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Reposted by Shreeharsh Kelkar

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Aug 30

Good to see the New York Times has a lengthy obituary for Margaret Rossiter

Margaret W. Rossiter, 81, Dies; Wrote Women Scientists Into History

www.nytimes.com

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 27

This is an incredible deep dive into data centers and their water consumption. Lots of links that you can look into (though I didn't). The conclusion seems to be that data centers have to be treated like any other industrial center.

andymasley.substack.com/p/i-cant-fin...

Data centers don't raise household water bills at all, anywhere

A lot of journalism on AI's water impacts is misleading

andymasley.substack.com

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 22

I'm not sure that negates anything about the actual argument she makes in her piece. If anything, it shows even more why she's right about the importance of persuasion.

Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 22

Sentence of the day! "If I've learned one bitter lesson about this stuff over the years, it's that the best productivity hack in the world is simply liking your job."

Great post by @caseynewton.bsky.social with some new tools I hadn't heard of: www.platformer.news/productivity...

What I learned about productivity this year

What I gave up, what I kept, and what's new. PLUS: How I'm using AI

www.platformer.news

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

Of interest to my fellow BlueSky STS people: @castac.bsky.social @asaskat.bsky.social @labortechresearchnetwork.org @cstms.bsky.social And @asociologist.bsky.social @shobitap.org @lmesseri.bsky.social

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

My recommendation is that policy advocates should make a case for their policies by emphasizing value-tradeoffs. This is a much more honest way of making their case that also ensures that it does not get delegitimized down the line. It is more, dare I say it, … democratic.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

(2) plenty of policy frameworks can be expert-driven but still “democratic,” such Community Notes on Twitter designed entirely by programmers but still much beloved for its underlying values. Or the NHS's NICE committee that @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social wrote about here. www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21...

In the UK’s health system, rationing isn’t a dirty word

The UK has one of the most equitable health care systems in the world. Here’s how.

www.vox.com

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

In this new post, I argue that (1) democracy is not about the public versus the experts; rather, it’s a shared culture of remaining open to different voices and causes (but without any guarantees that any cause will win out)

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

Rather, we have experts and regular people on ALL sides of an issue.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

Advocates for policies and policy frameworks will often argue that their proposal is more “democratic” while the one they oppose is “technocratic.” But conflicts in many industrial societies today are NOT between publics on one side and experts on the other.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 19

New post on my Substack about why the dichotomy between "democracy" and "technocracy" is a false one that is premised on a definition of "democracy" as public input as opposed to expert input. computingandsociety.substack.com/p/democracy-.... Thread below.

"Democracy" is not the opposite of "technocracy"

Consulting regular people as opposed to experts does not make something more "democratic." Democracy is an ethos. Advocates should justify policy preferences by describing the value tradeoffs.

computingandsociety.substack.com

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 12

I forgot to thank you and Con for being such good stewards and editors! So, thank you to you both!

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 12

Very happy that "Just Code" is now published. It was a great journey from conference to book. I'm very happy to be among the company of all the writers in the anthology.

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Aug 12

Copies of JUST CODE just arrived! Partnering w Con & teaming w 19 brilliant STS authors on the vital topic of code/codes & inequality was so special! Authors (full list ToC below) On bsky: @mysdick.bsky.social @histoftech.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social & blurb from @anitachan.bsky.social #histtech

Open box of books with two out showing front and back covers propped up on the balcony railing of my Minneapolis condo. Trees and sunshine are in the background. The book's full title is JUST CODE: Power, Inequality, & the Global Political Economy of IT, and it is in bold black lettering with pastel fading trails of the letters.

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Reposted by Shreeharsh Kelkar

Luísa Reis Castro @anthrobite.bsky.social · Aug 6

🦟 Can the Mosquito Bite? 🦟
The Multispecies Transmutation of Wolbachia Mosquitoes as Biotechnologies of Epidemic Control in Rio de Janeiro

How does the use of a bacterium in vector control reconfigure biopolitical relations?

