Slingshot AI? Meet the Earthshot (Prize ...!)

Slingshot AI

Ash
"the first AI designed for therapy" 

'In January 2024, we set out to build a 
foundation model for psychology. 

The mental health crisis sweeping across 
our communities isn’t going anywhere, 
and what we’re doing clearly isn’t enough. 
Therapists have one of the hardest jobs in the world,
and there just aren't enough people 
or resources to help everyone in need.
And we all know in our hearts that everyone 
could use some help with their mental health. ...'

'We need a foundation model for psychology.'

 

🔷 

 

Plus a bit more ...? 

 

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The four primary therapeutic approaches used by Ash are: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Focuses on identifying and modifying dysfunctional thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Teaches skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Focuses on accepting difficult emotions while committing to actions that align with personal values. Psychodynamic Therapy: Explores unconscious patterns and early life experiences to understand current behaviors. [ Google AI Overview* ]

?

?

?

Our 'Intelligence' is embodied.
The whole of Hodges' model is / can be 
embodied - embedded within the SPIRITUAL.

My source: Electronic therapy - Machines of loving grace, The Economist, November 15th-21st, 2025. Vol. 457: #9474. pp.72-73.

 *"slingshot ai - what are the four therapeutic approaches used by ash?"

 

Previously: 'health' : 'ai' : 'parity of esteem' : 'foundation' : 'language' : 'embodied'

'Health - Illness': Status - presence - absence - Being

A pre-charity shop revisit: 

'So long as we are healthy, we do not notice that we are healthy. Health is one of those phenomena that we do not perceive as anything special because they are a part of everyday life. We discover them by their absence. Only illness enables us to see health as health. That I am healthy, and in what way I am healthy, is something I experience when, and to the extent that, I am or was not healthy, or when I perceive (but this it is difficult to do) that, and to what extent, someone else is or was not healthy. Being healthy is not the only 'being' that escapes our gaze precisely by being, and that appears to us by its absence. One could say the same of being as such.' p.257.

von Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich (1971 [1980 trans.]). Einheit der Natur [The Unity of Nature] New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

If we are to demonstrate ('prove') that Hodges' model can be applied, is relevant in:

• illness, disease, trauma (physical and mental);
• health and well-being; 
• human development, ageing, pregnancy;
• social care; 
• preventive medicine, health promotion, health education;
• life sciences, bioengineering; 
• public (community and mental) health;
• self care;
• spiritual health;
• and global - planetary (political) health ...

Then these observations by Friedrich, allied with definitions of health, as per the WHO's Constitution:

'Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.'
https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution

The oft cited (when I was a student nurse) definition of nursing by Virginia Henderson:

“Assisting the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that an individual would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge”.
https://libguides.twu.edu/c.php?g=270174&p=1803121

We need to 'see' beyond these sources, to take in the global situation. But, being situated this is something Hodges' model is ideally equipped to achieve.

Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service

Supporting nurses and midwives to promote health, improve care and save lives Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service

The second group of public tickets for the Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service will be available at 13:00 GMT on 24 March. Click the button below as soon as possible after this time, to complete the form to apply. 

You will be able to request a maximum of 2 tickets and you will need to complete the form with your name and email address. If you are requesting two tickets you will also need to give the name and email address of the second person. 

Please note that if you provide guest details they will then receive an email with an invitation and will need to RSVP themselves in order to secure their ticket. 

If you have further queries please visit our Frequently Asked Question page.

🔷

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On Wednesday in Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester, I spotted this book. Opening it randomly - I kid you not - it fell to pp.204-205, and Florence Nightingale's contribution.

The Mathematicians' Library The Books That Unlocked The Power Of Numbers

'At that time, the idea of visualizing data in order to make its messages clearer to non-mathematicians (including politicians) in order to change minds and inform opinions had started to gain traction in Europe but was not common in England. Nightingale continued to use statistical diagrams to communicate stories hidden in data, and while this clearly contributed to improvements in health and mortality in British military encampments at home and abroad (and by extension in the population in general), it is also undoubtedly the case that she helped to popularize the use of appropriate data visualization methods to expand the reach of statistical information beyond specialist audiences. A testament to the influence of her work is that the Royal Statistical Society had the honour of accepting Florence Nightingale as their first female member in 1859.' p.204.

