Schaden Research Lab (SRL) is an independent research lab based in Vienna, Austria. It is run by Günter Schaden and provides a common framework for his research.
Research begins with specific questions. These determine the relevant sources, bodies of knowledge, and disciplinary perspectives.
Research Approach
Observations and open questions give rise to hypotheses, which are tested and developed further against sources, findings, competing hypotheses, and alternative explanations. Refutation, qualification, and revision can yield insights just as much as a hypothesis that withstands the tests applied to it.
Particular attention is paid to the transitions between source, finding, interpretation, and representation. Where an investigation allows for multiple explanations, or where a question remains open on the basis of the available material, that openness remains part of the result.
My research logic:
An interesting hypothesis does not become better by hiding where it is vulnerable. You make it precise enough for someone to strike at it.
Humans and AI
Generative AI is an essential tool for SRL. It takes on wide-ranging tasks in research and in the exploration, analysis and preparation of material. This allows several lines of inquiry to be pursued in parallel and considerably compresses cycles of research, hypothesis formation, testing and revision.
This approach combines rapid exploration with a persistent research structure. Sources, work states, hypotheses and decisions are recorded in a way that allows lines of inquiry to be resumed, reviewed and revised. The structure is designed to translate a parallel and associative process of inquiry and reasoning into a persistent and verifiable external structure without prematurely reducing it to a fixed order.
The depth of verification depends on the significance of a piece of information for the finding in question and the argument developed from it. Sources and work steps are examined more closely where their evidential value, the scope of the claims they support, or unresolved contradictions require further scrutiny.
This division of labour is itself a subject of research. Through its own practice, SRL investigates which aspects of a parallel and associative human process of inquiry and reasoning can be translated into a sequential, persistent and verifiable external structure, and what forms of division of labour and oversight this requires.
Scientific responsibility for the research questions, evaluation and published results lies with Günter Schaden. The viability of the working model is tested through the research it produces and the expert scrutiny that research receives.