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I'd like to add that, when building an atom bomb, you are well aware of what you're doing - why you're still doing it is an entirely different topic (an interes

by kbit 6y ago

I'd like to add that, when building an atom bomb, you are well aware of what you're doing - why you're still doing it is an entirely different topic (an interesting one which, in fact, falls right into the social sciences). Software engineers at facebook, on the other hand, are likely not aware of the full impact of their work. Their seemingly harmless and objective algorithms literally, although indirectly, cause deaths, and the engineers working on them should be aware of that.

acituan 6y ago
> Software engineers at facebook, on the other hand, are likely not aware of the full impact of their work I feel like this is coming from a naive socially illiterate nerd stereotype. They are smart people, they might as well know much more than you expect.
- aruss 6y ago
  The number of post-hoc internal memos and studies clearly shows that there are many consequences that FB engineers did not anticipate (though FB is not unique in this regard; consider how YouTube's recommendation algorithm feeds misinformation & outrage). The whole point of TFA is that pure intelligence (particularly "computational thinking" type of intelligence) is no substitute for the knowledge and methodology already explored by various humanities and social science fields.
  - noslenwerdna 6y ago
    However, can a social science framework actually predict what would happen, rather than postdict (after it happened). If so, why didn't they make such predictions in 2012 during Facebook's IPO?
  - acituan 6y ago
    > The whole point of TFA is that pure intelligence (particularly "computational thinking" type of intelligence) is no substitute for the knowledge and methodology already explored by various humanities and social science fields. This is such a false dichotomy. There exists many, many technical programs that go to field and do that type of "social" research, using the precisely the same methodologies, knowledge of which end up with UX designers, product designers, product managers etc. This TFA readily admits. In other words, anything that social sciences can offer is already being incorporated into those programs. (I am talking about likes of human computer interaction, user experience, information processing science, network science, and tons of other hybrid programs)
noslenwerdna 6y ago
What deaths? I would tend to disagree that the algorithms caused deaths in any event, unless they were maybe physically brought about by the algorithm in some way... You might as well say electricity or the internet itself caused those deaths.

by kbit 6y ago

acituan 6y ago

> Software engineers at facebook, on the other hand, are likely not aware of the full impact of their work I feel like this is coming from a naive socially illiterate nerd stereotype. They are smart people, they might as well know much more than you expect.

aruss 6y ago
The number of post-hoc internal memos and studies clearly shows that there are many consequences that FB engineers did not anticipate (though FB is not unique in this regard; consider how YouTube's recommendation algorithm feeds misinformation & outrage). The whole point of TFA is that pure intelligence (particularly "computational thinking" type of intelligence) is no substitute for the knowledge and methodology already explored by various humanities and social science fields.
- noslenwerdna 6y ago
  However, can a social science framework actually predict what would happen, rather than postdict (after it happened). If so, why didn't they make such predictions in 2012 during Facebook's IPO?
- acituan 6y ago
  > The whole point of TFA is that pure intelligence (particularly "computational thinking" type of intelligence) is no substitute for the knowledge and methodology already explored by various humanities and social science fields. This is such a false dichotomy. There exists many, many technical programs that go to field and do that type of "social" research, using the precisely the same methodologies, knowledge of which end up with UX designers, product designers, product managers etc. This TFA readily admits. In other words, anything that social sciences can offer is already being incorporated into those programs. (I am talking about likes of human computer interaction, user experience, information processing science, network science, and tons of other hybrid programs)

noslenwerdna 6y ago

What deaths? I would tend to disagree that the algorithms caused deaths in any event, unless they were maybe physically brought about by the algorithm in some way... You might as well say electricity or the internet itself caused those deaths.