Data Science as Machinic Neoplatonism

* Dialogue with Tim Jackson about Dan McQuillan's Critique of Data Science as "Machinic Platonism"

Video via https://footnotes2plato.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-participatory-platonism

Description

Matthew Segal:

"Timothy Jackson and I discussed Dan McQuillan’s article “Data Science as Machinic Neoplatonism” (2018). McQuillan should be praised for his prescience in acknowledging the dangerous potentials of algorithmic discrimination and the evasion of due process. He is exactly right when he says that data science is not just a neutral new scientific methodology: it is an organizing idea—a paradigm—with cultural implications, because science itself is a cultural activity. It is historically situated, and there is no such thing as a view from nowhere. I applaud his call for a counterculture of data science that is material as well as discursive. We need more than rhetorical critiques; we as citizens need to develop our own practice of data science to counter state and corporate deployments."