As large language models reshape how we create and access information, questions arise about how to frame their role in human creative and cognitive life. We argue that AI is best understood not as artificial intelligence but as a new medium -- one that, like writing before it, reshapes perception and enables novel forms of creativity. Drawing on Marshall McLuhan's insight that "the medium is the massage," we trace a lineage of technologies -- from DNA and the nervous system to symbols, writing, and now LLMs -- that mold cognition through a shared logic of flexible unfolding and co-creation. We observe that as technologies become more externalized and decoupled from physiology, they introduce both greater creative potential and greater risk of inauthenticity and manipulation. This tension is acute with LLMs, but not unprecedented: ancient responses to writing reveal a recurring human tendency to project intelligence onto powerful new media. Rather than viewing AI as a competitor, we propose framing it as a medium that foregrounds artistic skills: aesthetic judgment, curation, and the articulation of vision. We discuss implications for education, creative practice, and how society might adapt to this new medium as it did to writing.
This paper presents reflections of the laws of Romania and a comparison of family law of Romania to Ancient Greek family law. Roman law has left a profound and enduring legacy on the legal system of Romania. The introduction of Roman law in the region began with the Roman conquest of Dacia in 106 AD under Emperor Trajan. This marked the beginning of a period of significant Romanization, during which Roman legal principles, institutions, and practices were extensively implemented. Later, the influence of Byzantine law on Romania is a critical chapter in the nation's legal history, reflecting the cultural and political interactions between the Byzantine Empire and the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Byzantine law began to permeate the region following the withdrawal of Roman forces from Dacia in 271 AD and continued to shape Romanian legal traditions through the Middle Ages. Further, the Ottoman Empire's dominion over these principalities from the 15th to the 19th centuries introduced a complex interplay between local traditions and Ottoman legal principles. Lastly, family law in Greece from Roman times to the Ottoman era shares several parallels with the evolution of similar laws in Romania, reflecting the broader legal and cultural influences of the region.
History (General) and history of Europe, History of Law
Automated program repair (APR) has recently shifted toward large language models and agent-based systems, yet most systems rely on local snapshot context, overlooking repository history. Prior work shows that repository history helps repair single-line bugs, since the last commit touching the buggy line is often the bug-introducing one. In this paper, we investigate whether repository history can also improve agentic APR systems at scale, especially for complex multi-hunk bugs. We present HAFixAgent, a History-Aware Bug-Fixing Agent that injects blame-derived repository heuristics into its repair loop. A preliminary study on 854 Defects4J (Java) and 501 BugsInPy (Python) bugs motivates our design, showing that bug-relevant history is widely available across both benchmarks. Using the same LLM (DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp) for all experiments, including replicated baselines, we show: (1) Effectiveness: HAFixAgent outperforms RepairAgent (+56.6\%) and BIRCH-feedback (+47.1\%) on Defects4J. Historical context further improves repair by +4.4\% on Defects4J and +38.6\% on BugsInPy, especially on single-file multi-hunk (SFMH) bugs. (2) Robustness: under noisy fault localization (+1/+3/+5 line shifts), history provides increasing resilience, maintaining 40 to 56\% success on SFMH bugs where the non-history baseline collapses to 0\%. (3) Efficiency: history does not significantly increase agent steps or token costs on either benchmark.
John Drummond, Wayne Orchiston, Carolyn Brown
et al.
C/1910 A1 was one of the Great Comets of the twentieth century. Although it was widely observed from the Northern Hemisphere, it was first discovered by observers south of the Equator. The comet arrived just months before the widely anticipated apparition of Comet 1P/Halley and was significantly more spectacular. As a result, the two comets were confused, and many who, in later years, talked about how prominent Comet 1P/Halley was in 1910 were often remembering C/1910 A1. In this paper, we present the results of a detailed search through historical records and media publications in Aotearoa / New Zealand, to investigate how extensively C/1910 A1 was observed from New Zealand. We compare our results with observations reported for Comet 1P/Halley later in 1910, finding that surprisingly few observations of C/1910 A1 were made by New Zealand observers. We discuss cases where the comet was misidentified as being an early sighting of 1P/Halley and compare the observations made in New Zealand with international observations/records/accounts. We find that, although the Great January Comet of 1910 was observed from New Zealand, it was witnessed by few compared to other parts of the world, meaning that the apparition of C/1910 A1 was something of a missed opportunity for New Zealand astronomers.
