Understanding the social in a digital age

Datafication, algorithms, social media and their various assemblages enable massive connective processes, enriching personal interaction and amplifying the scope and scale of public networks. At the same time, surveillance capitalists and the social quantification sector are committed to monetizing every aspect of human communication, all of which threaten ideal social qualities, such as togetherness and connection. This Special Issue brings together a range of voices and provocations around ‘the social’, all of which aim to critically interrogate mediated human connection and their contingent socialities. Conventional methods may no longer be adequate, and we must rethink not only the fabric of the social but the very tools we use to make sense of our changing social formations. This Special Issue raises shared concerns with what the social means today, unpicking and rethinking the seams between digitization and social life that characterize today’s digital age

Quasar Proper Motions and Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves

We report observational upper limits on the mass-energy of the cosmological gravitational-wave background, from limits on proper motions of quasars. Gravitational waves with periods longer than the time span of observations produce a simple pattern of apparent proper motions over the sky, composed primarily of second-order transverse vector spherical harmonics. A fit of such harmonics to measured motions yields a 95%-confidence limit on the mass-energy of gravitational waves with frequencies <2e-9 Hz, of <0.11/h*h times the closure density of the universe.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. Also available at http://charm.physics.ucsb.edu:80/people/cgwinn/cgwinn_group/index.htm

Exploring mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers: Supporting prospective elementary teachers’ relearning of mathematics

The growing number of studies on mathematics teacher educator knowledge have consistently argued that mathematics teacher educators require specialized knowledge in their work with prospective teachers (beyond the knowledge needed for teaching students), what researchers refer to as mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers. Drawing from existing research and aspects of our own work as mathematics teacher educators, we offer our own conceptualization of mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers and illustrate ways in which we as mathematics teacher educators use our own knowledge in teaching mathematics content to prospective teachers. We are particularly concerned with the knowledge mathematics teacher educators use to support prospective teachers’ relearning of mathematics, which involves prospective teachers ultimately reconstructing their previously developed knowledge of mathematics. We will illustrate ways in which we use various aspects of mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers to support prospective teachers’ relearning of mathematics through the lens of three different tasks of teaching. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our analysis for informing the growing knowledge base for mathematics teacher educators

Vacuum Polarization in the Spacetime of a Scalar-Tensor Cosmic String

We study the vacuum polarization effect in the spacetime generated by a magnetic flux cosmic string in the framework of a scalar-tensor gravity. The vacuum expectation values of the energy-momentum tensor of a conformally coupled scalar field are calculated. The dilaton's contribution to the vacuum polarization effect is shown explicitly.Comment: 11 pages, LATEX file, 2 eps figure

The influence of Galactic aberration on precession parameters determined from VLBI observations

The influence of proper motions of sources due to Galactic aberration on precession models based on VLBI data is determined. Comparisons of the linear trends in the coordinates of the celestial pole obtained with and without taking into account Galactic aberration indicate that this effect can reach 20 $\mu$as per century, which is important for modern precession models. It is also shown that correcting for Galactic aberration influences the derived parameters of low-frequency nutation terms. It is therefore necessary to correct for Galactic aberration in the reduction of modern astrometric observations

Criticism and outstanding leadership : an evaluation of leader reactions and critical outcomes

Outstanding political leaders are frequently called upon to make high-stakes decisions. Because of the controversial and highly visible nature of these issues, they often face intense criticism. Leaders' responses to criticisms not only affect follower reactions, but also the successful resolution of the contested issue. The present study examines leader and follower reactions to different types of criticisms. A historiometric approach was used to examine biographies containing criticisms of 120 world leaders and to explore leader behaviors in response to criticisms. Specifically, leader response strategies and their success in terms of follower reactions and resolution of the criticism were examined. The results indicated that collaborative or confrontational leader response strategies proved most effective in terms of the leader's ability to continue forward with a particular agenda item and to gather support of those around him or her. Conversely, avoidant, diverting attention, and persuasive response strategies proved less effective

Problem-solving for problem-solving: Data analytics to identify families for service intervention

The article draws on Bacchi’s ideas about problematisation (2020) and links to technological solutionism as governing logics of our age, to explore the double-faceted problem-solving logic operating in the UK family policy and early intervention field. Families with certain characteristics are identified as problematic, and local authorities are tasked with intervening to fix that social problem. Local authorities thus need to identify these families for problem-solving intervention, and data analytics companies will solve that problem for them. In the article, we identify discourses of transmitted deprivation and anti-social behaviour in families and the accompanying costly public sector burden as characteristics that produce families as social problems, and discursive themes around delivering powerful knowledge, timeliness and economic efficiently in data analytic companies’ problem solving claims for their data linkage and predictive analytics systems. These discursive rationales undergird the double-faceted problem-solving for problem-solving logic that directs attention away from complex structural causes

Beyond mystery: Putting algorithmic accountability in context

Critical algorithm scholarship has demonstrated the difficulties of attributing accountability for the actions and effects of algorithmic systems. In this commentary, we argue that we cannot stop at denouncing the lack of accountability for algorithms and their effects but must engage the broader systems and distributed agencies that algorithmic systems exist within; including standards, regulations, technologies, and social relations. To this end, we explore accountability in “the Generated Detective,” an algorithmically generated comic. Taking up the mantle of detectives ourselves, we investigate accountability in relation to this piece of experimental fiction. We problematize efforts to effect accountability through transparency by undertaking a simple operation: asking for permission to re-publish a set of the algorithmically selected and modified words and images which make the frames of the comic. Recounting this process, we demonstrate slippage between the “complication” of the algorithm and the obscurity of the legal and institutional structures in which it exists

Theories of parenting and their application to artificial intelligence

© 2019 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). As machine learning (ML) systems have advanced, they have acquired more power over humans' lives, and questions about what values are embedded in them have become more complex and fraught. It is conceivable that in the coming decades, humans may succeed in creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) that thinks and acts with an open-endedness and autonomy comparable to that of humans. The implications would be profound for our species; they are now widely debated not just in science fiction and speculative research agendas but increasingly in serious technical and policy conversations. Much work is underway to try to weave ethics into advancing ML research. We think it useful to add the lens of parenting to these efforts, and specifically radical, queer theories of parenting that consciously set out to nurture agents whose experiences, objectives and understanding of the world will necessarily be very different from their parents'. We propose a spectrum of principles which might underpin such an effort; some are relevant to current ML research, while others will become more important if AGI becomes more likely. These principles may encourage new thinking about the development, design, training, and release into the world of increasingly autonomous agents