How we check

If It All Falls Down

Here a mistake can do real harm, so the rules are stricter than for any other subject.

Official guidance first

Anything that is an instruction ("get inside a building", "decontaminate like this") rests on current official guidance and a second, independent source. In English we follow U.S. authorities and in Spanish Mexico's; when Mexico has no public guide on a point, the Spanish version says so and names the U.S. guide it uses.

Conditions stay in

A number is given with its scenario ("for a one-megaton explosion", "as a rough rule", "if no more fallout comes down"). If the source sets a condition, the video keeps it, even if the sentence gets longer.

No fearmongering

We don't comment on the news or predict anything. We don't show injuries: people are pictograms, and damage shows on things. On health we give no doses; we say what something does and who decides to use it. None of this replaces your local emergency management.

The same audit

Every claim goes through two automated reviewers (AI models) that see only the claim and the passages of its sources, and reject it if it says more than those texts support. Then every script is checked the same way, line by line. Each video lists its sources and a "Learn more" section of free resources.

The history of philosophy, idea by idea

Every sentence in a video or on this site that states something is backed by a registered claim, with its sources and the exact place in the text.

1. No source, no claim

Every claim (a fact, a date, a quote, an idea attributed to someone, an anecdote) is recorded separately, with at least one ancient source and a modern study where needed, and with its classical locator (for example, Metaphysics 983b20).

2. Quotes are literal

A quote in quotation marks is copied from a published translation, which we name. A program checks that the text appears verbatim in that translation.

3. We say how much we know

We distinguish the author's own words, what another ancient writer reports ("according to Aristotle…"), scholarly consensus, open debates, and legends ("the story goes…").

4. Independent audit

A local search engine over the texts helps find the passages. Then every claim is audited: two automated reviewers (AI models) that see only the claim and the passages of its sources reject it if it says more than those texts support. Every script gets the same check, line by line. Nothing is published without passing that audit, and anything that changes is audited again.

5. How the videos are made

Everything is drawn with code, in the style of each philosopher's period; we use no stock images and no AI-generated images. The narration is a synthetic voice, and the music and sound effects are synthesised by code. When a figure walks, points or sits, its movement comes from real motion capture: the data used in this project was obtained from mocap.cs.cmu.edu; the database was created with funding from NSF EIA-0196217.