Sciber

Cosma Shalizi's response to Chris Anderson's Wired article about how massive data availability is making theory and the scientific method obsolete, is truly worth reading in detail---following all the links.

Labels: computing, informatics, statistics

Lecture 1 - How did we get here?

I also recommend reading the following paper by Prof. Eden Medina, related to her wonderful presentation to the class:

Medina, E. [2006] "Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile.", Journal of Latin American Studies. 38, 571-606 .

Labels: chile, cybernetics, informatics, Macy Conferences

"[...]there's another kind of scientist who never breaks through, usually because while his discovery is revolutionary it's also maddeningly hard to summarize in a simple sentence or two. He never produces a catchy hit single. He's more like a back-room influencer: his work inspires dozens of other innovators who absorb the idea, produce more easily comprehensible innovations and become more famous than their mentor could have dreamed. Find an influencer, and you'll find a deeply bitter man. Norbert Wiener -- the inventor of ''cybernetics'' -- is precisely this type of scientist." Full article @
The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'Dark Hero of the Information Age': The Original Computer Geek

Labels: cybernetics, informatics, information age, Norbert Wiener