@natematias@social.coop
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natematias

@natematias@social.coop

Social & computer scientist who works alongside communities on science for a safer, fairer, more understanding Internet.

Founder, Citizens and Technology Lab · Visiting Scholar, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia · Assistant Prof at Cornell · Guatemalan-American · Co-founder of @transparenttech

Enjoys taking photos & listening to books/poetry on very long bike rides.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

natematias, to random
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New Post: How can scientists, technologists, and activist-scholars learn to create positive transformations in our work and our world? And how can we turn that critical work into pathways for others to do the same?

As a professor, my job is to nurture the creative, critical imaginations of those I mentor, supporting them to imagine and develop new growth.

This is my encouragement for students to do the same.

Many thanks to @jzong & @hannareichel for inspiring this

https://citizensandtech.org/2024/06/critical-writing-and-design/

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

Today I am grateful for conscientious objectors who gave their lives over the centuries to establish paths for people to choose not to participate in the violent parts of a conscripted military.

According to this UN report, the earliest recorded conscientious objector was a Christian — Saint Maximilian, who refused to serve in the Roman army due to religious convictions. As the idea of the nation state & conscription grew, so did the idea of conscientious objection.

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/ConscientiousObjection_en.pdf

owen, to random
@owen@hci.social avatar

Meeting great @natematias !

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

@owen great to meet you this week! waves at @andresmh from afar

natematias, to random
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What does it mean for a company to "know" that their products are harming people, how do corporate scientists convince themselves not to look at the truth, and how does that change?

Stop what you're doing and read this extraordinary story right now by Sharon Lerner for ProPublica and the New Yorker.

https://www.propublica.org/article/3m-forever-chemicals-pfas-pfos-inside-story

grimalkina, to random
@grimalkina@mastodon.social avatar

Life would be easier for many scientists if the general public would get past the stereotype that all science is just about "surprise" and novelty and completely unknown things and that studies don't matter if they match your lived experience 😭 there is massive need to document well known things into the scientific record and establish specific evidence examples for them in ways that will be legible and useful for policy, public action, etc....!

Media really fuels this misconception

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

@grimalkina I agree it’s a tough one, especially when there’s a lot of money to be had in lowering public trust in scholarship and many (overworked) scientists are dis-incentivized to engage with (or respect) the public.

My work on this is public engagement and the protection of scholars at risk, but even work on both fronts feels very insufficient given the kind of money and power on the side of merchants of doubt

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

@grimalkina unfortunately, the novelty/surprise framing is also deeply integrated into funding, award, and promotion structures too.

Note: I remember being pretty surprised to see in this analysis of scientific articles and news stories that on average, journalists actually tend to temper rather than exaggerate scientific findings. I would love to see a more in-depth analysis

https://news.umich.edu/journalists-tend-to-temper-not-exaggerate-scientific-claims-u-m-study-shows/

BlackAzizAnansi, to random
@BlackAzizAnansi@mas.to avatar

I don't really have anything to back this up but I really feel like so many people getting multiple Covid infections have affected the way a lot of people process and react to things.

natematias,
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@elplatt @BlackAzizAnansi here's an article from February in the New England Journal of Medicine that looks at cognition & memory in a large community sample.

Out of ~113 thousand participants, people who recovered from COVID had small deficits in global cognition compared to those without COVID, and larger deficits were correlated with longer recovery times. This included memory, reasoning, and executive function.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2311330

natematias, to random
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"Some questions have earned their place in the landfills of science & society. Questions that toy with genocide, like those that dance around racial or gender inequality, should not be tolerated."

"If the leading voices in the field continue to ask these questions, then no matter the answer, everyone will... continue to wonder, they will continue to follow those lines of thought to terrible, terrible places."

John Slattery on the history of eugenics for America mag

https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2024/05/16/eugenics-legacy-100-years-247908

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

"Nothing exists but social media. No one does anything offline. So the entire measure of someone’s commitment is how much they post about their commitment."

Thank you, Rebecca Solnit.

https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-how-to-comment-on-social-media/

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

Good news — the EPA updated the air quality index on May 6th.

Good news: AQI now includes a wider range of conditions that make people sick.

Complicated news: since AQI is based on health impacts rather than an absolute measure of pollutants, anyone basing research or analysis on AQI should expect the definition of a one unit difference in AQI to change.

Time to update my own monitoring/early warning system

https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-02/pm-naaqs-air-quality-index-fact-sheet.pdf

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

Now that the EPA has updated the AQI calculations, we're going to need to update:

  • Wikipedia
  • Open source air quality code
  • Open resources on air pollution & health

Do you know anyone else working on this? I would love to connect

This is a good thing. I have an workplace accommodation that relies on AQI rather than absolute pollutant levels. As a result, I don't have to re-negotiate my accommodation, and it can now incorporate updated science about the health risks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quality_index#United_States

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

@zalasur does your monitor get automated software updates? And/or is the calculation done in the cloud?

If either of those is true, check with the maker to see if/when the definition will be updated. Otherwise, you may need to apply a software update yourself.

The good news is that the underlying mechanisms for computing particulate counts, etc aren't changed — just the formula for converting them to AQI.

