The NWO Synergy annual conferences are a great way for researchers, policy makers, managers and other professionals working in the social sciences and humanities in The Netherlands to meet each other. The theme for 2020 is the impact we have on Changing Societies.
A fantastic example of creating impact with humanities research is the work of my colleague Mariken Teeuwen and her team at the Huygens Institute for the History of The Netherlands. They study medieval manuscripts. The idea of scholars spending days in ancient dusty libraries glossing over old tomes has a certain romantic notion, but most of the work they do is firmly based on computational methods. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog on the ICT with Industry workshop. Most of that work is directly based on her analysis of medieval handwriting. Beyond the impact of the digital methods that Teeuwen uses, society also benefits from the knowledge gained from these centuries old books. Together with Irene van Renswoude the team studies how (self) censorship works, how later scribes removed or commented on uncomfortable texts, and the way their remarks affected people afterwards. The impact of the Art of Reasoning-project on our digitised society is evident. We still struggle with the revisioning of news, (self) censorship, information verification, and internet governance. The Art of Reasoning is relevant to dealing with each of these big challenges on the web.
The NWO Synergy 2020 conference is a parade of social scientists and humanities scholars like Teeuwen and van Renswoude, demonstrating the impact their work has on our changing society. In the opening panel Rutger Hoekstra, economist and author of the book ‘Replacing GDP by 2030’ explained his studies on the history of national power infrastructures and how they influence measuring GDP. And this is important: most of our national and international policies are based on that magical GDP-figure, it affects everything from political decisions on austerity to ecological measures.
The keynote by Andy Miah offered a walkthrough through the different approaches and methods for new knowledge creation. We are all creating knowledge all the time: we build websites and produce content for digital platforms. Soon computers will join us in creation – news agencies are e.g. already publishing automatically generated headlines. Miah claims that the division between knowledge systems and their utilisation within the public domain requires a radical overhaul. Writing a paper, going through a publishing company, and consuming pdf’s is outdated and basically a continuation of things we did a century ago.
I agree with his claim but I think the radical overhaul we need goes much deeper than that. Miah shows only the beginning. Over the next decade new digital technology like AI, implants, smart augmented reality, robotics, a gazillion sensors around us, and stuff we have not ever thought of yet, will disrupt everything: work, pleasure, health, research, warfare. Not only us, but everything around us will start to generate data, information and knowledge. And this is where the humanities and social sciences should not only look to have an impact, it is absolutely crucial that they do.
Society will adept to the changing conditions. The question is how. Living with robots and AI demands from us to think how and what we will teach our technology. In The Netherlands we are perfectly happy with a computer system deciding whether or not to close the Maeslantkering – the storm surge barrier protecting the port of Rotterdam and the millions of people living in Holland. We are also fine with your watch warning you of an oncoming heart attack. And with automation platforms that constantly monitor and listen to what is happening in the privacy of your home? Or a computer deciding whether or not you are going to get the job you applied for? And a weapon platform that decides independently to shoot and kill perceived human threats? These are simply a couple of examples that come immediately to mind. We will face endless other comparable questions.
We grow closer and more dependent on our technology. In our changing society it is essential that we do not forget to explain and train our machines that they are dealing with humans in all their diversity. The biggest impact social scientists and humanities scholars can have on our changing society is the support for the computational sciences to create human AI.