Nat Hansen

Philosophy assoc prof at the University of Reading (UK). Californian. Experimental phil of language, ordinary language, aesthetic judgment.

[Daniel Callcut @danielcallcut]

https://t.co/ADsFYEyZZ2

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

https://t.co/ILE8B6nB5C

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

I wrote up an account of the philosophical background for the AI-powered Socratic questionnaires now that a bunch of people have used them thanks to @xphilosopher's thread

link below

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@xgabegottliebx You can tell your student that there's a little printer icon near the text bar that will generate a nicely typeset pdf of the conversation she can send.

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@xgabegottliebx Exactly—I started making these during a long rainy week in London where I wondered whether I could use the AI to basically serve as GM in various RPGs...and yes, it could. Then I was like, "I wonder if it could do this for Plato's Republic, Oxford 1952, Jena...", etc.

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@xgabegottliebx That book is super enjoyable!

[Gabe Gottlieb @xgabegottliebx]

Thanks to @_NatHansen_ I've spent too much time today chatting about Mary and the knowledge argument (apparently my view is closest to Michael Tye's) and, then, discussing Fichte with a former student of his "in" Jena, 1799. This site is really fun! Link to the Jena page. 👇

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@JuanseDido Thanks!! The printer icon button compiles a pdf from the chat transcript, and sometimes takes five seconds or s to complete, and it can be hard to tell what's going on. So I'm updating it so it's clearer what's happening while it's compiling.

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

These have been getting a lot of traffic, thanks Josh! I added a button for people to share their chat transcripts—and one showed a capacity I didn't know they had: the user started writing in Spanish and the SQ just adapted! So I think you can try other languages with these...

[Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher]

Philosopher @_NatHansen_ has created a website that uses AI to take people through a Socratic dialogue about a philosophical thought experiment

I just gave it a try. In my opinion, it really does help users think through these questions

https://t.co/x1cavHDztx

[Joanna Demaree-Cotton @Jo_DC]

Hiring! If you’re a philosopher working in ethics/ x-phi/ empirically informed moral philosophy / moral psychology / applied ethics, consider applying for a 2.5 year research postdoc with me in my lab at Oxford. Deadline noon 16th Oct. Details here 👉 https://t.co/g7BYvSP8rg

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@gamespotting @xphilosopher Thanks for the report (that’s how these things get better)—I’ll check on why it didn’t recall the previous session when you clicked that button; it might require being signed in. I’m on a flight but if I can get the Wi-Fi to work I’ll poke around and see what’s up!

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@hoops_ta @xphilosopher Does "MUD game" = Multi-User Dungeon game? A distant inspiration for some of this was text based RPGs, but single player. For more of that kind of experience that's not so constrained, there are some open-world simulations like this: https://t.co/6Qdvu3Geo9.

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@hoops_ta @xphilosopher If you share your more detailed responses or transcripts (if you click on the little printer icon it'll print a nicely formatted pdf of the conversation) with me (nathaniel.hansen@gmail) I can keep improving the response options.

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@hoops_ta @xphilosopher Hey @hoops_ta, thanks for giving these a shot! I did build in a route of rejecting "trolleyollogy", since I myself am not a big fan of the trolley problem, but it will push you a bit before it allows you to settle on that response.

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@SohmMusic Thanks very much! Glad people are digging this!

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

Thanks so much Josh! When were running the experiments for that paper (back in the early 2020s) we wished we could do something like this, but we didn't know how to make it work. So it's pretty fun to have these up and running now. More are in the works!

[Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher]

This new tech is a way of building on Hansen's beautiful paper "Socratic Questionnaires" (with Kathryn Francis & Hamish Greening)

https://t.co/cDWqzA4SrU

[Nat Hansen @_NatHansen_]

@Oggie_A @xphilosopher Thanks! That does indicate powerful bullet-biting abilities—I do love hearing how people end up interacting with these versions of the thought experiments!

[Brian Leiter @BrianLeiter]

Canonical thought experiments and interactive "Socratic" dialogues... https://t.co/WIfAPawcJi

[Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher]

Philosopher @_NatHansen_ has created a website that uses AI to take people through a Socratic dialogue about a philosophical thought experiment

I just gave it a try. In my opinion, it really does help users think through these questions

https://t.co/x1cavHDztx