Today’s episode is a rebroadcast from October 24, 2016. Patty is joined in the studio by Cathy O’Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction, to talk about big data. O’Neil argues that algorithms perpetuate inequality through their influence on advertising, jobs, education, voting, and democracy at large. Cathy O’Neil is a mathematician who has worked as […]
Cambridge Analytica, Virtual Reality, and Social Media
In this jam-packed edition of the Perpetual Notion Machine, we look into the science of Cambridge Analytica and the likelihood of more data breaches involving social media like Facebook and Twitter. Cambridge Analytica has been in the news lately for their connection in obtaining data and private personal information of over 50 million Facebook users. […]
Big data, surveillance, race… and your credit score
Did you know that your school, arrest record, and race are three of a multitude of personal information gathered in a huge “data bucket” and mashed and spit out as your credit score? Or that this information can determine whether you may be detained at an airport or border? U.W. Professor of Science and Technology […]
Big Data and the Wisconsin Science Festival
In this episode of the Perpetual Notion Machine, PNM reporter Will Cushman previews the Wisconsin Science Festival, which runs Thursday, Nov. 2 to Sunday, Nov. 5 at various venues around the state. Some events include the Robot Zoo, Plasma Physics, the Birds of Wisconsin, the Science of Brewing, and Science Policy, to name but a […]
How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records
Who benefits from our medical records? It’s not patients. Today we return to the topic of big data, specifically personal medical records. Adam Tanner, author of “Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records” Guest: Adam Tanner is writer in residence at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and a […]