During the development and evolution of settlements, space morphology created unique local cultural features and played an important role in guiding rural planning in the context of new-type urban development. The in situ characteristics of the space morphology of the ancient historical and cultural towns along the Grand Canal of China reflect the prints of the local culture and history over thousands of years and integrate modern life and the cultural memories of the citizens there. Using Yangliuqing Town, a famous historical and cultural town, as an example, this study quantitatively analyzes the in situ characteristics of the space morphology. It applies the UAV 3D model, POI data, actual site measurements, and other data to establish detailed models of the streets and lanes, quantifies the in situ characteristics of the space morphology of the streets and lanes in terms of space organizational characteristics and VGA manifestation, analyzes the influencing factors of the characteristics of in situ space morphology, and proposes guidelines for renewing ancient towns according to the in situ characteristics of space morphology. The research results indicate that ① multidimensional factors influencing the historical development of the research area have been clarified for the three aspects of its status as a canal transport hub, canal settlement industries, and traditional residential courtyards in ancient towns; ② the in situ space morphology of the streets in Yangliuqing Town is reflected in three aspects such as the core guiding and control of historical and cultural resources, the inherent influence of space element layout, and the attractiveness of street space; ③ it extracts the guidelines for the renewal of the ancient towns in terms of the space morphology strategy, the environmental element strategy, the interface attribute strategy, and the business attribute strategy. The research methods and conclusions boast great significance for clarifying the characteristics of the space morphology of the ancient towns along the Grand Canal and improving the practice of preservation there.
Rafael Sterzinger, Simon Brenner, Robert Sablatnig
Etruscan mirrors constitute a significant category within Etruscan art and, therefore, undergo systematic examinations to obtain insights into ancient times. A crucial aspect of their analysis involves the labor-intensive task of manually tracing engravings from the backside. Additionally, this task is inherently challenging due to the damage these mirrors have sustained, introducing subjectivity into the process. We address these challenges by automating the process through photometric-stereo scanning in conjunction with deep segmentation networks which, however, requires effective usage of the limited data at hand. We accomplish this by incorporating predictions on a per-patch level, and various data augmentations, as well as exploring self-supervised learning. Compared to our baseline, we improve predictive performance w.r.t. the pseudo-F-Measure by around 16%. When assessing performance on complete mirrors against a human baseline, our approach yields quantitative similar performance to a human annotator and significantly outperforms existing binarization methods. With our proposed methodology, we streamline the annotation process, enhance its objectivity, and reduce overall workload, offering a valuable contribution to the examination of these historical artifacts and other non-traditional documents.
Este artigo analisa a reelaboração polêmica das figuras de Penélope e Ulisses no conto “Las entretelas de Penélope” do escritor argentino Federico Peltzer (1924-2009), a fim de demonstrar a sua incipiente tentativa desconstrutiva que se apropria da versão Homérica e a discute apesar de manter uma estrutura composicional binária.
Problems with uniform probabilities on an infinite support show up in contemporary cosmology. This paper focuses on the context of inflation theory, where it complicates the assignment of a probability measure over pocket universes. The measure problem in cosmology, whereby it seems impossible to pick out a uniquely well-motivated measure, is associated with a paradox that occurs in standard probability theory and crucially involves uniformity on an infinite sample space. This problem has been discussed by physicists, albeit without reference to earlier work on this topic. The aim of this article is both to introduce philosophers of probability to these recent discussions in cosmology and to familiarize physicists and philosophers working on cosmology with relevant foundational work by Kolmogorov, de Finetti, Jaynes, and other probabilists. As such, the main goal is not to solve the measure problem, but to clarify the exact origin of some of the current obstacles. The analysis of the assumptions going into the paradox indicates that there exist multiple ways of dealing consistently with uniform probabilities on infinite sample spaces. Taking a pluralist stance towards the mathematical methods used in cosmology shows there is some room for progress with assigning probabilities in cosmological theories.
