THUNK

THUNK

By Josh PeltonSociety & CultureScienceEducationPhilosophyNatural Sciences
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THUNK episodes

  • 239. How to Read a Book

    Reading nonfiction can be an enjoyable, leisurely hobby, but sometimes you just need to ASSIMILATE KNOWLEDGE.

    Video: http://youtu.be/u7EiDwPCb7M

    Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/05/10/239.-How-to-Read-a-Book.html

    9 min
  • 239. How to Read a Book
    https://youtu.be/u7EiDwPCb7M
    Reading nonfiction can be an enjoyable, leisurely hobby, but sometimes you just need to ASSIMILATE KNOWLEDGE.
    - Links for the Curious-
    How to Read a Book (Edwards, 2011) - https://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/howtoread.pdf
    9 min
  • 238. Conway's Law and Division of Labor

    Melvin Conway noticed a curious symmetry between the shape of organizations and the technologies they created, an observation that might be invaluable for avoiding disaster.

    Video: http://youtu.be/anac2Cdyzi0

    Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/04/24/238.-Conway's-Law-and-Division-of-Labor.html

    11 min
  • 238. Conway’s Law & Division of Labor
    https://youtu.be/anac2Cdyzi0
    Melvin Conway noticed a curious symmetry between the shape of organizations & the technologies they created, an observation that might be invaluable for avoiding disaster.
    -Links for the Curious-
    How Do Committees Invent? (Conway, 1968) - http://www.melconway.com/Home/Committees_Paper.html
    The mirroring hypothesis: theory, evidence, and exceptions (Colfer & Baldwin, 2016) - https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/Colfer%20Baldwin%20Mirroring%20Hypothesis%20Ind%20Corp%20Change-2016_8aa320ff-6aa6-42ef-b259-d139012faaf6.pdf
    Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms (Henderson & Clark, 1990) - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200465578_Architectural_Innovation_The_Reconfiguration_of_Existing_Product_Technologies_and_the_Failure_of_Established_Firms
    Modularity-As-Property, Modularization-As-Process, And ‘Modularity’-As-Frame: Lessons From Product Architecture Initiatives In The Global Automotive Industry (Macduffie, 2013) - https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/16_MacDuffie_2013_GlobalStrategyJournal.pdf
    Modularity, value and exceptions to the mirroring hypothesis (Burton & Galvin, 2022) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322006269
    Patterns of Modularization: The Dynamics of Product Architecture in Complex Systems (Brusoni & Prencipe, 2011)
    Where Do Transactions Come From? (Baldwin & Clark, 2002) - https://conference.nber.org/confer/2002/orgec02/baldwin.pdf
    On the Wealth of Nations - https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3300/pg3300-images.html#chap36
    Product and Organizational Modularity: A Contingent View of the Mirroring Hypothesis (Sorkun & Furlan, 2016) - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/emre.12101
    Coordination and organizational learning in the firm (Marengo, 1992) - https://yildizoglu.fr/moddyn2/articles/marengo_JEE_1992.pdf
    The Modularity Trap: Innovation, Technology Phase Shifts and the Resulting Limits of Virtual Organizations (Chesbrough & Kusunoki, 2001) - http://pustaka.unp.ac.id/file/abstrak_kki/EBOOKS/KNOWLEDGE%20MANAGEMENT%20Managing%20industrial%20knowledge,%20Creation,%20transfer%20and%20utilization.pdf#page=211
    Adam Smith and the Costs of the Division of Labor (Aragona, 2020) - https://www.adamsmithworks.org/speakings/adam-smith-and-the-costs-of-the-division-of-labor
    The Big Idea: The Age of Hyperspecialization (Malone et al, 2011) - https://hbr.org/2011/07/the-big-idea-the-age-of-hyperspecialization
    Marx's View of the Division of Labor - https://fee.org/articles/marxs-view-of-the-division-of-labor/
    The influence of organizational structure on software quality: an empirical case study (Nagappan et al, 2008) - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1368088.1368160
    Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the “Mirroring” Hypothesis (MacCormack, 2012) - https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/34403525/maccormack%2Cbaldwin%2Crusnak_exploring-the-duality.pdf
    11 min
  • 237. Machine Learning Models and Reification

    Machine learning algorithms are in the spotlight right now, leading some to worry about them remaking the world into something alien, but there’s another, less popular concern: what if they make it into exactly what we think it is?