Looks like the python-AQI lib will need updating

https://github.com/hrbonz/python-aqi

natematias, to random
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Deeply honored that @jzong & my research has been cited by the ACM, Association for Computing Machinery as evidence that their new CS Journal on Responsible Computing is an early success. 🎉🎉

As someone who has published with the ACM ever since undergrad, one of my goals is to create more places for ethics & policy within CS. So I was thrilled to see the ACM acknowledge our work is already having that impact— and it was special to be singled out by the journal editors

https://www.acm.org/media-center/2024/april/inaugural-jrc

bwaber, to random
@bwaber@hci.social avatar

🎉 https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/05/07/construction-begins-on-what-is-set-to-become-cambridges-tallest-building/?p1=hp_secondary

natematias,
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@bwaber @andresmh I remember when that ABP was the exciting option! 🙃

natematias, to random
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Saddened to think about how much infrastructure relies on the whims of an unstable leader.

A group of US auto-makers recently agreed to switch their cars to the Tesla Supercharger standard. Now Musk has laid off the entire supercharger team, putting the future of EV charging at risk.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/3/24147402/tesla-supercharger-layoffs-stalled-ev-infrastructure-projects

Fortunately, a new firm supported by auto makers plans significant investments in chargers:

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ionna-ev-charging-joint-venture-nacs-ccs-bmw-honda-gm/707513/

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

Reading Marc Aidinoff's article about the politics of decentralized technology and its grounding in the idea of the yeoman farmer:

"Jeffersonian liberty was explicitly enabled by mass enslavement. Jefferson’s commitment was to an “empire of liberty.” It was to be an empire composed of empires; each decentralized dominion governed by an independent farmer."

https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/153408/Abbate-Dick_Chapter_2_Aidinoff.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

natematias, to random
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I really did have the best PhD advisor. @ethanz just sued Meta today

“On May 1, 2024, the @knightcolumbia filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ethan Zuckerman—a professor of public policy, communication, and information at the University of Massachusetts Amherst—asking the court to recognize that Section 230 protects the development of tools that empower social media users to control what they see online”

https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/zuckerman-v-meta-platforms-inc

Mastodon, to mastodon
@Mastodon@mastodon.social avatar

#Mastodon forms new 501(c)(3) non-profit entity with new board of directors in the United States to facilitate tax-deductible donations and in-kind support:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/04/mastodon-forms-new-u.s.-non-profit/

natematias,
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@ntnsndr @chema @Mastodon

Good to see that Mastodon has a 501(c)(3)! Also,, even if not all the board is elected, there's a lot of value in what Wikimedia and Global Voices do, with at least some board seats open to election from staff and the community.

With regular elections, the board gets to see and hear from the evolving set of hopes, concerns, and constituencies that are of interest to the community every time an election arises.

natematias, to random
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Yet another disheartening example of cooperation between US groups and authoritarians elsewhere, as Guatemalan prosecutors (under US sanctions for undermining the rule of law) collaborate with American politicians & media —— raiding an aid organization that's providing essential services to Guatemalan children

https://apnews.com/article/save-children-guatemala-migration-0ee6f7f801964d9cf151a125bd907ee2

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

The sad part of this story is that Guatemalans have a real mistrust of foreign NGOs that say they are helping children — thanks largely to a decades of Americans paying money to adopt trafficked Guatemalan indigenous children.

Rachel Nolan wrote about this for the Guardian in 2024: "At the height of the adoption boom, one in 100 children born in Guatemala was placed for adoption with a family abroad."

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/04/guatemalas-baby-brokers-how-tens-of-thousands-of-children-were-stolen-for-adoption

eddie1perez, to random
@eddie1perez@mastodon.social avatar

As a former director for civic integrity at Twitter, I’ve been disturbed for some time about what Elon Musk is doing with his private global platform.

Today, I took the step of leaving Twitter, completely.

Why?
Here’s my last tweet:
https://mem.ai/p/e83QTrTPntGEmmZYQUEc

natematias,
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@eddie1perez <3

natematias, to random
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In the middle of a tough day, the neighborhood kids stopped by and asked for help with a stuck bicycle chain. I doubt they realize it did me more good than them <3

natematias, to random
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@josh is dropping some awesome insight on the causes of technical accidents/disasters at this National Academies workshop.

Josh has summarized the issues in this really great video on costs and incentives for advertising, news, and disinformation.

https://vimeo.com/930828854

natematias,
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@cyberlyra @josh @commscholar my sense from reading risk/disaster STS is that scholars aren't very hopeful that the study of accidents/disasters is making anyone safer — it's mostly informing insurance payouts and helping firms take calculated risks. Is that too cynical?

natematias,
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@asociologist @cyberlyra @josh @commscholar I've been thinking about the work of Scott Knowles, in the research that became his book "The Disaster Experts."

One of his arguments is that the science of risk often backfires by emboldening firms & governments to take more risks, rather than to prevent disasters or prompt the imagination of alternative models.

It's one of the concerns that keeps me up at night, as someone working on tech safety/accountability.

https://www.pennpress.org/9780812222463/the-disaster-experts/

natematias,
@natematias@social.coop avatar

@cyberlyra @josh @asociologist @commscholar

Thanks Janet! I note that John Downer has an upcoming project on "Transparency Regulation Toolkits for Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI)" which should be very interesting if he brings this lens to it

https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/projects/transparency-regulation-toolkits-for-responsible-artificial-intel

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