purplecat: An open book with a quill pen and a lamp. (General:Academia)
purplecat ([personal profile] purplecat) wrote2025-09-18 08:11 pm

Uncertain Machine Ethics Planning

My PhD student had a paper published in AAMAS on Uncertain Machine Ethics Planning. This is a good conference which, for my sins, I'm currently joint Programme Chair for (this means I'm currently in the process of trying to find 1,300 potential referees in the hopes of ending up with 650). Anyhoo... AAMAS rewards pretty theory heavy papers and this was no exception, but the bottom line is that he's developed a technique in which a system can reason across several potential plans of action, using different moral theories in order to work out which plan of action is least unacceptable across all the moral theories (I hope this makes sense, we keep running into double negatives in the theory). It's grounded in a philosophical concept called hypothetical retrospection - in which even if something turns out badly you can argue it was still the correct choice because at the time you made the choice the chance of it turning out badly was low. There are some details such as ranking outcomes so, in the situation where you can get an apple (for sure) or gamble with a low chance on getting an all expenses paid holiday (yes I know this isn't a moral choice), no number of apples can outweigh the small chance of getting the holiday - I guess the moral equivalent might be no number of people made a little bit happier can be outweighed by killing someone.

Moral theories can be big theoretical juggernauts like utilitarianism or kantian morality - or more subtle distinction around which values are preferred (though this doesn't really come out in the paper if you can wade through all the formalism).
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
purplecat ([personal profile] purplecat) wrote2025-09-16 08:32 pm

Costume Bracket: Quarter Final, Post 4

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.


Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.
nfe_gremlin: (Default)
nfe_gremlin ([personal profile] nfe_gremlin) wrote in [community profile] narniaexchange2025-09-15 04:46 pm

That's a wrap!

Authors were revealed last night, so that's the end of this year's NFE. We had a great bunch of stories this year, so please continue to read and enjoy! Thank you to all who participated, especially the pinch-hitters. We always have a great time every year, and already looking forward to next year!

See you next summer!
purplecat: Rose from Doctor Who (Who:Rose)
purplecat ([personal profile] purplecat) wrote2025-09-15 07:18 pm
ladyofastolat: (Default)
ladyofastolat ([personal profile] ladyofastolat) wrote2025-09-14 02:20 pm
Entry tags:

Comical lions!

Only a month late...

Our wedding anniversary in mid-August usually coincides with the joust at Carisbrooke Castle, so we've taken to going there on or near the day. It's always the same - we're getting to know the minstrels' songs very well by now (mind you, many of them are the Steeleye Span versions of traditional songs) - but always fun. It's a "real" joust - i.e. a genuine test of skill, not a scripted drama with heroes and villains - and very proud of that. They repeatedly told us how authentic they were, not at all like other co-called "jousts" around.

This amused us very much, since a few days later, we were planning on going to just such a so-called "joust," and were expecting to have a whale of a time. Which we did. :-D

But first... Comical lions! (With bonus comical kings, comical nymphs, comical nakedness and comical being ripped to pieces by dogs.

Comical lions! )
muninnhuginn: (Default)
muninnhuginn ([personal profile] muninnhuginn) wrote2025-09-10 02:57 pm
Entry tags:

August 2025

August 2025

Read:
Shorts:
Non-fiction
 
Attended:
  • A New Day
 
Nothing much to see here. Just work, a few outings, and a whole heap of fatigue. Hey ho! Onwards with the program.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
purplecat ([personal profile] purplecat) wrote2025-09-09 08:21 pm

Costume Bracket: Quarter Final, Post 3

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.


Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.
snacky: (narnia lucy heroine addict)
a little snacki snacc ([personal profile] snacky) wrote in [community profile] narniaexchange2025-09-07 03:05 pm

The stories are live!

Go, read, leave comments!

We'll be here when you get back.
snacky: (narnia last battle jewel)
a little snacki snacc ([personal profile] snacky) wrote in [community profile] narniaexchange2025-09-07 02:03 pm

ONE HOUR WARNING

Barring any last minute emergencies, the reveal will be at 3 pm ET. So just about an hour left for treats and edits. We're almost there!
asklepia: M43, Orion Nebula, by Zhuoqun Wu (Default)
asklepia ([personal profile] asklepia) wrote2025-09-07 10:08 pm

A centenary

My paternal grandparents were married one hundred years ago today. They are long dead, of course, but I thought it would be good to remember them. I used to have a scanned copy of their wedding photograph but I can't find it now -- it may have gone to that digital graveyard in the aether in the belly of an old laptop.
snacky: (narnia susan)
a little snacki snacc ([personal profile] snacky) wrote in [community profile] narniaexchange2025-09-06 09:13 pm

(no subject)

Hello friends!

Story reveals are tomorrow, sometime in the afternoon ET. I will post a one hour warning before revealing the stories, just in case anyone is working on some last minute edits or treats.

An abundance of fic awaits tomorrow!
emperor: (Default)
emperor ([personal profile] emperor) wrote2025-09-06 07:43 pm

I Saw The TV Glow

This is the last of this year's Hugo Award shortlist for dramatic presentation long form. It's very strange. Owen and Maddy are disaffected teenagers who bond over their obsession with The Pink Opaque. How much of it is warping their perception of reality or actually warping reality is left unanswered; the whole film proceeds at a very slow pace, and that plus the occasional breaking of the fourth wall give it a dreamlike or nightmareish quality. I think it is talking about fandom, queerness, and gender, but I didn't really get it. And the end was a damp squib.

I didn't vote in this category, but if I had I think I would have ranked Flow first; it came second behind Dune.
purplecat: The Eighth Doctor. (Who:Eight)
purplecat ([personal profile] purplecat) wrote2025-09-06 03:32 pm

Random Doctor Who Picture


Cover for the Eighth Doctor Book Endgame by Terrance Dicks.  A burning radiation symbol.  The Stars and Stripes and Hammer and Sickle are just visible in the read background.
This was one of a sequence of books in a soft reboot of the Eighth Doctor range, in which the Doctor has lost his memory and must live through the 20th century - in this case the Cold War. Terrance Dicks increasingly recycled his old ideas, or perhaps obsessions into his book. This one features a shadowy set of beings called The Players about which I recall little, beyond that they had already been inserted into various books of his. Anyway, at least I remember something about this one.
purplecat: Black and White photo of production of Julius Caesar (General:Roman Remains)
purplecat ([personal profile] purplecat) wrote2025-09-05 09:30 pm

Random Roman Remains


Tree growing close by some Roman footings with large fallen bricks behind.
Chesters Roman Fort