1/ I use and respect statistical and agent-based models. I'm a computational social scientist. But, associated with my respect for those methods is the appreciation of the limitations. Modeling people -- especially groups of people -- is **very** challenging.
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7/ In the end, even a well-designed model gets used to bludgeon a (usually untested) counter-argument -- rhetorical ammunition with the pretense of mathematically exacting objectivity. Which is to say, their merit is evaluated and propagated subjectively. That's pretty weird.
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8/ I keep tweeting threads in this vein because it bothers me more and more as time goes on. I wrote about this a while back in this link below. And, I'd really like to work on this in the future.https://dispatches.artifexdeus.com/what-is-your-political-loss-function-a32749c5c37f …
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9/ But, I wonder if social science research would benefit from a loss function statement with abstract-level prominence. And, a statement of invalid contexts w.r.t applications.
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10/ With increased access to scientific literature, I think researchers need to appreciate and anticipate the potential misuse of their models.
#scicomm shouldn't be seen as a particular type of job. But, as a role with varying degrees of commitment.Show this thread
End of conversation
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