check it out! here's the link to save others the search ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/id/7...
November 10, 2025 at 8:08 PM
nice, will check it out! here's the link to save others the search ldr.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/id/7...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut.
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
November 10, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut.
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!
2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
can we all agree on a short designator to the paragraph "LLMs have proven surprisingly useful at (X), but are still not great at (Y), and we don't uite understand what's going on" and just move to using that?
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
November 9, 2025 at 10:33 PM
can we all agree on a short designator to the paragraph "LLMs have proven surprisingly useful at (X), but are still not great at (Y), and we don't uite understand what's going on" and just move to using that?
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
Feels like it would save time/space for many papers to both Reader and Writer.
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence
1/
1/
There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:58 PM
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence
1/
1/
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
The so-called debunking of “cult psychology” from the recent paper on When Prophecy Fails is misleading.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
This is all p misleading IMO. I just saw this link so haven't read it yet (but will, though I also think lots of the retweets of this haven't read it as well, given its provenance). I don't see how this counters (eg) Dawson 1999 which goes through 13 millennial cults and finds 12 show the effect 1/n
November 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
The so-called debunking of “cult psychology” from the recent paper on When Prophecy Fails is misleading.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
Check out the comments on this thread, where philosophers point out where the key premises of the book replicate in the vast majority of similar cults & a huge replication of dissonance theory.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Good to see that some people are still reading the full paper and not only the abstract. I think Science would thank you if it can. :)
November 7, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Good to see that some people are still reading the full paper and not only the abstract. I think Science would thank you if it can. :)
oh you think i'm irrationally defending cognitive dissonance theory? almost like i'm... responding to counterevidence by rationalizing it away to hold on to my prior belief...?
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
oh you think i'm irrationally defending cognitive dissonance theory? almost like i'm... responding to counterevidence by rationalizing it away to hold on to my prior belief...?
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
November 6, 2025 at 2:55 PM
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
I think some people have overcorrected in their scepticism towards psychology. There is plenty of dodgy stuff out there, but I too often see people willing to burn down entire fields after reading a tweet about another non-replication. Seems obvious cognitive dissonance is a real phenom.
There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I think some people have overcorrected in their scepticism towards psychology. There is plenty of dodgy stuff out there, but I too often see people willing to burn down entire fields after reading a tweet about another non-replication. Seems obvious cognitive dissonance is a real phenom.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
This is all p misleading IMO. I just saw this link so haven't read it yet (but will, though I also think lots of the retweets of this haven't read it as well, given its provenance). I don't see how this counters (eg) Dawson 1999 which goes through 13 millennial cults and finds 12 show the effect 1/n
November 6, 2025 at 2:37 PM
This is all p misleading IMO. I just saw this link so haven't read it yet (but will, though I also think lots of the retweets of this haven't read it as well, given its provenance). I don't see how this counters (eg) Dawson 1999 which goes through 13 millennial cults and finds 12 show the effect 1/n
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Looks great!! Love to see more scholarship on the Fodorian question of ‘How many games in town are there?’!
November 5, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Looks great!! Love to see more scholarship on the Fodorian question of ‘How many games in town are there?’!
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Is this something YOU ever ask yourself?
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Brett Karlan, AI empiricism: the only game in town? - PhilPapers
I offer an epistemic argument against the dominance of empiricism and empiricist-inspired methods in contemporary machine learning (ML) research. I first establish, as many ML researchers and philosop...
philpapers.org
November 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Is this something YOU ever ask yourself?
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
"Man, Brett Karlan (aka Old Jerry Fodor) claims to love Fodor, but has never published anything defending anything remotely Fodorian. What's up with that?"
This was a puzzle that long perplexed the scholars... until now!
philpapers.org/rec/KARAET-4
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
British Philosophy of Mind: “Appearing-as as an Efficient Cause of Seeing-that”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
November 4, 2025 at 4:37 PM
British Philosophy of Mind: “Appearing-as as an Efficient Cause of Seeing-that”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
American Philosophy of Mind: “New evidence for hierarchical structure in visual working memory”
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
functionalism always wins
My commentary on @anilseth.bsky.social's BBS article: philpapers.org/rec/MICBOF. We should bet on functionalism.
Matthias Michel, Bet on functionalism - PhilPapers
I argue that there is currently no alternative to functionalism. Functionalism explains the differences between types of mental states. No biological theory does. Functionalist theories account for th...
philpapers.org
October 24, 2025 at 11:50 PM
functionalism always wins
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Seriously though it's insanely depressing for current PhD students, and is driving everyone to think they need to dump LLMs into their papers just to get a job. That's not what we want here.
October 24, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Seriously though it's insanely depressing for current PhD students, and is driving everyone to think they need to dump LLMs into their papers just to get a job. That's not what we want here.
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
New preprint written with the wonderful philosopher William Ramsey: Mental Representation Without Neural Representation: Understanding The Evidence osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 18, 2025 at 8:18 AM
New preprint written with the wonderful philosopher William Ramsey: Mental Representation Without Neural Representation: Understanding The Evidence osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Kevin Durant booing the OKC fans booing him
October 21, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Kevin Durant booing the OKC fans booing him
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Pretty sure real science is actually reading the papers, thinking very deeply, and more, before writing, not generating literature review-like objects with no authorial intent or legwork
Today @anthropic.com released PubMed integration for Claude. No hallucinations. Just real science, real data. As a beta tester, this has been game changing— a supercharged research tool. Here are 6 prompts that will transform how you search the literature. A 🧵
www.anthropic.com/news/claude-...
www.anthropic.com/news/claude-...
Claude for Life Sciences
Discover how Claude accelerates life sciences research with new scientific connectors, skills, and improved performance for drug discovery and clinical work.
www.anthropic.com
October 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Pretty sure real science is actually reading the papers, thinking very deeply, and more, before writing, not generating literature review-like objects with no authorial intent or legwork
brains are so gross
October 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
brains are so gross
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
So for-profit AI companies have trained on the world's largest collaborative volunteer project and a precious free resource, to make money for their for-profit enterprises. They have crushed traffic to the volunteer project, starving it of donors and volunteers
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors
“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”
www.404media.co
October 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
So for-profit AI companies have trained on the world's largest collaborative volunteer project and a precious free resource, to make money for their for-profit enterprises. They have crushed traffic to the volunteer project, starving it of donors and volunteers
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports
CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.
www.consumerreports.org
October 14, 2025 at 4:37 PM
my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
October 9, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
Reposted by Jake Quilty-Dunn
Do AI reasoning models abstract and reason like humans?
New paper on this from my group:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.02125
🧵 1/10
New paper on this from my group:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.02125
🧵 1/10
Do AI Models Perform Human-like Abstract Reasoning Across Modalities?
OpenAI's o3-preview reasoning model exceeded human accuracy on the ARC-AGI benchmark, but does that mean state-of-the-art models recognize and reason with the abstractions that the task creators inten...
arxiv.org
October 6, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Do AI reasoning models abstract and reason like humans?
New paper on this from my group:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.02125
🧵 1/10
New paper on this from my group:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.02125
🧵 1/10