How Technology Shapes Society
And why computer science needs help from the humanities
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Originally posted on Medium
About nine months ago, I applied for the GRFP — a PhD fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In the application, I proposed to research how computer scientists encode ethics and values into machine learning algorithms, and how ML designers can better understand the societal implications of their design choices.
For example, if an ML engineer designs a decision-making system to be more fair, what definition of fairness are they using? What evaluation metrics are they choosing to optimize for? And what are the societal consequences of choosing one metric or definition over another?
I proposed to research the potential harm of algorithmically-embedded social issues like value tradeoffs and what to do in the event of a value conflict when designing an ML system.
My application was rejected.
Yesterday, I received comments from the three academics who reviewed my proposal. All of their feedback was positive; with the exception of one sentence:
“This appears to be more of a social study than a CS project.” — Reviewer #2
When I read this comment I immediately questioned if it would have been better to apply for this grant in a humanities field instead of CS; which I soon realized was symbolic of one of the historically fundamental flaws of the field of computing — the assumption that social science and computer science are separate.
As I read and reread the reviewer’s comments, I began to think about the implications of their words. Several questions crossed my mind:
What is the relationship between social science and computer science?
What roles should computer science play in society?
What might happen if we continue to view social science and computer science as separate?
While exploring these questions I began to dive into what the purpose of technology really is. As the tale of technology began to unfold, it was met with a greater understanding of the roles that technology plays in my life, and my role as a computer scientist towards shaping society.
1. What is the relationship between social science and computer science?
Technology has become embedded in society. From algorithmic decision-making to quarantine-induced zoom calls, we are incorporating technology into our lives more than ever before.
Our society is currently functioning through an online world. Relationships are tethered together by fluctuating bandwidth. Communities are connected through 0s and 1s that have formed the foundation and roots of our future.
So, what is the relationship between social science and computer science?
“Technologies are not merely aids to human activity, but also powerful forces acting to reshape that activity and its meaning.” — Langdon Winner
For hundreds of thousands of years, humans have utilized technology to rise to the top of the food chain. When a problem was found (e.g., we need our food to last longer) — a technological solution was formed (e.g., Fire!).
Of course, as these technological tools became more heavily introduced in society, they began to change it and reshape it in unexpected ways (e.g., the use of fire as an agricultural tool played a big role in the agricultural revolution).
Now fast forward to the 21st century, where we have employed a new form of tech — computing technology — to help solve problems in society, including:
The internet: helping us gain access to more information.
The smartphone: allowing us to give our lives greater mobility.
Social media: connecting the world in a way that was never possible before.
As the internet, smartphones, and social media have been introduced into our lives as solutions to problems — they have permanently changed the discourse of society.
The story goes like this:
Societal problem → Technological Solution → Massive societal change
Our global community is currently held together by computing technology. The internet, smart phones, and social media are few of many new technologies that have radically transformed the cultural landscape.
Social science is the branch of science devoted to the study of human societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies.
So, what is the relationship between computer science and social science? I find it hard to imagine a world where these two disciplines aren’t intrinsically connected. Technology was created as a means to modify the world around us to fit the current needs for society. As computing technology continues to progress into domains like machine learning and artificial intelligence, the potential for societal transformation is literally unimaginable.
2. What roles should computer science play in society?
Ironically, yesterday afternoon I was scheduled to give a 75 minute lecture in one of my graduate courses about the role that computing technologies should play in fixing societal issues. My class, Human-Centered Machine Learning, is comprised of a majority Computer Science PhD students.
I facilitated a discussion based off of the paper Roles for Computing in Social Change. I asked the graduate students if they thought that computing technology was responsible for helping fix society. They had some interesting insights:
One student mentioned that technology itself is not responsible for positive societal change, but that humans are. He explained that since humans are responsible for creating technology, they should always create it with the intention of promoting societal welfare.
Another student questioned if technology should play a role in solving societal issues. He stated that while he thinks technology shouldn’t perpetuate societal issues like discrimination and injustice, it isn’t responsible for solving those underlying issues themselves.
As explained in the paper that fueled our conversation, we agreed that computing technology likely shouldn’t try to solve societal issues. Rather, it should see itself as a part of the whole. Just as computer science can perpetuate societal issues, it can also be a part of the solution.
We discussed how computing technology, especially machine learning systems, can transform society at every step of the design process. From the data that is chosen to train a model to the metrics that are defined to measure success, ML design decisions are choices that are rooted in social science.
With less than a day since reading the comments from my rejected NSF proposal, I decided to ask these emerging computer science experts what they thought about the relationship between social science and computer science.
They unanimously agreed that the two are intrinsically connected.
“A holistic analysis of a sociotechnical system must draw from a wide range of disciplines in order to comprehensively identify the issues at stake.” — Roles for Computing in Social Change
3. What might happen if we continue to view social science and computer science as separate?
When I received my Bachelors degree in Software Engineering, I was required to take 1 computing ethics course. The class was called Professional Responsibilities. It was thanks to this class that I began to understand, for the first time ever, the role that technology plays in helping or harming society.
This one required course altered my fundamental understanding of technology’s role in my life and changed the trajectory of my career.
I never once thought that societal issues like morality, fairness, justice, and inequality were intertwined with computer science until I took this class. I took dozens of computer science courses without one mention of the word ethics. I spent hundreds of hours designing algorithms without ever questioning what their broader implications might be. Social science was not a topic that came up in my computer science curriculum.
Despite the fact that I was living in a world increasingly shaped by algorithmic decisions, I was taught for years that computer science and social science are separate. When I decided to start my PhD in machine learning ethics, I made a vow to prove that these two disciplines aren’t separate, but are so immensely connected that it would be dangerous to teach one without the other.
So here is my worry: If the fields of computer science and social science remain to be seen as separate entities, “ethics” will remain as an afterthought in technical systems, CS curricula will continue to include only one or zero “ethics/professional responsibilities” courses, and technology will continue to shape society in negative ways.
This is why it is essential to recognize that computer scientists must be educated to code with social responsibility, and equipped with the correct tools to do so.
With that in mind, I send gratitude to the computer scientist who rejected my NSF application. Your words singlehandedly reignited my passion to prove why computer science should not, and can not exist without guidance from the humanities.
You have reminded me why my work is important.
You have motivated me to keep doing what I’m doing.
~ Jess