 

Thomas K. Briggs. (2025) The Mathematicians' Library The books that unlocked the power of numbers Hardback. Part of the Libri Historici series. Ivy Press.

 

Previously: 'Nightingale' : 'math' 

My source: Waterstone, Deansgate, Manchester and email Florence Nightingale Foundation.

'Loud' noises and silences - Martin Luther King

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... We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. ... We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."     -DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, J.,     Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence

My source: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

Caring with Excellence, Care that Evolves: Filipinos in Care Anniversary Event 2026

Time & Location

17 Apr 2026, 14:00 – 23:00 BST

St Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, London, W8 4HN

About the event

This engaging 2-panel session will delve into the inspiring journeys of Filipino nurses and nurse leaders who are making significant contributions in the social care sector. Participants will have the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of challenges, triumphs, and the unique experiences that shape their careers. The session aims to highlight the vital role that Filipino nurses play in providing compassionate care and leadership in diverse settings.

Panel 1: Personal Journeys and Experiences of Award-Winning Filipinos

The first panel will feature a diverse group of nurses who will share their personal stories. Topics will include:

• Overcoming cultural and professional challenges
• Adapting to different healthcare environments
• Building resilience and community support

Panel 2: Transitioning to Social Care

The second panel will focus on the experiences of Filipino nurses who moved from the NHS to social care. Key discussions will revolve around:

• Developing skills in a care home setting
• Key tips for the career move
• Key learnings from the shift from acute to chronic care

Takeaways: A Practical Toolkit

Attendees will leave the session equipped with a practical toolkit designed to inspire and guide them in their own nursing careers. This toolkit will include:

• Resources for professional development
• Strategies for effective leadership in nursing
• Networking opportunities with fellow nurses and leaders

Join us for this enlightening session to celebrate the contributions of Filipino nurses in social care and to gain valuable insights that can enhance your own journey in the field. Sessions moderated by Filipinos in Care Founder Kier Dungo and Co-Founder Jay Trondillo.

Tickets and website: https://www.filipinosincare.org.uk/event-details/fic-anniversary-event

My source: RCN North West Multicultural Group

Be careful - the laws you wish for ...

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	LETHAL AUTONOMOUS  WEAPON SYSTEMS
	laws

Reminder: The FT View, Iran and the rising perils of AI in warfare, FTWeekend, 14-15 March, 2026, p.10.

Kantian Justice: A Desert-sensitive Responsibility-enhancing Theory

On Nov 3rd & 4th last year, I was able to attend a launch event in Liverpool, UK - which I intended to post:

KantianDESERT* is designed to formulate a new model of distributive justice in response to growing economic disparities globally, by offering a distinctive position within dominant egalitarianisms in current political theory/philosophy. Through several original contributions, the project builds an innovative case for a theory sensitive to individual just deserts.

This 5-year, €2 million Advanced Research Project, selected by the European Research Council and funded by the UK Research and Innovation, is led by Professor Sorin Baiasu (Liverpool). With this conference, the project will be officially launched.

The launch has been followed  by a reading group working through (now chapter 4) of Shelly Kagan's -

The Geometry of Desert

Chapter 3 on Desert Graphs - seemed somehow familar, at least in the structures first presented:

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with desert graphs, which help clarify and demonstrate the complexity of the topic of desert. The first section includes graphs that explain the fault forfeits first view and its two extensions. It then studies varying slopes, graphs that depict the desert line of two different individuals, and rotation. The next section discusses the concept of peak, which represents the exact level of suffering or happiness a person actually deserves. It also includes a comparison of the eastern and western slopes of one and two individuals, as well as a section on the Sym Mountain. This chapter also introduces the mountain as the characteristic shape of an individual desert line.

Kagan, Shelly, The Geometry of Desert (New York, 2012; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Jan. 2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199895595.001.0001, accessed 16 Mar. 2026. 

