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> the first question to ask should be "is that result accurate?" not "how do we tune out this problematic result?" That depends on the product that you want to
by stfwn 8y ago
> the first question to ask should be "is that result accurate?" not "how do we tune out this problematic result?"
That depends on the product that you want to make. If you’re a company that wants to sail on the status quo and just make money, by all means be amoral.
On the other hand, technology now allows us to analyze and steer social structure at scale. We could reproduce past inequalities in the name of efficiency, or we could think a bit longer about our axis of optimization.
“But cultural relativism!” — I agree. It’s a tough problem, but we don’t all of the sudden need a definitive generalized social plan. Biases can be tackled one algorithm at a time.
- iguy 8y agoMaybe a useful way to think about this is Positive/Normative distinction. Science is "amoral" in your sense, it's trying to describe how things really are, and make predictions. So is the stock market: you're rewarded for correct predictions, whether or not others regard those outcomes as desirable. Of course we are also moral beings, interested in changing things for the better. And we have varying and contradictory ideas about what better means. As soon as you say "steer social structure at scale" the question is: who gets to steer? If this were obvious, then we wouldn't need democracy, we could just all work together not to "reproduce past inequalities"... but we can't.