In this day and age, sophisticated critique of technology and science is much needed. What we don’t need is critiques like this long piece in the Baffler by Corey Pein which, I think, is trying to mount a critique of the lack of ethics education in computer science curricula but seems most concerned with assertingContinue reading “Contra Corey Pein, Computer Science Is A Science”
Category Archives: History of Science
Space Exploration And The Invisible Women
Yesterday being a snow day in New York City–for school-going children and college professors alike–I spent it with my daughter at home. Diversion was necessary, and so I turned to an old friend–the growing stock of quite excellent documentaries on Netflix–for aid. My recent conversations with my daughter have touched on the topic of spaceContinue reading “Space Exploration And The Invisible Women”
Neuroscience’s Inference Problem And The Perils Of Scientific Reduction
In Science’s Inference Problem: When Data Doesn’t Mean What We Think It Does, while reviewing Jerome Kagan‘s Five Constraints on Predicting Behavior, James Ryerson writes: Perhaps the most difficult challenge Kagan describes is the mismatching of the respective concepts and terminologies of brain science and psychology. Because neuroscientists lack a “rich biological vocabulary” for the varietyContinue reading “Neuroscience’s Inference Problem And The Perils Of Scientific Reduction”
The Fragile Digital World Described By Zeynep Tufkeci Invites Smashing
In “The Looming Digital Meltdown” (New York Times, January 7th), Zeynep Tufekci writes, We have built the digital world too rapidly. It was constructed layer upon layer, and many of the early layers were never meant to guard so many valuable things: our personal correspondence, our finances, the very infrastructure of our lives. Design shortcutsContinue reading “The Fragile Digital World Described By Zeynep Tufkeci Invites Smashing”
Neil deGrasse Tyson And The Perils Of Facile Reductionism
You know the shtick by now–or at least, twitterers and tweeters do. Every few weeks, Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of America’s most popular public ‘scientific’ intellectuals, decides that it is time to describe some social construct in scientific language to show how ‘arbitrary’ and ‘made-up’ it all is–compared to the sheer factitude, the amazing reality-groundedContinue reading “Neil deGrasse Tyson And The Perils Of Facile Reductionism”
Contra Cathy O’Neil, The ‘Ivory Tower’ Does Not ‘Ignore Tech’
In ‘Ivory Tower Cannot Keep On Ignoring Tech‘ Cathy O’Neil writes: We need academia to step up to fill in the gaps in our collective understanding about the new role of technology in shaping our lives. We need robust research on hiring algorithms that seem to filter out peoplewith mental health disorders…we need research to ensureContinue reading “Contra Cathy O’Neil, The ‘Ivory Tower’ Does Not ‘Ignore Tech’”
Will Artificial Intelligence Create More Jobs Than It Eliminates? Maybe
Over at the MIT Sloan Management Review, H. James Wilson, Paul R. Daugherty, and Nicola Morini-Bianzino strike an optimistic note as they respond to the “distressing picture” created by “the threat that automation will eliminate a broad swath of jobs across the world economy [for] as artificial intelligence (AI) systems become ever more sophisticated, another wave ofContinue reading “Will Artificial Intelligence Create More Jobs Than It Eliminates? Maybe”
Richard Dawkins’ Inconsistent Reliance On Pragmatism
A very popular video on YouTube featuring Richard Dawkins is titled ‘Science Works, Bitches.’ It periodically makes the rounds on social media; as it does, Dawkins acolytes–in the video and on social media–applaud him as he ‘smacks down’ a questioner who inquires into the ‘justification’ for the scientific method. (A familiar enough question; for instance,Continue reading “Richard Dawkins’ Inconsistent Reliance On Pragmatism”
No, Aristotle Did Not ‘Create’ The Computer
For the past few days, an essay titled “How Aristotle Created The Computer” (The Atlantic, March 20, 2017, by Chris Dixon) has been making the rounds. It begins with the following claim: The history of computers is often told as a history of objects, from the abacus to the Babbage engine up through the code-breakingContinue reading “No, Aristotle Did Not ‘Create’ The Computer”
Epistemology and ‘The Leftovers’
Imagine that an extremely improbable event occurs, one for which there was no warning; your best theories of the world assigned it a near-zero probability (indeed, so low was this probability then calculating it would have been a waste of time). This event is inexplicable–no explanations for it are forthcoming, and it cannot be fittedContinue reading “Epistemology and ‘The Leftovers’”
Samir Chopra 