Gunter Dueck

As I upskill my knowledge around educational technologies, #AI #Ethics, and #Data Literacy, I am geeking out about applications of W.E.B. DuBois' sociological frameworks during this AI Revolution. I am reading the book "W.E.B. DuBois Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America" by Whitney Battle-Baptiste I am passionate about #datasets, #dataCollection, and data #governance being modeled via #equitable and #antiracism frameworks within AI. Too often, #racialEquity (as well as #gender, #ability, and #LGBTQ+ equity) is absent within the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of data creation and use in AI and other technologies (Maybe some of you recall that very recently, if you searched on the internet for images for 'welfare queen' or 'ugly women', images of Black women came up. Whatever data that had been collected to 'help' internet searches answer these questions was encoded with antiBlack racism.) However, although this book is not about AI, I think it should be required reading for those in the USA who are engaged in AI and Data collection. Why? AI didn't exist in the year 1900. However, Dr. DuBois , the first Black person to obtain a PhD in Sociology from #Harvard, used data about Black lives during Jim Crow. He and his team dispelled the scientifically #racist myths about Black Americans as  'inferior'. Such violent and destructive narratives permeated supposed objective #sociological data at white dominated universities, upholding the rationale for institutionalized segregation. In 1900 at a world expo event in Paris, DuBois and his research team not only showed data that 'proved' the #humanity of Black Americans and their progress (only 35 years post antebellum #slavery) they did it through a data visualization project with #swag. Charts, graphs, and other visuals of data were colorful and creative, catching the attention of participants in ways data depictions at that time rarely were able to. I’m going to say it again: swag. I am using DuBois' antiracism data collection frameworks as I upskill, consult, and research about AI, Ethics, and Data governance and to rethink about mitigating other inequities within the AI Revolution (such as #ableism , #Racism , #ageism , #sexism #homophobia and #transphobia). 124 years after DuBois’ data portraits installation, I am wondering if anyone else out there, involved in AI and/or data science has or is creating data portraits that visualize Black America, and the AI colorline 25 years into the 21st century. Who else out there is fusing antiracism and other equity issues in their AI development, design, and implementation? Let’s chat if you want to learn about what I’m doing as a consultant, educator, or collaborator: https://lnkd.in/gAyKUtvf P.S. Nearly 20 years after I received the Dean’s Award for my Masters work at Harvard in Educational Technologies for focusing on bias, risk, and equity in cyberspace, it’s super amazing to be existing during this time. 

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Ever have someone attack your post or comments making it personal rather than addressing what you actually posted? This is why they do it. Personal attacks on posts including immature accusations on intellect, particularly when they sidestep engaging with ideas or perspectives, often reveal several underlying dynamics about the individual making such remarks: 1. Insecurity and Defensiveness: Targeting someone’s intellect rather than addressing their ideas can reflect the attacker’s own insecurities. If someone feels threatened or challenged by another’s perspective, they may resort to personal attacks as a way to deflect from their own discomfort or perceived inadequacies. 2. Lack of Argumentative Substance: Resorting to intellectual attacks often signals a lack of substantive counterpoints. When an individual cannot meaningfully engage with an idea, they may default to attacking the person behind it, as a distraction or to undermine credibility without actually addressing the argument itself. 3. Avoidance of Vulnerability: Critiquing ideas requires opening oneself to potential criticism, as engaging in thoughtful dialogue can expose one’s own beliefs and assumptions to scrutiny. Personal attacks allow the attacker to sidestep this vulnerability by shifting the conversation away from ideas. 4. Confirmation Bias and Selective Perception: When someone ignores direct evidence (like social media posts that clarify someone’s actual views), it often points to selective perception—where the person interprets information in a way that fits their preconceptions. This tendency can indicate an unwillingness to see the full context or understand nuanced perspectives. 5. Intent to Control or Manipulate the Narrative: By focusing on personal attacks, individuals may aim to frame the other person in a particular light, hoping others will adopt a similar view without actually investigating the ideas being discussed. This can be a form of social manipulation aimed at controlling how the audience perceives the attacked individual. 6. Projection: Personal attacks on intellect might also be a form of projection, where the attacker attributes their own intellectual insecurities or failures onto others. This behavior often reveals more about the attacker’s self-doubt or unresolved issues than about the person being attacked. In essence, this approach undermines genuine dialogue and reflects more on the attacker’s motivations, insecurities, and limitations than on the person being criticized. It often speaks to an underlying resistance to open-minded engagement and a preference for keeping interactions shallow and controlled rather than complex and authentic. Putting it simply, those who result to such tactics reveal much about themselves exposing a myriad of things about them in ways they are quite unaware of. Thinking themselves clever they prove themselves fools, like a snake exposing up their hidden position when the ground is stomped. Othniel Max Daves

