Contact / About
This site is run by Mike Caulfield. My current work focuses on how students and citizens can use AI as a tool for reasoning and critical thinking, learning to tap into the power of LLMs to contextualize evidence and data, and to model and critique arguments.
If you're coming here from somewhere other than my writings and don't know who I am, I've spent more than a decade working on how to use search to contextualize artifacts, events, and claims. With Sam Wineburg I wrote the definitive book on that subject (University of Chicago Press, endorsed by Maria Ressa, the Nobel Prize winner for her advocacy of freedom of the press). There are features delivered on every Google search result that are inspired by my work. My SIFT method is used in hundreds of universities, and over the past decade has become the primary way that information literacy in taught in U.S. universities and around much of the world, and the Google Super Searchers curriculum I co-developed with Google has been translated into a dozen languages and is one of the most successful information literacy initiatives in history.
I am also the considered the founder of the digital gardening movement, and my work with Ward Cunningham on federated wiki (and my writing and talks about it) has been credited by the founders of Notion, Obsidian, and Roam as inspiring their work, and was the major impetus behind the "re-wikification" of the personal knowledge management space.
You can find me on LinkedIn, Substack, and Bluesky. Inquires about keynotes and consultations can be sent to caulfield.mike@gmail.com, but for the fastest response please ping me either at LinkedIn or Bluesky.
Recent Explorations
Azar Gat Claims
An analysis of Azar Gat's research on warfare in hunter-gatherer societies. Examines evidence suggesting that organized violence was common in prehistoric societies, with debate between "deep roots" and "shallow roots" theories of human warfare patterns. Reviews scholarly perspectives on violence rates in ancient versus modern societies.
Asbestos Snow in Wizard of Oz?
A log of an exploration of whether asbestos was used to make the snow in Wizard of Oz. Has an interesting turn owards the second half of the log, where requesting "another round" of sources ends up overturning the up-to-then prevailing conclusion. If pressed for time at least scroll down to the "Read the Room" section.
Eisenhower Assassination Claims
Investigation into whether President Eisenhower authorized the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first elected leader. Examines conflicting historical evidence including NSC meeting testimonies, declassified documents, and subsequent historical analyses of US involvement in Congo during the Cold War.
Bread was healthy in the past claims
Examination of the misconception that historical bread was more wholesome than modern bread. Documents widespread adulteration practices in 18th and 19th century bread-making, including the addition of alum, chalk, and other substances. Explores Dr. John Snow's research connecting bread adulteration to diseases like rickets.
Does Gravity "pull"?
Clarification of modern physics understanding of gravity according to Einstein's General Relativity. Explains that gravity is not a traditional "pulling" force as in Newtonian physics, but rather a curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects. Describes how objects follow geodesic paths through curved spacetime, creating what we perceive as gravitational attraction.
Miasma Claims
Overview of the historical miasma theory of disease that dominated medicine until the late 19th century. Describes how diseases were attributed to "bad air" from decomposing matter, and how this theory, while incorrect, led to useful public health reforms before being displaced by germ theory through the work of scientists like Pasteur and Koch.
This site is run by Mike Caulfield. My current work focuses on how students and citizens can use AI as a tool for reasoning and critical thinking, learning to tap into the power of LLMs to contextualize evidence and data, and to model and critique arguments.
If you're coming here from somewhere other than my writings and don't know who I am, I've spent more than a decade working on how to use search to contextualize artifacts, events, and claims. With Sam Wineburg I wrote the definitive book on that subject (University of Chicago Press, endorsed by Maria Ressa, the Nobel Prize winner for her advocacy of freedom of the press). There are features delivered on every Google search result that are inspired by my work. My SIFT method is used in hundreds of universities, and over the past decade has become the primary way that information literacy in taught in U.S. universities and around much of the world, and the Google Super Searchers curriculum I co-developed with Google has been translated into a dozen languages and is one of the most successful information literacy initiatives in history.
I am also the considered the founder of the digital gardening movement, and my work with Ward Cunningham on federated wiki (and my writing and talks about it) has been credited by the founders of Notion, Obsidian, and Roam as inspiring their work, and was the major impetus behind the "re-wikification" of the personal knowledge management space.
You can find me on LinkedIn, Substack, and Bluesky. Inquires about keynotes and consultations can be sent to caulfield.mike@gmail.com, but for the fastest response please ping me either at LinkedIn or Bluesky.
Recent Explorations
Azar Gat Claims
An analysis of Azar Gat's research on warfare in hunter-gatherer societies. Examines evidence suggesting that organized violence was common in prehistoric societies, with debate between "deep roots" and "shallow roots" theories of human warfare patterns. Reviews scholarly perspectives on violence rates in ancient versus modern societies.
Asbestos Snow in Wizard of Oz?
A log of an exploration of whether asbestos was used to make the snow in Wizard of Oz. Has an interesting turn owards the second half of the log, where requesting "another round" of sources ends up overturning the up-to-then prevailing conclusion. If pressed for time at least scroll down to the "Read the Room" section.
Eisenhower Assassination Claims
Investigation into whether President Eisenhower authorized the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first elected leader. Examines conflicting historical evidence including NSC meeting testimonies, declassified documents, and subsequent historical analyses of US involvement in Congo during the Cold War.
Bread was healthy in the past claims
Examination of the misconception that historical bread was more wholesome than modern bread. Documents widespread adulteration practices in 18th and 19th century bread-making, including the addition of alum, chalk, and other substances. Explores Dr. John Snow's research connecting bread adulteration to diseases like rickets.
Does Gravity "pull"?
Clarification of modern physics understanding of gravity according to Einstein's General Relativity. Explains that gravity is not a traditional "pulling" force as in Newtonian physics, but rather a curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects. Describes how objects follow geodesic paths through curved spacetime, creating what we perceive as gravitational attraction.
Miasma Claims
Overview of the historical miasma theory of disease that dominated medicine until the late 19th century. Describes how diseases were attributed to "bad air" from decomposing matter, and how this theory, while incorrect, led to useful public health reforms before being displaced by germ theory through the work of scientists like Pasteur and Koch.