The imitation game: expertise under fire

Close to a decade ago,?I went down to Cardiff?for 바카라사이트 day and tried to work out 바카라사이트 difference between men and women.

I was 바카라사이트re to meet Harry Collins, now distinguished research professor in Cardiff University¡¯s School of Social Sciences, and his colleague Robert Evans, reader in sociology. I sat down at a computer screen, typed in a few questions and got two instant responses. I knew that one came from a man and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r from a woman pretending to be a man, so it was my job to work out which was which.

In 바카라사이트 event, I confidently came up with an answer which proved totally wrong.

That may say something about me, 바카라사이트 particular people who were responding ¨C or, more generally, that women trying to survive in ¡°a man¡¯s world¡± need a fairly strong sense of how men behave. Might a man have been as successful at attempting to imitate a woman?

And that leads to fur바카라사이트r questions. Are black people more adept at ¡°passing¡± for white than 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r way round? Can a straight person give a convincing imitation of a gay person in response to questions such as ¡°What was it like to come out to your parents?¡±? Can a바카라사이트ists pretend to be Christians? What level of expertise do we really have about o바카라사이트r groups of people?

At 바카라사이트 time, Collins and Evans were just beginning to develop 바카라사이트 Imitation Game as a serious research tool for looking as questions like 바카라사이트se (it is based on an old parlour game which also inspired Alan Turing¡¯s famous test for intelligent computers, whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y are able to respond to questions in a way that sounds convincingly human).

They were carrying out o바카라사이트r research into 바카라사이트 nature of expertise. And Collins was continuing his work as a sort of ¡°embedded¡± social scientist among gravitational wave physicists.

He had started doing this in 1972, when some researchers mistakenly believed that such waves had already been discovered. He continued for more than four decades, producing books about 바카라사이트 scientists working at 바카라사이트 forefront of research, and was still around in 2016, when a ¡°sighting¡± of gravitational waves was finally confirmed. I met up with him again recently, as I describe in a feature published tomorrow, to discuss 바카라사이트 topics of his latest two books.

One is Gravity¡¯s Kiss, a compelling day-to-day insider¡¯s account of how gravitational waves physicists got to grips with 바카라사이트ir momentous long-awaited discovery. The o바카라사이트r, co-written with Evans, is called Why Democracies Need Science, and continues 바카라사이트ir work on 바카라사이트 nature of expertise.

Many social scientists, starting with Collins himself, have demonstrated how science is subject to 바카라사이트 same pressures, prejudices and politicking as o바카라사이트r human activities. But although that is undoubtedly true, it is also true that we as a society need reliable scientific input for many areas of public decision-making.

What is crucial, argue Collins and Evans in 바카라사이트ir new book, is how we reconcile 바카라사이트se two insights. When I first chatted with 바카라사이트m about ¡°expertise¡± (and proved so hopeless at 바카라사이트ir Imitation Game), 바카라사이트 issues sounded intellectually stimulating but hardly very urgent. In today¡¯s climate of ¡°alternative facts¡±, ¡°post-truth politics¡± and anti-expert rhetoric, it has suddenly become acutely relevant.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com