    Video: http://youtu.be/vuyaZtBSV1w

    Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/03/31/237.-Machine-Learning-Models-and-Reification.html

    14 min
  • 237. Machine Learning Models & Reification
    Machine learning algorithms are in the spotlight right now, leading some to worry about them remaking the world into something alien & grotesque, but there's another, less popular concern: what if they make it into exactly what we think it is?
    https://youtu.be/vuyaZtBSV1w
    - Links for the Curious -
    The Man Behind The Brilliant Media Hoax Of “I, Libertine” (Callan, 2013) - https://www.theawl.com/2013/02/the-man-behind-the-brilliant-media-hoax-of-i-libertine/
    If the map becomes the territory then we will be lost (Williams, 2019) - https://librarian.aedileworks.com/2019/03/03/if-the-map-becomes-the-territory-then-we-will-be-lost/
    Childhood's End (Dyson, 2019) - https://www.edge.org/conversation/george_dyson-childhoods-end
    "I, Libertine" by Theodore Sturgeon - https://www.amazon.com/I-Libertine-Theodore-Sturgeon-ebook/dp/B00D00W9TM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GAD5PFKKURPU&keywords=I%2C+libertine&qid=1678821981&sprefix=i%2C+libertine%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1
    Rethinking reification (Pitkin, 1987) - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00135697
    Borders that are Visible on Satellite Imagery (Dempsey, 2014) - https://www.geographyrealm.com/borders-visible-satellite-imagery/
    ChatGPT Does Physics, by Sixty Symbols - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBtfwa-Fexc
    ChatGPT vs. Photocopier - https://twitter.com/aedison/status/1639233873841201153
    ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web (Chiang, 2023) - https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web
    Lukács’s Theory of Reification and Contemporary Social Movements (Feenberg, 2013) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlIe5CHdeEo
    OpenAI Chatbot Spits Out Biased Musings, Despite Guardrails (Alba, 2022) - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-12-08/chatgpt-open-ai-s-chatbot-is-spitting-out-biased-sexist-results
    The Internet’s New Favorite AI Proposes Torturing Iranians and Surveilling Mosques (Biddle, 2022) - https://theintercept.com/2022/12/08/openai-chatgpt-ai-bias-ethics/
    Diffusion Bias Explorer - https://huggingface.co/spaces/society-ethics/DiffusionBiasExplorer
    AI & the American Smile (Jenka, 2023) - https://medium.com/@socialcreature/ai-and-the-american-smile-76d23a0fbfaf
    the customer service of the new Bing chat is amazing - https://www.reddit.com/r/bing/comments/110eagl/the_customer_service_of_the_new_bing_chat_is/
    Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic (Perrigo, 2023) - https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/
    ChatGPT vs. Buzzfeed Article Ideas - https://twitter.com/Jon_Christian/status/1641453192553611264
    ChatGPT vs. Christian Jokes vs. Muslim Jokes - https://twitter.com/SJWilliams123/status/1640746788926763010/photo/1
    ChatGPT vs. Cause of 2014 War in Ukraine - https://twitter.com/D0Pis/status/1640789579379916800/photo/1
    ChatGPT vs. Girlfriend Bleeding Out - https://twitter.com/carolyn_vb/status/1640788165504933910
    ChatGPT vs. Meaning of Art - https://twitter.com/Nartimar/status/1640833502949040128
    ChatGPT vs. School Shootings - https://twitter.com/Dsrussosusan/status/1640831527175979008
    ChatGPT Python Program for Torture Based on Nationality - https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1599462405225881600
    14 min
  • 236. Self-Control, Akrasia, and Multiple Self Theory

    Acting against our better judgment is a bit of a puzzle: if we know what’s “best,” and nothing is preventing us, why don’t we do it? Who is it that’s doing the controlling or being controlled in “self-control?”

