Data 104 Midterm 1
Agency - ANS-ability of an individual or collective to act, context always shapes the spaces
for an action and who has agency
\Amia Srinivasan - Stop the Robot Apocalypse - ANS-Effective altruism is essentially the
idea that we should take every single action to try and maximize social benefit, in terms of
'quality adjusted life years.' However, the article argues that one of the biggest criticisms of
effective altruism is that it doesn't actually look at collective societal issues, and collective
action that could be taken, but rather just what an individual could do for the broad utility of
everyone, which doesn't account for a lot of these systemic problems. MacAskill's effective
altruism doesn't actually do anything in the way of making important changes in the world, it
just leaves all the problematic systems and worldwide issues the way they are, while having
individual people try and make their own isolated impact that doesn't actually attack these
issues.
\Aubrey Clayton, "How Eugenics Shaped Statistics" - ANS-how the foundation of a lot of
modern day "objective" statistics is based on the development of Eugenics in the early
1900s by Galton, Pearson, and Fisher. The article argues that we need to take another look
at statistics, and evaluate the actual bases of the statistical tests we are conducting, such as
the representation of the data, whether the test is angled at a certain objective or goal before
it even starts, etc, and we need to try and be objective in terms of how we set-up our
research before the statistics even starts.
\Belmont Report - ANS-Created in the aftermath of Tuskeegee Syphillis Study, where
African Americans with syphyllis participated in study, unaware that treatment was available
for them. Tried to make ethical guidelines such as respect, beneficience, justice, but
contributed to vageuness, protecting institutions. places emphasis on individual actions.
\Classification - ANS-spacial, temporal, or spatio-temporal segmentation of the world. A
'classification system' is a set of boxes (metaphorical or literal) into which things can be put
to then do some kind of work -- bureaucratic or knowledge protection.
\co-production - ANS-a way of explaining relationship of science/tech and society.
Technology and society are mutually constitutive. They depend on one another for the forms
they assume. Tech makes society what it is, and society makes tech what it is. Tech is
co=produced with society. Both tech and society are dynamic and change.
\Deborah Pozkaner, "The Slippery Slope of Scientific Ethics" - ANS-The article argues that
Nolan created a very simple, idealistic portrayal of Oppenheimer as a man who had ideal
visions and didn't realize that his creation could be used towards so much destruction.
Pozkaner further argues that this portrayal lacked the complexity of a man who more
realistically knew the potential consequences of his actions, and was more so grappling
between ethical values and a desire for achievement and power.
\Elish - Moral Crumple Zones - ANS-when things go wrong, it is often the humans operating
the system that take the blame for things going wrong, rather than the system design, and
the creators of the system themselves. The article argues that this can be unfair, as in the
era of increasing automation, innovators should be conscious of the hand-off problem, or the
idea that when there is an error which requires the human to take control of the system, the
immediate taking of control with a calm and clear head and perfect cognition is something
that is quite difficult for humans to do.
Agency - ANS-ability of an individual or collective to act, context always shapes the spaces
for an action and who has agency
\Amia Srinivasan - Stop the Robot Apocalypse - ANS-Effective altruism is essentially the
idea that we should take every single action to try and maximize social benefit, in terms of
'quality adjusted life years.' However, the article argues that one of the biggest criticisms of
effective altruism is that it doesn't actually look at collective societal issues, and collective
action that could be taken, but rather just what an individual could do for the broad utility of
everyone, which doesn't account for a lot of these systemic problems. MacAskill's effective
altruism doesn't actually do anything in the way of making important changes in the world, it
just leaves all the problematic systems and worldwide issues the way they are, while having
individual people try and make their own isolated impact that doesn't actually attack these
issues.
\Aubrey Clayton, "How Eugenics Shaped Statistics" - ANS-how the foundation of a lot of
modern day "objective" statistics is based on the development of Eugenics in the early
1900s by Galton, Pearson, and Fisher. The article argues that we need to take another look
at statistics, and evaluate the actual bases of the statistical tests we are conducting, such as
the representation of the data, whether the test is angled at a certain objective or goal before
it even starts, etc, and we need to try and be objective in terms of how we set-up our
research before the statistics even starts.
\Belmont Report - ANS-Created in the aftermath of Tuskeegee Syphillis Study, where
African Americans with syphyllis participated in study, unaware that treatment was available
for them. Tried to make ethical guidelines such as respect, beneficience, justice, but
contributed to vageuness, protecting institutions. places emphasis on individual actions.
\Classification - ANS-spacial, temporal, or spatio-temporal segmentation of the world. A
'classification system' is a set of boxes (metaphorical or literal) into which things can be put
to then do some kind of work -- bureaucratic or knowledge protection.
\co-production - ANS-a way of explaining relationship of science/tech and society.
Technology and society are mutually constitutive. They depend on one another for the forms
they assume. Tech makes society what it is, and society makes tech what it is. Tech is
co=produced with society. Both tech and society are dynamic and change.
\Deborah Pozkaner, "The Slippery Slope of Scientific Ethics" - ANS-The article argues that
Nolan created a very simple, idealistic portrayal of Oppenheimer as a man who had ideal
visions and didn't realize that his creation could be used towards so much destruction.
Pozkaner further argues that this portrayal lacked the complexity of a man who more
realistically knew the potential consequences of his actions, and was more so grappling
between ethical values and a desire for achievement and power.
\Elish - Moral Crumple Zones - ANS-when things go wrong, it is often the humans operating
the system that take the blame for things going wrong, rather than the system design, and
the creators of the system themselves. The article argues that this can be unfair, as in the
era of increasing automation, innovators should be conscious of the hand-off problem, or the
idea that when there is an error which requires the human to take control of the system, the
immediate taking of control with a calm and clear head and perfect cognition is something
that is quite difficult for humans to do.
