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Ramón Alvarado

@ramonalvarado.bsky.social

1K followers 300 following 430 posts

Associate Professor of Philosophy. Editor-in-Chief of Global Philosophy. President of the Association for Philosophy and Computing. Philosopher of computational methods and technologies in science and society.

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Apr 3

🚨 My paper on the philosophy of loneliness, particularly on Epistemic Loneliness, is now out in Synthese. I argue that there’s a specific kind of loneliness that arises when we don’t have others to share/exchange/create knowledge with.

#philosophy #philsky #PhilPsy #epistemic #loneliness

What is epistemic loneliness? - Synthese

The aim of this paper is to elucidate a type of loneliness that is epistemic in nature. It is so, I will argue, in virtue of the fact that it is first and foremost related to our capacities as knowers...

link.springer.com

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 9d

Only 2 tired alternatives were given. I suggested an example of a 3rd: a bunch of philosophers and artist of computational methods that understand the tech so well they can “take it apart” and “mod” it to appropriate it beyond intended design. Critical thinking IS what enables this alternative.

third.to

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 9d

Download open source models, fine tune them or untune them with weird data, explore glitches and capabilities. Create local agents for garage projects, or like my friends say: make them feral.

#philtech #AIethics

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 9d

I found that hanging out with artists and creatives helps transcend the whole “use or refuse” dichotomy and discourse. There are so many interesting and cool ways to appropriate this technology and push its limits and capabilities to take it into fascinating directions. Very similar to street art.

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 9d

I found hanging out with artists and creatives helps transcend the whole “use or refuse” dichotomy and discourse. Sooo many interesting ways to appropriate this technology and push its limits and capabilities to take it into fascinating directions. Very similar to street art.

#philtech #aiethics

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 9d

ideally, the only places i want to be in AI are spaces for resistance, refusal and community organising

in reality, i find myself in spaces where AI governance, regulatory or institutional/scientific decisions are made where either i my input is paid lip service or entirely ignored

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 9d

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 10d

Excited to be a keynote here. Talking about scientific discovery, serendipity and machine learning.

www.simtech.uni-stuttgart.de/communicatio...

#philsci

Navigating the Bermuda Triangle of Knowledge Infusion, Explainability, and Scientific Discovery | Cluster of Excellence SimTech Stuttgart Center for Simulation Science | University of Stuttgart

07 - 10 October 2025

www.simtech.uni-stuttgart.de

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 10d

Flash trip back to Stuttgart to give a keynote on AI and scientific discovery. I’m really looking forward to the written version of this paper on serendipity, science, and computational methods. Hopefully by the end of Fall I’ll compile all the feedback from this year.

#philsci

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 21d

Speaking of Hinton, hate to say I told you so…

Should we replace radiologists with deep learning? Pigeons, error and trust in medical AI - Alvarado - 2022 - Bioethics.

#AI #AIethics #Philtech

Should we replace radiologists with deep learning? Pigeons, error and trust in medical AI

The sudden rise in the ability of machine learning methodology, such as deep neural networks, to identify and predict with great accuracy instances of malignant cell growth from radiological images h...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · 26d

Some of the knee-jerk resistance to understand the virtues and benefits of Artificial agents and caregivers is heavily culturally biased. In this paper, @smusab.bsky.social provides a broader #AIethics perspective. This is an excellent contribution to an otherwise stagnated discourse.

The virtue of artificiality: Islamic ethics and the reconceptualization of AI caregivers

link.springer.com

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Sep 3

It’s pretty straightforwardly stated multiple times in the Novum Organon.

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Sep 3

I would strongly resist this reading. Although American pragmatism got a lot from Bacon and Bacon emphasized ‘useful’ outcomes from inquiry, he nevertheless was really critical of the naive empiricism and useful haste of the alchemist. His view of Truth in inquiry was not compatible with pragmatism.

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Sep 3

That phrase is so much more complex than most people give it credit for. The word power, in context, had a complex meaning which included the ability to create/invent/do. His natural philosophy was an “active” (not contemplative) one that put emphasis on inventions that could help humanity prosper.

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Sep 3

As I traced back the origins of our contemporary data world all the way back to Francis Bacon, I found this beautiful piece by Czech philosopher Petr Šourek in a Media Studies book from 2011. I’m hoping to help him write a more internet-friendly version for Global Philosophy soon. #AIethics

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Sep 3

For ~2 years and I’ve been reading all I can about Francis Bacon as a #philsci and #philtech guy. One could read many more books about him without mentioning science, tech, or philosophy and it would all be as impressive. Definitely up there with Descartes and others.

This summer’s readings!

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jul 19

Q&A in Noto, Sicily. For a seminar I gave for the University of Messina. Great group of researchers led by Nicola Angius in the Philosophy of Computer Science, Science and AI.

#philsci #philtech

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jul 4

Update w/updated itinerary: 5 weeks, 4 countries, 10 cities, 7 talks, 1 panel. Week 2, talk 3 and panel participation at IACAP done.

#philsci #philtech

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jul 3

So lucky I got to see @firepile.bsky.social twice elaborate on why she thinks “Hell is Other Robots”, specially ones that simply cant collaborate. Once at SPT and now at IACAP.

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jul 3

Next week I’ll give the META lecture at Politecnico di Milano on Serendipty, AI, and automated science.

#philsci #philtech

Ramón Alvarado (University of Oregon): “Can Automated Science and AI Preserve Serendipity in Scientific Inquiry? If Not, Will We Miss It?” – META | PoliMi

www.meta.polimi.it

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jul 2

As usual, an impressively thorough, philosophically cautious, yet thought-provoking talk by Emily Sullivan as keynote and recipient of IACAP’s Herbert Simon Award.

#philsci #philtech

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 30

With pictures for Epistemic credence:

#philtech #aiethics

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 30

The meeting for the Society for the philosophy of technology. A conference that happens every two years. This year it was in the Netherlands.

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 30

Two of my favorite ideas from SPT last week. I’m still processing:

- @shannonvallor.bsky.social: intimacy as openness, current tech as closure of imaginaries.

- @davidgunkel.bsky.social: the author we invented is dead, yes. But we’ll come up with something new.

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 29

5 weeks, 4 countries, 10 cities, 6 talks, 2 panels. Week one/first talk at the Society for the Philosophy of Technology, done!

Doing different presentations of different papers for different expert audiences on #philtech, #philsci, and a bit of #AIethics as well! Living the dream :)

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 28

LLM’s sycophancy seems to me to be embedded in the data: we’ve normalized abusing words like “great”, we even call our interlocutors words and deeds as “awesome” and “amazing” in both the corporate and casual life even when they’re anything but that.

#philtech #AIethics

Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 25

Excellent opening keynote at PST by @sabinaleonelli.bsky.social. Thought-provoking messaging against AI hype in science. A bit lacking on #philsci that acknowledges successful ML use in hard sciences, but a needed corrective to sloppy general industry narratives.

#philtech

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Ramón Alvarado @ramonalvarado.bsky.social · Jun 21

That’s the way to do it. I was just pointing out that it seemed as if you were implying that one could judge by where/whom it came from.