EST 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Childhood Obesity, Dark Web
14 Jun 2018
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Department
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Professor
Week 1 (1/29/2018)
Science is in trouble. More and more research findings turning
out to be mistakes or useless. Can Science be saved from itself?
●Perspectives: What people call work
○Most Undergrads: Getting Shit Done
○Most Grad Students: Working for that Money
○Most Doctoral Students: Is this worth it?
○Neuroscientists:
■Every time you shift your attention from one thing to another, the brain
has to engage a neurochemical switch that uses up nutrients in the brain to
accomplish that. So if you’re attempting to multitask, you know, doing
four or five things at once, you’re not actually doing four or five things at
once, because the brain doesn’t work that way. Instead, you’re rapidly
shifting from one thing to the next, depleting neural resources as you go.
●Technology is the ‘raw material’ for fighting economic inequality
○History is ruthlessly clear about what happens when too much wealth ends up in
the hands of the very few. Even as anger about economic inequality has fueled
movements - including the campaigns of populist political candidates - specific
causes and solutions remain elusive.
○One piece of the puzzle is rejecting the hollow claim of today’s technology
companies that innovation improves quality of life for everyone by default, and
beginning a serious conversation about how innovation can be leveraged to fight
inequality, rather than amplify it.
○Science, pride of modernity, our one source of objective knowledge, is in deep
trouble. Stoked by fifty years of growing public investments, scientists are more
productive than ever, pouring out millions of articles in thousands of journals
covering an ever-expanding array of fields and phenomena. But much of this
supposed knowledge is turning out to be contestable, unreliable, unusable, or
flat-out wrong.
○When the politics of scientific publishing prevent negative results from getting
out there, science can’t advance, and potentially dangerous errors - whether due to
fraud or an honest mistake - go unchecked.
○Ultimately, science can be rescued if researchers can be directed more toward
solving real world problems rather than pursuing the beautiful lie.
Document Summary
More and more research findings turning out to be mistakes or useless. Most grad students: working for that money. Every time you shift your attention from one thing to another, the brain has to engage a neurochemical switch that uses up nutrients in the brain to accomplish that. So if you"re attempting to multitask, you know, doing four or five things at once, you"re not actually doing four or five things at once, because the brain doesn"t work that way. Instead, you"re rapidly shifting from one thing to the next, depleting neural resources as you go. Technology is the raw material" for fighting economic inequality. History is ruthlessly clear about what happens when too much wealth ends up in the hands of the very few. Even as anger about economic inequality has fueled movements - including the campaigns of populist political candidates - specific causes and solutions remain elusive.