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Reflect: How can the principle of dharma guide ethical AI decision-making? In what ways can Indigenous philosophies contribute to sustainable AI development? Past Echoes, Future Ethics & Timeless Virtues Mindplex.ai https://lnkd.in/dxrbPiTA

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ABSTRACT #Systems_thinking in practice is a #heuristic #framework based upon ideas of boundary critique for guiding the use and development of tools from different traditions in managing complex realities. Three interrelated features of the framework are drawn out–contexts of systemic change, practitioners as change agents, and tools as systems constructs that can themselves change through adaptation. A range of tools associated with the Systems tradition have demonstrable capacity to change and adapt by continual iteration with changing context of use and different practitioners using them. It is in the practice of using such tools whilst being aware of significant ‘traps’ in managing complex realities that enables systems thinking in practice to evolve. #Systems_thinking can inadvertently invite traps of #reductionism within contexts, dogmatism amongst practitioners, and fetishism of our tools as conceptual constructs associated with ultimately undeliverable promises towards achieving holism and pluralism. The #heuristic provides a guiding #framework on monitoring the development of tools from different traditions for improving complex realities and avoiding such traps. Keywords #systems_thinking, #systems_practice, #boundary_critique, #reductionism, #dogmatism, #fetishism. https://lnkd.in/dPru5XP9

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Open science in / and evaluations at AEA. An article on the topic of the replication crisis and its relevance to evaluations, authored by our Benjamin McNamee and our collaborator Patrick Forscher, will be in an upcoming journal issue from New Directions in Evaluation, edited by Dana Lindell (one of the two presenters below). Zach, the other presenter, is working on using AI to do meta-analysis. V cool.

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🚀 How to reduce multitasking and create flow for better productivity! Learn key strategies with Wolfram Müller. 💡 🎧 Tune in: https://lnkd.in/eKPQNRbA #IMPACTEnginebook #PMOStrategies #PMOStrategiesPodcast #PMO #Productivity #Flow #ProjectManagement #Multitasking

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🚀 How to reduce multitasking and create flow for better productivity! Learn key strategies with Wolfram Müller. 💡 🎧 Tune in: https://lnkd.in/eKPQNRbA #IMPACTEnginebook #PMOStrategies #PMOStrategiesPodcast #PMO #Productivity #Flow #ProjectManagement #Multitasking

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Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication well known as the sender-message-receiver model has no use in measuring communication value. Their foundational text, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, focused on channel capacity, noise reduction, and encoding/decoding processes. The model was for improving the efficiency of an electrical signal. Despite this fact, it is used daily for making evaluative decisions assuming that using it provides any information about value. The misinterpretation that has spread has influenced culture and education. We can see daily how data amount in information is promoted as something that matters, not understanding. Repeat, repeat, repeat. More, more, more. But this is flawed. The misunderstanding also supports confusion and complexity being used as synonyms while neither is approached by the model from value perspective. When the number of components is high the communication is seen as complex and when low, it is seen as simple. This is not the case. Information amount does not determine complexity or confusion in communication. Data quantity (bits of information) does not equate to increased communicative complexity, meaningfulness, or lack of confusion. The Shannon-Weaver Model never aimed to assess these qualitative dimensions. In communication theory complexity is the structure and interplay of multiple meanings or cultural references (or in other words the number of states the system can adapt to or take) and confusion as the state of not understanding a message. They are distinct constructs. Cultural and contextual synergy – what can be determined as social and its output objectified knowledge – determines the value of communication no matter the amount of components. Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication does not account for semantic meaning, interpretive depth, cultural context, or the evaluative “value” of messages. Therefore, please stop using it for such encoding or decoding purposes :) #increasingtimesvalue

