[3359] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] A network scientist examines the lifespan of a fact
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PRIVACY Forum mailing list)
Sat Oct 6 00:26:45 2012
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 20:55:37 -0700
To: privacy-list@vortex.com
Message-ID: <20121006035537.GB12466@vortex.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Disposition: inline
From: PRIVACY Forum mailing list <privacy@vortex.com>
Reply-To: PRIVACY Forum mailing list <privacy@vortex.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Errors-To: privacy-bounces+privacy-forum=mit.edu@vortex.com
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
A network scientist examines the lifespan of a fact
http://j.mp/SAKg5n (Slate)
"The Harvard network scientist and pop theorist Samuel Arbesman stokes
our fears of information on the cover of his recent book, The
Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date.
Watch out, that title says: The truth is melting! But the argument
that Arbesman lays out (in a set of loosely connected anecdotes and
essays) works to do the opposite. He uses math as a medication for
this anxiety, to keep us calm in the face of shifting knowledge. His
book works like a data-beta-blocker: By fitting fickle truths to
models and equations, it promises a way to handle life's uncertainty
and keep abreast of "the vibrations in the facts around us." In the
end, though, the prescription runs afoul of a more fundamental
ambiguity: What does it mean to call a fact a fact to start with?"
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
_______________________________________________
privacy mailing list
http://lists.vortex.com/mailman/listinfo/privacy
