Weekly reads 2021-01-11

Conspiracy

STS

HCI at large

Anthropocene

the nature of natural climate solutions is far from self-evident, and that the boundaries of this category arise from a particular and contestable conceptualization of what constitutes external, non-human nature

 Selected climate solutions subject to a conflated natural–unnatural binary

As counterbalance :

Bio-sensing for the win :

Covid

BACKGROUND: In an effort to mitigate the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), North Carolina (NC) closed its K–12 public schools to in-person instruction on 03/14/2020. On 07/15/2020, NC’s governor announced schools could open via remote learning or a “hybrid” model that combined in-person and remote instruction. In August 2020, 56 of 115 NC school districts joined the ABC Science Collaborative (ABCs) to implement public health measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission and share lessons learned. We describe secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within participating NC school districts during the first 9 weeks of in-person instruction in the 2020–2021 academic school year.

METHODS: From 08/15/2020–10/23/2020, 11 of 56 school districts participating in ABCs were open for in-person instruction for all 9 weeks of the first quarter and agreed to track incidence and secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Local health department staff adjudicated secondary transmission. Superintendents met weekly with ABCs faculty to share lessons learned and develop prevention methods.

RESULTS: Over 9 weeks, 11 participating school districts had more than 90,000 students and staff attend school in-person; of these, there were 773 community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections documented by molecular testing. Through contact tracing, NC health department staff determined an additional 32 infections were acquired within schools. No instances of child-to-adult transmission of SARS-CoV-2 were reported within schools.

CONCLUSIONS: In the first 9 weeks of in-person instruction in NC schools, we found extremely limited within-school secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2, as determined by contact tracing.

Syllabi

We are living in the midst of a digital transformation of society. The industrial revolution happened, and it’s over. Yet, design practice is stuck in the past and struggles to reconcile human values and algorithmic logics into socially, economically and politically sustainable models. We lack the knowledge, skills and roles within companies or organisations to design for interaction with autonomous technologies in ways actually beneficial to humankind, and thus to responsibly anticipate and steer this transformation. Imagining and manifesting alternative futures has to be a proactive effort. It’s time to rethink design and create new pathways to the future. DCODE aims to break new ground by positioning agency as foundational to the design of digital futures as was once the notion of function to industrial design.

Skimmed

Conspiracy / nationalism / extreme right

Listened to

Not read

Peer-reviewed articles

STS

Books

Listen list

Weekly reads 2021-01-04

Contre l’imposture et le pseudo-rationalisme – Renouer avec l’éthique de la disputatio et le savoir comme horizon commun Bruno Andreotti, Camille Noûs Dans Zilsel 2020/2 (N° 7).

… il s’agit de remettre le pouvoir de décision dans les mains de leaders et d’experts, seuls à même de réadapter les individus à cet environnement. Pour ce faire, les experts doivent se soustraire au contrôle démocratique tout en cherchant à obtenir le consentement des populations par une apparence de scientificité. La figure de l’expert, caractéristique de la confusion entre sphères savante et politique, véhicule ainsi un modèle hétéronome de la société reposant sur l’intériorisation d’une séparation entre décideurs et citoyens passifs, repliés sur leur sphère privée. Cette organisation pseudo-rationnelle assurant la domination de la société par un petit nombre, et rendant impossible le renouvellement des normes et des institutions sociales, a été théorisée par Cornelius Castoriadis et Claude Lefort et par Max Weber avant eux, comme étant l’essence de la bureaucratie.

L’incapacité de la technocratie des experts à répondre à cette triple crise alimente la défiance vis-à-vis de tous les corps intermédiaires qui menace d’emporter le monde savant, dont il usurpe l’apparence, dans sa chute. Il appartient au monde savant de se démarquer de toute prétention à parer des idées politiques d’un vernis scientifique et, surtout, de réaffirmer l’idéal régulateur d’une science autonome et intègre et d’une responsabilité des chercheurs devant la société. Il appartient à toute la société de repenser l’articulation des sphères politique, productive, technique et scientifique.

To connect to the recent free-speech – deplatforming controversies. Its most recent instance in Computer Science being the “Free speech” letter of P. Domingo. Here a very patient Rebuttal to Pedro Domingos’ Rebuttal to my Remarks Opposed to Signing the Open Letter on Academic “Free Speech” by David Karger.

See also Citoyen hackeur – Enjeux politiques des civic tech, par Clément Mabi, La vie des idées.

Visualization

AI

Anthropocene

Syllabi

Did not manage to go through

Peer-reviewed articles

Books

Websites

Weekly reads 2020-12-28

Books

Finally managed to read the Liu Cixin’s The three body problem and The dark forest. This led me to read further on the cultural revolution and the history of modern China. It reads well, but still classical masculine SF. I enjoyed much more Embassytown from China Mieville that I read this summer or the Broken Earth Trilogy from N. K. Jemisin.

Started reading Brutalisme from Achille Mbembe in parallel.

Tech

Software development

Design

AI

Anthropocene

Watch list

Listen list

Skimmed

Peer-reviewed articles

Not read

Peer-reviewed articles

Books