New article at @estsjournal.bsky.social! #STSsky #AnthroSky

Print Screen:

Can the Mosquito Bite? The Multispecies Transmutation of Wolbachia Mosquitoes as Biotechnologies of Epidemic Control in Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACT
A bite from the Aedes aegypti mosquito can transmit pathogenic viruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. While public health campaigns have historically focused on eliminating this vector species, a project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, proposes to release A. aegypti carrying the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia. This microbe, passed from female A. aegypti to their progeny, would hinder viral transmission, making the bite less of a threat and promoting a more convivial coexistence. In releasing Wolbachia mosquitoes, project proponents presented their strategy as a solution for disease control that harnessed “nature,” instead of working against it. By juxtaposing historical accounts and ethnographic research in Rio with descriptions of biological processes, this article investigates how the microbe-mosquito dyad was turned into a biotechnology of epidemic control. Proponents of the Wolbachia project hoped that a change within multispecies relations—the novel human-bacterium-mosquito relationship—would change other multispecies relations—the historically constituted human-virus-mosquito relationships in Rio and beyond. This shift, which I term “multispecies transmutation,” highlights how relational alterations in both biologies and socialities created a new life-form (“Wolbachia mosquitoes”) and a new form of life (of multispecies coexistence). By tracing the more-than-human biopolitical arrangements put forward by the project, this article explores the recalibration of technoscientific solutions to global environmental health concerns. Multispecies transmutation offers a new framework for understanding the management of multispecies relations, showing how techniques of governance can target not individuals or populations per se, but rather interspecies connections.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 4

Would be curious to see other people's thoughts!

Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 4

But calling everything "power" just confuses all the distinctions we should be making between institutions and different organizing machineries.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 4

What is his contribution? It's that the essence of modernity is that science and scientific experts create what one might call the “organizing machinery” or dispositifs of daily life.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Aug 4

The problem with Michel Foucault's work: I wrote a post on my favorite philosopher explaining why his habit of calling his contribution as "power" makes the term "power" essentially meaningless. computingandsociety.substack.com/p/what-was-m...

What was Michel Foucault guilty of? He neutered the word "power" of any analytical heft whatsoever.

How to do a Foucaldian analysis: replace "power" with a technical term like "dispositif." Also, you must actually suggest an alternative organizing machinery to replace the dispositif you find unjust.

computingandsociety.substack.com

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Jul 31

E.g. I wrote a whole piece on *why* we have post-truth and most of its citations just say "we live in a post-truth age (five articles with the word post-truth in title including mine)." It may be the pressure of just having to cite something; it could also be that we produce too many papers.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Jul 31

I feel this is true of most citations; they may not be this egregious but most tend to be broad references to a topic rather than actually engaging with specific arguments of the papers.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Jul 31

I tried it once. I think it worked overall but I didn't do it again even though I love having everyone share one physical text. One thing I would change if I did it again would be to keep the number of pages on the lower side so that it's not too thick (and this also reduces its cost for students).

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Jun 25

Thanks to @markfabian.bsky.social for interviewing me. It was really fun to talk about my research. In the interview, I expand on what happened to MOOCs, how they became domesticated in that the wild hopes associated with them (access, big data!) abated but some concrete gains remained.

Mark Fabian @markfabian.bsky.social · Jun 23

New episode of ePODstemology!

@shreeharsh.bsky.social from Berkeley is on to discuss EdTech like MOOCs (remember those?), how it has evolved, and what effect it might have on the university of the future!

www.buzzsprout.com/1763534/epis...

Will EdTech change the university? - ePODstemology

Dr Shreeharsh Kelkar from UC Berkeley on to discuss massive online open courses or “MOOCs” and other varieties of education technology. Are they destined to displace the traditional university, or are...

www.buzzsprout.com

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Reposted by Shreeharsh Kelkar

Mark Fabian @markfabian.bsky.social · Jun 23

New episode of ePODstemology!

@shreeharsh.bsky.social from Berkeley is on to discuss EdTech like MOOCs (remember those?), how it has evolved, and what effect it might have on the university of the future!

www.buzzsprout.com/1763534/epis...

Will EdTech change the university? - ePODstemology

Dr Shreeharsh Kelkar from UC Berkeley on to discuss massive online open courses or “MOOCs” and other varieties of education technology. Are they destined to displace the traditional university, or are...

www.buzzsprout.com

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Jun 10

But hopefully, this also means in the long run the importance of courts will decline and policy negotiations will be resolved through political channels rather than by suing each other.

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Shreeharsh Kelkar @shreeharsh.bsky.social · Jun 10

That's a great point! I think the US is unusual among developed countries in the deference given to the courts and how much of a role courts play in adversarial policy negotiations so of course, strangely enough, here they are now as well.

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