When introducing the calculus of variations, we may invoke Dido's problem to illustrate the most fundamental variational problem: to find the curve of given perimeter which bounds the greatest area. This type of problem led mathematicians to invent solution methods of maxima and minima, and the genesis of variational calculus as a distinct branch of analysis. Dido's problem was inspired by the mythical tale of the foundation of Carthage (ancient city in North Africa) by a Phoenician princess as told independently by Roman poet Virgil, and by Latin historian Justinus in the first two centuries BC. Historians have debated the facts surrounding Carthage's birth; however, contemporary mathematicians have accepted the vague events described by Virgil in his Aeneid, adding details to Dido's story to extrapolate a few verses and use as a basis for the isoperimetric theorem. Was Leonhard Euler or Lord Kelvin who first interpreted Virgil's poem as Dido's problem of variational calculus? In this article I attempt to resolve a question of historical attribution to identify who first defined Dido's problem.
Ancient Indian eras are found in inscriptions, colophons of manuscripts, and referenced in literary and scientific texts and determining the duration of an era serves as an important tool in reconstructing Indian history. Eras can be counted in regnal years or as a continuous era. An era based on regnal years typically concludes at the end of a king's reign, whereas if a subsequent ruler uses these dates the era becomes continuous, and continuous eras can persist for centuries or even millennia. The two ancient Indian eras still in use today are the Vikrama era, which started in 57bce, and the Śaka era, which began in 78ce. Besides these two eras, there were many regnal and continuous eras that emerged in ancient India but did not persist to the present.
The emergence of apocalypticism continues to be a debate among scholars. The definition of apocalypse as a genre by Semeia 14 and Semeia 36 seems to continue to influence scholars in reconstructing the origin of apocalypticism. Using historiography as a method, the study sought to rethink the definition of apocalypse produced by Semeia 14 and Semeia 36 and primarily, to unveil at what point in ancient Israel apocalypticism/apocalyptic (worldview) emerged. Consequently, the study showed that Semeia 14 and Semeia 36 cannot be used to identify all apocalypses because “content”, “form”, and “function” will always be presented in light of the authors and (or) their audience’s circumstances—though the messages might remain the same over time. As such, the study showed that the central and constant feature of apocalypticism is: The promise, by YHWH, of an imminent deliverance of the people of God from their enemies—be it terrestrial or cosmic. It also showed that apocalypticism emerged gradually in Israel’s history, and for the first time in their history, it is represented in a comprehensive manner in the book of Daniel (mediated through dreams and visions) which was written in the late sixth century BCE.
Yvette Hus Cyprus University of Technology, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Theralab Research Collaborator Under Direction of Prof. Kakia Petinou, Limassol, CyprusCorrespondence: Yvette Hus, Tel +1 514 487 2763, Email yhus@videotron.caAbstract: The importance of time concept in human existence is “ancient history” celebrated in the biblical book Ecclesiastes. Indeed, our time-sensitive mechanisms are literally carved into our biology and neurology on a molecular level, gifting us with neural clocks. However, time in human consciousness is not the time indicated by physical clocks: time is a subjective reality in our psychological makeup due to the nature of the temporal neural mechanisms and unique properties of physical time. Nonetheless, subjective time requires anchoring to physical time which permeates our language, endeavors, and entire existence, a process hinging on time-related skills such as estimates and measures of passage and duration of time. Moreover, accurate time reading, a critical adaptive life-skill, is imperative for effective function in all societal activities. Because it embodies the complexity of the time construct, it is central to instruction of time concept in primary education. It is often measured in children by clock drawings, a cognitive integrative skill with errors pointing to neuroanatomical differences impacting the integrity of executive function. Time competence in children with atypical neurobiological development and high prevalence, as in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and attention disorders (ADHD), is often compromised, calling for investigation of its function. This thematic review article aims to: 1) discuss the complexity of time concept and its underlying bio-neurological mechanisms, 2) elucidate difficulties children with ASD and those with ADHD exhibit in temporal development, and 3) demonstrate the use of a set of clinical tools in uncovering temporal competence and ecological executive function in two children with ASD, and a child with ADHD, using a clock drawing task and error analyses; children’s time knowledge questionnaire; a behavior rating parent questionnaire examining ecological executive function, and parent open-ended questions related to their children’s time difficulties. A discussion, directions, and a take-home message round out the article.Keywords: ASD, ADHD, time competence detection, clinical tools, intervention
Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry, Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Joseph K. Pickrell, N. Patterson, Chiara Barbieri
et al.
