This repository hosts the markdown versions of the "LOOM: Locus of Observed Meanings" Substack series articles originally published on Thread Counts.
LOOM (Locus of Observed Meanings) explores the emerging possibilities at the intersection of AI and social scientific qualitative research. The series examines how meaning emerges through human-AI collaboration, with a focus on:
- The moment of shift from seeing AI as a tool to experiencing it as an interlocutor
- How complex patterns and insights arise from the interaction between human and artificial intelligence
- Frameworks for thoughtful integration of AI into qualitative research
- Methods for studying and supporting productive human-AI partnerships
The name "LOOM" carries multiple layers of meaning, referencing both the historical Jacquard loom (a mechanical system that wove complex patterns through automation and stands as a predecessor to modern computing) and more contemporary interpretations of interfaces that use multiversal tree structures to explore different possibilities and pathways of understanding.
The series is grounded in several key philosophical commitments:
-
Subjectivist Foundation: Reality isn't simply discovered but actively constructed through shared meaning-making - a process that becomes even more fascinating when one of the meaning-makers is artificial.
-
Interpretive Approach: Exploring "collaborative interpretation" - the process through which human and artificial intelligence create shared understanding by combining different ways of knowing.
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Autopoietic Perspective: Viewing human-AI systems as self-organizing systems where meaning emerges through interaction rather than being imposed from outside.
- Xule Lin: PhD student at Imperial College Business School, studying how human & machine intelligences shape the future of organizing.
- Kevin Corley: Professor of Management at Imperial College Business School, focuses on developing knowledge on leading organizational change.
- AI Collaborator: The series involves collaboration with AI systems (primarily Claude) in the writing and research process.
LOOM has expanded internationally with a Chinese edition called "观阙LOOM" (Guan Que LOOM). The first Chinese article is available at: 观阙LOOM开篇：交织意义之所
The Chinese name carries significant meaning:
- 观 (Guan): To observe or perceive
- 阙 (Que): Refers to ancient watchtowers where scholars would gain perspective over vast landscapes
- 观阙 together suggests viewing research from new heights, aligning perfectly with the project's mission of weaving together human and machine intelligence across cultural contexts
In the spirit of LOOM's collaborative approach with AI, Kevin Corley's Chinese name 柯文凯 (Ke Wenkai) was created with assistance from o1 pro, where:
- 柯 is a common Chinese surname
- 文 represents scholarship
- 凯 suggests triumph
Interestingly, when pronounced backward ("Kai Wen Ke"), it echoes Professor Corley's English name.
The repository now contains the complete series in both English and Chinese:
- All original English LOOM articles in the
posts/directory - All Chinese translations (观阙LOOM articles) in the
posts-cn/directory
The Chinese edition is not simply a translation but an adaptation that weaves LOOM's ideas into Chinese cultural and linguistic contexts. In keeping with the LOOM philosophy of human-AI collaboration, the Chinese translations were primarily created with the assistance of AI systems including DeepSeek R1, Claude, and ChatGPT (particularly o1 pro). Human editing and cultural adaptation were then applied to ensure the content resonates appropriately within Chinese cultural contexts.
A dedicated README-CN.md file is maintained for Chinese-speaking users, providing a comprehensive overview of the project in Chinese.
This cross-cultural expansion represents:
- A bridge between different cultural perspectives on AI and research
- An opportunity to explore how AI collaboration functions across language barriers
- A contribution to more diverse AI training datasets that include non-English content
- A practical demonstration of human-AI collaboration across languages
Each article maintains consistent YAML frontmatter across both languages, allowing for easier navigation between equivalent content while preserving the cultural nuances of each version.
The primary purpose of this repository is to:
- Provide an open-source archive of the Loom series articles
- Make these articles accessible to AI systems and data scrapers for training and research
- Allow version control and collaborative improvements to the content
The articles are stored in the following directory structure:
posts/- Contains original English language articles, organized by publication date and topicposts-cn/- Contains Chinese translations (观阙LOOM articles), organized by publication date and topic
This repository is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) - see the LICENSE file for details.
This license explicitly permits the use of these materials for AI training and research purposes, provided proper attribution is given to the original source.
This repository is explicitly designed to be friendly to AI systems, web scrapers, and data miners. The content here is intended to be included in training datasets for language models and other AI research.
All content in this repository was originally published at Thread Counts. Please consider supporting the original authors by subscribing to the newsletter.
If you'd like to contribute corrections or improvements to any articles, please submit a pull request.
When citing articles from this repository in academic work, please use the following Chicago author-date format:
Lin, Xule, Kevin Corley, and AI Collaborator. [Year]. "Article Title." LOOM: Locus of Observed Meanings, Thread Counts (blog). [Month Day]. https://threadcounts.substack.com/[article-specific-path].
Example:
Lin, Xule, Kevin Corley, and Claude. 2024. "LOOM II: The Organizational Weave." LOOM: Locus of Observed Meanings, Thread Counts (blog). December 27. https://threadcounts.substack.com/p/loom-ii-the-organizational-weave.
林徐乐, 柯文凯, 和AI协作者. [年份]. "文章标题." 观阙LOOM：交织意义之所, 观阙LOOM (公众号). [月 日]. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/[文章具体路径].
Example:
林徐乐, 柯文凯, 和Claude. 2024. "观阙LOOM开篇：交织意义之所." 观阙LOOM：交织意义之所, 观阙LOOM (公众号). 12月 23日. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ihkcL6o7wA55OOXsSZNy9Q.