Theory of Human Malandragem

A universal framework proposing that malandragem—cunning, strategic rule-bending, clever evasion—is a fundamental human capacity, found in all cultures and contexts. Human Malandragem theory asks: Why do humans everywhere develop strategies of cunning? Is it a response to rigid systems, or something deeper? How does malandragem relate to intelligence, to creativity, to survival? The theory suggests that being malandro is part of being human—that our species survives by being clever, not just strong.

Theory of Human Malandragem "Every culture has its word for it: jeitinho, savoir-faire, street smarts, wit. Human Malandragem theory says it's universal—a human capacity for cunning that emerges wherever there are rules to bend. The question isn't whether humans are malandros; it's what we do with our cleverness."

by Dumu The Void March 5, 2026

Human Slop

Work produced by a human that is unnecessarily low quality, inefficient, or poorly executed in a way that an AI system could have produced faster and with significantly higher quality. The term is used critically to describe avoidable human underperformance in tasks such as writing, coding, analysis, design, or data processing.
Human slop often results from lack of effort, poor attention to detail, or failure to use available tools and automation.

Example 1:
“The spreadsheet is full of errors and inconsistent formatting — it’s human slop.”
Example 2:
“This code could have been generated and cleaned by an AI in seconds. Instead we got human slop.”

by Kyle Myers, Dannyk3 March 9, 2026

Human Sciences Applied to AI

A broader term encompassing all humanities and human-centered disciplines (philosophy, history, linguistics, arts) brought to bear on the development and deployment of artificial intelligence. It goes beyond fixing bias to ask fundamental questions: What does it mean to be human in an age of intelligent machines? How do we preserve dignity, creativity, and meaning? It's the practice of ensuring that as we build smarter machines, we don't build dumber or lesser humans in the process.

Example: "The ethics board was useless until they brought in a philosopher for human sciences applied to AI—he asked questions about personhood that the engineers had never even considered."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

AI Applied to Human Sciences

The integration of artificial intelligence into the humanities disciplines like history, philosophy, literature, and art criticism. AI tools can now reconstruct damaged historical texts, analyze stylistic patterns across a corpus of literature to identify influences, or generate philosophical arguments for critique. It's both a blessing and a crisis for the humanities: a powerful new method of inquiry that also challenges the very definition of human creativity and interpretation.

Example: "The Shakespeare scholar used AI to prove the authorship question once and for all—a perfect example of AI applied to human sciences, and the English department hasn't forgiven him for it."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Human Sciences of Science

A broader, more humanistic approach to understanding science that draws on history, philosophy, literature, and the arts alongside social science methods. It asks not just how science works socially, but what it means—how it shapes our self-understanding, how it appears in culture, how it feels to be a scientist, how it changes what it means to be human. It's science studies with soul, concerned with the existential and cultural dimensions of the scientific enterprise.

Example: "Her book wasn't just history of physics; it was human sciences of science—exploring how relativity changed not just navigation, but poetry, philosophy, and our sense of place in the cosmos."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Human Sciences of Scientific Method

The study of the scientific method using the full toolkit of the humanities: historical analysis of how it developed, philosophical examination of its assumptions, literary analysis of how it's described and narrated, artistic representations of the scientist at work. It seeks to understand the method not just as a procedure but as a human activity—one with a history, a psychology, a cultural meaning, and profound implications for how we understand ourselves.

Example: "The course on human sciences of scientific method spent a week just on Faraday's notebooks—not for the physics, but for what they reveal about the human process of discovery."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Human Sciences of Epistemology

The philosophical and historical study of how human beings have understood "knowing" across cultures and eras, enriched by insights from psychology, anthropology, and cognitive science. It asks: What did it feel like to know something in ancient Greece versus medieval Europe versus the digital age? How do our brains actually do the work of knowing? What role do emotion, embodiment, and culture play in shaping our sense of certainty? It's epistemology made human.

Example: "The human sciences of epistemology remind us that 'knowing' isn't just a logical state—it's a felt experience, shaped by our bodies, our histories, and our communities."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026