Southern and eastern African populations that speak non-Bantu languages with click consonants are known to harbour some of the most ancient genetic lineages in humans, but their relationships are poorly understood. Here, we report data from 23 populations analysed at over half a million single-nucleotide polymorphisms, using a genome-wide array designed for studying human history. The southern African Khoisan fall into two genetic groups, loosely corresponding to the northwestern and southeastern Kalahari, which we show separated within the last 30,000 years. We find that all individuals derive at least a few percent of their genomes from admixture with non-Khoisan populations that began ∼1,200 years ago. In addition, the East African Hadza and Sandawe derive a fraction of their ancestry from admixture with a population related to the Khoisan, supporting the hypothesis of an ancient link between southern and eastern Africa. Hunter-gatherer populations in Africa preserve unique information about human history, but genetic sub-structures of these populations remain unclear. Using newly designed microarray and statistical methods, these authors analyse genetic compositions of southern African populations and reveal an ancient link between southern and eastern Africa.
The Jeffreys-Lindley paradox exposes a rift between Bayesian and frequentist hypothesis testing that strikes at the heart of statistical inference. Contrary to what most current literature suggests, the paradox was central to the Bayesian testing methodology developed by Sir Harold Jeffreys in the late 1930s. Jeffreys showed that the evidence against a point-null hypothesis $\mathcal{H}_0$ scales with $\sqrt{n}$ and repeatedly argued that it would therefore be mistaken to set a threshold for rejecting $\mathcal{H}_0$ at a constant multiple of the standard error. Here we summarize Jeffreys's early work on the paradox and clarify his reasons for including the $\sqrt{n}$ term. The prior distribution is seen to play a crucial role; by implicitly correcting for selection, small parameter values are identified as relatively surprising under $\mathcal{H}_1$. We highlight the general nature of the paradox by presenting both a fully frequentist and a fully Bayesian version. We also demonstrate that the paradox does not depend on assigning prior mass to a point hypothesis, as is commonly believed.
Automata models between determinism and nondeterminism/alternations can retain some of the algorithmic properties of deterministic automata while enjoying some of the expressiveness and succinctness of nondeterminism. We study three closely related such models -- history determinism, good for gameness and determinisability by pruning -- on quantitative automata. While in the Boolean setting, history determinism and good for gameness coincide, we show that this is no longer the case in the quantitative setting: good for gameness is broader than history determinism, and coincides with a relaxed version of it, defined with respect to thresholds. We further identify criteria in which history determinism, which is generally broader than determinisability by pruning, coincides with it, which we then apply to typical quantitative automata types. As a key application of good for games and history deterministic automata is synthesis, we clarify the relationship between the two notions and various quantitative synthesis problems. We show that good-for-games automata are central for "global" (classical) synthesis, while "local" (good-enough) synthesis reduces to deciding whether a nondeterministic automaton is history deterministic.
Rutuli is one of the most ancient peoples - inhabitants of the Caucasus, whose history, folklore, and culture are not adequately studied. Nevertheless, oral folk art, carefully transmitted from one generation to another, is striking in its richness of forms and genres. These are couplets — the real pearls of a poetic syllable that obey strict laws — two verses are a contrast: the first line contains a picture of nature, the second contains the mental states of the lyrical hero; have a rhyme; both lines consist of 8 syllables, for example: Гьай джан дуьнйаа, дад адишды,Дерд гьухьус духул гидишды. The world does not make happy, my sorrow will blow rock. Былахад хьед маа хъыгадий, Вахда ул ливес йигадий. A sip of water used from a spring, At least once to look at you. (Our translation). We managed to publish a collection of proverbs of rutules, but the material found in the speech of native speakers makes us think that not a fifth of the proverbial collection has been collected. Fairy-tale material is also richly presented. Rutulian tales have not been published so far and have not served as the subject of scientific analysis. This work is the first attempt at a special analysis of the artistic originality of the Rutulian fairy tale - the folklore genre, which represents a literary heritage and reflects the national specificity of the literary thinking of the people that has developed over millennia.