The main launch programme is copied below for reference:

Day 1

9.00-9.15: Coffee/tea. Welcome addresses from Professor Peter Buse (Liverpool, Dean of the School of the Arts) and Professor Michael Hauskeller (Liverpool, Head of the Philosophy Department)

9:15-10:15 Introduction; about the project. Sorin Baiasu (Liverpool): Kantian Justice: A Desert-sensitive Responsibility-enhancing Theory; Tom Bunyard (Liverpool): 'Is Desert a Viable Concept?'; Tom Whyman (Liverpool): 'Food Justice and Desert'

10.20-11.20: Sebastian Orlander (Independent): ‘Kant, Freedom, Desert and Practical Faith’
...
11.30-12.30: Tommaso Mauri (Perugia): ‘Desert and Inequality in Kant: A Theologico-Political Approach’
...
1.15-2.15: Elisabeth Widmer (LSE): ‘What’s the point of Kantian Inequality?’
2.20-3.20: Huub Brouwer (Tillburg): ‘Defending Asymmetries of Desert’
...
3.30-4.30: Tom Mulligan (Georgetown): ‘Who deserves what AI produces?

4.35-5.20: Roundtable

7.00: conference dinner ...

Day 2

9:30-9.45: Welcome; coffee

9.45-10.45: Seniye Tilev (Kadir Has University): ‘Kant on Well-Being and Virtue: A Framework for Desert Without Consequentialism’

10.50-11.50: Krishna Pathak (Delhi): ‘Institutional Desert, Injustice, and Adaptive Preference for Suicide: A Kantian Perspective’
...
12:10-1.10: Jochen Bojanowski (Illionois): ‘Luck Egalitarianism and the Limits of Desert’
...
2.10-3.10: Gabriel Maruchi (Campinas): ‘Denotational Revisionism Cannot Escape Basic Desert’

3.15-4.15: Marius Baumann (LMU): ‘Desert, Responsibility and Skepticism’
..
4.30-5.15: Roundtable & close

Commentators: Tom Whyman (Liverpool), Sorin Baiasu (Liverpool), Bertjan Wolthuis (VU Amsterdam), Christian Españo (University of the Philippines Diliman), Sung-Yeop Jo (LMU), Tom Bunyard (Liverpool), Robin Eliath Joy (Calicut), Beşir Özgür Nayır (Boğaziçi).

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/research/research-projects/kantian-justice/

My source: *Philos-L https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ 

viii Book: Bill Ross - 'Order and the Virtual'

 'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

So much of what we experience is nuanced. What was conscious thought, becomes tacit knowledge and unconscious. Is that consciousness nullified as Ross writes on page 76? I wrote a note 'reflection as hesitation'; also prompted to think about intution (p.83) and our word uses in 'retardation' (which here is no problem at all - in physics and complex sciences/systems. Again the 'principle of least action' arises (p.82). With more physics and cosmology to follow, it helps a little that 'manifold' has landed begging to be understood across the contexts. Bill Ross notes how Delueze and Michel Serres used the game metaphor [Game analogy #1]. Again, lifting this to a scribble 'Health-Illness is quite a game'! This will be the subject of a post soon. In England at least the law and manifold on health (being productive) and illness has been utterly disrupted. The game-table has been kicked over, by those in society who still able? New spaces, and canvases are needed. Kantian thought and interpretations are added to Leibniz. A heady mix but clearly essential as Bill Ross's critique is developed. 

 

The book was a must-read, as in the contents: Complexity (with a presentation next month), cosmology, Serres, and Claude Shannon. In Game Analogy #2, "Communication is understood here to encompass much more than meaningful exchange; all phenomena 'communicate'". p.85. I couldn't agree more with with these 'games', this thought being 'situated within the purchase of information theory' (p.86). Bizarrely (or not), in the same year two papers:

Jones, P. (1996) Humans, Information, and Science, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24(3),591-598.

Jones, P. (1996) An overarching theory of health communication? Health Informatics Journal,2,1,28-34. 

