Subject: CASTAC - Computing Culture (Eglash) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 00:32:00 -0500 From: Joseph Dumit Reply-To: "Comm of Anthropology of Sci, Tech, and Computers" To: CASTAC-L@mitvma.mit.edu The following response was sent by Ron Eglash. As he writes, he was responsible for raising the issue of the relationship between CASTAC and the Computational Anthro folks and he has asked for a response. It is included below. As this CASTAC list is not for discussion, all further comments should be directed to the three involved: Ron Eglash David Hakken Nick Gessler Any messages that are sent to me will be forwarded to them. -JD ------------------------- Ron Eglash writes: >David Hakken replied: > >Dear Nick > > Thanks for the invite. I will not be joining your section. My > interest lie in the anthropology of computing (the culture of > cyberspace, or the relationship between use of Advanced Information > Technology and social change), not in computing in anthropology, > clearly the focus of your organization. > >Nick Gessler replies: > > >Dear David, > >> Thank you for your thoughtful note. I agree with you that our >> groups interests are distinct, though complementary, and that >> the difference may be confusing to many. Ron Eglash replies: Since I am responsible for promoting the confusion, let me explain what I had in mind. One can indeed see CASTAC as simply expanding anthropological investigation into yet another social group, that of scientific and technological communities. From that point of view, as Nick Gessler puts it, "the goals of CASTAC do not require as great a consideration of the kind of epistemological shift in the way science is done as is implied by computation." However, I think this characterization seriously undermines the purpose of CASTAC. For most of us, the goal is *not* simply investigating a social group that has been previously overlooked. Rather, the ultimate goals are 1)To investigate the tremendous, historically unprecidented power that science and technology (though not necessarily scientists and technologists) wield in transforming both local and global societies and individual identities. 2) To encourage a more reflexive approach to science and technology, creating opportunities through which human wisdom can help guide human knowledge. To this extent, CASTAC members have often attempted to critique the epistemological apartheid that would divide "purely technical concerns" from "social concerns." We are occasionally successful in doing so. For example, Gary Lee Downey, Juan Lucena, and John Schumaker have managed to create new courses in the engineering curricula that will allow students to see how deeply cultural even the most "objective" equations and material properties can be. One could go on to cite activities towards interventions in biology and medicine by Sarah Franklin, Deborah Heath, and Joe Dumit, in math and science education by myself and Matthew Weinstein, in nuclear engineering by Constance Perrin, etc. If we are to object to an engineer or scientist who claims to have isolated a purely technical domain in which there is no cultural dimension, how can we accept David Hakken and Nick Gessler's Iron Curtain Accord for anthropology? There is, moreover, no reason to see this interest in combining the two domains as purely that of CASTAC. The Santa Fe Institute defines its goals as follows: "The aim of the Institute's exploration of these phenomena is to help define new research directions within the scientific community at large and to shed light on problems that challenge our global society. " I agree with Nick Gessler that the computational approach is an astonishing epistemological change; indeed it is for that reason that evolutionary computation pioneers such as Chris Langton, Murray Gell-Mann, and George Cowan have been committed to a "Global Sustainability" program. Recognizing one's power means recognizing one's responsibility. Let's not take the easy way out and allow our social committments to decay into empty rhetoric. Sincerely, Dr. Ron Eglash eglash.1@osu.edu Senior Lecturer www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/comp/eglash.htm Comparative Studies work phone: 614-292-2559 308 Dulles Hall fax: 614-292-6707 230 West 17th Ave. Ohio State University Columbus OH 43210-1311 Remember: send any further discussion to: Ron Eglash David Hakken Nick Gessler