What Theory is Not, Theorizing Is

Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess or thought. If a hypothesis is repeatedly independently demonstrated by experiment to be true, it becomes a scientific theory. In colloquial usage, the words "hypothesis" and "theory" are often used interchangeably, but this is incorrect in the context of science.

Pluralistic: Model collapse (12 Aug 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

One of my favorite rhetorical and analytical moves is joining things together (showing that two different, seemingly unrelated ideas are aspects of the same phenomenon) and taking them apart (resolving a paradox by demonstrating that what appears to be one, contradictory thing is actually two different things that have been lumped together).

When did Computer Science Theory Get so Hard?

I posted on  When did Math get so hard?  a commenter pointed out that one can also ask  When did Computer Science Theory Get so Hard? For t...

Cosmotechnics as Cosmopolitics - Journal #86

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The Theory of Moral Sentiments

The foundation for a general system of morals, this 174…

Language models are multiverse generators

"Actualities seem to float in a wider sea of possibilities from out of which they were chosen; and somewhere, indeterminism says, such possibilities exist, and form part of the truth."

I’ve Been Writing Your Conspiracy Theories for Over Twenty Years. I’m Done. · Sam Henri Gold

Sam Henri Gold is a product design engineer building playful, useful software.

Structural Monism — Canon v1.0.0 | SUBIT-Theory | Nautilus Docs

This repository contains the official release of the Canon of Structural Monism (version 1.0.0). Structural Monism is an ontological doctrine that describes consciousness as a single field and all forms of existence as configurations of that field. The doctrine includes the SUBIT‑64 spectral model, the principle of vertical coherence, the mathematical framework, ethical implications, and canonical definitions.

- 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology

Welcome to 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology, an ever-growing set of essays on philosophical questions, theories, figures, and arguments.

The Bazaar of Scientific Knowledge | shishyko!

What if we didn't collapse all the knowledge from the scientific process into one paper?

Field Theory: AI as Social Science Question, Object & Tool

Uses of advanced artificial intelligence are changing how societies organize labor, govern, produce knowledge, and make meaning. In light of these developments, this essay argues that AI models, tools, and systems pose three interrelated imperatives for social science: they demand renewed attention to social theories of how technology, human experience, and social order are entangled; they require study as objects of inquiry in their own right; and they offer capabilities that may transform—or upend—the practice of social investigation itself. From Weber’s analysis of rationalization to Du Bois’s study of technology and inequality to contemporary scholarship on algorithmic governance, the essay examines what social science distinctively offers: the capacity to historicize the apparently unprecedented, to trace connections across scales, and to center those most affected by technological change. It identifies how algorithmic systems are remaking the distribution of opportunity and risk as a central task of social inquiry and asks what futures social science might help bring into being.

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fasc…

Cybersecurity Looks Like Proof of Work Now

The UK's AI Safety Institute recently published Our evaluation of Claude Mythos Preview’s cyber capabilities, their own independent analysis of Claude Mythos which backs up Anthropic's claims that it is …

Bartosz Ciechanowski

Interactive articles about science and engineering.