The Avid Reader Show

Episode 701: Gary Smith - Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science


Listen Later

This thought-provoking book argues that, ironically, science's credibility is being undermined by tools created by scientists themselves. Scientific disinformation and damaging conspiracy theories are rife because of the internet that science created, the scientific demand for empirical evidence and statistical significance leads to data torturing and confirmation bias, and data mining is fuelled by the technological advances in Big Data and the development of ever-increasingly powerful computers.

Using a wide range of entertaining examples, this fascinating book examines the impacts of society's growing distrust of science, and ultimately provides constructive suggestions for restoring the credibility of the scientific community.

Gary Smith, Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics, Pomona College Gary Smith is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and was an Assistant Professor there for seven years. He has won two teaching awards and written (or co-authored) more than 100 academic papers and 15 books. He is the author of The AI Delusion (OUP 2018) and co-author with Jay Cordes of The 9 Pitfalls of Data Science (OUP 2019), which won the 2020 Prose Award for Excellence in Popular Science & Popular Mathematics by the Association of American Publishers.

Buy the book from Wellington Square Bookshop - ​
https://wellingtonsquarebooks.indiecommerce.com/book/9780192868459

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Avid Reader ShowBy Samuel Hankin

  • 3.6
  • 3.6
  • 3.6
  • 3.6
  • 3.6

3.6

43 ratings


More shows like The Avid Reader Show

View all
Stuff You Should Know by iHeartPodcasts

Stuff You Should Know

78,266 Listeners

Talk Bookish To Me by Talk Bookish To Me

Talk Bookish To Me

62 Listeners

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing by Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

779 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,043 Listeners

We Can Do Hard Things by Treat Media and Glennon Doyle

We Can Do Hard Things

41,493 Listeners

The Town with Matthew Belloni by The Ringer

The Town with Matthew Belloni

1,086 Listeners

Good Hang with Amy Poehler by The Ringer

Good Hang with Amy Poehler

10,029 Listeners

Welcome to the Party by Treat Media

Welcome to the Party

736 Listeners