The Tech Policy Press Podcast A History of Data from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
12 snips
Mar 19, 2023 AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Algorithms Feel Inevitable Because Of Long Histories
- Historical perspective helps explain why algorithms now feel like loss of control.
- Chris Wiggins ties present-day algorithmic power to centuries-long intellectual threads and recurring headlines claiming novelty.
Quetelet Tried To Make A Social Physics
- Adolphe Quetelet attempted a social physics by applying astronomical methods to society.
- He used statistical tools to measure phenomena like crime and height, aiming to transform moral questions into measurable patterns.
Regression Originated From Eugenic Questions
- Francis Galton invented regression studying why children regress toward the mean and used it to justify eugenic ideas.
- Regression emerged as a general method but was politically tied to imperial and eugenic aims in Galton's work.