carlosfnorena.bsky.social
Ancient Historian @ UC Berkeley • 🇪🇸 🇺🇸 • Series Editor, Antiquity in Global Context (CUP) • VP Communications & Outreach, Society for Classical Studies • interests: humanities, world affairs, sports, electronic music • He/Him
3,060 posts
3,960 followers
688 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
I am persuaded that today's smart, well trained, and curious historians can harness the power of LLMs to write better histories.
My concern is that the time-saving shortcuts of the "tool" will eventually erode the capacities of the historian (the "user"), especially in the *next* generation.
comment in response to
post
Outstanding effort here. 👏
comment in response to
post
I promise I'll shut up about this. But this story has struck a nerve. The media circus around this is just such a depressing indictment of our academic systems, our intellectual culture, and the economy of attention in our increasingly dumb timeline.
comment in response to
post
The Yale profs know perfectly well that 99.9% of US academics cannot or (NB) will not "flee" the country.
So the relentless messaging is either a performance of self-importance ("we're prominent enough to be targets") or privilege ("we have the means to get out").
Just . . . go. Quietly. Please.
comment in response to
post
Ah, I saw a reference to this a few days ago and promptly forgot about it (the news cycle has been a little, well, you know). Thanks for the reminder.
comment in response to
post
And perhaps there's an analogy here with Justinian's codification of Roman law in the 6th c. CE (sorry, can't help myself), which was super convenient but which also effectively extinguished a centuries-long tradition of jurisprudence and legal pluralism.
comment in response to
post
If LLMs are trained on all the history books written by humans up to the present, and if human-written history books will now cease to be written because of LLMs, then human-made knowledge about the past will forever be "frozen" in the mid-2020s.
That seems . . . bad.
comment in response to
post
If LLMs are trained on all the history books written by humans up to the present, and if human-written history books will now cease to be written because of LLMs, then human-made knowledge about the past will forever be "frozen" in the mid-2020s.
That seems . . . bad.
comment in response to
post
oh, didn't see that
comment in response to
post
It's a mirage, though. Your boys (can't even bear to say the name) are winning the division by at least 10 games.
We're playin' for a wild card spot over here! But once you're in the postseason, all bets are off. Logan Webb and Robbie Ray would be a formidable 1-2 punch in a playoff series...
comment in response to
post
he might not even make your team's starting lineup 😂
comment in response to
post
It suits you, my friend. ✊️
comment in response to
post
Front and center! Nicely done. 👍
comment in response to
post
Isn't it incredible!
comment in response to
post
Absolutely.
One of my favorite genres of image—another form of art!—are the pictures of the dinner servings there: the tacky plates, the mystery meat bathing in some greyish sauce, the small carrots that have been boiled for 45 minutes, the wilted asparagus. Oof.
comment in response to
post
that tobolowsky guy hits mad threes and all the high notes
comment in response to
post
(but you have given me the idea of teaching my next grad seminar in my full PhD regalia)
comment in response to
post
100%. I should clarify that this is mostly about UGs. I do think something closer to a dialogue is appropriate at the graduate level...
comment in response to
post
(apologies for conflating "tight relationship" with "monocausality")
Perhaps worth mentioning that my most "old man yelling at the clouds" opinion is that students should have, at most, a very limited say in matters of pedagogy and especially curriculum...
comment in response to
post
This seems right to me.
As a fan of multicausal explanations, I would add that some of this—especially the contractual language and hyper-scaffolding of assignments—might be the result of bending our pedagogy to what the students—i.e., the "customers"—are (implicitly) demanding.
comment in response to
post
Straight to my highest-priority, must-read articles. Very much looking forward.
comment in response to
post
I don't object to entrepeneurship of this sort. Genuinely. But I find it deeply depressing that THIS is now coded as "ambition" and "success."
Could it be any other way in a feverishly capitalist society? I'm not sure. But I sort of doubt it.
comment in response to
post
Several years ago, I interviewed incoming UC Berkeley freshmen for a very prestigious fellowship. These high school seniors were so impressive: thoughtful, well intentioned, and accomplished.
And yet: they were all budding entrepeneurs, with apps, patents, business plans, and so on. It saddened me.
comment in response to
post
We need way more "K16" thinking.
comment in response to
post
Then again: there are some things that are necessary for living, and there are other things that make living worthwhile.
I respect those who do the first sort of work. But those of us who do the second—whether it's comic books or ancient history—are also doing something important!
comment in response to
post
Once, at a group meeting of junior faculty from across campus who had received a nice fellowship, we were asked to say a few words about our projects. The two colleagues who spoke right before me were (i) synthesizing a new element and (ii) seeking a cure for blindness. I was a little 😶🌫️
comment in response to
post
That you must include *two* spaces after a period.
I used to be militant about that. And then I had what I might call an "awakening." Now I'm a one-space guy. And I'm equally militant about THAT, too.
comment in response to
post
Have never lived there, but have spent enough time in Los Angeles to conclude that it's the big place in the US *least* intelligible to outsiders.
And I say "big place" instead of "city," since the latter is just not a good label for "Los Angeles."
[PS: I'm a NorCal guy, but I think LA is great]
comment in response to
post
you were right tho 🤫
comment in response to
post
A visual of the Boardwalk to accompany the sound of *Good Vibrations* in your mind ⬇️
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
I was never a huge fan, for what it's worth, but that music is deeply ingrained in my consciousness...
I do think that *God Only Knows* is a bona fide masterpiece, though (no less a figure than Paul McCartney has called it "the greatest song ever written").
comment in response to
post
And nowhere in the entire corpus of Latin historiography are we told that the Roman Empire *wasn't* an egg.
[but actually, that *is* a fun fact about the rhyme 🥚]
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
Heavy ICE activity in LA today gives it an even more dystopian flavor.
comment in response to
post
But not, alas, older than Professor Gabriele.
comment in response to
post
Threatened to withhold ALL federal funding to CA.
Newsom countered by threatening to withhold all federal tax from CA.