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Why I have been writing a niche history blog for 15 years
A special appeal to support Res Obscura on its Crystal Anniversary
Dec 4, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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How well can Gemini 3 make a Henry James simulator?
Finally, a benchmark for LLMs with real-world value
Nov 19, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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Can automation help make the humanities more human?
Finding the negative space around machine capabilities is not a new challenge — but it is more important today than ever before in history
Nov 6, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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The Age of Books and the Age of Brainrot
A semi-optimistic take on the future of reading and thinking
Oct 2, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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All Souls exam questions and the limits of machine reasoning
The world's most eccentric exam is newly relevant in the age of AI
Aug 13, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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The leading AI models are now good historians
Jan 22, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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Why Early Modern Books Are So Beautiful
Aug 3, 2023
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Benjamin Breen
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On 17th century "cocaine"
Oct 9, 2024
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Benjamin Breen
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AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder
May 7, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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OpenAI's "Study Mode" and the risks of flattery
Serious learning requires friction, frustration... and other humans
Jul 31, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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Why were Belle Époque cities beautiful?
It's not because they were "traditional" or "classical" — in fact it's just the opposite
May 21, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder
Historians are finally having their AI debate
May 7, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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Onfim's world
Child artists in history
Apr 16, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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When Jorge Luis Borges met one of the founders of AI
One reason I became a historian is the joy of encountering moments in the past that are foreign, yet also oddly familiar.
Apr 2, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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AI legibility, physical archives, and the future of research
A followup to "The leading AI models are now good historians"
Mar 5, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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Happy Lupercalia
A special discount on subscriptions in honor of the Roman wolf holiday
Feb 13, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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The familiar loneliness of the Kinetoscope
One other way that the 2020s resemble the 1890s
Feb 5, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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When the Sackler Brothers studied LSD
One of the stranger episodes from the 1950s golden age of psychedelic therapy, and what it tells us about the history of technology
Jan 29, 2025
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Benjamin Breen
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Res Obscura
Notes on the history of technology, medicine, science, art, drugs, and empire. Also: AI in research and teaching.
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Recommendations
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The Intrinsic Perspective
Erik Hoel
Counter Craft
Lincoln Michel
Letters of Note
Shaun Usher
French Reflections
David A. Bell
Histories
Andrew Chapman
Articles
Open-access PDFs of my academic publications
Books
Order "The Age of Intoxication"
My first book, on the early modern global drug trade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019)
Order "Tripping on Utopia"
My second book, on Margaret Mead and the history of psychedelic science in the 20th century.
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