{"id":2577,"date":"2008-10-22T15:55:02","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T19:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/?p=2577"},"modified":"2017-08-18T18:06:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T18:06:20","slug":"books-for-the-episteme-of-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2008\/10\/22\/books-for-the-episteme-of-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Books for the \u00c9pist\u00e9m\u00e8 of Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Practicalities\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What do you read when reality turns itself on its head? The financial seers in the form of the genius ex-mathematics and high-energy physics Ph.D.s \u2014 the “Quants” as they’re known on The Street \u2014 failed at their assigned task of turning the many-body problem and squirrely statistics into a clear course into the up-and-to-the-right linear, inevitable accumulation of wealth future. So, now what?<\/p>\n

Back to basics. How has “reality” \u2014 the way the world works \u2014 been measured historically? Where did all this reliance on numbers (instead of cat entrails, tea leaves, a healthy dose of psilocybian or a good-old crystal ball) come from and why do we believe it works? For that, I’ll be turning to “The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600”<\/a> by Alfred W. Crosby. I was actually suggested this book during Manuel Lima’s presentation at SHiFT 2008<\/a>, where he discussed Visual Complexity \u2014 the site and the motivations behind data visualization. (More about this in a future post.)<\/p>\n

Why an historical treatment of quantification? Because I need to know more about this shift from qualitative ways of knowing the world. Quantification, perhaps more than most other ways of knowing, undergirds so much of the various assemblages and apparatuses \u2014 business, bureaucracy, technoscience, etc \u2014 that shape the worlds around us. Knowing its legacy throughout time can’t hurt, especially when thinking about small, subtle new ways of making the world.<\/p>\n

And just to continue this general theme of “back to basics”, I thought it couldn’t hurt to have a copy of “The American Practical Navigator”<\/a> by Nathaniel Bowditch tucked away in my emergency “go bag” (along with running shoes, a few power bars, keys to the rendezvous beach house south of LA, two liters of water, and a couple grand in cash.) Way finding, like reality, needs a good re-think.<\/p>\n

If it wasn’t more gratuitous than pragmatic, I’d add Zizek’s “The Sublime Object of Ideology”<\/a> so long as we’re trying to figure out why we do what we do, even if we know it’s the stupidest thing in the world.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you read when reality turns itself on its head? The financial seers in the form of the genius ex-mathematics and high-energy physics Ph.D.s \u2014 the “Quants” as they’re known on The Street \u2014 failed at their assigned task of turning the many-body problem and squirrely statistics into a clear course into the up-and-to-the-right … Continue reading Books for the \u00c9pist\u00e9m\u00e8 of Fail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,56,121,153,176,186],"tags":[584,767,893,905],"yoast_head":"\nBooks for the \u00c9pist\u00e9m\u00e8 of Fail - Near Future Laboratory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2008\/10\/22\/books-for-the-episteme-of-fail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Books for the \u00c9pist\u00e9m\u00e8 of Fail - Near Future Laboratory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What do you read when reality turns itself on its head? The financial seers in the form of the genius ex-mathematics and high-energy physics Ph.D.s \u2014 the “Quants” as they’re known on The Street \u2014 failed at their assigned task of turning the many-body problem and squirrely statistics into a clear course into the up-and-to-the-right … Continue reading Books for the \u00c9pist\u00e9m\u00e8 of Fail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2008\/10\/22\/books-for-the-episteme-of-fail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Near Future Laboratory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-22T19:55:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-18T18:06:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3208\/2964355467_d34bdb3941.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@nearfuturelab\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nearfuturelab\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Near Future Laboratory\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nearfuturelaboratory\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/near-future-laboratory\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nearfuturelab\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/NearFutureLaboratoryLogo-CS4.jpg\",\"width\":1049,\"height\":206,\"caption\":\"Near Future Laboratory\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/\",\"name\":\"Near Future Laboratory\",\"description\":\"Clarify Today, Design Tomorrow\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2008\/10\/22\/books-for-the-episteme-of-fail\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3208\/2964355467_d34bdb3941.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2008\/10\/22\/books-for-the-episteme-of-fail\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2008\/10\/22\/books-for-the-episteme-of-fail\/\",\"name\":\"Books for the \\u00c9pist\\u00e9m\\u00e8 of Fail - 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