Ross explains the global view of Michel Serres when it comes to 'information'. This entranced me, and I only scratched the skin:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Here there's a pointer to the cosmology to follow - Ross is true to the title. I have let most of the Astronomy Yearbooks go, but retain a few. Not just for key birth-years, but articles that are well written and researched historical snapshots. Here, Bill Ross discusses the game of Cepheid variables and their significance in mapping the universe. Truly, fascinating. Weaver's three levels of salient action are listed. Threads are tied too, with conclusions offered. These rules are reappraised, physics ever present. In light of one of the above papers I should revisit Serres, and Leibniz; the search for 'overarching explanatory power' (p.91) is ongoing. This game draws on Serres invitation to imagine a diagram, a network of nodes, channels, and propositions. This tabular formulation and its relations for me, spans the history of economics (Quesnay's tableau), the current state of economics (human values), and next (mathematical?) steps for Hodges' model. So many questions here: surely node  can't be an axis? I felt like Hansel, picking up sweets, Cartesian lines, scalene forms, thresholds, coming across hoops to jump through through to terminal equilibri. As you walk the sound of the thalweg, downstream... where Bergson features once again.

 

Reading Ross, over several months coincided with several key themes gaining in personal coherence. Bayesian ideas as might be applied to Hodges' model, even if in a naïve way (c/o feedback on draft notes). The remainder of chapter 3 includes time (thought), percept (space), to close with Deleuze's Ideal Game. I looked up Cortázarian Hopscotch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopscotch_(Cort%C3%A1zar_novel), as the preface is titled. Ross reflects on the Ideal Game (does it exist, for Deleuze, only in thought?), and the distinction between 'domestic' chance (Baysian) and radical contingency belonging to the clinamen. In response to 'physical action and and the thought being on the same continuum', don't ask (please!), but I scribbled: 'corridor care' - a dangerous game, far from ideal. Plus, bird's using quantum entanglement to navigate. 'Kant's chaotic manifold', I will also investigate for next month(?).

Chapter 4 'Order as Complexity' proved most relevant. Every page is touched by graphite.

Deleuze has a 'blind spot' (p.111), something that Hodges' model seeks to ameloirate. But then of course at the model's center (nexus - as noted) that decussation of the axes invites a darkness of its own. If Hodges' model assists forethought and foresight  While inviting complexity, this interdisciplinary palette can also facilitate trandiscipinary sense-making. 'Magnitudes of intensity' reminded me of logarithmic thresholds within our perceptual apparatus. This is like reading Serres. A flow of punctum, simultaneity, delay (again) but its contribution to causal series, and Aionic time. I was taken (frequently)  to plane, person, personhood, chronicity, scales, local to global to glocal.

'BwO' (p.117)? That's 'body without organs: DELEUZE, GUATTARI a thousand plateaus - capitalism and s c h i z o p h r e n i a'.

There is a 'corner' amid those thousand plateaus. n.b. to self - 'triangulation always needs one other'. I cannot resolve the frameworks as yet, scientific - otherwise or otherwhere; but you can take flight from here. Physics takes it place as 'complexity begets complexity'. Bill Ross utilises well-recognized sources, Penrose, Kauffman, Kolmogorov and Bohm.

As with the frameworks internal and external complexity must be untangled 1-4 (p.124?). I can laugh now, did I really try to marry up Order  - Disorder :: Simple - Complex (complicated?) to the domains of Hodges' model? So often reading philosophy, you feel an imposter playing games with words, as in: 'different similarities' and 'similar differences' (p.125). But of course, this is serious scholarship. Especially, when it involves lines, a rough circle, segments and dimensions: disorder becomes different degrees of order. Page 126 delivers Deleuze in spades, Ross pulls his thoughts together. It is fitting for me that Ross closes chapter 4 with a nod to transdisciplinarity.

