Res Obscura
Benjamin BreenNotes on the history of technology, medicine, science, art, drugs, and empire. Also: AI in research and teaching.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Only free issues | Publishes | Weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 55 | Founded | 3 years ago | Last Issue | 5 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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Why they stopped building wooden stupas
In the fifth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Faxian walked from central China to India. It took him six years. When he reached the city then called Purushapura (modern Peshawar, in what is now Pakistan) he saw a building that he desc...
Are "Vintage LLMs" the start of a new humanistic field?
Imagine talking to the collective consciousness of an era. Not the consciousness of any single person, but instead, a simulated collectivity based on billions of words produced within a historical time and place. What would you ask it?
Th...
The handmade beauty of Machine Age data visualizations
I spent last week at Harvard doing research in the archives of William James, the psychologist, philosopher, psychical researcher, brother of Henry James, and all around interesting person. He was a brilliant, charming, self-defeating, deep...
Photos from my time in Iran, 2017
Lately I’ve been reading Ron Chernow’s lively and well-written biography of Mark Twain, one of my personal heroes. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts,” Twai...
The Secret History of Knocking on Wood
My younger daughter, Nava, turned two last week. Among her favorite phrases are “No, Nava do it” and “what da HECK.” Her favorite music, by a wide margin, is Elton John. And her favorite gesture is a hearty, full-body nod. She deploys this...
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Authors
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Historian of science, medicine, technology, drugs, and culture at UCSC.
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