Bomb Parts: What is a Model?

Reading

You can access the full PDF of this book here: link to full PDF

You can access just Chapter 1 of the book here: link to Chapter 1

Discussion Questions

  1. What is the significance of the title Weapons of Math Destruction?

  2. According to O’Neil, is every mathematical model a Weapon of Math Destruction? Why or why not?

  3. O’Neil characterizes some algorithms as “Weapons of Math Destruction.” Who is most vulnerable to being harmed by their use?

  4. Have you had experiences with algorithms that O’Neil’s account illuminates?

The proliferation of WMDs seems to stem from our innate attraction to numeric rankings. Often, an “anti” WMD would require significant investment of time, money, and human capital to evaluate whatever metric (teacher performance, expected criminal recidivism, credit history etc.) is currently being assessed by a WMD.

  1. Is there a scale on which we believe we can replace the efficiency of WMDs with the more expensive alternative? Are algorithms our only answer to tackling big data?

  2. Should there be a Bill of Rights around data? What would it entail and who would it be for?

  3. What is (or what could be) the role of data scientists in data justice?

Project Application

In your Final Project you are expected to have a “Model Ethics” section where you address the following questions:

  • How could your model detrimentally impact people?
  • How will you ensure this will not happen?