Data Science, Consent, Colonialism—What We Can Learn from the Woods

Tech companies have access to an immense amount of data about each of us. How are we all being affected in a world where no one can be anonymous? Keisha McKenzie and Annanda Barclay talk to data scientist Scott Hendrickson, PhD, about data and consent, ways colonialism shows up in tech development, and more cooperative ethics we can learn from nature.

SHOW NOTES

• For the next episode: tell us about your nostalgic tech memories! Find us at @moralrepairpodcast on instagram, @moralrepair on Twitter/X, or moralrepairpodcast at gmail dot com

• How did Cambridge Analytica use 50M people’s Facebook data in 2016? (Knowledge Wharton)

• California bill makes it easier to delete online personal data (LA Times)

• “Churches target new members, with help from Big Data” (Wall Street Journal)

• In the film Enemy of the State, characters uncover all the ways they’re being tracked—it’s a lot.

• Digital safety for people seeking reproductive care (Digital Defense Fund)

• How redwood trees communicate (New York Times): “The Social Life of Forests” feat. Professor Suzzane Simard

• “Thieves Use Tech Devices to Scan Cars Before Breaking Into Them” NBC Bay Area

• Scott has recommended a few books for our audience:
  
  God Human Animal Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O’Gieblyn

Impromptu: Amplifying our Humanity Through AI by Reid Hoffman

The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in an Age of Neurotechnology by Nita Farahany

• Prof. Alondra Nelson in “The New Norms of Affirmative Consent: Alondra Nelson on the New Yorker Radio Hour”

• Prof. Yvette Abrahams on social ecology ethics in “Thank You for Making Me Strong”