AI, Law, and Otter Things - Issue #1
Hello, world! Welcome to my humble newsletter, which I intend to use as a space for weekly rambling and the occasional long essay about things that capture my attention. Please grab a cup of your favourite beverage, and let's chat about life, the universe, and everything.
Who is the author?
I am Marco Almada, a doctoral researcher at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy). My research focuses on the regulation of artificial intelligence, drawing from the period I spent as a data scientist before deciding to study law. Beyond this core topic, I am also interested in various legal and technological questions, and my website provides further detail on my research interests.
When I am not working, I enjoy reading (primarily, but not solely, science fiction) and watching football (I'm a Bayern Munich supporter). As the name of this newsletter suggests, I am also very interested in otters and their conservation. Last but not least, I used to game a lot more than I do nowadays, but I still hold the faint hope of finding a group to play tabletop RPGs, something I haven't done in a long while.
What can I expect from the newsletter?
This newsletter is not a strictly professional space. Since I am boring passionate about my research interests, I am likely to explore themes related to my work here or test some preliminary versions of my ideas. However, my main goal here is to have an informal space to try ideas and even ramble about my interests beyond work.
I plan to write weekly posts, usually with some rambling about whatever captures my attention in that week. Usually, this will mean some short commentary about work, plus stuff about themes like football or the latest bizarre development in Brazilian politics.
My newsletters will also include recommendations of links, books, and other content I stumble upon during the week. As I tweet a bit too much, even in my main account, this will allow me to have a handy registry of exciting stuff. And that might even be useful for the reader! Of course, feedback and further discussion about the newsletter are always welcome.
Cool stuff
As I already spent quite a few words presenting this newsletter, today I want to conclude by highlighting some interesting reads:
A New History Changes the Balance of Power Between Ethiopia and Medieval Europe (Smithsonian Magazine, 29 June 2021)
The received view of Ethiopian history, which can be traced to the work of historians in the 1930s and 1940s trying to legitimise the Italian occupation, portrays Medieval Ethiopia as a closed, weak nation. Verena Krebs has just published a work in which she argues that the primary sources paint a different picture: that of a nation that held its own against the Mamluks and other neighbours and "discovered" Europe, not the other way around.
C Thi Nguyen, ‘The Seductions of Clarity’ (2021) 89 Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements 227.
We often use clarity as a thought-terminating heuristic: if things are clear, then we've finally made sense of them. This paper examines how the heuristic use of clarity can mislead us, as environmental factors (or deliberate action) can create an illusion of clear thought that prevents further investigation. The author examines two cases of misleading clarity — echo chambers and quantification — to show how they operate and seek possible responses to unwarranted trust in clarity.
Caroline Duvezin-Caubet, ‘Elephants and Light Fantasy: Humour in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series’ [2016] Études britanniques contemporaines. Revue de la Société dʼétudes anglaises contemporaines
Despite being a central part of his style, Terry Pratchett's humour has often been overlooked by scholars. What attention there's been was mostly centred on satire, so this article centres on other elements of his humour: the wordplay, his use of repetition, the broad repertoire of jokes that ensures that everybody misses something, and his use of humour as a source of inclusion and not exclusion.
And now, for something completely different...
Since otters will be a recurrent topic in this newsletter, I plan to close (almost) every post with an otter-related picture. This time, the photo has a personal touch: I'll leave you with a photo of two of the plush mustelids we have at home.
Why otters? Now that's a subject for the next newsletter! In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to read this inaugural issue.