Chapter 5 deals with symmetry and disymmetry; indifference and difference; limits and non-locality. There is an argument to follow (p.133). With 'group theory' mentioned on p.131, I've a lot of things to 'look up' [topology too]. Despite appearances I recognise the lack of symmetry in Hodges' model. This is what the situation does (practice) and means (theory): 'There is no reason under the sun which can rely on perfect symmetry' (p.135).  Where do/can we locate 'spooky action at a distance' in Hodges' model (p.140)? 

The Higgs role! Who knew? 'the speed of light. It represents a retardation.' Thanks Bill Ross, fascinating pp. 135-174. Plus, axes too. Note to self: when we die do we 'simply' set sail on the Dirac Sea? Attending the Bill Ross Memorial Workshop – BSP Special Event 2025 last September:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2025/09/bill-ross-memorial-workshop.html

the esteem .. and love .. that Bill Ross engendered in the people that knew him. The preface refers to chats in university cafes. How I wish. I wonder what Bill would have made of Hodges' model and the ongoing project here? Vitally, I get a distinct sense that he would have found time to listen ... 

'Bill Ross (1964 – 2022) had interests ranging widely across contemporary philosophy and culture, with a particular interest in the relations between science and philosophy. As managing editor, he was the driving force behind Clinamen Press, which in the early 2000s published new works by contemporary philosophers, and English translation of important works by continental philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Gaston Bachelard and Michel Serres. He completed his PhD in philosophy at Staffordshire University, where he taught on the MA in the Philosophy of Nature, Information, and Technology. Bill had a lifelong passion for the connections between science and philosophy, on which he had published several important articles. Bill was working on a monograph on the philosophy and science of Deleuzian cosmology, which was has been posthumously published by Edinburgh University Press. This event is to celebrate Bill’s book and his life, and to allow his friends, his colleagues, and anyone interested in his work or the topics and issues addressed by his work to continue the conversation that Bill’s work inspires.'

https://www.thebsp.org.uk/bill-ross-memorial-workshop-deleuzian-cosmologies/

 

Many thanks again to Edinburgh University Press for my copy - a keeper! Bill Ross RIP.

 

Bill Ross (2024) Order and the Virtual: The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-order-and-the-virtual.html

ii 'GlobalMinds' - NHS study severe mental health problems

GlobalMinds has clearly stated goals and objectives. Three challenges that are highlighted:

1. Diagnosis can take years
2. Treatments target symptoms, not underlying causes
3. Half of the prescribed drugs cause severe side effects

These are, to put it mildly, highly contested issues. Diagnosis in mental health/illness is problematic in several respects, for example:

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a) Lack of Theoretical, Practical and Philosophical(?) agreement between:  Psychology Psychiatry b) Individuals are self diagnosing c) Access to mental health services can be highly structure - single-point entry d) The evidence-base for treatment of mental illness is growing,but remains contested. e) Perhaps there is a phenomena of people getting stuck, with not just a label, but a mindset?	a) Loss of trust in classification/coding schemes: DSM b) Proposed alternatives in - Power Threat Meaning Framework HiTOP c) Data defined scientifically: existing diagnosis biomarker
a) Increased awareness of mental illness, ADHD.. b) Behavioural explanations for mental illness c) The determinants of mental illness (unlike, health?) are poorly researched (hence understood) d) The vocabulary of mental illness (psychiatry) is more widely disseminated, hence used; not necessarily with full contextual understanding e) Stigma associated with mental illness is nevertheless ongoing.	a) Reduced economic productivity b) The socio-economic phenomena of NEETs c) Increased demand on welfare benefits d) The role of primary care - GPs      - fit / sick notes      - 'functional assessors' (Who is best placed?) e) Loss of mental health beds, community compensations incomplete.

This will be a space to watch: and related (global) initiatives? 

Viewed from Hodges' health career - care domains - model, it appears an individual's life chances and expectations (family, and educational experience?) can result in their life chances being frozen?

'GlobalMinds' - NHS study severe mental health problems

Together we can change lives

Depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and related conditions affect millions of people around the world.

Yet mental health receives less than 1% of global research funding. 

This has left healthcare for these conditions stuck in the past:

Diagnosis can take years

Treatments target symptoms, not underlying causes

Half of the prescribed drugs cause severe side effects

GlobalMinds is a major research programme seeking to advance the understanding of mental health conditions and improve lives.

