A suite of vector methods for vector theory.

🌐 Website and map: vector-lab-tools.github.io

Vector Lab is a family of tools that make the internal geometry of large language models, the comparative structure of embedding spaces, and the topography of theoretical corpora legible as objects of empirical and critical analysis. The instruments share a design language (Next.js frontend, FastAPI / PyTorch backend where needed, editorial interface) and a commitment: geometry is not neutral, and the critical humanities need instruments of their own.

Extensive instruments that compare across models. Currently the most mature; the single-model scopes are in early alpha.

• Manifold Atlas — between models at their output embeddings. Concept distance, negation gauge, hegemony compass, silence detector, agonism test, and more.
• LLMbench — between models at the level of generated prose. Dual-panel close reading, annotation, logprobs, probability visualisation.

Intensive instruments that open up a single object for inspection.

• Vectorscope — inside a single open-weight model. Layer-by-layer weights, hidden states, attention, precision regimes.
• Manifoldscope — a single manifold as geometric and ideological object. Measure and critique bound together: intrinsic dimension, curvature, density, and the politics of what a geometry sediments or refuses.
• Theoryscope — a corpus of theoretical texts as navigable geometry. Renormalisation-group flow, eigendirections, fixed points, universality classes.

graph TB
  subgraph scopes["Single-model scopes (intensive)"]
    T["Theoryscope\ncorpus"]
    V["Vectorscope\nmodel internals"]
    M["Manifoldscope\none manifold"]
  end

  subgraph comparative["Comparative tools (extensive)"]
    A["Manifold Atlas\nbetween models"]
    L["LLMbench\nbetween prose outputs"]
  end

  V -.provenance.-> M
  M -.provenance.-> A
  A -.surface reading.-> L
  T -.eigendirections of theory.-> V

  classDef scope fill:#1a1a1a,stroke:#d4af37,color:#f5f5f0,stroke-width:1px;
  classDef comp fill:#1a1a1a,stroke:#8b3a3a,color:#f5f5f0,stroke-width:1px;
  class T,V,M scope;
  class A,L comp;

The tools operationalise claims developed in the vector theory sequence on Stunlaw and the wider research programme. The essays are the conceptual statements; the tools are the empirical instruments.

Vector theory sequence (Stunlaw): The Vector Medium, Vector Theory, What Is Vector Space?, What Is the Manifold?, Generation Vector, What Is Theory Space?, Renormalising Theory.

Books and longer work: Critical Theory and the Digital (Bloomsbury, 2014); AI Critical Theory, in progress; Synthetic Media and Computational Capitalism, AI & SOCIETY (2025).

Centre for Vector Media: the Leverhulme bid develops the institutional and methodological frame within which Vector Lab operates.

For an annotated reading guide and per-tool deep dives see vector-lab-tools.github.io.

Vector Lab is directed by David M. Berry. Tools are research instruments and are offered as-is under permissive licences. See each repository for details.