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Parallax Course: https://lnkd.in/ef6fViZn "What we want to share and talk about together, in this course is, we want to introduce four primary new dimensions. (ONE) Scripts of desire. Reality, life has scripts of desire, but as a very formal idea, not as a psychological idea. Number (TWO) we want to look at imagination. Imagination. What does it mean to imagine? So what is the political role of imagination, the economic role of imagination. (THREE) we want to actually assert something, which is: VALUE IS REAL! Period. And (FOUR) we want to talk about the crucial thread that we've established, between need, desire, value, rights, and responsibilities. " #Parallax #ValueisReal #Eyeofvalue

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DEATH BY HEDONISTIC DIVERSIONS, DENIAL AND DISREALITY: The Evolution Of Bread And Circuses Redux In Digital Entertaining Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman is a critical examination of how television and mass media have transformed public discourse into a form of entertainment, ultimately undermining serious engagement with important issues. Postman begins by tracing the history of communication in America, from the age of print, which he argues encouraged rational and coherent public discourse, to the age of television, which has made information increasingly fragmented and trivialized. He contrasts the logical and reasoned debates of the past with the superficial nature of television, where image and entertainment value have become more important than substance. The central thesis of the book is that television, as a medium, is inherently ill-suited for serious discourse. Postman argues that in order to succeed on television, everything must be turned into entertainment, including news, politics, education, and religion. This transformation has reduced public debate to sound bites and spectacle, where appearances matter more than ideas, and complex issues are oversimplified. Throughout the book, Postman critiques the way television has impacted various areas of life, particularly politics, where candidates are judged on their media personas rather than their policies, and education, where learning is increasingly geared toward keeping students entertained. Ultimately, Entertaining Ourselves to Death is a warning about the dangers of allowing entertainment to dominate public discourse. Postman calls for a return to more thoughtful and rational forms of communication, emphasizing the need to critically assess the effects of media on society. The book remains relevant in today’s digital age, as social media and online content continue to shape how we engage with information and the world around us. As for people so too for the nation and nations. Othniel Max Daves

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🚨 AI Book Club announcement: the chosen book for June 2024 is "Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI" by Urs Gasser & Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger. Selected quotes: "Guardrails for decision variability ought to address such institutional limitations. For instance, instead of mostly emphasizing the acquisition of knowledge in formal education, we could also aim to train our skills to imagine better (or at least additional) decision options. More generally, we could avoid talking about solving problems as if there is only one valid solution - and rather underline that a variety of decision options exist, each with its own pros and cons. (page 78) - "Linking the use of technical tools with social structures and mechanisms necessitates a sharp understanding of what tools can and cannot achieve. It requires a clear definition of the interface between technology and social structures, including resolving questions of agency and control. It also entails a sufficiently defined focus for technical tools to deliver what is expected from them. This means tools must be well understood and evaluated as fit for purpose. And we must equally expect a clarity of design and process from the social structures that make up the system of guardrails, as well as a functioning interface. More challenging but also potentially more useful would be socio-technical setups that are capable of iteration, adaption, and learning - so that the system of guardrails not only helps individual decision-makers to improve but also the system itself to evolve and progress as experience accrues and contexts become clearer." (page 180) - "In considering the role of guardrails, we affirm the importance of individual choice and human volition. Guardrails can guide us, but they ought not and cannot decide for us. This is both a blessing and a curse. The latter because we cannot escape responsibility for the trajectory that humanity takes. And the former because without volition we would not have agency. It's the human condition: to decide as individuals yet be anchored in society. The guardrails we wrote about in this book link one with the other - and good guardrails embrace and deepen this link, while appreciating the limitations of all human decisions and the potential for learning, progress, and evolution this entails." (190) - ➡ The topic of human decision-making and guardrails does not receive a fraction of the attention it should receive in the context of fast-paced AI development and ubiquitous adoption (sometimes imposition). This book is deep, complex, and a breath of fresh air for curious minds who want to help shape the future of technology and policymaking. ➡ Let me know if you have read it, are planning to read it, have thought about the topic, or are working on related issues. 📚 To join the AI Book Club (950+ members), visit the link below. #AI #AIBookClub

