Stein: Measurement and violence

Abstract from his website, video below:

"On the Ethics of Planetary Scale Measurement Meta-Structures

"Humanity has been slowly building a planetary scale measurement meta-structure for thousands of years. Generations living today will likely witness a 1.0 version of this perennial ambition as part of the newly emergent (and largely accidental) planetary computational stack (Bratton, 2017). The first manifestations of planetary scale computation have resulted in measurement systems that are encircling the Earth in unprecedented matrices of abstract representation. Much of what is measured remains what has always been measured–including materials, commodities, and their values. But the internet of things is also becoming an internet of people, who are being turned into things after being objectified through measurement. The measurement of psychological traits (including beliefs and values) has emerged as a powerful vector in the proliferation of sensors, assessments, and behavior-tracking back-ends.

"To begin to address these issues I propose a framework for a planetary meta-ethics of measurement, which is based on my previous work building an integral meta-theory of measurement (Stein, 2015; 2018). Examples from efforts underway in the so-called Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) serve as signals of a hyper-measured future, in which no person, thing, or movement escapes measurement. I argue that the implied ideal state of totalized planetary measurement—i.e., of an omniscient measurement meta-structure through which the entire Earth is 'seen and tagged'—is both absurd logically and undesirable on ethical grounds. I then propose other design parameters for preferable planetary measurement meta-structures."

Video quote: "So the question is, what is the classification scheme that's being used, and does it allow for the representation of uniqueness. Which is to say that every person that took it could get a different score. Not every person that takes it gets classified into one of eight [or more] categories" (59:45).

Given Stein's previous work, I'd add that the same person will have a different, unique score at a different time and context. Yeah, it's a highly complex process measuring a highly complex subject. But if you purport to like complexity but only want to simply box people in straight jackets, you ain't so complex yourself.