> One of the weird things about humans is that we most want to be told what will happen next at the exact moment when the future is uncertain because the outcome depends upon decisions we have yet to make. Most of the time, the future is predictable partly because there isn’t a lot we…

> Math has prepared me poorly for this pandemic—or at least a particular kind of math, the kind that sees mass death as an opportunity to work with graphs and derivatives.For students, it has never been more necessary to move flexibly and quickly between concrete and abstract representations—to acquire the power of the graph without…

> Processes and procedures are always important when an unexpected crisis hits and I suppose we have had ample opportunities to stress test ours. Virtual working makes it even more crucial to communicate regularly and effectively and it’s actually helpful, I find, not to be able to rely on being co-located but to be forced…

> “In this  paradigm,  surveillance  is constructed  as being normatively  essential to duties of  care across the lifecycle. Watching and monitoring are construed not merely as the rights of a responsible parent, dutiful romantic partner, or loving child—but as obligations inherent in such roles.” No matter the type of care, it can be weaponized to…

> …I return to Wendell Berry, who will have no truck with the Global Mind, or the kinds of data on which it is fed. In his opinion, we humans are not much to be trusted with statistical knowledge, and thinking global may be a delusory process, a kind of cognitive intoxication that is ultimately…

> But this territory is hardly unexplored; it’s just that a century and a half of architecture, icons and ideology has done its work. Now change seems unimaginable, even dangerous, despite the fact we designed it that way in the first place. What seems self-evident can no longer be imagined as arbitrary. It’s only when…

> To doctors opening patients’ electronic records across the U.S., the alert would have looked innocuous enough. > > A pop-up would appear, asking about a patient’s level of pain. Then, a drop-down menu would list treatments ranging from a referral to a pain specialist to a prescription for an opioid painkiller. > > Click…

> Even if code is modified with the aim of securing procedural fairness, however, we are left with the deeper philosophical and political issue of whether neutrality constitutes fairness in background conditions of pervasive inequality and structural injustice. Purportedly neutral solutions in the context of widespread injustice risk further entrenching existing injustices. As many critics…

> Friere had warned early on that uncritical liberation can lead to the oppressed reproducing oppression. I see it all the time, I even probably do it all the time myself. It takes an incredible amount of reflectivity and soul searching to stop this cycle, and it needs a lot of support and care from…

> The ideal place for empathy games is within a structured environment, such as a game-of-the-month discussion club or a classroom. In order for empathy games to move past “pity tourism,” they need to be explored more fully and fleshed out by a clearly defined and supported curriculum. [source](https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/11/using-empathy-games-in-the-social-sciences) (Boy, is this true even in…