 

My source: 
News, NHS study to transform mental health treatment, The Times, 14 February, 2026, p.6

John Gerrard's "Western Flag" 2017

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http://westernflag.johngerrard.net

John Gerrard - Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas), 2017

My source: Twitter

Cooperative Design Visualization and Engineering - CDVE2026 Call for Papers

The 23rd International conference on Cooperative Design Visualization and Engineering (CDVE2026) will be held at the Leuphana University, Lunenburg, Germany on September 21-23, 2026 in their amazing architecture landmark main building. Please check the Youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YrWvqdu6_E.

Important dates:

Long paper (10 pages): April 10, 2026
Short papers (6 pages): April 20, 2026

Topics: The conference focus is "cooperative". Papers about cooperative design, cooperative visualization, cooperative engineering and all other cooperative applications are welcome. Papers about multiple users, locations, sensors, multimodal applications and integration are all within our focus. Topics also cover social networks, IoT, sensor networks, e-health care, e-education etc. Check our web page

www.cdve.org for more information.

Proceedings publication: by Springer Nature in their LNCS - Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

All accepted papers will be indexed individually by Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI), part of Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, EI Engineering Index (Compendex and Inspec databases), ACM, Digital Library, DBLP, Google Scholar, IO-Port, MathSciNet, Scopus, Zentralblatt MATH etc. 

Selected papers will be considered in a couple SCI journal special issues.

In addition, according to the publisher, the CDVE conference proceedings books have very high number of access among the LNCS proceedings books which can definitely raise the impact of your paper.

The submission page: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cdve2026

Contact of the conference: cdve2026 AT easychair.org

You are welcome to forward this call.
---------------------------------------------

The 23rd International Conference on Cooperative Design, Visualization and Engineering
Sept. 21-23, 2026, Lüneburg, Germany
www.cdve.org

Did Mr Hodges ever say "Welcome to my World?" (i)

The source for the post:

'Move Over LLMS! AI Legends Yann LeCun and Alex LeBrun
Debut AMI Labs' Bold Ambitions for World Models in Healthcare' 

- reminds me that Hodges' model provides a potential 'World Model'. Not just one world, but (seriously and non-trivially) several, in the form of the  ...

• Nurse's
• Student's*
• Patient's
• Carer's
• Team Leader's / Managers
• and yes the team's too - the sum total of all that effort. ...

 Hodges' model is applicable in assessment, planning, interventions, evaluation and review. The key of course, is as was as computers first arrived on wards and clinics: the human users of Hodges' model.

Of course, each comes with their own, hard won (see what I did there!) model, that needs extending by several intensive years of study. 

Situated and person-centred, Hodges' model can assist all its users, to 'incorporate the learned dynamics of the environment', however it presents: medicine anyone? What about surgical, psychiatry, paediatrics, orthopaedics, or gynaecology? You get my drift?


Wenninghoff, N., Schwammberger, M. (2026). Interpretable World Model Imaginations as Deep Reinforcement Learning Explanation. In: Guidotti, R., Schmid, U., Longo, L. (eds) Explainable Artificial Intelligence. xAI 2025. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 2578. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-08327-2_7  

 *And not necessarily a student nurse, but possibly medical, social work, psychology, probation, ... ai!

Mr Brian E. Hodges (RIP)

Human-Technology Lecture Series – 25 March

Dear Colleagues,

The BCS Sociotechnical Specialist Group and the STEIN-UX Research Group at UWL are launching the online Human-Technology Lecture Series, connecting critical perspectives on digital technologies and design with insights about people, organisations and society.

Our first lecture is:

Thinking Language, Fast and Slow: Speed, Data, and Decolonial Inquiry

📅 25 March 2026
🕛 12:00–13:00 (UK time)
💻 Online
🎟 Free to attend

Speaker: Dr. Lindsey DeWitt Prat, whose work explores how language, culture and technology intersect in the development of AI systems.