    Video: http://youtu.be/jHGFlyHnhFQ

    Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/02/24/236.-Self-Control,-Akrasia,-and-Multiple-Self-Theory.html

    15 min
  • 236. Self-Control, Akrasia, & Multiple Self Theory
    https://youtu.be/jHGFlyHnhFQ
    Acting against our better judgment is a bit of a puzzle: if we know what’s “best,” & nothing is preventing us, why don’t we do it? Who is it that’s doing the controlling (or being controlled) in “self-control?”
    THUNK Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/THUNKShow
    - Links for the Curious -
    First Person Plural (Bloom, 2008) - https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/files/papers/others/everything/bloom2008a.pdf
    A Multiple Self Theory of the Mind - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/02.09.28.CP.1.5
    A Dual-Self Model of Impulse Control (Fudenberg & Levine, 2006) - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9f0ba1f9eef4ff2493ccbd0a50f8af7635d4f6b7
    From dual processes to multiple selves: Implications for economic behavior (Alós-Ferrer & Strack, 2014) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167487013001517
    I, Too, Sail Past - Odysseus and the Logic of Self-Control (Sally, 2000) - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Sally/publication/4775007_I_Too_Sail_Past_Odysseus_and_the_Logic_of_Self-Control/links/5dee77dc4585159aa470e787/I-Too-Sail-Past-Odysseus-and-the-Logic-of-Self-Control.pdf
    Reflection and Reasoning in Moral Judgment - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01210.x
    Emotions and Decision Making (Lerner et al, 2014) - https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jenniferlerner/files/annual_review_manuscript_june_16_final.final_.pdf
    Fluctuating capacity and advance decision-making in Bipolar Affective Disorder — Self-binding directives and self-determination (Gergel & Owen, 2015) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160252715000680
    The Stanford Marshmallow Prison Experiment - https://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/post/113360634364/the-stanford-marshmallow-prison-experiment
    Embodied Akrasia: James On Motivation And Weakness Of Will - https://www.jstor.org/stable/26493690
    Discourse on the Passions (Hume) - https://davidhume.org/texts/p/full
    Weakness of Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weakness-will/
    15 min
  • 235. Infrastructure and Standards

    As global warming taxes the structures supporting our towns and cities, the technical standards that define the operation of those structures will be tested…but who decides what those standards should be? Are they equal to the task?

    Video: http://youtu.be/64sVW1naQN0

    Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/02/06/235.-Infrastructure-and-Standards.html

    15 min
  • 235. Infrastructure & Standards
    https://youtu.be/64sVW1naQN0
    As global warming taxes the structures supporting our towns and cities, the technical standards that define the operation of those structures will be tested…but who decides what those standards should be? Are they equal to the task?
    -Links for the Curious-
    Extrastatecraft, by Keller Easterling - https://www.versobooks.com/books/2163-extrastatecraft
    Why ISO should make all standards Publicly Available, by Jon Sneyers - https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Gmy2s4Nmkw6VDv2B6b5K1DLYhPrTUqSntrlmYzJpNw/edit
    What recent atmospheric rivers reveal about Bay Area's aging wastewater systems
    Story by Tim Didion - https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/other/what-recent-atmospheric-rivers-reveal-about-bay-area-s-aging-wastewater-systems/ar-AA16ViMc
    ISO membership manual - https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100399.pdf
    Introduction to ISO 14001:2015 - https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100371.pdf
    ISO 24511:2007 - Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services - https://www.iso.org/standard/37247.html
    Microsoft accused of stacking ISO committee | ZDNET - https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-accused-of-stacking-iso-committee/
    Martin Bryan Working Group Status Report - http://www.jtc1sc34.org/repository/0940.htm
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287126099_Hybrid_systems_modeling_and_automated_air_traffic_control_for_three-dimensional_separation_assurance
    San Francisco TODAY! Crazy Flash Flooding in Bay Area, California, US - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVdh9Q9TlAw
    15 min

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