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OPERATOR ☯️ HIERARCHY Unified Evolution Complexity The dissertation "The Operator Hierarchy" by Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis introduces a groundbreaking theory that seeks to unify our understanding of the evolution of complexity across physical particles, living organisms, and artificial intelligence. The core concept, the OPERATOR HIERARCHY, is an innovative framework that organizes nature's systems through cyclical SELF-ORGANIZATION patterns, offering novel insights into the definitions of life, death, and future evolutionary steps. At the heart of this theory lies the idea of CLOSURE, particularly STRUCTURAL CLOSURE, which signifies a system's ability to maintain its boundaries and functions autonomously. This closure is pivotal in distinguishing true natural units, such as atoms, molecules, and cells, from mere aggregates. Classical concepts like ARISTOTLE's Scala Naturae and MENDELEEV's periodic table get advanced by incorporating modern scientific discoveries in physics and biology. By linking the emergence of complex systems through a chain of evolutionary steps, the operator hierarchy predicts future operators and suggests a PERIODIC TABLE for these evolutionary transitions. Fitting within the realms of TELEODYNAMICS and computational evolution, the operator hierarchy aligns with Stuart Kauffman's concept of AUTOPOIESIS and the emergent properties of self-organizing systems. Teleodynamics extends the principles of thermodynamics and self-organization to living systems, emphasizing the role of intrinsic purposiveness and goal-directed processes. The operator hierarchy’s focus on self-sustaining closures fits seamlessly within this framework, highlighting how complex systems emerge and sustain themselves through internal dynamics and interactions with their environment. Furthermore, the operator hierarchy resonates with the concept of RULIAD, a computational universe proposed by Stephen Wolfram where all possible computations define the fabric of reality. In this context, the operator hierarchy can be seen as a map of these computational pathways, where each operator represents a specific configuration of matter and energy achieving closure through computational rules. This perspective provides a computational lens to understand the evolutionary steps that lead to increasing complexity, aligning physical, biological, and artificial systems within a single theoretical framework. One of the most significant contributions of the operator hierarchy is its application to BIOFEEDBACK and HEALING for the human nervous system. The theory's focus on hierarchical organization and self-organization can inform more effective biofeedback mechanisms, targeting specific neural circuits and enhancing overall system stability. Gerard’s work embodies the essence of omnology, integrating diverse fields into a cohesive framework that bridges the gap between fundamental particles and complex organisms. This is the way! 〰️ #OperatorTheory #Omnology

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My first digital course on generative AI launches in FIVE DAYS. And this Gartner graphic illustrates why we ALL need structured training for genAI. Notice anything puzzling about this? (Course information- and last chance for a discount- is below. But first, this graph.) What do you see? Notice that 50% are actively assessing. And that’s the ADVANCED organizations. Here’s my question to you - what does that mean, exactly? Like, if we asked people “do you know how to ride a bike” it’s kind of yes or no. Same with do you speak French? Kind of yes or no. Or do you know how to drive a stick shift? But with generative AI? It’s not about tech. It’s not about digital transformation. It’s about change management. So when organizations say they’re ‘actively assessing…” There’s no benchmark. Actively assessing can mean having some meetings. It can mean some super users are turning their 8 hour days into 5 hour days and not telling anyone. It can mean you have an AI task force that meets once a month to talk about use cases. But I believe there’s a better way. A structured way with a strategic framework. And it’s not rocket science. It’s behavioral change. I think I’ve created an epic course, based on my AI Mindset strategic framework. It’s different. It will change the way you do everything. If that sounds helpful, here’s some info about it (with an early bird discount that’s going away soon!) ++++++++++++++++++++ RELEASE DATE:  August 27th! SIGN UP NOW FOR DISCOUNT:  For a limited time, get 15% off using code AIM15. REGISTER HERE: https://lnkd.in/ejdb9Nm9 FORMAT: Self-paced, digital. ++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to my guy Brian Solis for highlighting this graphic!

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