Talk Synopsis:

As language increasingly becomes training data for AI, timing begins to shape power. Decisions about datasets are made quickly, while their consequences unfold over much longer horizons. What does it mean to design responsibly with — rather than after — underserved language communities?

Drawing on industry work with African languages and large language models, alongside research examining how AI data is produced globally, the talk reflects on why anthropological, participatory and human-centred approaches need to be integrated early in technological development.

Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thinking-language-fast-and-slow-speed-data-and-decolonial-inquiry-tickets-1983958108108?aff=oddtdtcreator

Best wishes,
José

Professor José Abdelnour Nocera

School of Computing and Engineering

Head of Sociotechnical Innovation and User Experience Research Group

University of West London

St Mary’s Road, Ealing – London W5 5RF

https://www.uwl.ac.uk/stein-ux

... and my source via the SOCIOTECH list.

Women Reading Deleuze c/o Edinburgh University Press

Celebrating Women in Philosophy

This International Women's Day, we're amplifying the work of women philosophers.

Our Women Reading Deleuze virtual issue pulls out articles from the Deleuze and Guattari Studies journal, chapters from the Deleuze Connections series and blog posts from our Deleuze Centenary celebrations, all written by women.

 

20 articles, chapters and blog essays by women

• 7 articles from Deleuze and Guattari Studies published between 2008 (‘Feminist Lines of Flight from the Majoritarian Subject’ by Tomsin Lorraine) and 2025 (‘On Deleuze’s Hidden Emissions: Loving Spinoza’ by Moira Gatens)
• 8 chapters from Deleuze Connections, ranging from Pussy Riot v. Trump to becoming-lesbian
• 5 blog essays from some of the biggest names in the field, including Rosi Braidotti and Claire Colebrook

Browse the virtual issue

I have now read Bill Ross's 'Order and the Virtual - The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'. A challenging and yet rewarding experience, further post to follow.

A definition of the 'Psycho-Political'

Clearing books, magazines and journals (to make space for a few new acquisitions) on a trip to Hay-on-Wye, I bought a secondhand copy of:

Weizsacker, Carl Friedrich von. (1980). The Unity of Nature.

I noticed chapters on the definition of health and illness, and information.

Models of Health and Illness, Good and Evil, Truth and Falseness

Chapter  Jun 2014 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03671-7
In book: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Major Texts in Philosophy (pp.74-89)

Abstract

This essay is the core of our reflections on cybernetics. It is the only essay in this Part that tries to describe concretely what cybernetics can achieve. Written in the fall of 1967 but unpublished until now, it was inspired by a lecture on “Peacelessness as Mental Illness” delivered in Bethel in 1967 (published in Der ungesicherte Friede; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969). On that occasion the question arose whether it is medically justifiable, or merely metaphoric, to call the inability to maintain peace an illness. As far as I can see, contemporary medicine lacks a sufficiently clear concept of illness to decide this question. Since I had no desire to merely skirt the issue, I was faced with the task of outlining a scientifically justifiable definition of illness. The result is presented in Sect. 6.2 of this essay; its social application is very briefly sketched in Sect. 6.4.

(My emphasis)

Unfortunately, I cannot find a copy of the lecture. In my softback copy the title is "Lack of Peace as Psychic Illness".

We don't tend to think of mental illness in the collective, but history provides many examples within and extended across communities - 'mass psychogenic illness'. More recently there is a literature on the mental health, competency of global leaders, also known as 'hubris syndrome' previously. Even the history of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker is controversial, his World War II record and knowledge of nuclear physics.

We have a veritable storm across all the domains of Hodges' model (including the spiritual) that point to the model's ongoing  relevance, consider:

• climate crisis;
• pollution (air, water ...)
• geopolitics;
• disruption of the international rules-based order;
• the status and reputation of global organisations (were they ever 'international'?);
• the record of current global political leadership;
• the need to protect Political titles (not just Professional titles, Dr, Nurse, ...)?;
• the rise of artificial intelligence.

Link: 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300477492_Models_of_Health_and_Illness_Good_and_Evil_Truth_and_Falseness?