ERCIM News No. 136 Special Theme "Large Language Models (LLMs)"

Dear ERCIM News reader,

A new ERCIM News issue (136) is online with a special theme on Large Language Models (LLMs). This issue features articles on diverse topics, such as LLMs in education and professional training, ethics and fairness in public sector use, knowledge management, information retrieval, software modeling, LLM capability assessment, and advancements like enhanced pre-training efficiency.

You can access the issue at https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors Diego Collarana Vargas (Fraunhofer FIT) and Nassos Katsamanis (Athena RC).
Thank you for reading ERCIM News! Please share this issue with anyone who might find it interesting. You can also support us on Twitter (@ercim_news) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ercim). Let's keep the conversation going and share the latest updates together!


Next issue:

No. 137, April 2024
Special Theme: "Extended Reality". Submissions are welcome! See call for contributions.

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ERCIM News is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. With the printed and online edition, ERCIM News reaches more than 10000 readers.
All issues published to date are available online.

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About ERCIM

ERCIM - the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase co-operation with European industry. Leading European research institutes are members of ERCIM. ERCIM is the European host of W3C.

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Peter Kunz*       	
ERCIM Office
2004, Route des Lucioles
BP93
F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex

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*My source with thanks.

Of note:
Chatbots & Socrates: Dialogues in Learning. pp.18-20.
Towards AI-Assisted Data Storytelling. pp.28-29.

The social function of memory - and of forgetting

"The social function of memory - and of forgetting - can thus be seen as  the final stage of what may be called homeostatic organization of the cultural tradition in non-literate society. The language is developed in intimate association with the experience of the community, and it is learned by the individual in face-to-face contact with the other members. What continues to be of social relevance is stored in the memory while the rest is usually forgotten: and language - primarily - vocabulary - is the effective medium of this crucial process of social digestion and elimination which may be regarded as analogous to the homeostatic organization of the human body by means of which it attempts to maintain its present condition of life." pp.30-31. 

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individual memory forgetting (salience) learner - literacy writing - reading books truth via dialectic soul of the learner	function speech - writing digestion / elimination [anatomy & physiology] homeostasis - body - life
community language - oral society social function of memory culture social digestion & elimination homeostasis	organisational memory power specious sense of knowledge

Literacy in Traditional Societies

"The emphasis on memory, the repository of the cultural tradition in oral society, is significant; and it is appropriate that Socrates should deliver his attack on writing in the form of a fable or myth, in a distinctively oral and non-logical mode of discourse (Notopoulos 1938: 465-93). The ensuing discussion, and several other discussions, of which the most important occurs in the Seventh Letter, make clear that the objections to writing are two-fold: it is inherently shallow in its effects; and the essential principles of truth can only be arrived at dialectically.

Writing is shallow in its effects because reading books may give a specious sense of knowledge, which in reality can only be attained by oral question and answer; and such knowledge in any case only goes deep when it 'is written in the soul of the learner' (Phaedrus, 276a)." p.50.

 

Goody, J. (1968) Literacy in Traditional Societies, Cambridge: CUP.

See also: "Life, Literacy, Oppositions, Complexity and Information"

#HelloMyNameIs ... Socrates^

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The Last Days of Socrates*
	Cancelling Socrates

Overview

“They say Pericles caught democracy from you in bed.”

Today, Socrates is revered as the founding father of Western philosophy. But in 399BC Athens, he was a pain in the neck. The plague is over, democracy is (just about) restored, and everyone would like to get back to normal. How hard is it for one ageing firebrand to stop asking questions? It’s time to shut him up…

Based on eyewitness accounts, Cancelling Socrates is a provocative, witty and dangerous world premiere from Howard Brenton, one of our foremost dramatists, whose acclaimed plays have been staged at the National Theatre, RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, and worldwide. He reunites with our Artistic Director, Tom Littler.

My sources: 'Front Row' BBC Radio 4, 9 June 2022.

Images - c/o Penguin and Nick Hern Books (https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/cancelling-socrates)

Jermyn Street Theatre - text (as per links).

*(Just) A philosopher.

^You can play here too.

There is a play in #h2cm

#HelloMyNameIs #aPlay too,