Ethics of Quantification - podcast with Prof. Ted Porter
PhD candidate Thor Olav Iversen talked to the acknowledged Professor Theodore Porter about the history of numbers in science and society, governing by privatized algorithm and many other things.
Main content
The interview is published in cooperation with the podcast Radio Røyst. Listen to the podcast here:
About Prof. Ted Porter
Theodore Porter is a Distinguished Professor of History & Vice Chair for Academic Personnel at UCLA History. Most of his work has involved in some way the uses of statistics, calculation, numbers, measures, and data. He has a life long interest in diverse sites of knowledge-making--not just universities and academics, but mining boards, statistical agencies (notably census offices), engineering corps, and mental hospitals. Porter is a well reknown lecturer and speaker.
Chosen publications: Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity (2018), Princeton, NJ, US: Princeton University Press. “Thin Description: Surface and Depth in Science and Science Studies,” Robert Kohler and Kathryn Olesko, eds., Clio Meets Science: The Challenge of History, Osiris, 27 (2012), 209-226.“Funny Numbers,” Culture Unbound (online journal), 4 (2012), 585-598.“Reforming Vision: The Engineer Le Play Learns to Observe Society Sagely,” in Lorraine Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck, eds., Histories of Scientific Observation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 281-302“How Science Became Technical,” Isis, 100 (2009), 292-309.
SVT symposium
The theme of the SVT symposium 2019 is Ethics of Quantification. Prof. Ted Porter is one of the keynote speakers.
